Prospective applicants often ask on here for recommendations of what books they should be reading. I have produced this list, with the help of some others (most notably hobnob), to hopefully answer this more thoroughly than other replies such questions are likely to receive, or have received hitherto. Whilst I've done my best to give a good coverage of important periods and movements, the list is not to be looked at as prescriptive, but rather a list of suggestions. It certainly isn't perfect.
In short: If you are applying to study English, these are the books I suggest you read.
One may, for instance, point out that there is a sixty year gulf between the most recent text on the list and the present day, in which much important literature has been produced, but I would reply that there is a six hundred year gap between the first and second items on the list, with other similar gaps elsewhere, and so any neglect of the latter half of the twentieth century does not seem quite so terrible after all. (Furthermore, most applicants tend to be rather well versed on the period, mainly by virtue of having lived in it.)
Feel free to contend the list or offer your own suggestions, as that's an interesting enough topic in itself, but I won't be editing the main list.
Admissions tutors will expect a prospective English student to have explored the areas that interest them, so if you find something that appeals to you don't think you are wasting time by looking further into that particular author/genre/period/etc.
There is a significant gap between English at A-level and undergraduate standard. Reading one (or more) of the introductions to literary theory will help you to think about literature in a more sophisticated way, even if you don't make much headway into any specific theoretical approaches.
EDIT:
Lists from other sources, or suggested by other users, can be found further down this thread here, here, here and here.
others to suggest:
Frankenstein
the turn of the screw
the sandman
Salman Rushdie
catch-22
poetry of first world war
Alice in Wonderland
Dr Faustus
Mansfield Park
Sylvia Plath's selected works
the wasp factory
the woman in white
Surfacing
De Quincey
Great list.
Another tip for English applicants: Try to veer away from the predictable in your personal statement. I mentioned a passion for dystopian fiction, but instead of talking about 1984, I raved about Angela Carter's "The Passion of New Eve" and T.S. Eliot. If you make less banal choices, you'll seem well-versed in different aspects of literature.
(Original post by Brouhaha)
Another tip for English applicants: Try to veer away from the predictable in your personal statement. I mentioned a passion for dystopian fiction, but instead of talking about 1984, I raved about Angela Carter's "The Passion of New Eve" and T.S. Eliot. If you make less banal choices, you'll seem well-versed in different aspects of literature.
The point applies particularly to 1984, as it's a book that almost everyone wishes to talk about in their application.
(Original post by RThomas)
others to suggest:
Frankenstein
the turn of the screw
the sandman
Salman Rushdie
catch-22
poetry of first world war
Alice in Wonderland
Dr Faustus
Mansfield Park
Sylvia Plath's selected works
the wasp factory
the woman in white
Surfacing
De Quincey
Why?
(Original post by Brouhaha)
Great list.
Another tip for English applicants: Try to veer away from the predictable in your personal statement. I mentioned a passion for dystopian fiction, but instead of talking about 1984, I raved about Angela Carter's "The Passion of New Eve" and T.S. Eliot. If you make less banal choices, you'll seem well-versed in different aspects of literature.
I disagree completely about deliberately veering from the predictable.
(Original post by Ploop)
I disagree completely about deliberately veering from the predictable.
So do I, for some reason. I think if you truly did love 1984, and have some form of critical analysis for it, you should put it in, and not refrain from doing so just because you'll seem "predictable".
(Original post by MSB)
Apart from a few (semi-)exceptions - a coconut for the man who spots them - , I've tried to restrict the list to books written in England in English.
Haha. Well, I've read it. I just didn't want to discuss it. I mentioned Simon Armitage, though. In fact, my interviewers basically told me to shut up about him.
(Original post by MSB)
Apart from a few (semi-)exceptions - a coconut for the man who spots them - , I've tried to restrict the list to books written in England in English.
(Original post by Dionysia)
Well, Freud's an exception, obviously.
...and Barthes is French. But I meant the main list.
Spoiler:
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I did say they were semi-exceptions: James, Conrad, Joyce, Beckett and T.S. Eliot are 'foreigners'; Waiting for Godot was written in French (in France) first, although Beckett translated it; Old English isn't strictly English, although one wouldn't call it a foreign language (despite what my warning points would tell you).
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