History of english literature plan

Major Writers and Their Major Works:

Samuel Johnson (1709-84):

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  Dictionary (1755)
  
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  Preface to Shakespeare (1765)
  

Samuel Richardson (1689-1761):Started his career as a novelist in the previous age wrote Clarissa Marlowe (1748) and Sir Charles Grandison (1754) in this period.

Henry Fielding (1707-54):Started writing novels in The Augustan Age wrote his Tom Jones (1749) and Amelia (1751) in this period.

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-74):

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  The Citizen of the World (1759)
  
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  The Vicar of the Wakefield (1766)
  

Thomas Gray (1716-71):

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  "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard " (1751). William Blake (1757-1827):
  
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  Songs of Innocence (1789)
  
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  Songs of Experience (1794)
  

Edward Gibbon (1737-94):The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776).

Edmund Burke (1729-97):

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  On American Taxation (1774)
  
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  Speech on Conciliation with America (1775)
  

Literary Feathers of the Age:

This age marks a gradual change of taste and technique in poetry. With the death of Alexander Pope the heroic couplet declined and the ballad and lyric revived. Pindaric ode became popular. There was predominance of prose. The rise of literary and middle class, the development of industry and commerce, the rise of political parties and democracy created problems and conditions that demanded expressions for which poetry was inadequate, and therefore, prose flourished. The novel took a definite form in this period. Imitation of classicism came to an end towards the end of this period.

The Romantic Period (1798-1832)

This age began in 1798 with the first edition of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads and ended with the first Reformation Act of 1832. This period is also called The Revival of Romanticism because the romantic ideals of the Elizabethan period revived during these years. Lyrical Ballads brought a great change in literature--both in subject and style. Instead of aristocratic people and pedantic style, common people and common language were preferred. The important events of the age were :

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  After the French Revolution it was accepted that every individual was free and equally important.
  
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  Small industries disappeared and large industries with huge capital developed.
  
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  Machines were widely introduced in coal and iron mines which multiplied productions.
  
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  Steam-engines were used in ships and trains. The Train was first introduced in 1830.
  
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  Industrialization created lots of slums, child labour and labour problems.
  
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  The traditional social pattern started changing.
  
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  Ireland was united with England in 1801.
  
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  In 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act was passed and religious equity was ensured.
  
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  Use of machines in fields and industries made a large number of women jobless; of them many became either readers of writers.
  
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  In 1840 the Penny post was introduced.