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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:
maradesbois · 20/04/2015 14:33

1992-94

Thanks for this thread op, have lovely memories of my A-Level Eng Lit class Smile

Shakespeare: Anthony & Cleopatra, Midsummer Night's Dream
Chaucer: Wife of Bath's Prologue & Tale
Poetry: Gerard Manley Hopkins & John Donne
Hardy: Return of the Native
Brian Friel: Translations

Also French Lit

Molière: Le Misanthrope
Marcel Pagnol: Jean de Florette

Can't remember if there were any more. We had 2 English teachers one of whom was so inspiring & had a beautiful voice for reading aloud. Teachers can lift or ruin a text.

theconstantvacuumer · 20/04/2015 14:35

Oooo, I also did Le Misanthrope for my French A Level! I did another language too so I did an awful lot of reading and memorising quotes for my A Levels. I loved Madame Bovary.

mollyonthemove · 20/04/2015 14:43

Trying to remember O level 1980 - I think it was:

Julius Ceasar
A love poetry anthology
Where Amngels Fear to Tread

FadedRed123 · 20/04/2015 14:57

As well as my previous post I've just remembered: Chaucer - Wife of Bath and Dickens (oh how I loathe Dickens) Hard Times. Cannot believe we did that part time in one year. Tutors said the evening class group always more successful than the F/T students as more motivated (possibly also older and more well read?). No bl**by coursework, thank the Lord.

FriendlyLadybird · 20/04/2015 14:57

Lastlines We might have done the same Board. I remember:
Othello
The Winter's Tale
Hard Times
A Passage to India
The Wasteland
The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale
Mansfield Park (I didn't find it boring though)
The Mayor of Casterbridge

There's not much poetry in that list, is there? Mind you, I can't remember doing any at all at O-level (yes, I'm that old). I remember Macbeth and Pride and Prejudice and ... er ... that's it.

niminypiminy · 20/04/2015 14:57

For French A level I did:

Victor Hugo - Hernani
Camus L'Etranger
Satre - Les Mouches
Mauriac - Therese Desqueyroux

It was a list that was heavy on the philosophical and depressing side. Apart from Hernani which was very silly.

jubles · 20/04/2015 15:04

1994-96

"Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens
"Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen
"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
"The Pardoner's Tale" from the Canterbury Tales
Selected poems by William Wordsworth
"The Winter's Tale" and "Antony and Cleopatra" by Shakespeare
"The Crucible" by Arthur Miller
"The Duchess of Malfi" by John Webster

SuperScribbler · 20/04/2015 15:06

I sat my A level Eng Lit in 1987 and to the best of my remembrance we studied:

The General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales and The Nun's Priest's Tale
Hamlet
Measure for Measure
Emma
Tess of the Durbervilles
The Mill on the Floss
The Go-Between
The Great Gatsby (emergency standby novel not studied in huge detail)
Metaphysical Poets

Think there were some more but can't recall after all this time.

SonorousBip · 20/04/2015 15:08

Friendlyladybird, I think yours is the same as mine - I remember Winters' Tale wa the alternative to Othello and mysteriously no poetry?

I think mine was London board.

FriendlyLadybird · 20/04/2015 15:16

SonorousBip -- yes, we definitely did the London board. We did read a fair amount of poetry for Practical Criticism, and I suppose the Chaucer and Eliot count ... but it still seems pretty novel-heavy. And Jane Austen the only woman of course.

BreconBeBuggered · 20/04/2015 15:22

198-. Actually I wrote 188- there, and it seems about as far back. Not sure I can remember it all, but we definitely did:

Shakespeare: Macbeth and Henry IV Part 1
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales: Prologue and The Pardoner's Tale.
Milton: Paradise Lost, Books 4 and 9
Dickens: David Copperfield
Ben Jonson: Volpone
Marlowe: Edward II
Metaphysical poets
Blake: Songs of Innocence and Experience
Keats - bits and bobs, can't really remember

Can't recall any modern texts on the syllabus at all. If there were any women on the list, I've forgotten them. French and German were much more contemporary in terms of literature.

TempsPerdu · 20/04/2015 15:25

1996-1998

Canterbury Tales: Prologue/Wife of Bath's Tale
Hard Times
The Winter's Tale
Henry V
The Bluest Eye
Arcadia
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

John Donne and Ted Hughes' poetry

Thurlow · 20/04/2015 15:29

I have been spending all afternoon trying to remember the other texts we did, how productive is that?

Alan Bennett's Talking Heads was another one.

I actually consider myself pretty lucky, I knew I'd like English Lit anyway but to have Plath, Atwood, Bennett and Ford Madox Four, all stuff that left a lasting impression on me and which I've reread so many times, was a real bonus.

Ragwort · 20/04/2015 15:32

1979 Blush

Shakespeare was Much Ado About Nothing

Vanity Fair

Portrait of a Lady

some form of poetry

It was a combined literature and language course, as far as I can remember, so only the four books.

LotusLight · 20/04/2015 15:48

Yes, I still have the 1979 exam papers.
I did books like Tess (Hardy).
Blake poems
Diaries not of Wordsworth but his sister!
A shakespeare play - cannot remember which now.

Can't remember what else but I do remember reading everything else the author wrote for most of the writers as the teacher said which I am not sure my 2 children who have done English lit A level did.

Whitershadeofpale · 20/04/2015 16:38

I find it shocking that so recently there were no women writers on my course. Apart from Harper Lee there were none in my GCSEs either (or sats I think). By contrast my degree and masters have been pretty evenly split overall, particularly any contemporary fiction.

LotusLight · 20/04/2015 16:53

May be that was why my English teacher picked the diaries of Dorothy Wordsworth.

textfan · 20/04/2015 17:04

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

toffeeboffin · 20/04/2015 17:10

I did.

Read the Handmaid's Tale (loved), and also Richard 2nd. Also The Tempest and Sense and Sensibility.

Tomfunsnumber1trolley · 20/04/2015 17:22

I did my A- Levels '95-97. I can remember everything we did:
Talking Heads
Keats' poetry
Death of a Salesman
Othello
Richard ii
Remains of the day

I am now an English teacher and have used my annotated copies to teach Death of a Salesman and Othello. Had two wonderful teachers - well, one less so as she forgot to teach Richard ii! I've probably outed myself to anyone who knows me.

Tomfunsnumber1trolley · 20/04/2015 17:24

Yes, sadly no women writers on that list.

Trazzletoes · 20/04/2015 17:27

96-98:
King Lear
The Remains of the Day
The Handmaid's Tale
The Wyffe of Bath
Volpone
A Passage to India
Thomas Hardy's poetry

Trazzletoes · 20/04/2015 17:28

Oh and Silas Marner.

CordeliaScott · 20/04/2015 17:38

2001-3

Othello - Shakespeare
Faustus - Marlowe
The Miller's Tale
Poetry - Phillip Larkin
Possession - AS Byatt
Arcadia - Tom Stoppard
Pride and Prejudice - Austen

I feel like I have forgotten at least one but no idea

EmilyAlice · 20/04/2015 17:39

1966-68
Chaucer: The Prologue and Wife of Bath
Othello
The Tempest
Anouilh's Becket
Silas Marner
Waiting for Godot
Wordsworth: The Prelude

Have forgotten the rest!

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