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Recommended Books for A Level English Literature Watch
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Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
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#2
(Original post by Nomes24)
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
(I'm guessing not as you said the website doesn't say anything, but thought I'd ask anyway 
). Texts can vary a lot depending on exam board, you see. However, just to give you a flavour (or for anyone else reading), I've just finished the A level with AQA Specification B. At AS, for the exam, I studied:
-The Great Gatsby
-The Kite Runner
-Rime of the Ancient Mariner
-3 poems by John Keats
For the coursework it was Educating Rita and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
At A2 I studied:
-Macbeth
-Wuthering Heights
-The Bloody Chamber
I chose my own texts for the coursework
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#3
(Original post by Nomes24)
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
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#4
This year (AS) I studied:
The Great Gatsby
The Road
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
3x Keats poems (Lamia, La Belle Sans Dame Merci & The Eve of St Agnes)
Coursework:
Teechers
Twelfth Night
I was on Spec B :-)
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The Great Gatsby
The Road
Rime of the Ancient Mariner
3x Keats poems (Lamia, La Belle Sans Dame Merci & The Eve of St Agnes)
Coursework:
Teechers
Twelfth Night
I was on Spec B :-)
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(Original post by doctorwhofan98)
It really depends on the exam board - I'll be studying AQA A in September (though AQA B seems to be a more popular option) therefore I'll be reading any remotely Victorian poems, stories or texts. If your school website has an exam timetable on it (including exam codes), then it may be worth googling the exam code for one of the English Literature exams, which will reveal which specification you're studying and therefore which texts you should look at.
It really depends on the exam board - I'll be studying AQA A in September (though AQA B seems to be a more popular option) therefore I'll be reading any remotely Victorian poems, stories or texts. If your school website has an exam timetable on it (including exam codes), then it may be worth googling the exam code for one of the English Literature exams, which will reveal which specification you're studying and therefore which texts you should look at.
Edit: Ugh, realised they only gave dates of exams for GCSEs, as they were the most relevant to my year. I have however, found out that we do AQA, although I'm not sure whether A or B.
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#6
(Original post by Nomes24)
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
Hey guys! I'm thinking about taking English Literature for A Level (currently Year 10), and want to get a flavour of what it's like, what kind of books you study etc before I make my final decisions.
I'd really love to have a read of some of the A Level texts over the summer, but I can't find out what they are? My school website doesn't say anything... so any basic A Level standard texts would be really helpful- and general recommendations would be great as well.
Thanks
Your English teacher (providing they teach English Lit at A-level) will know about this. You can ask your teacher what exam board do they follow for A-level. The AQA board are releasing their draft 2015 Spec for their A-levels in English this week Thursday, so you could have a check on what will be on theirs. Most likely days after, all the other exam boards will follow suit.
Also, your school should be doing a Sixth Form/College Open Evening in Oct/November and by then you school/English Department should have decided what exam board to go with.
Generally, a lot "classic literature" are normally studied at A-level. Such as Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, etc.
A-level Literature is quite open in texts. For instance, I know both Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights and Frankenstein are on the new GCSE 2015 English Lit specs, so it can vary quite a lot.
Texts generally you can go for are as mentioned above but others like Birdsong, Atonement, Enduring Love, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, A Handful of Dust, Judas Kiss, Death of a Salesman, A Woman of No Importance, A Streetcar Named Desire. These are just some of the drama texts and novels that are on some of the A-level specs.
You could always just check other exam boards like AQA, Edexcel, WJEC and OCR and see what they have on their A-level Lit reading List. AQA English Lit A and B is really good because they have huge lists of texts they considered to be A-level standard.
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#7
(Original post by doctorwhofan98)
It really depends on the exam board - I'll be studying AQA A in September (though AQA B seems to be a more popular option) therefore I'll be reading any remotely Victorian poems, stories or texts. If your school website has an exam timetable on it (including exam codes), then it may be worth googling the exam code for one of the English Literature exams, which will reveal which specification you're studying and therefore which texts you should look at.
It really depends on the exam board - I'll be studying AQA A in September (though AQA B seems to be a more popular option) therefore I'll be reading any remotely Victorian poems, stories or texts. If your school website has an exam timetable on it (including exam codes), then it may be worth googling the exam code for one of the English Literature exams, which will reveal which specification you're studying and therefore which texts you should look at.
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#8
We looked at the following;
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
- The Whitsun Weddings (Philip Larkin)
- Welsh Retrospective (Dannie Abse)
- Broken Glass (Arthur Miller)
- 1984 (George Orwell) (this one was optional, we basically had to choose any text which we could use to inspire a piece of our own writing)
I only did AS English Literature, so obviously there'll be a greater range if you do a whole A level.
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
- The Catcher in the Rye (J. D. Salinger)
- The Whitsun Weddings (Philip Larkin)
- Welsh Retrospective (Dannie Abse)
- Broken Glass (Arthur Miller)
- 1984 (George Orwell) (this one was optional, we basically had to choose any text which we could use to inspire a piece of our own writing)
I only did AS English Literature, so obviously there'll be a greater range if you do a whole A level.
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