A masterpiece of English literature
Beowulf is a heroic epic in Anglo-Saxon England, the highest achievement of ancient English literature, and marks the beginning of English literature. The first part of the epic tells the story of a young Swedish prince, Beowulf, who came to Denmark to help Danish King HerRoska kill grendel and his mother. They have been attacking at night for 12 years. The second part briefly describes that Beowulf succeeded to the throne and ruled peacefully for 50 years. Later, his land was ravaged by a fire-breathing dragon, and Beowulf, who was hale and hearty, fought and killed the dragon, and he was fatally wounded.
Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400) is the father of English literature and the most outstanding writer before. His main work is Canterbury Tales. The main characteristics of the works are the diversity of subject matter, theme, style and style, and describe the complexity of people's pursuit of life. His masterpiece TheCanterburyTales not only depicts the social class of 365,438+0 pilgrims, but also reflects their different narrative styles, which is widely read and has great influence on later generations.
William shakespeare (1564- 16 16) was a famous playwright and poet in the English Renaissance. He created a large number of works, including comedies, tragedies and historical plays. His plays are still performed in many countries and are widely read. Shakespeare's works are full of literary grace, and the scenes of joy, anger, sadness and joy created are impressive and unforgettable. There are four tragedies in his major works: Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear; Four comedies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Duke of Venice, Much ado about nothing and Kate Assouli. In addition, the historical drama HenryVI Trilogy and the love tragedy RomeoandJuliet are also very popular. Hamlet tells the story of Hamlet, a Danish prince, who avenges his father and kills his uncle who usurped the throne. In Hamlet, "tobeornottobe, that's the problem" became a classic line. Romeo and Juliet describes the story of a young man and woman who committed suicide because of family discord, exposes the cruelty of feudal system and praises the pure and faithful love of young men and women.
Keats (1795- 182 1) is an English romantic poet. He was born in poverty and worked as an apprentice to a doctor before writing poetry as a profession. He was dissatisfied with the reality of British society at that time and hoped to find a place to live in an "eternal and beautiful world". His poems are famous for their beautiful intonation, which has a great influence on later English poets in art. His major works are Isabella, Odysseus and Ode to Autumn.
Shelley (1792- 1822) is an important romantic poet in England. He was born into a noble family. He not only wrote poems full of political thoughts, but also wrote many beautiful lyric poems, especially love poems, which showed his unconstrained imagination, magnificent colors and touching rhythm, making him one of the most talented lyric poets in the history of English literature. His major works include The Queen's Horse, Singing Meno Peak, A Journey to Prometheus and Audeteau West Wind. The famous sentence in ode to the west wind "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" (ifwinterscomes, canspringbefarberhind) has become a well-known poem for women and children.
Wordsworth (1770- 1850) and 18- 19 are the greatest and most influential poets in the British romantic movement at the turn of the century. He, samuel taylor coleridge and robert southey formed a "Laker Poet", whose theme was the relationship between man and nature. 18 13 received long-term government subsidies, and 1843 was named poet laureate. His major works include lyre, daffodil and princess.
Daniel defoe (1661-1731) is the father of English novels. Robinson Crusoe, a famous novel published at the age of 59, immediately became a household bestseller. Later, he wrote novels such as Captain singleton, Moore Flanders and Diary of the Great Epidemic Year. Robinson Crusoe is an artistic work based on the true story of Scottish sailor alexander selkirk, who was stranded on a desert island and lived alone for four years before being rescued. Robinson, the hero, is a representative of the British bourgeoisie in Defoe's ideal. He is full of adventurous spirit, relying on personal labor and wisdom to overcome all kinds of difficulties in nature. This is of progressive significance to the feudal society that denies the role of ordinary people.
Jane Austen (1775-1817) is a British realistic novelist. She is the daughter of a village priest and has lived in the country all her life. He wrote six novels, mostly with rural life as the background and marriage as the central theme. Her works are rigorous and compact in plot structure, profound and vivid in character description, wonderful in drama scene and ingenious in dialogue. His main works include Sensibility and Emotion, Pride and Prejudice, mansfield manor and Emma. Ang Lee (1954-), directed by China, won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay and best actress in 1995.
Charlotte, Emily and her sister, Charlotte and Anne, were born in poverty and lost their mothers when they were young, so they had to spend their childhood in charity schools. Charlotte got married at 38 and died the following year. The two sisters have never been married. Charlotte's masterpiece "Janelle" is an autobiographical novel, which had a great influence immediately after its publication. This novel frankly and enthusiastically depicts women who are in conflict with their natural desires and social status. Emily's Oliver Twist is regarded as the first social revolutionary novel. Anne's novels are calm and realistic, and have also been praised by some critics.
Charles Dickens (18 12- 1870) was a great British novelist in the19th century. When I was a child, I was poor and used to be an apprentice. After I became famous, I was still close to the poor. He worked hard all his life, leaving behind more than 20 novels, including PickerwickPapers, OliverTwist, ATaleofTwoCities, HardTimes, DavidCopperfield and so on. Dickens' novels are full of twists and turns, vivid characters, vivid narration, sharp satire and exaggerated humor.
Sir Walter Scott (177 1- 1832) was a famous poet, novelist and dramatist in The Romantic Period, England in the early 9th century. His major achievement is historical novels. Ivanhoe is his masterpiece. Based on Britain in the 12 century, it describes the national contradictions between the Anglo-Saxons and the Norman conquerors in the last century, as well as the class contradictions between the ruling class and the poor peasants. Through all kinds of characters and complicated plots, it shows a broad picture depicting medieval social life.
Robert stevenson (1850- 1894) is a famous British adventure story and prose writer. His works are varied and ingenious, and mature novels are full of originality and strength. He wrote a series of novels set in Scotland, such as Black Arrow, Kidnapping, Master of Balent and so on. His masterpiece Treasure Island is a good book that boys can't put down.
Joseph Conrad (1857- 1924) is a British navigator and novelist. He was born in a Polish family in Russia, and Conrad is his pen name. He yearned for life at sea since childhood, worked in different merchant ships, and worked as a sailor, chief mate and captain. His legendary experiences at sea provided rich materials for his writing. His works include black heart and Lord Jim. Black heart tells the story of Captain Marlowe commanding a steamboat to go deep into Africa along the Congo River in search of civilization. This book shows the opposition between civilization and primitive, and expresses dissatisfaction with colonialism in many places.
Thomas Hardy (1840- 1928) is the last and most important novelist in Victorian England. He wrote many Wessex novels with the small town in the south of England as the background, mainly including Tess D 'Urbervilles (adapted into an influential film), Judy Obscure (adapted into an infectious film) and Henry Trudeau. This novel is full of pessimistic outlook on life and fatalism.
Virginia Woolf (1882- 194 1) is a modern British female writer. She made a unique contribution to the writing style of the novel and was one of the best critics at that time. Broomes bury, where she lived in London, became a literary center, and all the guests were famous writers and literati at that time. Virginia's novels pay attention to the inner world of the characters. His major works include To the Lighthouse, TheVoyageOut, Orlando and Mrs. Dalloway, which is Woolf's early masterpiece and describes Mrs. Dalloway's life within 24 hours a day. The plot is simple, and the style is lyrical and profound. With the creative method of "stream of consciousness", the deep thoughts, feelings, personalities and weaknesses of the characters are deeply and delicately portrayed.
D.H. Lawrence (1889- 1930) is a master of contemporary English literature and one of the famous modernist military representatives. In his creation, he abandoned the traditional British artistic expression, with simple language and concise sentence patterns, and used a lot of simple life language. In his works, he reveals the instinctive power in human nature and sharply criticizes modern industrial society. He wrote 10 novels in his life, among which Song of Heaven and Love of Women are the greatest and most representative. Other works include Lady Chatterley's Love, The Lost Girl and Songs and Sighs.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is an English playwright and political critic. He accepted the philosophical thoughts of Bergson, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and studied Marx's Das Kapital. /kloc-joined Fabian Society in 0/884, advocating gradual improvement to change the capitalist system and opposing violent revolution. In art, influenced by the Norwegian playwright Ibsen, he advocated writing about social issues and opposed the idea of "art for art's sake". 1933 February 17, I went to Shanghai to visit China on the ship "Queen of England".
Bernard Shaw's literature began with novel creation, but his outstanding achievement is drama. Widower's Home (1892), Mrs. Warren's occupation (1894), Major Barbara (1905), sad. 19 13), Joan of Arc (1923), Apple Car (TheAppleCart, 1929), etc. Among them, Joan of Arc has achieved unprecedented success and is recognized as his best historical play, which is the "peak of poet's creation".
Bernard Shaw's outstanding drama creation activities not only won him the title of "Moliere of the 20th century", but also won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. "Because his works are idealistic and humanitarian, their inspiring and ironic often contain unique poetic beauty."
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) is an advocate of the British aestheticism art movement, a famous writer, poet and dramatist. During his study in Oxford University, he was influenced by the aesthetic concepts of walter pater and others, and came into contact with the works of New hegelianism philosophy, Darwinian evolution theory and pre-Raphael school, all of which set the direction for him to become a pioneer writer of aestheticism. Wilde once became a cultural idol of gay groups at that time because of homosexuality. His trial is the most important in the history of British justice.
It is also one of the famous cases in the history of literature. His main works are: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), The Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) and Mrs. Windermere. 1892), TheDuchessofPadua (1893), Salome (Salome, 1893) and anidealhold( 1895).
James Joyce (1882- 194 1) is one of the greatest writers of Irish stream-of-consciousness literature. His literary career began with Dubliners, a collection of short stories he started writing in 19 14. Ulysses is a masterpiece of stream-of-consciousness novels, and is regarded as the first of the best English novels in the 20th century 100. In chronological order, the novel describes the daily experience of the protagonist, a distressed Dublin citizen and an advertising salesman in Dublin from June 65438 to June 65438+June 0904. The title and content of the novel come from the hero Odysseus and Homer's epic Odyssey in Greek mythology. Through a large number of detailed descriptions and stream-of-consciousness techniques, a staggered space-time has been constructed, which has formed a unique style in language and has the commonness of modern epics. The novel The Portrait of a Young Artist has a strong autobiographical color, mainly describing the Dublin youth Stephen &; S226 How did Dedalus try to get rid of all kinds of influences that hindered his development-family bondage, religious tradition and narrow nationalist sentiment, and pursue the true meaning of art and beauty? The novel Finnegan'sWake is a dreamy work written in dreamy language, which is based on the subconscious and dreams of a hotel owner in the suburbs of Dublin.
E.M.Forster (1879- 1970) is an English novelist and essayist. Born in London, graduated from Cambridge University. He abandoned the complicated rhetoric and detailed description that people loved in the19th century and adopted a more fluent and colloquial writing style. His major works include howards end, Apashato India, The Longest Journey, A Room with a View, Morris, etc. Howards end is a famous novel of Foster, which was made into a film and put on the screen, and won an Oscar. The story tells that Margaret, full of romanticism and free imagination, married Henry on the verge of mental breakdown in pursuit of commercial interests. Margaret took Henry back to his old home, hoping to rebuild the connection between imagination and land.
John fowles (1926-) is an English novelist. 1950 graduated from Oxford University and taught in Greece, France and Britain. His works skillfully combine psychological description with social life. After the publication of his first novel The Collector, it was immediately welcomed by readers. In addition, he also wrote Astrologer, French Lieutenant's Woman and so on. The French captain's Woman was adapted into a movie, describing a legendary love triangle story that happened in the middle of19th century.
William golding (1911-1993), one of the most popular novelists in contemporary Britain, graduated from Oxford University and has served as a middle school principal, university lecturer, actor, navigator and musician. He wrote more than 10 novels in his life, mainly Lord of the flies, heirs, pyramids and so on. Lord of the flies is a fictional novel, which tells the story of a group of children on a tropical desert island who are not bound by civilization and social morality and degenerate into barbarians. The novel is obtained by exploring childlike innocence and darkness of human nature 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.