I'm looking for a book that talks about English literature and History relating them together. Something that talks about what happened after Shakespeare and goes until the 19th century. A book who talks about the differences between Classicism and Romanticism, and talks about Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley,Blake... That talks about both poetry and prose. I'm looking for something more general that goes through everything, but not necessarily in depth. Do you know any such book? Or books? Thanks in advance.

Dear Jeanete,

What you're yearning for is a college-level "survey" of English literature in historical context. To find something like that in a single volume, you want to look at text books in some university or college bookstore.

Before you do that, check out this website:

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This is NOT the only one of its kind. I went prowling on line for something with "historical" and "survey" and "literature" in its summary, and this one came up TWICE. And it does put each literary point in a(n) historical context. For example: the passage on Dickins points out his role in the e movements against the social evils he denounced in his novels; Milton is discussed in the context of England until the Stuarts and Cromwell.

Next, you could try visiting any LARGE bookstore and browsing their shelves of lit crit to see if they have a book that does the same thing in more detail.

OR, you might just refer to the website and the big thick books for overall context, and focus your reading on a particular author or time period or issue (Walter Scott vs actual history ... the Regency ... literature responds to the Industrial Revolution).

Good luck!

I've found the Pelican Guide to English Literature, Boris Ford (ed) in 7 vols, useful. It covers all major trends from Chaucer to mid 20th cent..

thanks