Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

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:
Mintyy · 20/04/2015 20:08

Mais BIWI

Je suis shock-ed. J'ai pense que je suis beaucoup plus better at Francais than vous! Mais je only donne le O level, not le A level comme vous! Mais votre Francais n'est pas all that impressive, non? Vous must admit?

Wolfcub · 20/04/2015 20:10

Yes, 95-97. Can't remember what books we did. Othello might have featured but equally that could have been gcse

JemimaMuddledUp · 20/04/2015 20:12

I did English Lit A Level 1994-1996.

We studied:
Ariel
Songs of Innocence and Experience
King Lear
The White Devil
Moll Flanders
Pride and Prejudice
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Wuthering Heights

I'm sure we studied something else as well, but I can't remember what.

I didn't actually read Moll Flanders, but wrote the essay based entirely on the York Notes Blush

EmilyAlice · 20/04/2015 20:13

French in 1966-68
Racine's Andromaque (chunks of which I can still recite 47 years later)
Gide's Symphonie Pastorale
L'etranger
La Machine Infernale by Cocteau
Madame Bovary

WitchesGlove · 20/04/2015 20:20

Yes, in 2006

We did

The handmaids tale
Hamlet
Christina Rosetti
A Tennessee Williams play
Frankenstein
Measure for Measure
Atonement
Chaucer- The Merchants Tale

Loved all of it except Rossetti and Frankenstein.

1inamillion · 20/04/2015 20:22

Awful to think that I there were no women writers/poets on the syllabus which was WJEC that's Welsh Joint Education Committee. Forgot Alexander Pope's Rape of the Lock, enjoyed finding out a bit about Pope and the awful prejudice against him. I went on to teach History but was grateful that I studied Literature and the great teacher I had who was so knowledgeable and funny. Listening to her read Chaucer in perfect dialect was an education in itself. She could also do a great old man Steptoe and Fagin aka Ron Moody.
Never studied any Hardy and haven't been able to get into it, my loss I know.
If you haven't read Plough and the Stars I recommend it especially with the centenary of the Easter Rising next year.

JimmyCorkhill · 20/04/2015 20:25

I can only remember a few books (1990-92). I'm sure we only did:
Anthony & Cleopatra
The Mill on the Floss
On the Black Hill (was a Welsh school)
The Canterbury Tales (I think we did just one of them, The Pardoner's Tale)
The Rape of the Lock (or was this for GCSE?)

I read The Mill on the Floss recently and had a completely different view of it. It never occurred to me to read around the novel either to discover the history of the time etc. I just regurgitated the teacher's opinion and York notes. I can still remember quotes though!

WelshWereRabbit · 20/04/2015 20:28

Othello
Doctor Faustus
Emma
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Rape of the Lock
Keats
Paradise Lost 1 & 2

I think that's it - it was a long time ago! I hated Tess and have steered clear of Hardy ever since - it was way too dull and depressing for 16.

I wasn't that keen on Emma until our usual very serious teacher was off sick one day and the covering teacher explained "The thing about Jane Austen is that you have to read it in a silly voice", then proceeded to do just that. It all clicked and I went on to read all her other books, just for fun. Shows the difference a good teacher makes!

Doraemon · 20/04/2015 20:29

1994....
Dubliners
Tess
The Power and the Glory
Yeats
King Lear
Anthony & Cleopatra
Sylvia Plath, I think
A view from the Bridge, or is it The View from a Bridge?
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
I know why the caged bird sings

Can't remember what else, I did a lot of undergrad English lit too so it's all a bit muddled in my head.

serialgrannie · 20/04/2015 20:31

I did A level English lit in 1984 as a mature student. Our texts were:

The Return of the Native - Thomas Hardy
The Spire - William Golding
Romeo and Juliet
Anthony and Cleopatra
Chaucer - the Prologue
Chaucer - the Wife of Bath's Tale
Playboy of the Western World - J M Synge
Poetry of Thomas Hardy

Really enjoyed all the texts - we were especially fortunate with the Shakespeare I think as these are two of my favourite plays.

ageingdisgracefully · 20/04/2015 20:31

1978!

Othello
Death of a Salesman.
Chaucer: Canterbury Tales (can't remember which).
Paradise Lost.
Emma.
Mayor of Casterbridge.

Can't remember anything else..too long ago..

woodhill · 20/04/2015 20:31

1985

1984 - George Orwell
Tender is the Night - Scott Fitzgerald
Hamlet
Wasteland - T S Elliot
The Spire - William Golding
white Devil - Webster?
Canterbury Tales - Chaucer

dottyaboutstripes · 20/04/2015 20:43

Bizarrely, I found my A level papers when we moved recently! I did WJEC English 1988
King Lear
Merchant's Prologue and Tale
Sons and Lovers
Much Ado About Nothing
Emma
Poetry of Alun Lewis (YAWN!)
The French Lieutenant's Woman

Cooroo · 20/04/2015 20:46

1986-77:
King Lear
Othello
Emma
Tender is the Night (Scott Fitzgerald)
The Wasteland
Paradise Lost 9 & 10

Was that all?? I loved them all (except maybe the Elliot, poetry not my thing). DD has just finished a comparison of 1984 and Handmaid's Tale, we had some lovely times talking about them.

annymay · 20/04/2015 20:48

1990-92:

King Lear
Troilus and Cressida
Far from the Madding Crowd
Volpone
The Great Gatsby
Metaphysical Poets
Auden
Hughes

I've either forgotten or we didn't do anything not written by a white male...

TopazRocks · 20/04/2015 20:54

I did Scottish Higher English and have often since (sat it in 1978?) thought I'd like to do the A level. Scottish Highers aren't as deep - as you do 5 or 6 subjects in one year. I did a Lit based degree though not English and really spent years not having time to just read for pleasure. Now in my 50s, with IN THEORY more time on my hands, something makes me hesitate. I think it's my anarchist streak: not wanting to be told what to read any more. Grin

All I can remember from Higher is Hamlet and Death of a Salesman. Previous years we did Julius Caesar and the Merchant of Venice, and of course the Scottish play! I liked them much more than Hamlet.Some of the books listed above weren't even written when I was at school. I LOVED TKaMB, though my sons dubbed it How to kill a Mockingbird. Smile

Tootssweet · 20/04/2015 20:55

What a fantastic idea for a thread & really good for dredging my memory!

1989-91(!!!)

The Bell Jar & Ariel
King Lear
The Tempest
Katherine Mansfield short stories (which I adored - such emotive prose)
Pardoner's Tale
Mansfield Park - Fanny whatshername was the dullest heroine ever!

I am agonising over the last two - can't remember for the life of me. I did love it - I do think I would like to join a book group because of this thread. How do you find one?

SilverBirch2015 · 20/04/2015 20:57

Mine was 1976 so can't be sure I've remembered everything!

Letters and Writings - Keats
Wordsworth and Coleridge - A Lakeland Poets Anthology
Hamlet & Henry IV (part 1)
Tess of the D'Ubervilles
Persuasion - Austen
Chaucer - can't remember which
Confessions of an English Opium Eater - Thomas De Quincy

The concept of 20th Century literature did not exist for my school.

80sMum · 20/04/2015 20:59

I did A-level English Lit in 1976. The set books were:

Anthony & Cleopatra (Shakespeare)
The Knight's Tale (Chaucer)
Nostromo (Conrad)
The Pilgrim's Progress (Bunyan)
Selected Poetry of Ted Hughes
Selected Poetry of John Keats

I think there must have been a couple of others but I can't remember them.

SilverBirch2015 · 20/04/2015 21:01

Chaucer was The Prologue

TopazRocks · 20/04/2015 21:03

Good ones we did in school, though not for Higher - Sunset Song (Lewis Grassic Gibbon). I see the thread's got onto Francais - the one I hated most was about a guy hunting and shooting in Provence. ?Marcel Pagnol. On a par with the Wm Golding one about bullying - Lord of the Flies??? Something I DID like in French A was a novel by Duhamel set in 'he north'. And the non-fiction was the Michelin guide to Brittany, somewhere I've not visited yet if you don't count an hour in Rennes railway station in 1985 or thereabouts.

LeBearPolar · 20/04/2015 21:04

1988-90, Welsh board.

Othello
Measure for Measure
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Emma
Keats
Silas Marner

Must have done more poetry than Keats but I can't remember what. Did an unseen practical criticism paper though.

Iamblossom · 20/04/2015 21:06

92-94

Measure for measure
Keats
Emma
Tess of the d'urbervilles
Chaucer

StaircaseAtTheUniversity · 20/04/2015 21:07

I did, 2002-4. Can't remember loads about it as I went on to do a degree in English lit and a masters and am now an English teacher so it's all kind of blended into one but I know we definitely did:

-Translations by Brian Friel (Catholic school and Irish teacher so that explains that choice)

  • The Tempest
-Hamlet -Captain Correlli's Mandolin

Not an inspiring curriculum!

TopazRocks · 20/04/2015 21:11

I have no recollection at all of poetry we did. War Poets of course but not sure it was for Higher. Something I've noticed in this thread and previously is how little we studied actual English authors - like Austen, Eliot, Hardy. I keep meaning to read the last two of those - though I have seen the films. Grin Yet we didn't spend all our time reading Burns and Lewis Grassic Gibbon either.