• Introduction
• Medieval English, 500-1500
• The Renaissance, 1485-1660
• The Restoration and eighteenth century
• The Romantic period, 1780-1832
• The Victorian age, 1832-1901
• The twentieth century, 1901-1939
• The twentieth century, 1939-2004

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Each chapter covers a major historical period and provides:

Chapters

Quotes from reviewers

'...brilliantly designed textbook, thoughtfully conceived and appealingly presented, clearly showing how literature is vibrantly alive in and to the world in which it was written. Both students and teachers will find this book of great use and genuine interest.'

David Scott Kastan, Columbia University

'This is an exceptionally accessible and lucid account of English Literature in all its glorious abundance. The volume contains everything the student will need to assist them in their understanding and interpretation of any literary period: from snippets of texts illustrating key social and cultural phenomena; time-lines; engaging discussions of the historical background; exemplary readings of major literary works; and lists of reference works-this one book has it all. The sum of the parts is an excellent and invaluable guide, sure to enhance the student's encounter with major works and authors on an English degree course. If there's one book students should have alongside them as they study the primary sources, this is it.'

Elaine Treharne, Florida State University

'It is difficult, indeed, to imagine a more expansive and authoritative introduction to the study of English literature than English Literature in Context. Judicious, detailed, and thoroughly informative, it will provide undergraduate and general readers alike with a rich and evocative overview of the history and master texts of English literature.'

Kenneth Womack, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona

Comments from teachers and lecturers

'At Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany, we teach one core first-year undergraduate module entitled 'Introduction to Literary Studies', which introduces students to the different genres and periods of English literature, and also models a number of approaches to reading literature (author-centred, historical, stylistic, etc). The idea is to make students more self-reflexive in their thinking about how literature works and the uses of criticism. Other courses on offer in the department are more specific, though we always offer units which cover some genres in a manner similar to survey courses (the short story in English, Introduction to English Poetry, etc). The department tends to put together its own readers for each course. This allows tutors to choose specific and 'alternative' texts, which can be quite difficult for students to find (or buy). Like many German departments, our students have a good grounding in English linguistics, but not so much in literature, so they need to be given the basics of literary study and the approach to literary texts first.

We would certainly consider using English Literature in Context in the department; it is the kind of book that students would find very useful as a reference tool. The chronologies are very informative and the historical detail is excellent. It's pitched at a level sufficiently high to attract postgraduate students as well as undergraduates. I particularly like the careful use of visual materials to underscore the historical content in each chapter, and (at the end of each chapter) I like the coverage of selected texts in each period. The highlighted boxes, containing brief synopses of key concepts, are also very useful, and the bibliographies are excellent.

In terms of its use as a teaching resource, I think it could certainly be used very effectively as a reference book around which one might structure courses on (for instance) the C18 novel, modernism, or contemporary British writing. The choice of texts is good, and I like the way that literary themes and techniques are related to their historical contexts in the short analyses.'

Andrew Harrison, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany

'This text provides a very useful and wide-ranging overview of the history of British literature, and it would therefore be especially helpful to English majors and to graduate students. It brings together in one handy and well-designed volume an enormous amount of historical, critical, biographical, and cultural information, and that information is presented in ways (e.g., with frequent sub-chapters, many illustrative quotations in the margins, and frequent illustrations) that make the book easy to use, simple to comprehend, and literally quite vivid.'

Robert Evans, Auburn University Montgomery

'This is certainly a book which I would recommend as required reading for students, and, preferably, a text which could not only prepare them for university literature courses, but also one which they would be able to use throughout their degree (especially if their degree is structured in a chronological fashion, like, for example, the English course at Leicester). It could prove an invaluable resource for all three years, in this respect, both preparing students for and helping them to understand the complexities of a particular period. This is especially necessary when students increasingly lack historical knowledge and struggle with the unfamiliarity of social and political context before the twentieth century. At present, such an overarching and detailed textbook like this does not exist and would therefore be an excellent addition to an English degree course. While the book will certainly appeal to students, I feel it will also be appropriate for lecturers, especially when needing to teach unfamiliar territory or, potentially, to suggest new ways of reading (as in the 'Readings' section). '

Claire Brock, University of Leicester

'I have taught the First Year Course at Hong Kong University where an introduction like English Literature in Context would have been a very valuable required reading. Should I teach this course again, I would certainly suggest to students that they purchase the book. Many First Year Courses struggle to convey an idea of literary history as well as cover all other necessary areas, primarily questions about 'how to read literature'. Particularly at universities outside Britain where English is a second language, teachers have to place emphasis on the latter (the strategies and the how-to), and often neglect the overview of literary history. Hence, English Literature in Context would fill a gap and provide a very useful companion, which would make it required reading for a First Year Course.'

Julia Kuehn, University of Hong Kong

'English Literature in Context is a work I would use on my courses at Cardiff University, most particularly the chapter on The Romantic Period which I would recommend alongside the set book (Duncan Wu's anthology Romanticism, Third Edition, Basil Blackwell, 2006) for the two large undergraduate modules I teach on Romantic poetry. The introductory material and headnotes in Wu's text are useful but necessarily limited for reasons of space; the benefit of Peter Kitson's excellent chapter therefore lies in its expanded but still usefully concise account of the Romantic period.'

Jane Moore, Cardiff University

'I thought that this chapter on the Renaissance was a very impressive piece of work in the way it managed to convey a great deal of information, some of it complicated and likely to be unfamiliar to students, with admirable economy and clarity. It is very readable. Dealing with history and literary history first, and then choosing some particular works or authors to explore in more depth seems to me a useful pedagogic approach. The idea of including boxes which are easily re-found which explain key terms and concepts was good, and the quotations taken from texts of the period and included in boxes were always useful, and sometimes strikingly well chosen to give students the feel of the period and to provoke reaction in them. I am not teaching this period at present, but I would be recommending this book, if I were. I know a number of departments now who insist on the reading of particular introductory books as well as literary texts to try and ensure seminar groups have a shared frame of reference, and I think this book would be suitable for that. It is exactly the kind of book which undergraduates need now because modular degrees generally leave less time for teaching the period. Students need a quick way to get into the information which they could pick up more gradually over a longer course. They can't gradually wind themselves into seeing the significance and the interconnections of what they know as they used to be able to do, so they need judicious steering. I am sure the book will be useful also to university teachers. You can know so much about the period, and about your own obsessive interest in it, that you lose a sense of what beginners need to know. Even if tutor's conclusions differ in some details, it is very helpful to have set out for you a judgement about what are the really salient issues and facts.'

David Webb, Department of Education, University of Oxford