British Literature

OFFERED 2025-2026

  • 2025-2026 Time: Thursdays, 2:00-3:30 pm Eastern
  • 2025-2026 Tuition:
    • Seminar with writing tutorial: $90 per month (10 months, August through May)
    • Seminar only: $75 per month (10 months, August through May)
  • Location: Signal Mountain, Tennessee
  • Prerequisite for tutorial portion: Writing III
  • Grades: 9-12 AND 8th grade strong readers
  • Pairing: You can pair this course with United States History!
  • Description: Through works of British prose, drama, essays, and poetry – from the Anglo-Saxon era through the mid-twentieth century – this course examines the great questions humans ask. The course also highlights the influence of British literature on American literature.
  • Assessment:
    • All: Students must complete all readings and daily-work/commonplacing as well as oral exams.
    • Writing tutorial only: Each term, students compose one essay, one other written piece, and one project – choosing between an academic/artistic portfolio and a history-related handcraft. (Students in both history and literature courses only create one project per term.) In December and May, students participate in Defense Day by giving a brief presentation on one of their essays and responding to questions from the audience.
  • FINAL BOOK LIST for 2025-2026: Hard copies are required; recommended editions/translations are listed below)
    • Spenser, Faerie Queene book 1, Recommended: Edited by Roy Maynard as Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves (Canon Press, ISBN: 978-1885767394) <= Needed for first week of class
    • Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Recommended ISBN: 9781586172619, Ignatius Critical Editions)
    • Shakespeare’s King Lear (Recommended ISBN: 9781586171377, Ignatius Critical Editions)
    • Milton’s Paradise Lost (Either ASIN: B01K0S7BU8, Barnes and Noble Classics; OR ISBN: 978-0199535743, Oxford World’s Classics)
    • Scott’s Ivanhoe, Penguin Classics, (ISBN: 978-0140436587)
    • Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Recommended ISBN: 978-1501130014, Folger Shakespeare Library)
    • British Romantic Poets reader – available from the tutor only; cost of printing only $25
    • BOOK CHOICE Gothic novel: EITHER Shelley’s Frankenstein (Recommended ISBN: 9781586171384, Ignatius Critical Editions); OR Stoker’s Dracula (Recommended ISBN: 9781586174941, Ignatius Critical Editions)
    • BOOK CHOICE Dickens: EITHER Tale of Two Cities or Bleak House (Oxford World’s Classics editions recommended)
    • BOOK CHOICES => Pick one book from two of the three categories:
      • Artistry of Detective fiction: Allingham, Look to the Lady (Open Road Media, ISBN: 978-1504092104) OR Sayers, Gaudy Night (Harper Paperbacks, ISBN: 978-0062196538)
      • Artistry of Dystopian fiction: Huxley, Brave New World (ISBN: 978-0060850524) OR Orwell, 1984 (Signet Classics, ISBN: ‎ 978-0451524935)
      • Artistry of Popular fiction: Wodehouse, Code of the Woosters (Norton, ISBN: 978-0393339819) OR Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

Image – The Tower of London – (c) Grace Hughbanks, 2017