History of English Literature

The Victorian Period (1832–1901)
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Queen Victoria ascended to the throne in 1837
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Ends until her death in 1901
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A time of great social, religious, intellectual, and economic issues
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Often divided into “Early” (1832–1848), “Mid” (1848–1870) and “Late” (1870–1901) periods and Pre-Raphaelites (1848–1860)
and that of Aestheticism and Decadence (1880–1901).
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The Victorian period is in strong contention with the Romantic period for being the most popular, influential, and prolific period in all of English (and world) literature. Poets of this time include Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Matthew Arnold, among others. Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, and Walter Pater were advancing the essay form at this time. Finally, prose fiction truly found its place under the auspices of Charles Dickens, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Anthony Trollope, Thomas Hardy, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Samuel Butler.
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The Romantic Period (1785–1832)
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The beginning date is often debated.
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Ends with the passage of the Reform Bill (which signaled the Victorian Era) and with the death of Sir Walter Scott. American literature has its own Romantic period, but typically when one speaks of Romanticism, one is referring to this great and diverse age of British literature, perhaps the most popular and well-known of all literary ages.
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This era includes the works of such juggernauts as Wordsworth, Coleridge, William Blake, Lord Byron, John Keats, Charles Lamb, Mary Wollstonecraft, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Thomas De Quincey, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley. There is also a minor period, also quite popular (between 1786–1800), called the Gothic era. Writers of note for this period include Matthew Lewis, Anne Radcliffe, and William Beckford.
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The Neoclassical Period (1600–1785)
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Divided into ages
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Restoration (1660–1700)
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Augustan Age (1700–1745)
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Age of Sensibility (1745–1785)
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The Restoration period sees some response to the puritanical age, especially in the theater. Restoration comedies (comedies of manner) developed during this time under the talent of playwrights like William Congreve and John Dryden. Satire, too, became quite popular, as evidenced by the success of Samuel Butler. Other notable writers of the age include Aphra Behn, John Bunyan, and John Locke.
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The Augustan Age was the time of Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, who imitated those first Augustans and even drew parallels between themselves and the first set. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a poet, was prolific at this time and noted for challenging stereotypically female roles. Daniel Defoe was also popular.
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The Age of Sensibility (sometimes referred to as the Age of Johnson) was the time of Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon, Hester Lynch Thrale, James Boswell, and, of course, Samuel Johnson. Ideas such as neoclassicism, a critical and literary mode, and the Enlightenment, a particular worldview shared by many intellectuals, were championed during this age. Novelists to explore include Henry Fielding, Samuel Richardson, Tobias Smollett, and Laurence Sterne as well as the poets William Cowper and Thomas Percy.
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The Renaissance (1500–1660)
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often subdivided into four parts
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1) Elizabethan Age (1558–1603)
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2) Jacobean Age (1603–1625)
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3) Caroline Age (1625–1649)
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4) Commonwealth Period (1649–1660).
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The Elizabethan Age was the golden age of English drama. Some of its noteworthy figures include Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Edmund Spenser, Sir Walter Raleigh, and, of course, William Shakespeare.
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The Jacobean Age is named for the reign of James I. It includes the works of John Donne, Shakespeare, Michael Drayton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, Ben Jonson, and Lady Mary Wroth. The King James translation of the Bible also appeared during the Jacobean Age.
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The Caroline Age covers the reign of Charles I (“Carolus”). John Milton, Robert Burton, and George Herbert are some of the notable figures.
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Finally, the Commonwealth Period was so named for the period between the end of the English Civil War and the restoration of the Stuart monarchy. This is the time when Oliver Cromwell, a Puritan, led Parliament, who ruled the nation. At this time, public theaters were closed (for nearly two decades) to prevent public assembly and to combat moral and religious transgressions. John Milton and Thomas Hobbes’ political writings appeared and, while drama suffered, prose writers such as Thomas Fuller, Abraham Cowley, and Andrew Marvell published prolifically.
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Middle English Period (1066–1500)
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A huge transition in the language, culture, and lifestyle of England
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Writings were religious in nature
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1350 onward, secular literature began to rise
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Poets: Chaucer, Thomas Malory, Robert Henryson
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Works: "Piers Plowman" and "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight"
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Old English (Anglo-Saxon) Period (450–1066)
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Anglo-Saxon comes from two Germanic tribes: the Angles and the Saxons.
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The era ends in 1066 when Norman France, under William, conquered England.
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Much of the first half of this period had oral literature.
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