BA English Summer Reading List 14/15
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Hi! I've just found the official reading list online (Here) but I thought I'd make a post anyway so I could read the list through properly myself and for next years applicants to use as reference 
Introducing Poetry
Inventing the Novel
Shakespeare
Medieval Literature
This was all taken from the RHUL website, if I've missed anything off let me know and I'll add it. Also if any past students have any 'must-reads' that aren't on the official list please let me know and I'll add those as well

Introducing Poetry
Spoiler:
Theory: Jeffrey Wainright. Poetry: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2004
The Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. Ferguson, Slater and Stallworthy
(These poems can be found in the Anthology)
Shakespeare, 'Sonnet 55’
John Donne: ‘Holy Sonnet 14’
John Milton, ‘Lycidas’
Andrew Marvell, ‘An Horatian Ode’
Wordsworth: ‘Tintern Abbey’
Alexander Pope, ‘The Rape of the Lock’
John Keats, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’
Robert Browning, ‘My Last Duchess’
Emily Dickinson, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’
Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘The Windhover’
Gertrude Stein, ‘Stanzas in Meditation’
Ezra Pound, ‘Portrait d’une femme’
W. H. Auden, ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’
William Carlos Williams, ‘Pictures of Breughel’
Frank O'Hara, ‘Why I am not a painter’
Sylvia Plath, ‘Lady Lazarus’.
Show
Theory: Jeffrey Wainright. Poetry: The Basics. London: Routledge, 2004
The Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. Ferguson, Slater and Stallworthy
(These poems can be found in the Anthology)
Shakespeare, 'Sonnet 55’
John Donne: ‘Holy Sonnet 14’
John Milton, ‘Lycidas’
Andrew Marvell, ‘An Horatian Ode’
Wordsworth: ‘Tintern Abbey’
Alexander Pope, ‘The Rape of the Lock’
John Keats, ‘Ode to a Nightingale’
Robert Browning, ‘My Last Duchess’
Emily Dickinson, ‘Because I could not stop for Death’
Gerard Manley Hopkins, ‘The Windhover’
Gertrude Stein, ‘Stanzas in Meditation’
Ezra Pound, ‘Portrait d’une femme’
W. H. Auden, ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’
William Carlos Williams, ‘Pictures of Breughel’
Frank O'Hara, ‘Why I am not a painter’
Sylvia Plath, ‘Lady Lazarus’.
Inventing the Novel
Spoiler:
Term One
Moshin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Penguin, 2007 and reprints)
Daniel Defoe, Roxana, ed. John Mullan (Oxford World's Classics, 2008 and rpt.)
Aphra Behn, The Fair Jilt and Love-Letters to a Gentleman, in Oroonoko, The Rover and Other Works, ed. Janet Todd (Penguin Classics, 1992 and rpt.)
Samuel Richardson, Pamela, ed. Tom Keymer and Alice Wakely (Oxford World's Classics, 2001 and rpt.)
Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews and Shamela, ed. Judith Hawley (Penguin, Classics 1999 and rpt.)
Term Two
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, ed. E. J. Clery and W. S. Lewis (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008 and rpts.)
William Godwin, Caleb Williams, ed. Pamela Clemitt (Oxford World's Classics, 2009)
Jane Austen, Persuasion, ed. Gillian Beer (Penguin Classics, 2003 and rpt.)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (the 1818 version, not the 1831 version), ed. Marilyn
Butler (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008 and rpts.)
James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. Karl Miller (Penguin Classics, 2006)
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ed. Philip Horne (Penguin Classics, 2003 and rpt.)
Show
Term One
Moshin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Penguin, 2007 and reprints)
Daniel Defoe, Roxana, ed. John Mullan (Oxford World's Classics, 2008 and rpt.)
Aphra Behn, The Fair Jilt and Love-Letters to a Gentleman, in Oroonoko, The Rover and Other Works, ed. Janet Todd (Penguin Classics, 1992 and rpt.)
Samuel Richardson, Pamela, ed. Tom Keymer and Alice Wakely (Oxford World's Classics, 2001 and rpt.)
Henry Fielding, Joseph Andrews and Shamela, ed. Judith Hawley (Penguin, Classics 1999 and rpt.)
Term Two
Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto, ed. E. J. Clery and W. S. Lewis (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008 and rpts.)
William Godwin, Caleb Williams, ed. Pamela Clemitt (Oxford World's Classics, 2009)
Jane Austen, Persuasion, ed. Gillian Beer (Penguin Classics, 2003 and rpt.)
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (the 1818 version, not the 1831 version), ed. Marilyn
Butler (Oxford World’s Classics, 2008 and rpts.)
James Hogg, Confessions of a Justified Sinner, ed. Karl Miller (Penguin Classics, 2006)
Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, ed. Philip Horne (Penguin Classics, 2003 and rpt.)
Shakespeare
Spoiler:
Comedies and Histories:
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV Part I
Henry V
Tragedies and late plays of the Jacobean Shakespeare
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
The Winter's Tale
The Tempest.
Show
Comedies and Histories:
As You Like It
Twelfth Night
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV Part I
Henry V
Tragedies and late plays of the Jacobean Shakespeare
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
The Winter's Tale
The Tempest.
Medieval Literature
Spoiler:
The Wanderer*
Beowulf*
The Dream of the Rood*
The Battle of Brunanburh*
Malory's Tale of Balin
Sir Orfeo
The Reeve's Tale
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The York Play of the Crucifixion
The Old English texts (marked with * above) can also be found in anthologies. You don't have to buy one, but many are cheaply available online or in a library. Some commonly found anthologies include:
Bradley, S. A. J., trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1982)
Crossley-Holland, Kevin, trans., The Anglo-Saxon World (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1982)
David, Alfred and James Simpson, eds, The Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume A: The Middle Ages, 8th edn (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2006) [note this also has modernised versions of some of our Middle English poems, too]
Delanty, Greg and Michael Matto, eds, The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, foreword by Seamus Heaney (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011)
Gordon, R. K., trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry, rev. edn (London: Dent, 1954)
Kennedy, Charles W., trans., An Anthology of Old English Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960)
Required Textbooks (Needed by January)
Marsden, Richard, ed., The Cambridge Old English Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Burrow, J. A. and Thorlac Turville-Petre, A Book of Middle English, 3rd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Any translation of Beowulf. Most popular recently has been Seamus Heaney's translation, but other easily available translations are: Michael Alexander, trans.,Beowulf: A Verse Translation (London: Penguin, 1973); R. M. Liuzza, trans., Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2000); Kevin Crossley Holland, trans., Beowulf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Any translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Good choices include Simon Armitage’s recent translation and the Oxford World’s Classics translation (by Keith Harrison; note especially the introduction by Helen Cooper).
Background Reading For ML
In addition, it is essential to do some background reading. There are many excellent introductions to the period’s literature; the following are merely examples. Note that, although you should read some of these, you are not expected to buy them. You may, however, find it useful to own one or two.
Alexander, Michael, A History of English Literature (Houndsmills, Basingstoke: MacMillan, 2000), chapters 1 and 2
Brown, Peter, A Companion to Chaucer (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)
Brown, Peter, A Companion to Medieval Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
Burrow, J. A., Medieval Writers and their Work (Oxford, 1982)
Ellis, Steve (ed.), Chaucer: An Oxford Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Fulk, R.D. and Christopher M. Cain, A History of Old English Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)
Godden, Malcolm and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
Gray, Douglas (ed.), An Oxford Companion to Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Gray, Douglas, Later Medieval English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Johnson, David and Elaine Treharne, Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Lewis, C. S., The Discarded Image (Cambridge, 1964)
Liuzza, R. M., ed., Old English Literature: Critical Essays (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002)
North, Richard and Joe Allard, Beowulf & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic & Anglo-Norman Literatures (Harlow: Pearson, 2007)
Pearsall, Derek, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London: Routledge, 1977)
Saunders, Corinne, A Companion to Medieval Poetry (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010)
Turville-Petre, Thorlac, Middle English Literature: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006)
Show
The Wanderer*
Beowulf*
The Dream of the Rood*
The Battle of Brunanburh*
Malory's Tale of Balin
Sir Orfeo
The Reeve's Tale
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The York Play of the Crucifixion
The Old English texts (marked with * above) can also be found in anthologies. You don't have to buy one, but many are cheaply available online or in a library. Some commonly found anthologies include:
Bradley, S. A. J., trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry (London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1982)
Crossley-Holland, Kevin, trans., The Anglo-Saxon World (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell, 1982)
David, Alfred and James Simpson, eds, The Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume A: The Middle Ages, 8th edn (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 2006) [note this also has modernised versions of some of our Middle English poems, too]
Delanty, Greg and Michael Matto, eds, The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation, foreword by Seamus Heaney (New York: W. W. Norton, 2011)
Gordon, R. K., trans., Anglo-Saxon Poetry, rev. edn (London: Dent, 1954)
Kennedy, Charles W., trans., An Anthology of Old English Poetry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1960)
Required Textbooks (Needed by January)
Marsden, Richard, ed., The Cambridge Old English Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004).
Burrow, J. A. and Thorlac Turville-Petre, A Book of Middle English, 3rd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005).
Any translation of Beowulf. Most popular recently has been Seamus Heaney's translation, but other easily available translations are: Michael Alexander, trans.,Beowulf: A Verse Translation (London: Penguin, 1973); R. M. Liuzza, trans., Beowulf: A New Verse Translation (Peterborough, ON: Broadview, 2000); Kevin Crossley Holland, trans., Beowulf (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
Any translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Good choices include Simon Armitage’s recent translation and the Oxford World’s Classics translation (by Keith Harrison; note especially the introduction by Helen Cooper).
Background Reading For ML
In addition, it is essential to do some background reading. There are many excellent introductions to the period’s literature; the following are merely examples. Note that, although you should read some of these, you are not expected to buy them. You may, however, find it useful to own one or two.
Alexander, Michael, A History of English Literature (Houndsmills, Basingstoke: MacMillan, 2000), chapters 1 and 2
Brown, Peter, A Companion to Chaucer (Oxford: Blackwell, 2000)
Brown, Peter, A Companion to Medieval Literature and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
Burrow, J. A., Medieval Writers and their Work (Oxford, 1982)
Ellis, Steve (ed.), Chaucer: An Oxford Guide (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Fulk, R.D. and Christopher M. Cain, A History of Old English Literature (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005)
Godden, Malcolm and Michael Lapidge, eds. The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
Gray, Douglas (ed.), An Oxford Companion to Chaucer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003)
Gray, Douglas, Later Medieval English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)
Johnson, David and Elaine Treharne, Readings in Medieval Texts: Interpreting Old and Middle English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Lewis, C. S., The Discarded Image (Cambridge, 1964)
Liuzza, R. M., ed., Old English Literature: Critical Essays (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002)
North, Richard and Joe Allard, Beowulf & Other Stories: A New Introduction to Old English, Old Icelandic & Anglo-Norman Literatures (Harlow: Pearson, 2007)
Pearsall, Derek, Old English and Middle English Poetry (London: Routledge, 1977)
Saunders, Corinne, A Companion to Medieval Poetry (Oxford: Blackwell, 2010)
Turville-Petre, Thorlac, Middle English Literature: An Introduction (Oxford: Blackwell, 2006)
This was all taken from the RHUL website, if I've missed anything off let me know and I'll add it. Also if any past students have any 'must-reads' that aren't on the official list please let me know and I'll add those as well

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#2
I feel like I really should start, but don't want to in case results day doesn't go as planned!

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(Original post by missunlucky)
I feel like I really should start, but don't want to in case results day doesn't go as planned!
I feel like I really should start, but don't want to in case results day doesn't go as planned!

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#4
Thanks so much for this! I found the reading list(s) on the RHUL website yesterday, but it's so much easier having it all in one place. Hope to see you in September

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#5
Thanks for the list! However, I`m from Bulgaria and if I buy all the books now the amount of other luggage I can take will be quite reduced
If anybody knows where to finds some of the books online so I can read them now, but buy them when I come to England, I would be so grateful!

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#6
(Original post by Melanroh)
Thanks for the list! However, I`m from Bulgaria and if I buy all the books now the amount of other luggage I can take will be quite reduced
If anybody knows where to finds some of the books online so I can read them now, but buy them when I come to England, I would be so grateful!
Thanks for the list! However, I`m from Bulgaria and if I buy all the books now the amount of other luggage I can take will be quite reduced

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#7
Hi guys, I hope everyone got in.
May I ask what everyone's purchasing for Medieval Literature? I'm confused because if I buy the cheap anthology that they suggest, I'll only have the texts with an asterix next to them + loads of other texts that we won't necessarily need. But it states we need to have good copies of all of their set texts by the start of the course.
Also, for Inventing the Novel, are you buying all five before you start the course?
Finally, which Shakespeare texts will you be purchasing (if any) ready for the start of the course?
Do all of these texts need to be purchased or can they be borrowed from the university's library, on arrival?
Thanks!
May I ask what everyone's purchasing for Medieval Literature? I'm confused because if I buy the cheap anthology that they suggest, I'll only have the texts with an asterix next to them + loads of other texts that we won't necessarily need. But it states we need to have good copies of all of their set texts by the start of the course.
Also, for Inventing the Novel, are you buying all five before you start the course?
Finally, which Shakespeare texts will you be purchasing (if any) ready for the start of the course?
Do all of these texts need to be purchased or can they be borrowed from the university's library, on arrival?
Thanks!
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#8
(Original post by Seb Langden)
Hi guys, I hope everyone got in.
May I ask what everyone's purchasing for Medieval Literature? I'm confused because if I buy the cheap anthology that they suggest, I'll only have the texts with an asterix next to them + loads of other texts that we won't necessarily need. But it states we need to have good copies of all of their set texts by the start of the course.
Also, for Inventing the Novel, are you buying all five before you start the course?
Finally, which Shakespeare texts will you be purchasing (if any) ready for the start of the course?
Do all of these texts need to be purchased or can they be borrowed from the university's library, on arrival?
Thanks!
Hi guys, I hope everyone got in.
May I ask what everyone's purchasing for Medieval Literature? I'm confused because if I buy the cheap anthology that they suggest, I'll only have the texts with an asterix next to them + loads of other texts that we won't necessarily need. But it states we need to have good copies of all of their set texts by the start of the course.
Also, for Inventing the Novel, are you buying all five before you start the course?
Finally, which Shakespeare texts will you be purchasing (if any) ready for the start of the course?
Do all of these texts need to be purchased or can they be borrowed from the university's library, on arrival?
Thanks!
Chloe
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#9
Thanks Chloe, that helped. I've just ordered the books and anthologies as well and holy christ there's so much to read in such a small amount of time
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#10
(Original post by Seb Langden)
Thanks Chloe, that helped. I've just ordered the books and anthologies as well and holy christ there's so much to read in such a small amount of time
Thanks Chloe, that helped. I've just ordered the books and anthologies as well and holy christ there's so much to read in such a small amount of time
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#11
Planning on buying all of the books I need for the first term just to be prepared - the only problem being that I often can't find the specific editions they want, I often just find reprints. Those will be okay to buy, won't they?
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#12
I imagine reprints will be fine- I could only find a reprint of the poetry theory book; I think so long as it's edited by the same people, it's the same text.... right? I just got the closest I could find, they can't ask for more than that (and if the edition they want is only availible used for £60, I'd just buy a different one anyway). I ordered all my books from Amazon and the Book Depository (now I just need to read them..... alll..... in less than a month).
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