Where to start
Reading lists
GCSE set textsThe 19th-century novels and Shakespeare plays set for GCSE English Literature, in full and free.8 booksGothic and ghostlyMonsters, doubles, haunted houses and the ghosts of Christmas: the dark side of the nineteenth century.6 booksVictorian novelsThe long novels of 1837 to 1901, written for readers who waited a month for the next instalment.10 booksDetective fictionSherlock Holmes and the puzzles that invented the modern mystery.1 bookIrish writersSwift, Stoker, Joyce and the Irish writers who shaped literature in English.3 booksEarly science fictionLaboratories, time machines and invasions from Mars, written before the genre had a name.2 booksCourtship and marriageProposals, refusals and the economics of the marriage market.2 booksPlaysPlays set out for reading, with every speaker named and every stage direction kept.1 bookPoetryCollected poems, one poem to a page.1 bookThe RomanticsKeats, Shelley and the poets and novelists of the Romantic period.1 bookShort storiesCollections to read one sitting at a time.1 bookSatireBooks that laughed at their own age, and still land.1 book
