History of English Literature for Boys and Girls
by H. E. Marshall
Chapters with dates, and terms where the chapters fit chronologically with AO
When used in conjunction with Invitation to the Classics, more material is covered in Marshall's History of English Literature from Year 7 to the middle of Year 10, and more is covered in Invitation to the Classics from the middle of Year 10, and through Year 11. Corresponding schedule for Invitation to the Classics
Year 7 Term 1
01 In the Listening Time (prehistory)
02 The Story of the Cattle Raid of Cooley (1st century AD)
03 One of the Sorrows of Story-Telling (Children of Lir)
04 The Story of a Literary Lie (3rd century)
05 The Story of Fingal (Irish mythology)
06 About Some Old Welsh Stories and Story-Tellers (Mabinogian; medieval)
07 How the Story of Arthur Was Written in English (500's)
08 The Beginning of the Reading Time (Malory's Morte d'Arthur; 1400's)
09 "The Passing of Arthur" (Tennyson's Idylls of the King)
10 The Adventures of an Old English Book (Cotton's Beowulf; 1700's)
11 The Story of Beowulf (medieval)
12 The Father of English Song (Caedmon; 600's)
Year 7 Term 2
13 How Caedmon Sang (600's)
14 The Father of English History (Bede; 600-700's)
15 How Alfred the Great Fought with his Pen (800's)
16 When English Slept (Geoffrey of Monmouth; 1100's)
17 The Story of Havelok the Dane (1200's)
18 About Some Song Stories (ballads; Patrick Spens; 1290)
19 "Piers the Ploughman" (1300's)
20 "Piers the Ploughman" - continued (1300's)
21 How the Bible Came to the People (Wyclif; 1384)
22 Chaucer - Bread and Milk for Children (1300's)
23 Chaucer - "The Canterbury Tales" (1387--1400)
24 Chaucer - At the Tabard Inn (1387--1400)
Year 7 Term 3
25 The First English Guide-book (John Mandeville; 1357-1371)
26 Barbour - "The Bruce," Beginning of a Struggle (1314-1374)
27 Barbour - "The Bruce," The End of the Struggle (1314-1374)
28 A Poet King (James I of Scotland; 1394-1437)
29 The Death of the Poet King (James I; 1437)
30 Dunbar - The Wedding of the Thistle and the Rose (William Dunbar; 1460-1530)
31 At the Sign of the Red Pale (William Caxton; 1422-1491)
Year 8 Term 1
32 About the Beginning of the Theater ('miracle plays' 1100-1200's)
33 How the Shepherd Watched their Flocks (Wakefield/Towneley plays; 1100's-1576)
34 The Story of Everyman (1510?)
35 How a Poet Comforted a Girl (John Skelton; 1463-1529)
36 The Renaissance (1400's)
37 The Land of Nowhere (Thomas More's Utopia; 1516)
38 The Death of Sir Thomas More (1535)
39 How the Sonnet Came to England (1527-)
40 The Beginning of Blank Verse (1550's)
41 Spenser - "The Shepherd's Calendar" (1579)
42 Spenser - "The Faery Queen" (1590)
43 Spenser - His Last Days (1599)
Year 8 Term 2
44 About the First Theaters (1500's)
45 Shakespeare - The Boy (1564-)
46 Shakespeare - The Man (1564-1616)
47 Shakespeare - "The Merchant of Venice" (1598)
48 Jonson - "Every Man in his Humor" (1598)
49 Jonson - "The Sad Shepherd" (1641)
50 Raleigh - "The Revenge" (historical sea battle of 1591)
51 Raleigh - "The History of the World" (1614)
52 Bacon - New Ways of Wisdom (1561-1626)
53 Bacon - The Happy Island (New Atlantis 1627)
54 About Some Lyric Poets (1600's)
Year 8 Term 3
55 Herbert - The Parson Poet (1593-1633)
56 Herrick (1591-1674) and Marvell (1621-1678) - Of Blossoms and Bowers (1648?)
57 Milton - Sight and Growth (wrote between 1641-1674)
58 Milton - Darkness and Death (wrote between 1641-1674)
59 Bunyan - "The Pilgrim's Progress" (1678)
Year 9 Term 1
60 Dryden - The New Poetry (wrote between 1660-1700)
61 Defoe - The First Newspapers (wrote between 1697-1731)
62 Defoe - "Robinson Crusoe" (1719)
63 Swift - "The Journal to Stella" (written between 1688-1729; published posthumously)
64 Swift - "Gullivers Travels" (published 1726-1735s)
65 Addison - "The Spectator" (1711-1712; revived in 1714)
66 Steele - The Soldier Author (1701-1729)
Year 9 Term 2
67 Pope - "The Rape of the Lock" (1712-1717)
68 Johnson - Days of Struggle ([Dr.] Samuel Johnson, wrote between 1732-1784)
69 Johnson - The End of the Journey (1780's)
70 Goldsmith - The Vagabond (1764)
71 Goldsmith - "The Vicar of Wakefield" (1766)
72 Burns - The Ploughman Poet (1770's-1796)
Year 9 Term 3
73 Cowper - "The Task" (1785)
Year 10 Term 1
74 Wordsworth - The Poet of Nature (wrote between 1793-1850)
75 Wordsworth and Coleridge - The Lake Poets (1798-1850?)
76 Coleridge (1772-1834) and Southey - (1774-1843) Sunshine and Shadow (1795)
77 Scott - The Awakening of Romance (wrote between 1814-1832)
78 Scott - "The Wizard of the North" (wrote between 1814-1832)
79 Byron - "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" (published 1812-1818)
80 Shelley - The Poet of Love (wrote between 1810-1822)
Year 10 Term 2 (last term the book is scheduled)
81 Keats - The Poet of Beauty (wrote between 1816-1821)
82 Carlyle - The Sage of Chelsea (wrote between 1824-1881)
83 Thackeray (1811-1863) - The Cynic? (wrote between 1829-1863)
84 Dickens - Smiles and Tears (wrote between 1836-1870)
85 Tennyson - The Poet of Friendship (wrote between 1830-1892)