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Did you do A-Level English Literature?

349 replies

BrilliantineMortality · 20/04/2015 10:57

When did you study it?
Can you remember what books you read?

For me, I did it between 1993-95. Can't believe I sat my exams 20 years ago Shock. I found some of my set texts recently which jogged my memory as to the other books I studied:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Have the men had enough - Margaret Forster
Oranges are not the only fruit - Jeanette Winterson
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
The Cement Garden - Ian McEwan
The man who mistook his wife for a hat - Oliver Sacks (non-fiction component to the course)
King Lear
The Merchant of Venice
Ted Hughes' animal poems
John Keats' poems
The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales - Chaucer
The Revenger's Tragedy - Tourneur/Middleton (A Jacobean play)

The thing that immediately strikes me is that the novels were all relatively contemporary with a (mostly) feminist slant. Probably because both my teachers were female and in their late twenties/early thirties, so these were probably the books that they had read in the preceding decade or so.

Only the John Keats' poetry from the 19th Century, which is pretty shocking, come to think of it now. Everything was either late 20th Century or much, much earlier. I loved doing my English Lit A Level, but reading this list back I can see that it didn't do me many favours when it came to study it for my degree.

OP posts:
MitziB · 03/05/2015 11:16

What a brilliant idea for a thread, although I'm green with envy at many of the more modern texts so many of you read.

I'm probably older than any of you (should be on Gransnet if there is one!) and although English Lit was my favourite subject I can't remember everything we studied, or even if the ones I do recall were 'A' Level or not. It was in the '60s (well, that's my excuse anyway).

The Tempest , King Lear (Shakespeare)
John Donne
Paradise Lost (Milton) yawn yawn
Other metaphysical poets (can't recall who but very boring anyway)
The Canterbury Tales
Sons & Lovers (D.H.Lawrence)
Emma
Wuthering Heights (it was either at 'O' or 'A' level)
The Trumpet Major (Thomas Hardy)

We had an American student on teaching practice for a while and we did some American stuff with her (The Great Gatsby and some Emily Dickinson poetry) but we didn't have to do essays on it and we certainly weren't examined on it.

HoneywithLemon · 05/05/2015 18:32

Great thread! I sat my exam in 1986 and oddly, my A level was 50% literature and 50% language/creative writing. The literature texts were:

Vera Brittain Testament of Youth
Chaucer The Wife of Bath
Wordsworth Selected Poems
Orwell 1984
Othello
James Joyce Dubliners

I went on to read English Literature at Uni.

outtolunchagain · 05/05/2015 18:58

1983

King Lear
Much ado about Nothing
Troilus and Cressida

Wordsworth and Coleridge
Blakes songs of innocence and experience
Keats odes
Persuasion
Frankenstein ( my Ds also did this in 2012)

Return of the Native
Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Poems and prose of Matthew Arnold ( awful )

FreeButtonBee · 16/05/2015 22:03

Love this thread. I did

The age of innocence - Wharton
The scarlet letter - Hawthorne
Mansfield park

Winter's Tale
She stoops to conquer
The duchess of malfi

Ariel - Plath
Pardoners tale - Chaucer

There was an unseen poetry section in the poetry exam as well no coursework. Just three 3 hour exams.

NI exam board
I saw the duchess of malfi at the old vic s couple of years ago and was reciting the lines back to must as the actors spoke. It was mind blowing!

dirtyprettything · 03/06/2015 14:09

1991 - 1993

Antony & Cleopatra (always known as Tony & Cleo)
She Stoops to Conquer (hated)
Metaphysical Poets (yawn)
Tess of the D'Urbervilles

fiveacres · 03/06/2015 14:11

1998-2000 Smile

Othello
Sense & Sensibility
The Tempest
UA Fanthorpe's poetry.

SandStorm · 03/06/2015 14:19

It was 1987 and I can't remember much but I do remember:

Hamlet
Coriolanus
The Wife of Bath
John Donne poetry
Ted Hughes (?)

Ladyleia · 07/06/2015 19:30

Ooh this is taxing the little grey cells somewhat! I was 91-93 and did:
Pride and Prejudice
Voss by Patrick White (hated)
Anthony and Cleopatra
King John
Sylvia Plath collected poems

RosehipHoney · 07/06/2015 20:54

I often try and remember things like this at night when feeding.
The Winter's Tale
King Lear
A Midsummer Nights Dream
Equus
A streetcar named desire - love his plays
A Room with a view
Things Fall Apart
Heat and Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
Memories of Rain - Sunetra Gupta
The Miller's Tale
All sorts of poetry - Simon Armitage, Fleur Advock, Ursula Fanthorpe
Still have all these books - wish I could do it again!

RosehipHoney · 07/06/2015 20:55

(97-99)

auberginesrus · 09/06/2015 22:29

Oh this has brought back some memories. 1988 to 1990 for me:

Hamlet
As you like it
The Pardoners Tale
John Donne
WH Auden
Sons and Lovers (hated it)
A Handful of Dust (loved it)
A Passage to India
Murder in the Cathedral
Death of a Salesman

Jealous of all those curriculums with Margaret Atwood and Jeanette Winterton on though Grin

Chips1999 · 20/06/2015 07:30

2000-2002

The Merchant of Venice - Shakespeare
Enduring Love - Ian McEwan
The Wife's Tale - Chaucer
The Handmaids Tale - Margaret Attwood
Poems by John Yeats

I can't remember any others Blush

serialgrannie · 20/06/2015 08:43
  1. I did A level English in one year part-time as a mature student. My children were 7 and 9 at the time (old gimmer).

Antony and Cleopatra
Romeo and Juliet (best Shakespeare play of all)
The Spire (Golding)
The Return of the Native (Hardy)
Hardy's Poems
The Playboy of the Western World (J M Synge)
Prologue to the Canterbury Tales
The Wife of Bath's Tale

rightguard · 20/06/2015 11:10

It's really hard to remember that far back! (95-97)

what I can remember is
beloved
hamlet
gatsby

something about the chocolate soldier? I think

and something about the English going to Wales and renaming all the towns.

would love to know what the last two are!

hackmum · 20/06/2015 12:40

I would guess the chocolate soldier is by Bernard Shaw.

Bit mystified about the other one though.

GoblinLittleOwl · 20/06/2015 12:47

Many, many, many years ago.
King Lear
The Winter's Tale
Mansfield Park
Wuthering Heights
Wordsworth 'The Prelude'
Milton 'Paradise Lost'
Enjoyed them all, apart from Wuthering Heights, which I hated, but reread recently and began to appreciate, the language if not the plot.

Pandora37 · 20/06/2015 17:46

I did mine in 2003-2005. I did:

The Handmaid's Tale
Dr. Faustus
Alias Grace (this one I chose to read)
Moll Flanders
The World's Wife poems by Carol Ann Duffy
Hamlet
Othello
Keats' poetry
World War 1 poetry and literature (we read bits of books and we also read a play that I can't remember exactly - I think it was Journey's End but we focused mostly on the poetry).

TribbleNamedDave · 20/06/2015 17:55

I did mine 2000-2002.

I did;

Othello
The Handmaids Tale
Dr Faust
Phillip Larkin
The Colour Purple
Tess of the Dubervilles
Canterbury Tales
I think I may have done World War One poems as well.

I hated those lessons, the texts were the most depressing ever chosen.

Preminstreltension · 22/06/2015 13:23

1987 and I can barely remember it but I think we did:

Hamlet
Emma
Chaucer (Knights Tale or sommat)
Great Gatsby
Importance of Being Earnest (or Ernest - can't even remember that and it was v difficult to write about as it's just light and silly)
The Go Between
Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins (which I lived despite being an atheist with little interest in nature)
Byron's Don Juan. I think there's a reason people don't read Byron much these days...

So one woman in the whole thing. Great to see more women on the more recent lists. I loved Have The Men Had Enough and would be interested to know how it struck an A level class.

Khara · 01/01/2018 01:39

1988
Austen - Emma
Conrad - The Secret Agent
Shakespeare - The Tempest & Antony and Cleopatra
Miller- All My Sons and View from a Bridge
Poetry - Larkin and Hughes (possibly Heaney but that might have been at uni)

BitOutOfPractice · 01/01/2018 08:26

Hmm I did in 1985!

The Go Between and I honestly can't remember any other novels! Shock

Hamlet
Othello
Merchants Tale (Chaucer)
Rozencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead

Poetry was Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience

BitOutOfPractice · 01/01/2018 08:29

Return of the Native!
Mansfield Park!

OComeHalsallYeFaithful · 01/01/2018 23:51

I sat mine longer ago than I'm prepared to admit here Grin

We did Middlemarch
Persuasion
Some Chaucer from the Canterbury Tales - can't remember which one now, though; I think The Franklin's Tale
Metaphysical poetry
The Winter's Tale
Othello (I think - could be muddling that up with O levels, because I'm fairly sure we also did some more poetry, Pope's 'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot')
Dr Faustus

No modern fiction at all, or none I remember. It ruined Austen for me for years and, to be honest, I've never really warmed to her.
That list sounds like a lot, in retrospect.

OComeHalsallYeFaithful · 02/01/2018 00:00

Just noticed how old this thread is - still fascinating though! And I still have my annotated ancient paperback of Middlemarch...

lastqueenofscotland · 02/01/2018 16:49

2010

Tess of the durbevilles
Brideshead revisited
The collector
Dubliners
Coming up for air
Jill