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ENGLISH LITERATURE
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 Dr. Anurag Agrawal
M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

CONTENTS
1. Absalom and Achitophel John Dryden
2. Adam Bede George Eliot
3. Advancement of Learning, The Francis Bacon
4. Agnes Grey Anne Bronte
5. Alchemist, The Ben Jonson
6. Alchemy Alexandrian Greeks
7. Amelia Henry Fielding
8. American, The Henry James
9. American Tragedy, The Theodore Dreiser
10. Anna of the Five Towns Arnold Bennett
11. Animal farm, The George Orwell
12. Arcadia, The Sir Philip Sidney
13. Arden of Fevershman, the tragedy of Mr -
14. Astrophell and Stella Sir Philip Sidney
15. As You Like It Shakespeare
16. Badman, The Life and death of Mr John Bunyan
17. Bartholomew fair Ben Jonson
18. Beowulf Unknown
19. Biographia Literaria S.T. Coleridge
20. Borough, The Crabbe
21. Bostonians, The Henry James
22. Brave New World Aldous Huxley
23. Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
24. Cake and Ale Somerset Maugham
25. Caleb Williams, The Adventures of: Godwin
26. Can you Forgive Her Troloppe
27. Candida G.B. Shaw
28. Canterbury Tales, The [begun about 1387] Geoffrey Chaucer
29. Castle of Otranto, The Horace Walpole
30. Cenci, The P. B. Shelley
31. Chaste Maid in Cheapside, A Thomas Middleton
32. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron
33. Christabel S.T. Coleridge
34. Clarissa Samuel Richardson
35. Colin Clout’s Come Home Again Spenser
36. Colonel Jack Daniel Defoe
37. Comical Revenge Etherege
38. Comus Milton
39. Confessio Amantis John Gower
40. Confessions of An English Opium – Eater Thomas De Quincey
41. Confidence Man, The Herman Melville
42. Coningsby Disraeli
43. Daniel Deronda George Eliot
44. Dombey and Son Charles Dickens
45. Don Juan Lord Byron
46. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde R.L. Stevenson
47. Dubliners James Joyce
48. Duchess of Malfi, The John Webster
49. Edwin Drood, The Mystery of Charles Dickens

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

50. Egoist, The George Meredith

51. Emma Jane Austen
52. Endymion John Keats
53. Essay of Dramatic Poesy John Dryden
54. Essay on Man Alexander Pope
55. Essay in Criticism Matthew Arnold
56. Essays of Elia Charles Lamb
57. Euphues John Lyly
58. Eve of St. Agnes John Keats
59. Every Man in his Humour Ben Jonson
60. Expedition of Humphry Clinker,the Tobias Smollet
61. Far From The Madding Crowd Thomas Hardy
62. Forsyte Saga, The John Galsworthy
63. Four Quartets T.S. Eliot
64. Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus Mary Shelley
65. Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay Robert Greene
66. Gulliver Travels Jonathan Swift
67. Hamlet Shakespeare
68. Hard Times Charles Dickens
69. Heart of Midlothian, The Sir Walter Scott
70. Hind and the Panther John Dryden
71. House of Fame, The Geoffrey Chaucer
72. Idler The Samuel Johnson
73. Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott
74. In Memoriam Alfred Tennyson
75. Instauratio Magna [The Great Renewal] Francis Bacon
76. Intimation of Immorality From Recollection
of Early Childhood William Wordsworth
77. The Invisible Man H.G. Wells
78. Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte
79. Jonathan Wild The Great, The Life Of Henry Fielding
80. Joseph Andrews Henry Fielding
81. Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy
82. Julius Caesar Shakespeare
83. Kidnapped R.L. Stevenson
84. Kubla Khan S.T. Coleridge
85. Kim Rudyard Kipling
86. Kipps H.G. Wells
87. King Lear Shakespeare
88. Knight's Tale, The Geoffrey Chaucer
89. Lady Chatterley's Lovers D.H. Lawrence
90. Lady of Shalott, The Alfred Tennyson
91. Lives of the Poets, The Samuel Johnson
92. Lord Jim Joseph Conrad
93. Love's Labour's Lost Shakespeare
94. Lycidas John Milton
95. Macbeth Shakespeare
96. Mayor of Casterbridge, The Thomas Hardy
97. Merchant of Venice, The Shakespeare
98. Mill in the Floss, The George Eliot
99. Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

100. Monk, The Mathew Lewis

101. Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare
100. Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens
101. Nigger of the Narcissus, The Joseph Conrad
102. Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
103. Of Human Bondage Somerset Maugham
104. Oliver Twist Charles Dickens
105. Pair of Blue Eyes Thomas hardy
106. Pamela or Virtue Rewarded Samuel Richardson
107. Passage To India E.M. Forster
108. Persuasion Jane Austen
109. Prelude, or Growth of A Poet's Mind, The William Wordsworth
110. Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen
111. Professor Charlotte Bronte
112. Prologue To The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer
113. Pygmalion G.B.Shaw
114. Rape of The Lock Alexander Pope
115. Religio Medici (The Religion of a Physician) Sir Thomas Browne
116. Return of the Native Thomas Hardy
117. Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare
118. Room with a View, A E.M. Forster
119. Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe
120. School for Scandal, The Richard Brinsley Sheridan
121. Scrutiny F.R. Levies
122. Sense and Sensibility Jane Austen
123. Sentimental Journey, The Laurence Sterne
124. Shepherd's Calender, The John Clare
125. Shoemaker's Holiday, The Thomas Dekker
126. Silas Marner George Eliot
127. Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence
128. Tale of A Tub, A Jonathan Swift
129. Tale of Two Cities, A Charles Dickens
130. Tempest, The Shakespeare
131. Tess of The D' Urbervilles, A pure Woman Thomas Hardy
132. Tom Jones Henry Fielding
133. Treasure Island Robert Louis Stevenson
134. Troilus and Criseyde Geoffrey Chaucer
135. Twelfth Night, or What You Will Shakespeare
136. To The Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
137. Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne
138. Ulysses James Joyce
139. Under the Greenwood Tree Thomas Hardy
140. Venus and Adonis Shakespeare
141. Vicar of Wakefield, Oliver Goldsmith
142. The Way of the World, William Congreve
143. Waverly Sir Walter Scott
144. Where Angels Fear to Tread E.M. Forster
145. The Woman in Love D.H. Lawrence
146. Woodlanders Thomas Hardy
147. Wuthering Heights Emil Bronte

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL (1681)

A political satire in heroic couplets by John Dryden, published in 1681, and
continued (Part II) mainly by Nahum Tate, published in 1682. Dryden used the biblical story
of King David and his rebellious son Absalom to portray allegorically a current crisis about
who should be the next king after the death of Charles II. Charles had no legitimate son, so
that his heir was his brother James, Duke of York, a professed Catholic. His succession was
feared as a menace to the Church of England and the liberty of Parliament; in consequence,
the opposition (Whig) party tried to pass a law excluding James from the throne and
substituting Charles’s illegitimate son, the Duke of Monmouth. Dryden’s poem was
intended to influence the public against the Whigs and their leader, Anthony Ashley Cooper,
Earl of Shaftesbury. His use of the biblical story simultaneously blackened the opposition
and sanctified the king, who supported his brother, and their party. The biblical David stands
for Charles; Absalom for Monmouth; Achitophel (Absalom’s evil Tempter) for
Shaftesbury. This satire is Dryden’s most famous work.

ABSENTEE, THE
The novel by Maria Edgeworth, published in the second series of Tales of
Fashionable Life, in 1812. It is set on a large landholding in Ireland, whose absentee
landlord, Landlord Clonbrony, is finally persuaded to return to his responsibilities by his
son.
ADAM BEDE (1859)
A novel by George Eliot. The setting is a village in the English Midlands, and the
events take place at the beginning of the 19 Century. Adam Bede is the village carpenter, a
young man of stern morals and great strength of character; he is in love with Hetty Sorrel, the
vain and frivolous niece of a farmer, Martin Poyser. She is seduced by a village squire.
Another principal character is the young and beautiful Dinah Morris, a Methodist preacher,
whom Adam marries after Hetty has been transported for the murder of her child. The novel
belongs to the early phase of George Eliot’s art when her principal subject was the rural
civilization which had been the background of her youth; the fine parts of the novel are those
scenes, such as Poyser household, which are directly concerned with his way of life.

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, THE

A philosophical treatise by Francis Bacon published in 1605 in English. This book
is addressed to King James I, one of the most learned men ever to occupy the English throne.
This book is divided into two parts: Book I treats those characteristics of scholars which
have lead to the discredit of both. Book II is a survey of the branches of learning, and of the
mental faculties. The importance of The Advancement is of two kinds: as a work of
philosophy and as a work of literature. As a work of literature, it is distinguished for the
terseness and lucidity of Bacon’s prose.

AGNES GREY
A novel by Anne Bronte, published in 1847. It is based on her experiences as a
governess. Agnes Grey, a rector’s daughter employed by the Murray family, is badly treated
and her loneliness is revealed only by the kindness of the curate, Weston, whom she
eventually marries.

ALCHEMIST, THE
It is a comedy by Ben Jonson, first acted in 1610. The scene is a house in London
during a visitation of the plague; its master, Lovewit, has taken refuge in the country, leaving

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

his servant, Face, in charge. Face introduces two rogues: Subtle, a charlatan alchemist and
Dol Common, a whore. Together they collaborate in turning the house into a centre for the
practice of alchemy in the expectation that they can attract credulous clients who will believe
that alchemical magic can bring them their heart’s desire.
Sir Epicure Mammon dreams of limitless luxury and his satisfaction of his lust;
Drugger, a tobacco merchant, wants prosperity for his business; Dapper, a lawyer’s clerk,
seeks a spirit to guarantee him success in gambling; Kastril, a young country squire, desires a
rich husband for his sister (Dame Pliant). Each of the clients has to be deceived by a separate
technique. And then Lovewit suddenly returns – a crisis which only Face survives. He expels
Subtle and Dol Common. The play is one of the Jonson’s best. Moreover, the characterization
has behind it the force of Jonson’s conviction that human folly is limitless and can only be
cured by exposure.

ALCHEMY
A pseudo-science started by the Alexandrian Greeks in the early Christian Centuries
and widely pursued in Europe until 17th Century. Essentially a primitive form of Chemistry, it
was popularly identified with experiments to transmute base metals into gold through the
discovery of what was called ‘the philosopher’s stone’. As such it was a field for dupes and
charlatans, and is ridiculed in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND
A fantastic novel by Lewis Carrol. It was composed originally for the amusement of
a little real – life Alice, but it soon grew into a nursery classic and has since become one of
the most commonly works in the whole range of English literature.

AMELIA
This is the last novel of Henry Fielding. It is the fruit of his later years and reflects
Fielding as the critic of legal administration and social machinery. It is very different from
Tom Jones. It is full of bitter conclusions and disillusionment and here we have Fielding's
attack on law – courts and the evils are associated with courts. The Fielding of Amelia is a far
older man than the Fielding of Tom Jones.

AMERICAN, THE
A novel by Henry James serialized in 1876-7 and published in volume form in 1877.
Christopher Newman, a wealthy American businessman, travels to Paris to find a wife. Mrs.
Tristram, an expatriate American, serves as his guide and confidante.

AMERICAN TRAGEDY, AN
A novel b y Theodore Dreiser, published in 1925. It is based on the Chester Gillette-
Grace Brown murder case of 1906. Anxious to escape his family’s dreary life, Clyde Griffiths
gets a job in a factory belonging to his wealthy uncle, Samuel Griffiths. He falls in love with
a very rich girl, Sondra Finchley, but also seduces Roberta, a young factory worker. When
she becomes pregnant and demands that he marry her, Clyde takes her to a lake resort and
murders her. The rest of the novel traces the investigation of the case, describing Clyde’s
indictment, trial, conviction and execution in relentless detail.

ANNA OF THE FIVE TOWNS

A novel by Arnold Bennett, published in 1902. The harsh codes of her father,
Ephraim Tellwright, and the economic realities of Bursley a Potteries town, weigh heavily on

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

the heroine. The news that she will inherit a fortune makes her attractive to a successful
businessman, Henry Mynors, whom she eventually marries. In the process she is estranged
from another suitor, Willie Price, an industrial tenant of her father, though she saves him
from public disgrace when he and his father try to pay her father with a forged bill of credit.
Ephraim disinherits her. Willie, learning that his father has embezzled £50 from the chapel
building fund before committing suicide, commits suicide himself.

ANIMAL FARM, THE

A satirical novel by George Orwell. It is a witty parable of the "betrayal of the
revolution", the theory that violent social upheavals are always by a reactionary tyranny
acting in the name of revolutionary ideas. The plot of this novel closely follows the history of
the U.S.S.R. since 1917.

ARCADIA, THE
This prose work by Sir Philip Sidney was written in 1580 during a period of
retirement from court, and published in 1590. The Arcadia is a long prose romance with a
loose plot which accommodates a number of subsidiary tales. The stories are heroic,
amorous, or pastoral, with some comic relief. The intention was to cultivate high aristocratic
morality, as well as to entertain, and part of the entertainment lay in the elaborate musical
style which now makes the book unfashionable. The prose is interspersed with poetry of
delicate musicality, also important for its influence, though not so distinguished as the best of
Sidney’s Astrophel and Stella sonnets.

ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM, THE TRAGEDY OF MR

An anonymous play published in 1592 and once attributed to Shakespeare. An early
domestic tragedy, based on an actual murder which took place at Feversham in Kent, it
follows the initially frustrated but eventually successful attempts of Mistress Arden to rid
herself of an unloved husband. The murder is discovered and she is executed for the crime,
with her lover and fellow conspirator.

ASTROPHEL AND STELLA

A sequence of sonnets by Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86) supposed to be addressed by
the Star lover (Astrophel) to the Star (Stella). They were in written about 1580 but not
published until 1591. The poets Wyatt and Surrey had already tried the sonnet form,
introducing it from Italy. Sidney’s sequence, contains some of the finest sonnets in English
poetry. Stella is based on Penelope Devereux, daughter of the Earl of Essex. Her marriage
with Sidney was proposed in 1576, but instead she married Lord Rich. There were 108
sonnets and 11 songs.

AS YOU LIKE IT
A comedy by Shakespeare produced about 1599, and first in the Folio of 1623. Its
source is Thomas lodge’s romance, Rosalynde.
The story is romantic and pastoral. A Duke, the father of the heroine, Rosalind, has
been turned off his throne by his ruthless brother, the father of Rosalind’s devoted friend,
Celia. He has taken refuge with a few loyal countries in the neighboring Forest of Arden. An
orphan son, Orlando, is tyrannized over by his wicked elder brother, Oliver. Orlando and
Rosalind fall in love. Rosalind is banished from court, and goes to the forest in male disguise,
calling herself Ganymede; Celia goes with her as Rosalind- Ganymede’s sister, Aliena, and
they are also accompanied by the court jester, Touchstone. Orlando follows them. He does

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

not penetrate Rosalind’s disguise, however when as Ganymede, she makes him ‘play- act’
courtship with her, episodes which are used by Shakespeare as light satire on the convention
of romantic love. Another pair of lover in the forest are the shepherd and shepherdess, Silvius
and Phebe. Phebe (true to her convention) disdains Silvius, but falls embarrassingly in love
with Rosalind (in her disguise) at first sight, in spite of Rosalind’s rudeness to her.
Touchstone engages the affections of an unromantic and realistic village girl, Audrey, and
thus frustrates her unromantic village lover, William. There is also Jaques, a fashionable and
affected young man in the Elizabethan style, attached to the court of the exiled Duke.
Rosalind, who is extremely plain- spoken except when she remembers that she is in love,
exposes his affectations. In the end couples are sorted out appropriately, and Rosalind’s
father regains his dukedom.
Shakespeare thus plays off real life against literary convention. The play is gay,
satirical and romantic, all in one. Together with Twelfth Night it is his best work in the style
of romantic comedy.

BADMAN, THE LIFE AND DEATH OF MR (1680)

A moral allegory by John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress, and, apart from the
more famous work, the only one of Bunyan’s fictions to remain widely known. It is the
biography of a wicked man told by Mr. Wiseman, and contains vivid and dramatic detail. Its
realism of detail and its psychology make it one of the forerunners of the novel.

BARTHOLOMEW FAIR (1614)

A vigorous prose comedy of London Life by Ben Jonson. The scene is that of a
famous fair held annually in Smithfield, London from 12th C till 1855. The cast includes
traders, showmen, dupes, criminal, a gambler, and a hypocritical puritan – the best- known
character, called Zeal – of – the- land Busy. It has a very lively surface entertainment and
some of Jonson’s characteristic force of satire by which the vicious pursue their vices with
eloquence but with such extravagance that they overreach themselves, and not only produce
their own doom but bring ridicule on their heads by self- caricature.

BEOWULF
The earliest known English epic, written in Anglo-Saxon (Old English). The version
is 10th C, but the poem may go back to the 7th; Christian and heroic pagan elements mingle.
Hrothgar, King of the Danes, had built a great hall, Heorot, but it is constantly
ravaged by the monster Grendel. The Swedish Prince Beowulf, nephew of the king of Geats,
slays the monster by wrestling with it and wrenching out its arms. Grendel’s mother then
seeks vengeance by carrying off one of the Danish nobles, but Beowolf enters and kills her
too. Beowulf returns home and in due course become King of Geats. When he has reigned
fifty years, his kingdom is invaded by a fiery dragon which he manages to kill with the aid of
a young nobleman, Wiglaf, when all the rest of his followers have fled. However he receives
his own death wound in the fight and as he dies, he pronounces Wiglaf, his successor. His
body is burnt on a great funeral pyre and the dragon’s treasure is buried with his ashes,
twelve of his followers ride round the funeral mound celebrating his greatness.

BIOGRAPHIA LITERARIA (1817)

A work of mingled autobiography, philosophy and literary criticism, by S.T.
Coleridge. The autobiography relates to his struggles as a young writer and editor, and to his
beginnings as a poet and co- author of Lyrical Ballads. The philosophy is directed to
establishing a philosophical and psychological basis for literary criticism; and the criticism is

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

especially devoted to the poetry of William Wordsworth, and to express his disagreement
with Wordsworth’s, ideas on the nature and function of poetry as shown in Wordsworth’s,
Preface to the second edition of Lyrical Ballads. The book is disorderly in construction, but,
though it received little attention on publication, it has been very influential since. With its
psychological approach pursued by acute if abstruse thinking, it is perhaps the starting point
of modern criticism. Coleridge shows how the whole personality of the poet and not merely
particular faculties, engages in the act of creation. He makes the first profound statements
about the nature and operation of meter. His distinction between understanding and
reason, between two sorts of imagination, and between imagination and fancy, though they
are sometimes found to be over- refined or unsatisfactory, stimulated deeper and clearer
thinking about works of art and their making.

BOROUGH, THE
A poem by Crabbe published in 1810. It takes the form of 24 letters describing life in
a town which is clearly based on Crabbe’s native Aldeburgh.

BOSTONIANS, THE
A novel by Henry James serialized in 1885-6 and published in volume from 1886. A
satirical study of the movement for female emancipation in New England, it recounts the
story of Basil Ransom, a young Southern lawyer who comes to Boston on business. He meets
his cousins, the widowed Mrs. Luna who falls in love with him, and the feminist Olive
Chancellor.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

A novel by Aldous Huxley in the form of a satirical Utopia satirizing the evils of
scientific civilization. Its style may be compared with that of Swift and Butler. Huxley
presents the picture of a future state in which everything is dominated and controlled by
science. In this new world there is no place for pain, dirt, disease, squalor and poverty. All
these evils have been abolished by science in The Brave New World. People enjoy youth,
beauty and vitality. The result of is no place for art, culture, religion, love, ideals, loyalty and
personality. The world is inhabited by a set of people whose lives and amusements are
completely regulated and mechanized.

BRIDESHEAD REVISITED
A novel by Evelyn Waugh. Its theme is the decline and proud but degenerated of
British aristocrats.

CAKES AND ALE

One of the most popular novels of Somerset Maugham. It gives a satirical
presentation of Thomas Hardy. This novel is chiefly distinguished for its clever study of the
first wife, a good – natured harlot who runs away. It is Maugham's best novel, for here wit
and satire do not drive out human sympathy and understanding.

CALEB WILLIAMS, THE ADVENTURES OF:

Or, Things as They Are a novel by Godwin, first published in 1794. As the subtitle
indicates, he intended the book as a radical critique of an unjust social system, but he went
beyond his polemical purpose by effective use of conventions associated with the Gothic
Novel. Caleb, who tells the story, rises from humble origins to become secretary to the
polished and accomplishes local squire, Falkland. Disturbed by his master’s fits of

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

melancholy, he enquires into Falkland’s past and discovers that he has murdered a boorish
neighbor, Tyrrel. Falkland falsely accuses Caleb of theft, has him imprisoned and, when he
escapes, relentlessly hunts him down. Caleb at last confronts Falkland and forces him into
public confession. He collapses and dies, leaving Caleb feeling not triumphant but guilty at
what he has done.

CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

The first of Trollope’s Palliser Novels, serialized in 1864-5. It deals with three related
love triangles, in each of which a woman hesitates between a ‘wild’ and a ‘worthy’ lover.

CANDIDA
One of the plays Pleasant and Unpleasant by Bernard Shaw, published in 1898.Its
theme is the conflict between two views of life: the lofty, vague one of the poet Marchbanks,
and the narrow but practical one of the Christian Socialist clergyman Morell. Both men are
rivals for the love of Morell’s wife, Candida.

CANTERBURY TALES, The [begun about 1387]

Chaucer’s most famous poem, an unfinished collection of tales told in the course of a
pilgrimage to Becket’s shrine at Canterbury. A general Prologue briefly describes the 30
pilgrims and introduces the framework: each pilgrim will tell two tales on the way to
Canterbury and two more on the way back, the teller of the best tale winning a free supper.
There follow 24 tales, including two told by Chaucer himself.
The General Prologue introduces the pilgrims as they meet at the Tabard inn in
Southwark and begin their journey under the guidance of the Host, Harry Bailly. They come
from all sections of society. Some are described in vivid and realistic detail, combining
elements from the traditional representation of social types with individual characterization.
The Knight’s Tale is a romance based on Boccaccio’s Teseida. Palamon and Arcite,
sworn brothers, became rivals for Theseus’ niece, Emelye, whom they first see from their
prison window.
The Miller’s Tale is a bawdy fabliau told by drunken and quarrelsome character.
The Reeve’s Tale answers the Miller’s abuse of carpenters, for the Reeve is himself a
carpenter. It tells how a miller is tricked by two clerks whom he has cheated. One sleeps with
the miller’s daughter and the other rearranges the furniture so that the miller’s wife gets into
his bed instead of her husband’s.
The Cooks Tale is only a 57-line fragment, whose opening tells how an apprentice
loses his position because of riotous living and moves in with a prostitute and her husband.
The Man of Law’s Tale begins the second fragment of the poem. After a prologue
complaining that Chaucer has spoiled all the good stories and announcing his intention to
speak in prose, the Man of Law tells the tale of unfortunate Constance. She is married to a
Sultan, converted to Christianity, whose evil mother destroys all the Christians in the court
and sets the widowed Constance adrift in a boat. She lands in Northumberland, where she
performs miraculous cures, survives a false accusation of murder and marries the king, whom
she has converted.
THE Wife of Bath’s Tale begins the third fragment. Its prologue develops the wife’s
strong and pleasure-seeking personality as she recounts her eventful life with five husbands.
Her tale, a version of, The Wedding of Sir Gawen and Dame Ragnell, continues the theme
of women’s mastery over men.
The Friar’s Tale, an animated and original version of a fabliau from an unknown
source, is an attack on the Summoner.

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M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

The Summoner’s Tale Answers the Friar with another fabliau from an unknown
source about a corrupt mendicant friar who angers a dissatisfied benefactor by asking for
more donations.
The Clerk’s Tale, beginning the fourth fragment, gives a version of the folktale of
Patient Griselda, derived from Petrarch’s Latin translation of Boccaccio’s version of it in the
Decameron.
The Merchant’s Tale which has its source in Folktale, richly elaborated and
expanded.
The Squire’s Tale, at the start of the fifth fragment, is an unfinished romance similar to the
story of Cleomades.

The Franklin’s Tale is introduced as a Breton Lay but its source is in Boccaccio’s Filocolo.
The Physician’s Tale, the first in the sixth fragment, adapts the story of Virginia rather than
surrender her to the judge Apius. His corruption uncovered, Apius is imprisoned and kills
himself; his conniving servant Claudius is exiled.
The Pardoner’s tale is precede by a prologue in which he explains how he preaches against
al types of sin but himself indulges in various vices and begs from the poor.

The Shipman’s Tale, which begins the seventh fragment, is a fabliau. The merchant’s wife
borrows hundred francs from the monk, who in turn borrows it from her husband. In the
merchant’s absence his wife and the monk sleep together. On his return the monk tells him he
gave the money to his wife; she tells her husband that she thought it a gift and spent it on
clothes.
The Prioress’s tale follows the host’s polite request to her to speak next. A Christian child is
murdered be Jews but the Virgin gives his body the power of song, to reveal his whereabouts
and explain how he came to his death.

Sir Thomas is the first tale of Chaucer’s tales, a splendid pastiche of verse at its most trite.
The Monk’s Tale follows a prologue in which the Host requests a tale in keeping with his
character, perhaps about hunting.

The Nun’s Priests Tale is a vivid fable related to the French Roman de Renart. After a
premonitory dream which the cock, Chauntecleer, repeats to his favorite hen, Pertelote, he is
approached by a fox who appeals to his vanity to make him close his eyes and crow. The fox
seizes him and carries him off, but Chauntecleer tricks him into speaking and so escape fro
his mouth.

The Second Nun’s Tale, the first of two in the eighth fragment, is a saint’s life from the
Legenda aurea (later translated by Caxton as the Golden Legend). The virgin St Cecilia
converts herb husband, his brother, and some of his persecutors to Christianity before her
martyrdom.

The invocation to the virgin in the prologue is based in part on lines from Dante’s Paradiso.
After the tale the Canon and his Yeoman, join the party, though the Canon soon leaves again.
The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale tells of his own experiences helping his master in alchemy.
The tale gives details of alchemical processes and relates ho the canon cheated a priest by
tricking him into believing he could transmute mercury into silver.

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 Dr. Anurag Agrawal
M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

The Manciple’s Tale, the only one in the ninth fragment, narrates the story of the tell-tale
bird also found in The Seven Sages of Rome, though Chaucer adapted it from Ovid’s,
metamorphosis.

The Parson’s Tale, comprising the tenth fragment, is the final tale. A lengthy prose sermon
on the Seven Deadly Sins, it drives from the De poenitentia of Raymond de Pennaforte and
Guilielmus Peraldus’ Summa de vitiis.

CASTLE OF OTRANTO, THE (1764)

One of the first so-called gothic novels by Horace Walpole (1717-97). The fantastic
events are set in the Middle Ages, and the story is full of supernatural sensationalism. The
story concerns an evil usurper, a fateful prophecy about his downfall, a mysterious prince
disguised as a peasant, and his eventual marriage to the beautiful heroine whom the usurper
had intended as his own bride. If reflects the 18th C view of the medieval (gothic) period as
barbarous but excitingly mysterious. The novel set a powerful fashion which extended into
19th C.

CENCI, THE (1819)

A poetic drama by P. B. Shelley, concerning the hatred of the evil Roman nobleman,
Count Francesco Cenci, for his children, and the incestuous passion infecting him for his
daughter Beatrice. Beatrice, her brother Bernard, and her stepmother Lucretia succeed in
killing the Count who has thus darkened their days and are executed for the murder. The play
is however one of the most successful of the romantic school of drama.

CHASTE MAID IN CHEAPSIDE, A

A citizen comedy by Thomas Middleton first preformed in 1611 and published in
1630 the misfortunes and humiliation of the dissolute Sir Walter Whorehound link its several
plots.

CHILDE HAROLD’S PILGRIMAGE

A poem by Lord Byron written in Spenserian stanzas and divided into four Cantos or
parts. Cantos I and II were published in 1812, Canto III in 1816, and Canto IV in 1818.
From the start, the poem is manifestly autobiographical and in the fourth Canto Byron
abandons the fiction and writes in the first person.
The subject is the wanderings through Europe of a young man seeking escape from
his disgust and disillusionment with a life of pleasure at home. The first two Cantos describe
his wanderings round the Mediterranean, and end with a lament for Greeks enslaved by
Turks. The third and fourth cantos are more concerned with events and people.
The first two, more ‘romantic’, Cantos made Byron famous in his own time, and
present, through Childe Harold, the image of the famous Byronic personality – self regarding,
proud, independent.

CHRISTABEL
An unfinished narrative poem by S. T. Coleridge. He wrote the first part in 1797 and
the second in 1800; it was published in 1816. The story has the characteristics familiar
from the popular folk ballad tradition; Christabel, daughter of Sir Leoline, finds a
distressed lady in the woods and takes her back to the castle. The lady, Geraldine, is really an
evil enchantress. Christabel discovers her evil nature, but is forced by a spell to keep silent.

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 Dr. Anurag Agrawal
M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

As like Ancient Mariner, the supernatural element has the power of a highly sophisticated
intellect behind it.
It is a narrative poem, one of the best of all Coleridge's poem except "The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner". Indisputable for its beauty and magic charm. 'Christabel' remains
Coleridge's rare achievement among the poems dealing with the supernatural. It reveals
Coleridge's romantic qualities as a poet in their true form; In it medieval setting, treatment of
a supernatural mystery, description of nature and music.
Christabel tells the story of an innocent girl, 'Christabel' who is visited by a demon
disguised as a beautiful lady, Geraldine. The poem is in two parts, the first written
immediately after the 'Ancient Mariner' in 1797 and was intended for publication in the first
edition of "Lyrical Ballads" published in 1798. But it could not be included in "Lyrical
Ballad" as it was not finished in time. The second part actually written in 1800 was also
intended for publication in the second edition of "Lyrical Ballads" but remain unpublished till
1816 because it again was not finished in time. However, both the parts which form only a
fragment of a long poem conceived, was published in 1817. On the whole, 'Chriastabel' is a
fragmentary poem telling us an incomplete tale. Although Coleridge knew how the poem was
to go but could not finish it. It remain, thus an unfinished tale of medieval chivalry, magic
and witchery.
The story of the poem is like this- - Christabel, the daughter of Sir Leoline, goes at
midnight to the forest to pray for her lover, a knight who has gone away. There she suddenly
finds a beautiful lady, Geraldine who tells Christabel the story of her misfortune and seeks
her shelter. Christabel pities her and takes her home. Reaching her home, Christabel soothes
her, (Garaldine) who infact is a demonic spirit in disguise, embraces Christabel and casts her
evil spell on the innocent girl. Christabel sleeps with open eyes under her spell for an hour.
Then on recovering from her trance, she finds that there is something wrong with her.
In the second part of the poem, Christabel is shown taking Geraldine to meet Sir
Leoline. Geraldine tells Sir Leoline that she is the daughter of Sir Polland, a close friend of
Leoline, with whom Sir Leoline had quarreled. Sir Leoline shows warm affection for
Geraldine and asks his bard to bring Geraldine's father. Geraldine is also successful in turning
away Sir Leoline's heart from his own daughter. Here the poem ends.
Christabel is a poem dealing with the mystery and strangeness of the demonic
influence. The atmosphere of the whole poem is wrapped up in mystery. An atmosphere of
the supernatural had been created by the depiction of common natural phenomenon. The
minute details of nature is presented by the poet not for the sake of description of nature or
for painting its beauty but for creating an atmosphere charged with mystery which could
provide a background for the supernatural characters, scenes and happenings introduced in
this poem. Infact the conflict between Christabel and Geraldine is a symbol of the perpetual
conflict going in the world between the elements of good and evil.
Coleridge has employed in Christabel as in 'The Rime of Ancient Mariner', a
simple and homely diction. The poem is full of poetic beauty and music. Besides, it presents
the supernatural events in such a way that it becomes unique and was not employed by
anyone before him. Thus, 'Christabel' is Coleridge's triumphs in poetry and ranks among the
best few poems of his poems.

CLARISSA (1747- 48)

A novel by Samuel Richardson and his masterpiece. It is slow moving, of great
length, and composed in the form of letters passing especially between Clarissa Harlowe and
her friend Miss Howe, and between the villain Robert Lovelace and his friend John Belford.
Clarrisa’s mercenary family wants her to marry a repulsive man of their choice for their
financial convenience; she resists with the aid of Lovelace, who made a vocation of

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 Dr. Anurag Agrawal
M.A. (English), NET, Ph.D, M.B.A.

seduction. He kept her captive and eventually succeeds in raping her and Lovelace is killed in
a duel. The other characters and the clashing viewpoints of both the major and minor ones are
graphically presented through the various epistolary styles.

COLIN CLOUT’S COME HOME AGAIN

A pastoral poem (1595) by Spenser. Colin, the major character in The Shepheardes
Calender, describes his adventures to his fellow shepherds. The poem compliments Queen
Elizabeth (Cynthia) and Sir Walter Raleigh (the Shepherd of the ocean), laments the death of
Sir Philip Sidney (Astrophel), and alludes to the Countess of Pembroke (Urania) among
others. Ambivalent towards the court which it alternately compliments and criticizes, it is one
of Spencer’s most autobiographically allusive poems.

COLONEL JACK (1722)

The history and remarkable life of Colonel Jacque which is a novel by Daniel Defoe.
Jack is abandoned by his parents, becomes a thief, a soldier, a slave on an America
plantation, a planter, and eventually a rich and repentant man back in England. The sequence
moving through crime, suffering and repentance, and from poverty to prosperity, is typical of
Defoe’s novel.

COMICAL REVENGE, THE

Or Love in a Tub a comedy by Etherege, produced and published in 1664. A slight
comic plot concerns Sir Fredrick Frolick’s wooing by a rich widow

COMUS
Comus, by Milton, a typical masque with its mode of classical pastoral: a girl is lost
in a wood and separated from her two brothers; she falls into the hands of Comus, son of the
Bacchus, and of Circe, the evil enchantress of Greek legend. Comus tries to subdue her, but
she clings to her virginal purity and resists him. Eventually she is rescued by her brothers
with the aid of a shepherd called Thyrsis, and of Sabrina, a spirit of the River Severn that
flows by Ludlow. The name Comus is from the Greek for ‘revel’, and in later Greek myth he
was the god of revelry.

CONFESSIO AMANTIS (1386 – 90)

A collection of tales of courtly love in verse, by John Gower. The verse is strongly
influenced by Chaucer, Gower’s contemporary and friend. The poet makes confession to
Genius, priest of Venus, goddess of love, and Genius tells him stories of the Seven Deadly
sins and their remedy. In the end the poet is dismissed from the court of Venus as being too
old for love. The tales were thus set in a framework like Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, though
there had been French and Italian antecedents, especially Boccaccio’s Decameron. The
stories are mainly taken from the Latin poet Ovid, though some may have come from
Chaucer. The combination of courtly love with ethical moralizing anticipates a characteristic
combination in 15th Century.

CONFESSIONS OF ENGLISH OPIUM – EATER

An autobiography and the most famous work of Thomas De Quincey. Like
Coleridge, De Quincy began taking opium to ease physical suffering and eventually increased
the dose until he became an addict. The book contains eloquent, prose-poetic accounts of his
opium dreams and also graphic descriptions of his life of poverty in London.

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