British Literature: Reading and Writing Through the Classics (Excellence in Literature)

British Literature is a college-preparatory literature survey course. Focus works, including novels, short stories, poems, and drama, have been selected for literary quality, and for their place in the historical development of literature. Context readings provide background information about the author, the historical period, and the literary and artistic context of the focus work. Students will study the following great books:-Beowulf; -Canterbury Tales (selected) by Geoffrey Chaucer; -Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and other Arthurian works; -King Lear by William Shakespeare; -Paradise Lost by John Milton; -Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen; -Great Expectations by Charles Dickens; -Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë; -To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf. Students will gain an understanding of the development of British literature and will practice the skills of close literary analysis through essays, approach papers, and other evaluative writing.