Reading around GCSE English texts

[LittleOwl153]

On from my previous thread around reading around a GCSE history syllabus I thought I'd try the hive mind on the English books...

So we have:

Animal Farm (Russian Revolution/ Spanish civil war)
Jane Eyre (later George III Northern England)
Merchant of Venice (Italy 16th century- Venice city state).

My daughter likes to read around a topic as it enables her to connect more. So im looking for fictional/scene setting kind of works around any of the above time periods.

Any thoughts?

English teacher here.
I would say 1984 is useful for Animal Farm.

Wide Sargasso Sea for Jane Eyre

And Wide Sargasso Sea is useful as another perspective on Jane Eyre.

Snap

Wuthering Heights
Measure for Measure

Jane Eyre isn't Georgian, it's Victorian.

I'm a bit confused about what you want, do you want other books that provide context to the books you've listed or do you want other books that cover the time periods you've listed. Assuming the first:

Animal Farm
Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Lord of the Flies

Jane Eyre
Wide Sargasso Sea
Agnes Grey
The Life of Charlotte Bronte
Nicholas Nickleby

Merchant of Venice
The Painter's Apprentice by Laura Morelli
In the company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
Anne Frank's Diary

Is your daughter also studying poetry? She could read books about some of the poets included in the anthology, and/or more poems by some of the same writers, or other poets/writers who have been included in past GCSE papers.

As a contrast to Mrs Gaskell's Life of Charlotte Brontë, this article is interesting. The truth probably lies somewhere in between ..

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/mar/25/classics.charlottebronte

I highly recommend 'Dark Quartet' by Lynne Reid Banks as a Bronte biography.

For Orwell, I'd suggest reading some of his essays.

This has reminded me that when DS was studying Frankenstein for GCSE, he read Paradise Lost in his leisure time "for context", which to me seemed above and beyond.

I agree with @MrsKeats that 1984 would be good wider reading for Animal Farm.