In 1476, William Caxton introduced the printing press in England. Poetry, drama and prose that were written during the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I constitute the English Renaissance. 

The literature is characterized by a special interest in human behaviour as a main theme of the works. While the English medieval literature is nourished of religious themes.

Middle Ages/Anglo-Saxon literature

        

In this epoch the oral tradition was very important.

The literary works were written to be able to be represented.

One adapted the language to the needs of the Christian readers.

Renaissance

In 1476 was introduced the printer.

The poetry, the drama and the prose that they wrote to themselves during the reigns of Isabel I and of Jacobo I constitute what at present is named " Renaissance Englishman ".

Elizabethan literature

Giovanni Florio took the culture and the Italian language up to England.

English poetry is characterized for an elaborated language and his mythological topics.

 

Jacobin literature

In 1616 William Shakespeare popularized the sonnets.

The poet and playwright Ben Jonson turned into the most distinguished figure from the literature.

The works of revenge became very popular.

They began to translate bibles into English with William Tyndale's help.

Principal poets of the beginnings of the century include John Donne and other metaphysical poets.

This century is famous for his baroque poetry.

The literature of the restoration

It includes works as John Milton's Lost Paradise, John Wilmot's Sodom, William Wycherley's comedy The Wife of the Field or The Progress of the Pilgrim by John Bunyan.

All the literary forms experienced a renaissance.

The most out-standing poetical form was the satire.

Two new types of literature arouse: fiction and journalism.

John Locke wrote during the Restoration numerous of his philosophical works.

Romanticism

England is, together with Germany, the cradle of the Romanticism.

It is characterized by his big poets, the development of the historical novel and the beginning of the Gothic novel or of terror.

Mary Shelley created in his novel Frankenstein (1818) one of the key works of the romanticism.

Victorian epoch

Produced in the United Kingdom during Victoria's reign (1837-1901).

Worry for the decency.

Elevation of the moral level.

Increasing interest for the social improvements.

Strong humanitarian spirit.

Immense industrial and scientific development;

OUTSTANDING AUTHORS

      William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

He was an English playwright, poet and actor.

Only with his verses it had already gone on to the history of the literature; by his theatrical genius, and especially by the impressive portrait of the human condition in his big tragedies, comedies and dramas. 

Some of his most famous works are Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth or Hamlet.

Shakespeare is considered to be the best playwright of all the times.

Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)

He was an English trader, writer, journalist,  and spy, most famous for his novel  Robinson Crusoe. Defoe is noted for being one of the earliest proponents of the novel, as he helped to popularise the form in Britain  and is among the founders of the English novel. He was a prolific and versatile writer, producing more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, and the supernatural. 

Jane Austen (1775-1817)

She was an out-standing British novelist who lived during the period of the Regency.

The irony uses in her novels and does that Jane Austen is considered between the classic ones of the English novel.

Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice are two of his best novels.

Lord Byron (1788-1824)

-He was a poet Englishman considered one of the most versatile and important writers of the Romanticism.

- His work was important is "Don Juan", a poem with 17 singings.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870)

-He was an out-standing writer and novelist Englishman, one of more acquaintances of the universal literature, and the most excellent of the Victorian age.

-He was a teacher of the narrative kind, on which it stamped certain doses of humor and irony.

His works include Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Hard Times.

Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)

In the UK, Hardy is generally thought to be one of the greatest figures in English literature.

Hardy wrote a small number of novels which earned him a high reputation in his lifetime. These include Tess of the Durbervilles, The Mayor of Casterbridge and Far from the Madding Crowd. After the publication of Jude the Obscure in 1895 Hardy gave up novel writing but continued to write poetry including an epic poem called The Dynasts.

George Orwell (1903-1950)

He was born in India during the British Empire's rule of India. He is best known for two novels that he wrote in the late 1940s, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. In those works, he said that totalitarism, especially Stalinism, was very bad.
Orwell fought in the Spanish Civil War with the antifascist troops. These troops were against the dictatorship of fascist governments.

Agatha Christie (1890-1976)

Agatha Christie is Britain’s most famous crime novelist.

She was a writer Britisher specialized in the police kind, for whose work had recognition worldwide.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, Christie is the best-selling novelist of all time; she’s often referred to as “the Queen of Crime” for her mastery of suspense.

She published 66 police novels, six novels roses and 14 short stories.

J.K. Rowling (1965-)

She is a writer and British producer of cinema. It is the creative one of the series of books "Harry Potter".

Harry Potter's books have attracted attention and acclamation about the world, gained multiple prizes and sold more than 450 million copies.

It is famous also for his history of turning from a poor person into a multimillionaire in five years.