An Outline History of English Literature takes a look at English literature as a whole, from the pre-Chaucerian period (500-1340 A.D.) down to the 1950s. Along the way, it profiles the great writers who have left their indelible marks on literature, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, John Milton, John Dryden, William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, T.S. Eliot and others. Since literature is always shaped by the age it is born in, the author also places each genre and writer in the context of their times to show how prevalent trends, events and circumstances affected the works of that era. A clear and systematic account not only of literature but of writers, their ages and the epochal moments of each age, An Outline History of English Literature will prove invaluable to students, researchers as well as literature buffs.