As part of your English Literature studies, you will cover a wide variety of texts, so it’s a good idea to familiarise yourself with as many of these as you can. To help you do this have a look at the list below for some reading and viewing suggestions.
Over the course of the A Level, we will study, among others, the following: · The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald · Othello, by William Shakespeare · A Streetcar Named Desire, By Tennessee Williams · The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood · Skirrid Hill, by Owen Sheers · Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley If you wish to read more widely, then the following texts will be useful to you. Some have been chosen because they are recognised classics that will be of interest to any student of English Literature. Some have been selected because they have links to the set texts above. 19th Century Novels: · Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens · Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen · Villette, by Charlotte Bronte · In a Glass Darkly, by Sheridan Le Fanu · Lady Audley’s Secret, by Mary Elizabeth Braddon · Dracula, by Bram Stoker · The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson · The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde · Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley · A Study in Scarlet, by Arthur Conan Doyle
20th Century Novels: · The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald · 1984, by George Orwell · The Catcher in the Rye, by J D Salinger · The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro · A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute · Wise Children, by Angela Carter · Interview with a Vampire, by Anne Rice · The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood · The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon 21st Century Novels: · White Teeth, by Zadie Smith · Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantell · Never Let Me Go: Kazuo Ishiguro · The Testaments, by Margaret Atwood (the recently published follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale) The following textbook will also be of interest: AQA English Literature A: A Level and AS (AQA A Level English Literature A) ISBN: 978-0198336006 In 2018, we were very excited and proud to host a visit to Pendleton Sixth Form College by the author of The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood. Margaret was interviewed in one of our theatres. The event was filmed and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfhExA5_-3g&list=PL7qClh5XAo- 19Ih33X7L9ahM4qhEhwvBz
LitCharts is a great resource for introductions to texts, authors and literary movements with a large archive of freely available resources: https://www.litcharts.com
Poem Hunter has a great online library of texts and resources: https://www.poemhunter.com
Mr. Bruff offers some insight into A Level Terminology - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtwNxhGLWO4 - and A Level analysis of the narrative voice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38wEfzkbOl8
Project Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks. Choose among free epub and Kindle eBooks, download them or read them online: https://www.gutenberg.org
PendSFCollege 0161 631 5050
/pendletonsixthformcollege [email protected] /pendletonsixthformcollege Dronfield Rd, Salford, salfordcc.ac.uk M6 7FR