I'm in the initial stages of planning a British Lit class for our co-op. This year I did American Lit with an anthology and then added 8 novels and 2 plays. I'd like to do the same for the British Lit class. Any suggestions are welcome, or if you have a list you'd like to share I'd really appreciate that! Provenance

My senior has been through the rounds of history at least a couple times, and for her last year, she would like to study just England, or possibly Britain, for her history. She especially likes historical fiction and the Victorian period, including Victorian literature. Anyone read any great books, or have any suggestions you think would be good? I am already going to incorporate the Dickens books she hasn't read.

Situation 1. DD13 wants to do LL LOTR next year for English. This is supposedly a year-long course, I looked at the samples, descriptions, schedule. However, it seems to include only one work, i.e. it deals only with Tolkien. I am outsourcing English and she will be supervised by a tutor, however, tutor being like-minded, she also feels this LOTR inadequate amount of reading for the whole academic year, particularly in light of the fact that DD pretty much read it all once already so we are looking into additional readings. What have you found to be good supplementary readings for this course, which would somehow "logically" fit in? I would like to keep it as "English" as possible as it makes little sense to have her go through the type of readings that I normally would / will group with the chronological order of Italian and world readings in Italian. DD13 is a strong reader with a good command of English, though literature is not one of her favorite subjects. ALSO, how much time weekly LL LOTR generally takes? Situation 2. This year DD14 had a relatively loose, mishmash year regarding English: she read fairly difficult and diverse readings, but not really structured by any particular logic (mostly British literature this year - two Shax plays, Byron's poetry and Childe Harold, one Dickens, Milton's Samson - and some Yiddish and German works in English translation, some poetry, as well as her own free readings which I allowed her to group with "school" readings as I did not want to sweat this particular area this year). This kid LOVES reading. I need some sort of general idea of what to do with her English next year. Neither she nor I function well without some sort of a structure and some organization of material. I do chronological literature tied to History for Italian (which includes non-Italian readings too, though whenever we stumble upon something English in the upper years we intend to read it in English), and now we are still "finding ourselves" as to how to organize English. For now, I think I should favor the approach of thematical readings or readings organized by national literature, i.e. the way it usually done (you know: British literature, American literature, Some-theme in literature with mostly English spine, etc.), rather than applying WTM approach to English too. So I have a question, being that she already pretty much started "British literature" and feels it would be fine to continue with that by "rounding" it into a course, and also to have a break from the 2-year Ancients cycle she is trapped in for history, classics and Italian, how do I go about organizing that into a reasonable unit which she can complete next year? What do you find are important works to cover and is there a good spine you can recommend (not that we absolutely need one, but just in case you do know something good)? I talked to her as to what she wants to do, but she is generally undecided, has no particular focus and would like some general structure that would be mostly chronological. So... suggestions, experiences? Her tutor has a "you decide, I teach it" policy. Thank you in advance. :)

Margery Kempe, The Book of Margery Kempe (great fun to pair with The Canterbury Tales, although probably an older high school student would find it more fun) Lady Mary Wroth, selected sonnets Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World (almost but not quite 17-century sci-fi) and "The Hunting of the Hare" (one of the first poems against cruelty to animals) Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (first novel I know of centering on the slave trade) Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Turkish Embassy Letters Fanny Burney, Evelina Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Women Dorothy Wordsworth, Journals Anything and everything by Austen, including her History of England Mary Shelley, Frankenstein Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford; North and South (Ruth is also very good, but the subject is an illegitimate child) Christina Rosetti, selected poems Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh Rebecca West, The Fountain Overflows Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own and To the Lighthouse Stella Gibbons, Cold Comfort Farm (preview for content) Antonia White, Frost in May Rumer Godden, The River (Godden is wonderful to pair with EM Forster's Passage to India) Barbara Pym, Excellent Women This is obviously not a complete list, just a compilation of suggestions; and its emphasis on earlier historical periods is largely due to the fact that there are so many more women writers and their books from Austen's time on, and these books tend to be more visible and more readily available to choose from.

Brainstorming for next year. Dd 13/8th is requesting a Brit Lit year for 9th. She is an avid reader. I have Spielvogel's HO (text, TM, study guide & quizzes). I am personally very weak on my European history and will need the hand-holding from HO and some TTC lectures. If we needed more (and I have no idea if we will), I also have A History of World Societies with chapters 8, 13, 15, 17, 23 & 24 dealing with Europe . We could use these activities. I need a Brit Lit program with a strong TM -- and ideally from a Christian worldview (Smarr?). Dd likes the usual suspects (Austen, Bronte). How does this list look? Great Expectations and/or Tale of Two Cities P & P Sense & Sensibility Emma Jane Eyre Wuthering Heights Beowulf Sir Gawain Hamlet Much Adou Merchant of Venice Midsummer Night's Dream Animal Farm Canterbury 'Millers' Tale Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner I'm reading Tale of Two Cities now for the first time. If we tackle this list, I've got some serious pre-reading to do this year. I'd love feedback. Is this a ridiculous idea? Should I just stick with a basic world history survey? That would be super simple with HO. (This year we are doing LL Early American along with Potters School Jr. High US History and Jr. High English 2.) Thank you in advance! :001_smile:

I am going to try and restrain myself. I'll be picking only 4-5 novels for the next year of English literature. What are your favorite must-reads? I'm looking for books that require lots of analysis since we are going to be reading them closely and slowly. (We are also going to use a textbook that has many poems, short stories & two plays, including MacBeth.) This year we've been reading quickly as a survey. From the English lit. genre we've already read: Julius Caesar Richard III Hamlet Faerie Queene Gullivers Travels Frankenstein Animal Farm Childhood's End I don't want to include Sense & Sensibility or Pride & Prejudice. Too many of the kids have read those novels. All of your suggestions are welcome!! Bonus Question: Should we read Heart of Darkness? Why or why not? TIA!!! Holly

It's looking like next year's lit/comp is going to be heavily weighted toward British Lit of the Victorian era... so I thought I'd ask if anyone had suggestions to add to our list... We're starting with: Kim Three Men in a Boat Nicholas Nickleby The Importance of Being Earnest On the Origin of Species (Those five are pretty much non-negotiable because of various other things they match up to...) Then there are some possibilities to add in: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (he's wanted to read it for a while) Dracula (I've wanted him to read it for a while!) Some selection of the Sherlock Holmes stories Possibly Pygmalion, even though it's a little late (1912) Something by Gilbert and Sullivan (H.M.S. Pinafore seems the obvious choice) Some poetry (Tennyson, the Brownings) I might have to throw in Frankenstein although I found it deadly boring when I read it ages ago.... And I probably need to throw in a Bronte (or something) but I don't know which. The themes that come to mind are: Changing roles of children/ education Gender and class Colonialism Religion and spiritualism, and morality Science Travel Writing (as a sort-of-genre) Satire We've already read (but may need to revisit) some other books that would fit - A Christmas Carol, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Flatland... What would you add?