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5 books a prospective English lit degree student should read and have an opinion on...

76 replies

shoppingbagsundereyes · 12/03/2012 06:46

My niece is choosing her a level options. She loves English and says she wants to do an English degree. Other than her set texts she doesn't read though. I have an English degree and at her age read obsessively, working my way through Hardy, Lawrenc, Austen etc. every book I offer dn she says is boring.
So some suggestions please so that I can make her a book list.

OP posts:
WyrdMother · 12/03/2012 06:58

Don't have an English degree, so my mind goes straight to the obvious Shakespeare and Chaucer, but wondering about reading around the sort of texts that would turn up on a set text list, but that have some quality to their writing e.g. P.G Woodehouse and Dorothy L Sayers? There's some historical context to get to grips with and parts of the writing that are socially unacceptable now, is that something she needs to consider?