Honors British Literature

Reading List (2010-2011)

Required Summer Reading:

The Importance of Being Earnest                                           Oscar Wilde

Silas Marner                                                                            George Eliot

Suggested Readings:

Anna Karenina                                                                        Leo Tolstoy

Pride and Prejudice                                                                Jane Austen

The Fixer                                                                                 Bernard Malamud

The Mayor of Casterbridge                                                     Thomas Hardy

A Passage to India                                                                  E.M. Forster

Mill on the Floss                                                                      George Eliot

Wuthering Heights                                                                  Emily Bronte

Jane Eyre                                                                                Charlotte Bronte

The Power and the Glory                                                        Grahame Greene

Cry, the Beloved Country                                                        Alan Paton

Brave New World                                                                    Aldous Huxley

Lord Jim                                                                                  Joseph Conrad

David Copperfield                                                                   Charles Dickens

Dracula                                                                                   Bram Stoker

The Stranger                                                                           Albert Camus

Secret Sharer                                                                           Joseph Conrad

Moll Flanders                                                                          Daniel Defoe

Guest of Honor                                                                       Nadine Gordimer

The Picture of Dorian Gray                                                    Oscar Wilde

The Lord of the Flies                                                               William Golding

The House of Spirits                                                                Isabel Allende

The African Queen                                                                  C.S. Forester

The Hobbit                                                                              J.R.R. Tolkein

Candide                                                                                   Voltaire

The Once and Future King                                                     T.H. White

For Class Discussion and Analysis:

Edith Hamilton’s Mythology (to be read during the summer and tested on during the first six weeks grading period)

Hedda Gabler, Ibsen

Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad

The required essay is due on the first day of school, and there will be a test on the assigned drama the first day. There are no acceptable excuses for late work. Manage your time and do not wait until the last minute. I do not want to hear that your printer would not work or that your printer ran out of ink or that you do not have a computer and, therefore, had to wait for your best friend to finish his/her report before you could type yours.

The reports are to be typed in Times New Roman – 12 pt and placed in a folder that you are responsible for maintaining for the entire year. Each report is to be handed in with all previous reports. Newly completed novel reports will not be accepted without previously graded reports.

Cliff’s Notes on any literary work will not be acceptable as reference material. You may use no more than two (2) internet sources, but be careful. Internet sources are not always reliable information. If you use internet sources, you must also use two (2) reliable resource books from the library. In other words, do not limit your realm of research to the internet!

Remember: The required essay is due on the first day of school. There are no acceptable excuses for late work. Manage your time and do not wait until the last minute! If the essay is not ready the first day, be prepared to be placed in the Survey of British Literature class.

ESSAY TOPIC FOR SILAS MARNER: George Eliot believed that people are what they are largely because of the conditions under which they live. Consider the circumstances under which they live. Consider the circumstances that have shaped the characters of Godfrey Cass, of Dunsey, and of Nancy Lammeter, and write an essay explaining what influences have made those people what they are.

NOVEL REPORT FORM

1. Full title and author (in complete sentence form).

2. Place and time published (for edition used).

3. Type of work (Is it a novel or prose fiction?) Is it picaresque, sentimental, romantic,

     realistic, utilitarian, satiric, naturalistic, stream-of-consciousness, sociological,

     political, symbolic or a combination or two or more?

4. Point of view. Refer to characters and significance.

5. Organization (Explain by reference to plot.)

    a. If orthodox (beginning, middle, and end in that order), point out exposition, inciting

        incident, ascending interest, climax, conclusion.

    b. If unorthodox, then what? (flashbacks, stream-of-consciousness, in medias res, etc.)

6. Characters. Give a character sketch of one major or minor character. Use references to

    indirect and direct characterization, flat, round, stereotype or stock characters.

7.  Purpose. Is the novel aesthetic or iconoclastic? Explain and support with details from

     the novel.

8. Is the author in any way presenting a phase of American, English, or Continental life?

    If the answer is no, then what kind of life is presented? Explain either choice.

9. Unity and style (Technique). Does the novel possess “organic unity”? Why or why

    not? Is the style related to its unity or disunity? ( In answering this question, discuss

    the style itself.)

10. If you have not discussed it earlier, show how this novel is or is not characteristic of

      its author as a craftsman, philosopher, etc.

11. You must use the MLA style. Works Cited and Bibliography pages are expected.