A SHORT SURVEY OF BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE. MY FAVOURITE WRITER AND THE BOOK I HAVE READ.

ENGLISH LITERATURE:

• The oldest literary monument of the Anglo-Saxon period is the old Germanic legend about Beowulf (from the 8^th century) – during the middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church was strongly criticized by John Wycliffe who was a professor at Oxford University – with his students he translated the whole Bible into English
• The end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance in literature is marked by Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• The greatest personality of the English renaissance is William Shakespeare
• John Milton (1608- 1674) is the main figure of The Age Of Reason – his masterpiece is Paradise Lost; and Jonathan Swift – his most popular work is Gulliver’s Travels, an allegory of Lemuel Gulliver’s traveling through imaginary countries; and Daniel Defoe – his most famous work is Robinson Crusoe
• Sir Walter Scott (Romanticism) is a founder of the historical novel – Ivanhoe is from the period of Richard the Lionhearted
• The best English romantic poets are Lord George Gordon Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Charles Dickens (Critical realism) described the true life of poor people in England in the 19m century – Among his major novels belong David Copperfield, Great Expectations, and Oliver Twist
• In the second half of the 20^th century the experimental writing is represented by William Golding and his Lord of Flies and George Orwell with Animal Farm
• The best known authors of the second half of the 20^th century are Kingsley Amis (Lucky Jim), J.R.R. Tolkien (Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings) and Agatha Christie who wrote detective stories

MY FAVOURITE WRITER AND THE BOOK I HAVE READ:

OSCAR WILDE:

• He is the most famous author of the first half of 20^th century
• He wrote for example Picture of Dorian Gray
• The fairy-tales: The Happy prince, The Selfish Giant, The Nightingale and the Rose
• Philosophical essay: De Profundis

THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY:

• The novel shows gradual degradation of an extraordinarily beautiful young man who comes to London and unspoilt like an angel
• The secret of Dorian is that his face is as innocent and beautiful as ever, even though his soul gets dark – the changes are visible on his portrait
• He tries to destroy it, but by stabbing the portrait, he kills himself and the portrait becomes as beautiful as Dorian looked a couple of years before

AMERICAN LITERATURE:

• The history of American literature isn’t very long – the first famous writers are from 19^th century
• Independence was proclaimed on the 4^th of July 1776 in the Declaration of Independence – the author was Thomas Jefferson
• Many people prefer the works of Mark Twain – he wrote for both children and adults – in our country he is known for his works The Adventures of Tome Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Jack London became very popular with readers all over the world – his most stories are connected with Alaska at the time of gold rush, such as The Call of the Wild
• The best-known writers of the first half of the 20^th century are Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck
• Ernest Hemingway was born in 1899 in Illinois but Cuba became his adopted home – he also travelled a lot in Africa where he hunted wild animals – in 1954 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his famous book The Old Man and the Sea
• John Steinbeck is another Nobel Prize winner – his masterpiece is The Grapes of Wrath
• Contemporary American literature is very rich in great authors, such as Arthur Miller, Joseph Heller, Isaac Singer or Ray Bradbury