Dearfriends!          

If you have been learning English for several years and want to know more about Britain and its people...

If you know the names of Shakespeare, Byron, Lewis Carroll, Stevenson, and Defoe, and have read some of their works in Russian...

If you haven't heard these names and haven't read their works...

We hope the following pages will help you understand Britain and its people a little better. It is an introductory course into English literature, and it will help you make up for your ignorance. We have compiled this material to give you an idea of how English literature developed through the centuries. You will read and talk about the life and work of great English writers and poets. And what is most exciting, you will have to stand up to the challenge of reading their works in the original.

Have an exciting journey into the wonderful land of English literature!

SOME GENERAL IDEAS ON ENGLISH LITERATURE

STAGE A

1. What English writers do you know? What books by English writers have you read? Can you match the authors and the titles of the books?

1.                        Charles Dickens                               a) Gulliver's Travels

2.                        Robert Louis Stevenson                    b) Alice in Wonderland

3.                        William Shakespeare                        с) Jane Eyre

4.                        Jonathan Swift                                d) Oliver Twist

5.                        George Bernard Shaw                       e) The Hobbit

6.                        Emily Bronte                                   f) Treasure Island

7.                        Lewis Carroll                             g) Wuthering Heights

8.                        Charlotte Bronte                        h) Romeo and Juliet

9.                        J.R.R. Tolkien                        i) The Problem of Thor Bridge

10.   Arthur Conan Doyle                                     j) Pygmalion

2. Read what the famous British writer John Priestly said about the contribution of English writers in world literature.

It can be claimed that the debt of world literature to English is immense. Only think of Shakespeare is ever alive and new; Richardson, beginning sentimentalism, was imitated everywhere; Byron and Scott: the most influential in the Romantic Age; Dickens was especially popular in Russia and Dostoevsky was admiring and enthusiastic reader; George Bernard Shaw conquered the theatre everywhere.

VOCABULARY:

debt             долг

immense      огромный

influential    влиятельный

admiring      восхищенный

3. Cover the text and try to remember the writers and their achievements. Where in Russian literature you meet the name of Richardson?

STAGE В

1.                Read this extract from English literary critic Igor Evans's
book English Literature. Which art forms made the English people
especially proud? What has always been the main subject of English
authors?

It can be claimed that literature is the art in which the English have most greatly excelled. Within this literature they have been engaged mainly with the study of human nature, of personality and individual. In the other arts (music, painting, architecture) there are figures in France, Italy and Germany that surpass the English origin. It might be claimed that where England has been outstanding in these other arts, it has been in the exploration of some aspect of the personal life of men and women. Take, for example, the country-houses of England - they are unparalleled in any European country in variety, distinction, splendour. Then, the most characteristic form of painting in England has always been portraits - which again are associated with the personal and domestic life.

VOCABULARY:

excel        выделяться                                             unparalleled     несравнимый

within       внутри                                                      variety            разнообразие

engaged      занятый                                                 distinction       оригинальность

surpass     превосходить      

splendour         великолепие

2.        Finish these sentences.

a)      French, Italian and German musicians, painters and architects are ...

b)     English country-houses are ...

c)      Portrait painting is the most typical English genre of painting because ...

d) All arts in England explore ...

3. Read the following extracts from the famous British writer John Priestley's book on English literature.

"English literature has been influenced by two major factors: by the British land with its highlands, lowlands, moors, fens, mountains, and its history with several conquests of the island and the nation forming about 150 years after the Norman Conquest...

The flexible social system, when aristocrats were not so haughty, made it possible for men to shift into a higher social class by inheritance or marriage. This system can be explained by a long tradition of independence among common people, with Parliament deciding whether to give or not to give King money on something or an army to fight a war...

That's why English literature has a sense of character and individuality - it takes delight in sheer variety and richness of characters and is full of odd, original ones...

Another characteristic of English literature is its artistic independence: there are no strict rules of structure form, the main thing which should be present in a book is life. An untidy and badly constructed story crowded with characters who seem alive is better for English authors and the reading public than a perfectly constructed story that appears to have in it nothing but ghosts. A typical English writer (and reader) will risk defects form and structure if the illusion of an energetic, complex, varied life is presented...

If we think of art as the product of an effort to create perfection -then English literature is outside art. French critics of the 18 and early 19th century (and famous dramatist Racine among them) regard Shakespeare as a wild barbarian, incapable of writing civilized drama. (Where are all these critics and even Racine now?) The artist, in their view, always knows exactly what he is doing, organizing his plan like a cabinet-maker. It is much too narrow a view of art. On the other hand, English authors feel that a writer can tell himself to be deeply tragic, or magical, or poetic, or gloriously comic, as if he were making a box or a clock, - writing is unconscious, something like a dream...

One of the most remarkable characteristics of English literature is its glorious humour. It has few satirical wits, most of them come from Ireland - Jonathan Swift, George Bernard Shaw. On the contrary, it is full of genuine, rich humour which is never a conscious product but shares with poetry the unconscious element. There is a wonderful gallery of great comic characters which can't be coldly constructed. English humour is not very funny, it is often close to tears because it is based on sympathy and has affection in it. The notorious attachment of the English to old things is not stingy and slavish; there is affection in it. Indeed, English literature has long been one of England's best exports."

VOCABULARY:

moor - вересковаяпустошь                                                glorious - восхитительный

fen -болото                                                                                       wit - остроумец

haughty - высокомерный                                                          genuine - подлинный

inheritance - наследие                                                           conscious - сознательный

delight - восторг                                                                             affection - любовь

odd - странный                                                                        notorious - пресловутый

remarkable - замечательный                                             attachment - привязанность

4. Name characteristic features of English literature according John Priestly.

BRITISH FOLKLORE DISCUSSION:

What are the roots of literature? What is folklore?

STAGE A

No national literature is possible without its folklore. A nation's folklore - proverbs and sayings, tales and nursery rhymes, ballads and songs, games and riddles - are very often the root from which the most prominent works of literature grow. The word "folklore" means "people's wisdom", "people's knowledge". Indeed, if folklore weren't full of living wisdom and wit, it wouldn't have survived through the centuries. But apart from this, there is something else in folklore, and this is its beauty, its charm. These features attract to it. We are introduced to folklore in our childhood; perhaps that's why it is for us not only a particularity of literature but also something very dear to our hearts, like home, motherland, and our mother tongue. It is a property of both the whole nation and a particular person.

VOCABULARY:

saying - поговорка              survive - выжить

prominent - выдающийся     charm - очарование
wit - остроумие                   property - собственность

STAGE В

PROVERBS AND SAYINGS

Nowhere is nation's wisdom and wit revealed so brightly as in its proverbs and sayings. They accumulated life experience of the community. But proverbs are not just wise phrases. Lots of phrases are wise, for example this: "The earlier you get up, the more you will do during the day". It is a true statement, but nobody would think of calling it a proverb. On the other hand, the following phrase expressing the same idea is surely a proverb: "The early bird catches a worm." Lots of proverbs have metre, rhyme and alliteration, as in the following: "Early to bed, early to rise - makes a man healthy and wise".

VOCABULARY:

reveal - проявляться                                  worm - червяк

accumulated - накопленный                        metre - размер

community — сообщество                           rhyme — рифма