Purchase a loose-leaf notebook. Divide it into the following sections: "Britain before 449 A.D."; "Anglo-Saxon Period (449 A.D. - 1066 A.D.)"; "Middle English Period (1066 -1485); "The Renaissance"(1485 - 1660)"; "Neoclassical Period (1660 -1798)"; "Romantic Period (1798 -1832)"; "Victorian Period (1832 -1900)" and "The Modern Period (1900 - )." Place notes and supplemental resources you accumulate in corresponding sections as you progress.
Obtain two to three comprehensive British literature anthologies from a bookstore or local library. Locate texts containing historical background.
Learn the major inhabitants of Britain. Primitive men were the Iberians, whom the Celts conquered at some time in prehistory. In 55 - 54 B.C., Roman emperor Julius Caesar conquered the Celts. The Roman occupation lasted until Rome needed her soldiers back home, about 410 A.D. The Anglo-Saxons, Scandinavian seafaring tribes, conquered the Celts in 449 and dominated English culture until the Norman Conquest in 1066.
The Anglo-Saxons named their land "Land of the Angles," or "England." It is in 449 that British literature evolved into English literature.
Know that each of these occupations greatly affected the literature that came afterward.
Write down major representative writers and literary genres or works from each time period. Oral literature includes "Beowulf" and an example of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The Norman Conquest brought rhymed verse into English. Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" best represents this era.
Drama and the sonnet personifies the Renaissance, with Shakespeare its most outstanding writer. The Neoclassical Age brought essays, letters and the English novel. Key authors included Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson and John Milton.
Write down the dates of the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789). The Preface to "Lyrical Ballads," by Wordsworth, gives voice to a revolutionary spirit sweeping the Western world. Note how this 1798 work marks a turning point from aristocracy to democracy and a focus on freedom and rights of the common man. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelly and Keats signal the Romantic Period.
Research the Victorian period and the Industrial Revolution. List novelists you have read and plan to read from this time period. Major ones are Dickens, Thackeray, Hardy, the Brontes and Austen. Read the novels or summaries with explanations to better understand them.
List the dates of World War I and World War II, which ushered in the Modern Era. Memoirs, speeches, new ways of thinking and writing gained influence. Keep a running list of modern literature you would like to read and pull from this list as you choose future reading material.