A-Level English Literature Reading List
Gothic Literature
Chaplin, Sue, Gothic Literature (York Press, 2011)
Houston, Gail Turley, Gothic, Economics, and Victorian Fiction (Cambridge University Press,
2005)
Modern/Post-Modern Literature
Barlow, Adrian, The Great War in British Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Bickley, Pamela, Contemporary Fiction: The Novel since 1990 (Cambridge University Press,
2008)
Caserio, Robert L., The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century English Novel
(Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Duvall, John N., American Fiction After 1945 (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Lee-Browne, Patrick, Post-War Literature: 1945 to the Present (Evans Brothers Ltd., 2003)
Lee-Browne, Patrick, The Modernist Period: 1900-45 (Evans Brothers Ltd., 2003)
May, William, Postwar Literature 1950 to 1990: Texts, Contexts and Connections (York
Press, 2010)
Myszor, Frank, The Modern Short Story (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
O’Reilly, Christopher, Post-Colonial Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Rodden, John and Rossi, John, The Cambridge Introduction to George Orwell (Cambridge
University Press, 2012)
Selden, Raman, The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism Vol VIII: From Formalism to
Post-structuralism (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Smart, John, Modernism and After: English Literature 1910-1939 (Cambridge University
Press, 2009)
Ziboorg, Caroline, American Prose and Poetry in the 20th Century (Cambridge University
Press, 2009)
Poetry
Allen, Valerie and Kirkham, David, The Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale (Cambridge University
Press, 2012)
Allen, Valerie, The Age of Chaucer (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Bailey, R. V., U. A. Fanthorpe: Christmas Poems (Enitharmon Press, 2002)
Bailey, R. V., U. A. Fanthorpe: From Me to You: Love Poems (Enitharmon Press, 2002)
Bailey, R. V., U. A. Fanthorpe: Selected Poems (Enitharmon Press, 2013)
Brinton, Ian, Contemporary Poetry: Poets and Poetry since 1990 (Cambridge University
Press, 2009)
Bristow, Joseph, Victorian Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 2005)
Burnett, Archie, Philip Larkin the Complete Poems (Faber & Faber Ltd., 2012)
Collins, William, The Poetical Works of William Collins (1827)
Corcoran, Neil, The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century English Poetry (Cambridge
University Press, 2007)
Cross, Helen, Alfred Lord Tennyson: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 2013)
Davies, Walford, Dylan Thomas: Writers of Wales (University of Wales Press, 2014)
Fry, Stephen, The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within (Hutchinson, 2005)
Geddes, Julia, Robert Browning: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Gill, Richard, Christina Rossetti: Selected Poems (Oxford University Press, 2011)
Goldsmith, Oliver, The Poetical Works of Oliver Goldsmith, with a sketch of his Life and
Writings (General Books LLC., 2012)
Gray, Thomas, Selected Poems (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.,1997)
Harrison, Tony, Selected Poems (Penguin Books, 2013)
Harrison, Tony, Collected Film Poetry (Faber & Faber Ltd., 2007)
Jennings, Elizabeth, Selected Poems (Carcanet Press Ltd., 1992)
Levinson, Marjorie, Wordsworth’s Great Period Poems (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Mason, Emma, Elizabeth Jennings: The Collected Poems (Carcanet Press Ltd., 2002)
McCaig, Ewen, The Poems of Norman MacCaig (Polygon, 2009)
Milton, John, Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics, 2000)
Smith, Nigel, The Poems of Andrew Marvell (Pearson Education Ltd., 2003)
Thomas, Dylan, Dylan Thomas Omnibus: Under Milk Wood, Poems, Stories and Broadcasts
(Phoenix, 2005)
Thomas, R. S., Collected Later Poems 1988-2000 (Bloodaxe Books Ltd., 2004)
Thomas, R. S., Collected Poems 1945-1990 (Phoenix, 2002)
Willmott, Richard, Metaphysical Poetry (Cambridge University Press, 2002)
Romanticism
Ferber, Michael, The Cambridge Introduction to British Romantic Poetry (Cambridge
University Press, 2012)
Jennings, Charles, Jane Austen: The Life and Times of the World’s Favourite Author
(Robinson Press, 2012)
King, Neil, The Romantics (Evans Brothers Ltd., 2003)
Siddall, Stephen, Landscape and Literature (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Stevens, David, Romanticism (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Ward, Mary, The Literature of Love (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
Theatre (Early Modern/Modern)
Ackroyd, Peter, Shakespeare: The Biography (Vintage Ltd., 2006)
Behn, Aphra, The Rover (Methuen Drama, 2013)
Bennett, Alan, The History Boys (Faber & Faber Ltd., 2004)
Bolt, Ranjit, Aristophanes: Lysistrata (Oberon Books Ltd., 2005)
Bond, Edward, Saved (Methuen Drama, 2009)
Brecht, Bertolt, The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Methuen Drama, 2007)
Bruster, Douglas, Arden Early Modern Drama: Everyman and Mankind (A & C Black
Publishers Ltd., 2009)
Churchill, Caryl, Top Girls (Methuen Drama, 1991)
Etherege, George, The Man of Mode (Methuen Drama, 2007)
Gay, John, The Beggar’s Opera (Methuen Drama, 2010)
Gay, Penny, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Comedies (Cambridge
University Press, 2008)
Gibson, Rex, Shakespearean and Jacobean Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Goldsmith, Oliver, She Stoops to Conquer (Nick Hearn Books, 2006)
Grazia, Margreta de, The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare (Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
Hoenselaars, Ton, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary
Dramatists (Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Jonson, Ben, Five Plays (Oxford University Press, 1981)
Kelly, Katherine E., The Cambridge Companion to Tom Stoppard (Cambridge University
Press, 2001)
Lee-Browne, Patrick, The Renaissance (Evans Brothers Ltd., 2003)
Leggatt, Alexander, The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy (Cambridge
University Press, 2010)
Marlowe, Christopher, Doctor Faustus (Hackett Publishing Inc., 2005)
McAndrew, Deborah, A Government Inspector (Methuen Drama, 2012)
McKee, Robert, Story: Substance, Structure, Style, and the Principles of Screenwriting
(Methuen, 1999)
Miller, Arthur, A View from the Bridge (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2013)
Miller, Arthur, Death of a Salesman (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc., 2013)
Neill, Michael, Thomas Middleton & William Rowley: The Changeling (Methuen Drama,
2013)
Nicholl, Charles, The Murder of Christopher Marlowe: The Reckoning (Vintage Ltd., 2002)
Riggs, David, The World of Christopher Marlowe (Faber & Faber Ltd., 2004)
Peter, Shaffer, Equus (Penguin Books, 1973)
Shakespeare, William, As you Like it (Pearson Education Ltd., 2012)
Shakespeare, William, Macbeth (Pearson Education Ltd., 2012)
Shakespeare, William, Othello (Pearson Education Ltd., 2012)
Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, The School for Scandal (Methuen Books, 2012)
Shiach, Don, American Drama 1900-1990 (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Slovo, Gillian, The Riots from Spoken Evidence (Oberon Books Ltd., 2013)
Smart, John, Twentieth Century British Drama (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
Stephens, Simon, Birdland (Methuen Drama, 2009)
Stephens, Simon, Punk Rock (Methuen Drama, 2009)
Stoppard, Tom, Arcadia (Faber & Faber Ltd., 2003)
Strindburg, August, Miss Julie (Methuen Drama, 2012)
Styan, J. L., Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 1: Realism and Naturalism (Cambridge
University Press 1981)
Styan, J. L., Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 2: Symbolism, Surrealism and the
Absurd (Cambridge University Press, 1981)
Styan, J. L., Modern Drama in Theory and Practice 3: Expressionism and Epic Theatre
(Cambridge University Press, 1981)
Webster, John, The White Devil (Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd., 2014)
Webster, John, The Duchess of Malfi (Bloomsbury Publishing Ltd., 2014)
Weitz, Eric, The Cambridge Introduction to Comedy (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Willett, John, The Theatre of Bertolt Brecht (Methuen Drama, 1977)
Williams, Tennessee, A Streetcar Named Desire (Penguin Modern Classics, 2009)
Wycherley, William, The Country Wife (Methuen Books Ltd., 1973)
Victorian Literature
Ackroyd, Peter, Blake (Vintage Ltd., 1999)
Batchelor, John, Tennyson: To Strive, to Seek, to Find (Chatto & Windus, 2012)
Chesterton, G. K., Robert Browning, A Biography (Pearl Necklace Books, 2013)
Croft, Steven, Victorian Literature (Oxford University Press, 2009)
Cruttenden, Aidan, The Victorians (Evans Brothers Ltd., 2003)
David, Deirdre, The Cambridge Companion to The Victorian Novel Second Edition
(Cambridge University Press, 2012)
Dennis, Barbara, The Victorian Novel (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Gaskell, Elizabeth, The Life of Charlotte Brontë (Oxford University Press,1996)
Jump, John D., Lord Alfred Tennyson (Routledge, 2013)
Litzinger, Boyd and Smalley, Donald, Robert Browning (Routledge, 1968)
Meyers, Jeffrey, Scott Fitzgerald: A Biography (Harper Perrenial, 2014)
Palmer, Beth, Victorian Literature: Texts, Contexts and Connections (York Press, 2010)
Paton, William, Tennyson: The Leslie Stephen Lecture (Cambridge University Press, 1909)
Ricks, Christopher, Tennyson: A Selected Edition (Pearson Education Ltd., 2007)
Stiles, Anne, Popular Fiction and Brain Science in the late Nineteenth Century (Cambridge
University Press, 2012)
General Reading
Barlow, Adrian, World and Time: Teaching Literature in Context (Cambridge University
Press, 2009)
Bruccoli, Matthew J., Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald (Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich, 1981)
Buckroyd, Peter and Ogborn, Jane, Satire (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
Coyle, Martin and Peck, John, Write it Right: The secrets of effective writing (Palgrave
Macmillan, 2012)
Culler, Jonathan, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Eliot, Joanna, Infographic Guide to Literature (Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., 2014)
Gillies, Midge, Writing Lives: Literary Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Greetham, Bryan, How to Write Better Essays (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)
Hennessy, Brendan, How to Write Coursework & Exam Essays: An accessible guide to
developing the skills needed to excel in written work and exams (How to Books Ltd., 2010)
Knellwolf, Christa and Norris, Christopher, Literary Criticism Vol IX: Twentieth-Century
Historical, Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Littlewood, Ian, The Literature Student’s Survival Kit: What every reader needs to know
(Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2006)
Poplawski, Paul, English Literature in Context (Cambridge University Press, 2009)
Russell, Shirley, Grammar, Structure, & Style: A practical guide to advanced level English
Language (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Shiver, Lionel, The Book Lovers’ Companion (Michael O’Mara Books Ltd., 2012)
Symons, Mitchell, There Are Tittles in This Title: The Weird World of Words (Michael O’
Mara Books Ltd., 2014)
Zilboorg, Caroline, Women’s Writing: Past and Present (Cambridge University Press 2009)