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A Reading List for English Applicants

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.

Beowulf , The Wanderer and The Battle of Maldon - Anon. (in a Modern English translation)
The Bible , King James Version (esp. Genesis, the Gospels & the Book of Revelation)
Tamburlaine I and II - Marlowe
The Spanish Tragedy - Kyd
Hamlet - Shakespeare
The Duchess of Malfi - Webster
The Collected Poems of - Donne
Paradise Lost - Milton
The Pilgrim's Progress - Bunyan
Gulliver's Travels - Swift
Emma - Austen
Wuthering Heights - E. Bronte
Jane Eyre - C. Bronte
Vanity Fair - Thackeray
Bleak House - Dickens
North and South - Gaskell
Middlemarch - G. Eliot
The Wreck of the Deutschland - Hopkins
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Stevenson
Heart of Darkness - Conrad
The Golden Bowl - James
Howards End - Forster
Sons and Lovers - Lawrence
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man - Joyce
The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock & The Waste Land - T.S. Eliot
To the Lighthouse - Woolf
Collected Shorter Poems - Auden
Collected Poems - Thomas
Waiting for Godot - Beckett

~~~

Short theoretical writings:
The Art of Fiction - H. James
Creative Writers and Daydreaming - Freud
Art as Technique - Shklovsky
Tradition and the Individual Talent - T.S. Eliot
Death of the Author - Barthes

(Some of these, as well as extracts from many other important theory texts, can be found in:
Literary Theory: An Anthology - ed. Ryan & Rivkin
Modern Criticism and Theory: A Reader - ed. Lodge & Wood
Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism - ed. Leitch et al.)

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.

IntroductionsLiterary Theory - Eagleton
Beginning Theory - Barry
An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory - Bennett & Royle
A Very Short Introduction to: Literary Theory - Culler

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.

Reply 80

AisAis

13

If it's any consolation, I was okay on the eve of the ELAT but was vomiting by the morning. :p:

This list is fantastic though, I could have really done with it a year or two ago and it's brilliant future applicants will have access to it.

Oh noes, I've only read 14 books off that 'bare minimum' list. No wonder my UCAS application was so unsuccessful this year. :p:

Regarding 19th cent. in PSs: don't most people mention Gothicism? I was going to write about Hardy and Eliot and I don't recall seeing much of them in the PS library. I've just ordered some Henrik Ibsen drama which I'll mention if I like it because I don't want to talk about Wilde... and because I won't really like Wilde. :ninja:

Reply 81

rainbow drops

17

Yeah, I mentioned Gothicism but I get the impression that tons and tons of people do.

Reply 82

LostHorizons

13

I find that odd, I did Gothicism a bit at college last year and haaaated it :s-smilie:

wouldn't have thought it would be a hugely popular thing is PSs.

Reply 83

AisAis

13

I mentioned it when I didn't even like it that much which was just bloody stupid. In my case it was because I'd sampled some at school, the books were short and I was worried I'd only read modern fiction, and I was bloody stupid.

Reply 84

rainbow drops

17

I love it

the fact that I really really like it has probably spiralled from my obsession with Wuthering Heights but yeah, I love Gothicism. I would have liked to have done my English synoptic or coursework or something on it for A2 but I couldn't.

Reply 85

Sanyore

14

Hated Gothicism, although Lovecraft gave me lulz. Excellent list by the way.

Reply 86

alecangeltess

7

It is a great list; randomly had a look at Wreck of the Deutschland today and that's really good. Hopkins is very idiosyncratic though, and not just with his metrics; his way of writing sentences - sometimes he messes his words up so much it's like French syntax!

What about cultural commentaries? Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, and JS Mill's On Liberty are quite important, particularly the latter.

Reply 87

mel0n

17

I haven't read many of those :emo:

Reply 88

MSB

OP

17

alecangeltess

What about cultural commentaries? Arnold's Culture and Anarchy, and JS Mill's On Liberty are quite important, particularly the latter.

The writings of any major thinker from the past 200 years are 'quite important', but not important enough to warrant inclusion on my very select list.

Reply 89

Brouhaha

13

I randomly found this on the website of Rutgers University. As an American list the relevance may be limited, but thought I'd post for general interest. Bear in mind it's for their Master's degrees so is by no means necessary for English applicants. May be helpful though.

Spoiler

Reply 90

MSB

OP

17

Can you spoiler that? It's huge. It's a good list, but huge.

Reply 91

Brouhaha

13

MSB

Can you spoiler that? It's huge. It's a good list, but huge.

Yeah sure.

Reply 92

User182034

15

I mentioned Enid Blyton in my personal statement and it was discussed in my interview so that's something to think about :yep:

As for the predictable/unpredictable in your PS, why not just do a mixture of both? I'm sure they're more bothered about the thinking you've done about what you've read than the names of them anyway. I was told I wouldn't be asked about the essay I submitted (The Rime of The Ancient Mariner) but they asked me in depth about that. I suppose if they ask you about something they are familiar with and which you claim to know about they can find out if you're bluffing or not.

I think overall this is a great list though :yep:

I would suggest some poetry such as that by the Bronte sisters, Charlotte Mew and Emily Dickinson (just my opinion). Then, if you're feeling daring, Chaucer. Shakespeare and Donne seem good to me too. My list says you can never read too much poetry in preparation.

Reply 93

mel0n

17

Brouhaha

I randomly found this on the website of Rutgers University. As an American list the relevance may be limited, but thought I'd post for general interest. Bear in mind it's for their Master's degrees so is by no means necessary for English applicants. May be helpful though.

Spoiler

Ode on Melancholy :coma:

I

that poem.

Reply 94

Glos2014

1

What's the reading list like for English and Creative Writing at Man Met? I might be applying to this university when I finally send of my application, so I just wanted to know if it's any good

Reply 95

_Claudia_

8

A big thank you to everyone - this is a great thread! :smile:

I really haven't read that much from the lists, but I'm Dutch, so I forgive myself. :p:

Reply 96

hobnob

14

mckenna

What's the reading list like for English and Creative Writing at Man Met? I might be applying to this university when I finally send of my application, so I just wanted to know if it's any good