A2 English Lit. Further Reading Suggestions

Hey, I am looking for any wider reading suggestions to help for the exam. I am doing 'Love Through the Ages' so if you have any texts that might be useful will be great! I would prefer shorter texts, particularly drama and prose since I have done a lot of poetry already. Thanks for any help/advice!

Drama:
Angels in America - about a bunch of gay men whose lives interrelate between each other. It's based on the HIV/AIDs epidemic during the 80s. It's such a good play. You don't have to read Pt 2. But it is a great drama! Unconditional love is the main love.

A Woman of No Importance - about the aristocracy in late Victorian England and the abuse of power it comes with it. Maternal love is the main "love" in it.

A Doll's House - the hypocrisy of patriarchal society of marriage. Love: married love.

Prose:
Great Gatsby is sooooo quick aha. Can't remember what kind of love it has though. But it has only 9 chapters. It's not that long.

I think that's about it. Therese Raquin is an excellent novel too! It focuses on the "Mad love"! It's so good!

Hey (:

I am also doing Love Through the Ages.

I found a majority of my quotes online, for example;

Prose
Maurice, Wuthering Heights, The Country Wife, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Tender Is The Night, Written on The Body, The French Lieutenant's Woman, The Book of Ruth, Testament of Youth
Drama
Romeo and Juliet, Bent, Othello, The Importance of Being Earnest, A Doll's House, A Streetcar Named Desire,

Sorry if I accidentally mixed any of them up, lol.

Good luck!

Thank you very much!!!

No problem Which poems have you used?

I have studied a lot of John Donne who I think is great! I have also done 'To His Coy Mistress' and a poem by P.B. Shelley (can't remember what it's called!). I just need to keep revising these etc. What about you?

Ohhh, that's good. I've used ones like David Barlow, To My Dear and Loving Husband, Fair Helen etc.

Btw I checked the specification and it mentioned Chaucer who is from the fourteenth century so I thought it was a good idea to get a quote from him too (:

Thank you very much! Do you know if we can use texts from our coursework and AS towards our exam as further reading?

Yeah, we have done a lot of 'The Knight's Tale' (part of the Canterbury Tales) by Chaucer in class. It is like a totally different language but I find it quite interesting!

I really like some of his quotes outside of the wider reading too, like 'Not all that glitters is gold.'

I was also wondering what sort of things would be good to point out. For example, should you learn the rhyme scheme of every poem you study?

There's nothing saying you can't. But you will not be doing yourself any favours if you do. A2 is supposed to challenge you so there's no point in writing about the same text twice? You won't get high marks if you do, which is why they advise students to stay away from AS texts they have studied and venture into more similar or more harder texts.