British Literature

When the story begins, a man named Erwin Martin, who never smokes, is buying cigarettes. Mr. Martin works for a company called F & S, where he is in charge of the filing department. Mr. Martin has already been contemplating—and planning—the murder of a coworker for over a week. Two years prior, a woman named Ulgine Barrows joined F & S, where she quickly proposed changes to the department—changes that Mr. Martin finds intolerable.Later, as... Read The Catbird Seat Summary

The Changeling is a Jacobean tragicomedy written in collaboration between established playwrights Thomas Middleton and William Rowley. It was first performed in 1622 and published in 1653. The play is adapted from John Reynolds’s 1621 story collection titled The Triumphs of Gods Revenge Against the Crying and Execrable Sinne of Willful and Premeditated Murther.The play has two plots: a tragic main plot and a comedic subplot. Scholars believe Middleton wrote the majority of the main... Read The Changeling Summary

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The Children of Men is a dystopian 1992 science fiction novel by P.D. James set in 2021, years after the onset of a mass infertility epidemic. Unless scientists can discover a cure, there will be no more births and the human race will go extinct when the youngest generation dies. This scenario allows James to explore many themes, including existentialism, the meaning of a good life, and the corrupting nature of power.The novel switches between... Read The Children of Men Summary

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The Collector is English author John Fowles’s debut novel, published in 1963. The story follows a 20-something lepidopterist, Frederick Clegg, who becomes obsessed with a beautiful art student named Miranda Grey. After winning a fortune, Frederick kidnaps Miranda and imprisons her in his cellar, keeping her like a rare butterfly. Fowles combines psychological thriller, romance, and dark comedy genres into a tale that satirizes romances such as Shakespeare’s The Tempest by exposing their psychological and... Read The Collector Summary

The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays and is a comedy that incorporates slapstick humor, farce, and wordplay. Its first recorded performance was in 1594, and it has been performed and adapted numerous times since then. Its title has entered into the English lexicon: The phrase “comedy of errors” means a situation caused by many mistakes.The play follows the story of two sets of identical twins who also share the same names... Read The Comedy of Errors Summary

Book DetailsIn the mystery novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Boone, a brilliant teenage boy, sets out to solve the murder of his neighbor’s dog. While it is not explicitly stated in the novel, critics and professional medical reviewers generally agree that Christopher has autism. Written by Mark Haddon and published in 2003, the book won the Whitbread Book Award for best Novel and Book of the Year and the... Read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Summary

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey (the pseudonym for Scottish writer Elizabeth MacKintosh) is the story of a man’s quest to solve a centuries-old historical mystery. The novel was published in 1951, shortly before Tey’s death the following year. It explores themes of historical relativism and the importance of an objective search for truth. Repeatedly voted as a top mystery novel by critics and readers alike, it is considered one of the best books... Read The Daughter Of Time Summary

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Sir Philip Sidney’s The Defence of Poesy, also called An Apology for Poetry, is one of the earliest works of English literary criticism. Presented in the format of a speech, as if it were a rhetorical exercise, this treatise responds to contemporary and ancient criticisms of poetry. Relying heavily on examples from ancient history and literature, Sidney argues in this work that poetry surpasses the other literary genres in its ability to stir its audience... Read The Defence of Poesy Summary

Content Warning: This guide features discussion of wartime violence, relationship abuse, sexuality, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and demon possession.Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was a notable Irish English writer of novels and short stories dealing with Irish life as well as the lives of Londoners in the 1940s. She is also famous for her ghost stories. “The Demon Lover,” one of Bowen’s most famous works, was published in 1945 in the United Kingdom in a collection called... Read The Demon Lover Summary

“The Destructors” is a frequently anthologized short story by Graham Greene (1904-1991) originally published in 1954. Greene is often regarded as one of the greatest British writers of the 20th century. His work was commercially and critically successful and was frequently adapted into films and television shows. An adaptation of “The Destructors” was included in the 1970s television series Shades of Greene. His work often reflects his Catholic values as well as his life-long battles... Read The Destructors Summary

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The Drowned World is a 1962 post-apocalyptic science fiction novel by British author J.G. Ballard. Set in a future London that has been completely submerged in the ocean due to climate change-induced flooding, it follows a group of scientists who embark on a mission to study its unique, rapidly evolving flora and fauna. The novel is an extension of a shorter story published in Science Fiction Adventures. The novel is one of the first works... Read The Drowned World Summary

Set in early 20th-century London, “The Duchess and the Jeweller” (1938) is a short story by Virginia Woolf that explores themes such as Materialism and Greed, Authenticity Versus Deceit, and Social Climbing and Class. The story focuses on a fragment of jeweller Oliver Bacon’s day and describes an important meeting between him and the Duchess of Lambourne. Though the plot is simple—a jeweller meets a client at his shop to potentially buy some gems—the focus... Read The Duchess and the Jeweller Summary