british literature academic library 

​Beginning with works from the Middle Ages, British Literature is a five-unit course that teaches high school students about some of the greatest books of Western Civilization. Students will learn how to appreciate the English literature of the Middle Ages for its wisdom and beauty and will also gain a better understanding of the development of the English language and its literature. Course units cover one to two centuries, concluding with the writings of apologist C.S. Lewis in the 20th century.
Download a copy of the British Literature Course Overview. You will find the goals for the course and the grading components and the grading scale for all NFC Academy courses.
BRITISH LITERATURE ONLINE
UNIT 1 - THE MIDDLE AGES
UNIT 2 - THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
  1. Course Overview
  2. Introduction
  3. Old English Literature: Bede
  4. Beowulf
  5. Quiz 1: Introduction and Old English Literature
  6. Middle English Literature: Chaucer
  7. The Pardoner's Tale
  8. Piers Plowman
  9. Project: Illuminated Manuscripts
  10. Quiz 2: Middle English Literature
  11. Morality Plays: Everyman
  12. Sir Thomas Malory: Le Morte d' Arthur
  13. Le Morte d' Arthur II
  14. Le Morte d' Arthur III
  15. Essay: Comparing Literature to Scripture  (Both Chaucer and Malory explore jealousy and greed. Throughout the New Testament, God's people are warned of the destructive nature of these sins. New Testament Bible passages that address these sins include the following: Luke 12:13-21, Galatians 5:19-26, and Colossians 3:5-17. Use a concordance to find more passages if necessary.  Compare and contrast either Chaucer or Malory's presentation of these sins with the Bible's description. Write an essay of at least 300 words.)
  16. Quiz 3: Morality Plays and Malory's Le Morte d' Arthur
  17. Test: The Middle Ages
  18. Alternate Test: The Middle Ages
  19. Reference
  1. The Renaissance and Reformation
  2. The Early Renaissance: Sir Thomas More
  3. Roger Ascham
  4. John Foxe
  5. Quiz 1:The Renaissance and Reformation
  6. Renaissance Poets: Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder
  7. Sir Philip Sidney
  8. Edmund Spenser
  9. Mary (Sidney) Herbert, Countess of Pembroke
  10. Essay: Comparing Literature to Scripture (Compare Mary Herbert’s poetical rendering of Psalm 52 or 58 with two other Bible translations. One of the translations should be the King James Version, which was written near the end of Herbert’s life. For the other comparison, choose a more modern translation.)
  11. Quiz 2: Renaissance Poets
  12. Renaissance Prose and Drama: Sir Walter Raleigh
  13. William Shakespeare
  14. The Taming of the Shrew 1
  15. The Taming of the Shrew 2
  16. The Taming of the Shrew 3
  17. The Taming of the Shrew 4
  18. The Taming of the Shrew 5
  19. The English Bible
  20. Quiz 3: Renaissance Prose and Drama
  21. Test: The Sixteenth Century
  22. Alternate Test: The Sixteenth Century
  23. Reference
UNIT 3 - THE SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES
UNIT 4 - THE NINETEENTH CENTURY (1798-1900)
  1. The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution 1603-1660
  2. John Donne
  3. Ben Jonson
  4. George Herbert
  5. Quiz 1: The Stuarts and the Puritan Revolution
  6. More Seventeenth Century Writers: John Milton
  7. John Owen
  8. Essay: Comparing Literature to Scripture (Write an essay of at least 300 words in which you compare and contrast the Bible’s account of man’s fall into sin with John Milton’s Paradise Lost account. Identify specific lines in the poem that either affirm or deny the words of Scripture. Discuss the new characters Milton introduced to the story and how their actions or comments affirm or deny the Bible's description of the fall. You may also want to think about why Milton may have chosen to add these characters.)
  9. Francis Bacon
  10. Quiz 2: More Seventeenth Century Writers
  11. The Restoration and Neoclassic Period 1660-1785
  12. John Dryden
  13. John Bunyan
  14. Jonathan Swift
  15. Alexander Pope
  16. Isaac Watts
  17. Project: Responding to Literature (How have you enjoyed the literature in this section? You may have found that a piece of the literature fired your imagination while it left your friends cold. Conversely, they may have really liked an author whose writing you did not care for. Our preferences differ along with our talents and skills. In this project, you will have an opportunity to choose which author and literature you prefer to use as a springboard for your own writing. Have fun. Be creative. If you have a different great idea based on one of these works, write a brief proposal to your teacher. You may be allowed to do an alternative composition.)
  18. Quiz 3: The Restoration and Neoclassic Period
  19. Test: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
  20. Alternate Test: The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
  21. Reference
  1. The Romantic Era: Introduction
  2. William Blake
  3. William Wordsworth
  4. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  5. Sir Walter Scott
  6. Quiz 1: The Romantic Era
  7. The Late Romantic Era: Jane Austen
  8. Charles Lamb
  9. George Gordon, Lord Byron
  10. Percy Bysshe Shelley
  11. John Keats
  12. Quiz 2:The Late Romantic Era
  13. The Victorian Era: Introduction
  14. Thomas Carlyle
  15. John Henry Cardinal Newman
  16. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
  17. Charles Dickens
  18. Robert Browning
  19. George Eliot
  20. Oscar Wilde
  21. Lewis Carroll
  22. Project: Responding to Literature (For this project, you will have an option of how you prefer to respond to literature. You may respond creatively, by writing or working artistically, or you may choose a more academic response.)
  23. Quiz 3: The Victorian Era
  24. Test: The Nineteenth Century
  25. Alternate Test: The Nineteenth Century
  26. Reference
UNIT 5 - THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
  1. Introduction
  2. Thomas Hardy
  3. Joseph Conrad
  4. G. K. Chesterton
  5. Quiz 1: Introduction
  6. Modern Poetry, Drama, and Prose: William Butler Yeats
  7. T. S. Eliot
  8. George Bernard Shaw
  9. Winston Churchill
  10. Quiz 2: Modern Poetry, Drama, and Prose
  11. Modern Fiction: Virginia Woolf
  12. James Joyce
  13. Aldous Leonard Huxley
  14. C. S. Lewis
  15. Project: Responding to Literature  (For this project, you will choose from several options designed to expand your understanding of twentieth century literature.)
  16. Quiz 3: Modern Fiction
  17. Test: The Twentieth Century
  18. Alternate Test: The Twentieth Century