An very messy attempt at trying to put all the needed (and very much uneeded) dates and literates which belong to each era. It isn't very good...

1. LITERARY TIMELINE

2. • 800 – 400 BC
• Homer (Odyssey)
• Sophocles (Antigone + Oedipus)
CLASSICAL (GREEK)

3. • 250 BC – AD 150
• Ovid – Fables relating to love (Echo and Narcissus)
• Important Dates
A. 43 AD - 420 Roman Invasion and occupation of Britain
CLASSICAL (ROMAN)

4. • Important Dates
A. 450 – Anglow Saxon Conquest
B. 597 – Anglo-Saxon conversion to Christainity
C. 871-899 – Reign of King Alfred (first king)
D. 1066 – Norman conquest
E. 1154-1189 Reign of Henry II
F. 1200 Beginnings of Middle English Literature
G. 1360-1400 Geoffrey Chaucer; Piers Plowman; Sir Gwain and the Green
Knigh
• Anglo Saxon, Old English (450 – 1066) - Beowulf
MIDDLE AGES

5. • The Pearl Poet
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight 1375-1400 Arthurian Romance
• Chaucer (1387-1400)
• Boccacio
• Petrarch (evolution of sonnet form) 1304-1374
• Sir Thomas Malory (from ‘Morte Darthur’ The Conspiracy against
Lancelot and Guinevere)
• Dante (Divine Comedy) 1307 -75
• Invention of the printing press (1450
MIDDLE ENGLISH (1066 – 1500)

6. • 1485 Accession of Henry VII inaugurates
Tudor Dynasty
• 1504 Leonardo Da Vinci paints the Mona
Lisa
• 1508-12 Michelangelo paints the Sistine
Chapel
• 1509 Accession of Henry VIII
• 1517 Martin Luther’s 95 Wittenberg Theses;
beginning of the Reformation in Germany
• Machiavelli publishes ‘the prince’
• 1534 Henry VIII declares himself head of
the English church
• John Calvin ‘the institution of the Christian
Religion’
• 1543 Copernicus publishes ‘on the
revolution of spheres’
• 1547 Death of Henry VIII accession of
Protestant Edward VI
• Death of Edward VI accession of Catholic
Queen Mary daughter of Catherine of
Aragon
• 1558 Queen Mary dies accession of
Protestant Elizabeth 1st
• 1559 Book of common prayer (literature of
the sacred)
• 1576 Building of The Theatre, first
permanent structure in England for the
presentation of plays
• 1587 Marlowe’s ‘Tamburlaine’
• 1588 Defeat of the Spanish Armada
• 1603 Death of Liz 1st, accession of James
1st, the first of the Stuart kings.
• 1611 King James Bible published
• 1619 – first African slaves arrive in
Jamestown
IMPORTANT LITERARY DATES IN
THE 16TH CENTURY:

7. • Elizabethan Age (1558 – 1603)
A. Elizabeth 1st (Speech to the troops at
Tilbury 1752 – patriotism)
B. Shakespeare 1564-1616 (sonnets /
Venus & Adonis 1592-93)
C. Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder (the long
love that in my thought doth harbour /
whose list hunt)
D. Christopher Marlowe 1564-93 (Hero
and Leander (1598))
E. Ben Jonson (1572-1637) (Changeling /
on my first sonnet)
F. Jacobean Age (1603-1625)
G. John Donne (1572-1631)
H. Caroline Age (1625-1649) – Edmund
I. Spenser (Faerie Queen 1589),
J. Andrew Marvell Metaphysical
(1621-78) (To his coy mistress/the
definition of love)
K. Commonwealth Period (1649-1669)
L. Globe Theatre built
M. Cervantes (Don Quixote (1605-1615),
N. Henry Vaughan (1621-95),
O. John Milton 1608-74 (Paradise Lost)
THE RENAISSANCE (1500 – 1660)

8. • Important dates from the early 17th century
A. 1603 Death of Liz 1st accession of James 1st
B. 1605 Gun Powder Plot
C. 1620 Arrival of Pilgrims in the New World on the Mayflower
D. 1625 Death of James 1st accession of Charles 1st
E. 1642 Civil War starts – theatres closed
F. 1649 Execution of Charles 1st beginning of Commonwealth and
Protectorate known inclusively as the Interregnum (1649-50)
G. 1660 End of Protectorate; Restoration of Charles II
THE NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD
(1660-1785)

9. • Alexander Pope (poet 1688-1744) The Rape of the Lock (1717)
• Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders / The Cons of Marriage)
• Mary Astell (some reflections upon Marriage non-fiction)
• 1667 Milton – Paradise Lost
RESTORATION (1660-1744)

10. A. 1660 Charles II restored to the
throne; Samuel Pepys begins his
diary
B. 1662 Act of Uniformity requires
all clergy to obey the Church of
England; chartering of the
Royal Society.
C. 1666 Great Fire of London
D. 1668 Dryden becomes first
Poet Laureate
E. 1673 Test Act requires all
officeholders to swear
allegiance to Anglicanism.
F. 1678 John Bunyan writes
Pilgrim’s Progress
G. 1681 Charles II dissolves
Parliament
H. 1685 Death of Charles II James
II his Catholic brother takes the
I. 1687 Sir Isaac Newton –
Principia Mathematica
J. 1688-89 The Glorious
Revolution; James II exiled and
succeeded by his Protestant
daughter Mary and her husband
William of Orange.
K. 1690 Battle of the Boyne
L. 1702 Death of William III;
succession of Anne (Protestant
daughter of James II)
M. 1707 Act of Union with
Scotland
N. 1710 Tories take power
O. 1714 Death of Anne George I
succeeds; Tory government
replaced by Whigs
P. 1727 George I dies, George II
takes throne
Q. 1737 Licensing Act censors the
stage
R. 1746 Charles Edward Stuart’s
defeat at Culloden ends the last
Jacobite rebellion
S. 1754-63 – The French and
Indian War.
T. 1756 Beginning of Seven Years
War
U. 1759 British capture Quebec
assured Brit control of Canada
V. 1765 – British parliament passes
the STAMP ACT
W. 1768 Cook voyages to Australia
and NZ
X. 1775-83 American Revolution
Y. 1780 Gordon Riots in London
Z. 1783 William Pitt becomes
Prime Minister
IMPORTANT DATES
DURING RESTORATION

11. • Augustan Age (1700-1745)
A. Jonathon Swift – Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
• Puritan/Colonial Literature - America (1650-1750)
A. Voltaire (Candide – 1759)
B. Samuel Johnson (1709-84)
C. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Confessions)
D. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - 1749-1832 (Sorrows of young Goethe)
• The Age of Reason – America (1750 – 1850)
A. Thomas Paine (Common Sense – 1776)
OTHER PERIODS

12. • The Romantic Period & British Transcendentalism (1785 – 1830)
A. William Blake - Lyrical Ballads
B. William Wordsworth – The Prelude
C. Charlotte Dacre – Hours of Solitude/To him who says he loves
D. Mary Tighe – Psyche; or the Legend of Love
E. Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Frost at Midnight
F. Jane Austen
G. Byron
H. Shelley John Keats – Sonnets and Odes
• The Gothic Period (approx. 1785-1820)
A. Mary Shelley – Frankenstein (1818)
B. Bram Stoker - Dracula
OTHER AGES

13. 1783 – Treaty of Paris: British recognise American
independence
1784 – East India Board of Control Act – gave the EITC
sole responsibility for trade and patronage.
1787 – Convention delegates sign the Constitution
1789 – George Washington elected as the first president of
the US
1789 –99 French Revolution begins with the storming of the
Bastille
1797 – John Adams 2nd US President, Federralist
1799 – End of French Revolution
1800 Highland Clearances
1801 Treaty with Ireland
1803 – 1815 – The Nepoleonic Wars – Following the French
Revolution, Napoleon I of France began a series of
European wars.
1805 – The Battle of Trafalgar
1807 – Abolition of the Slave Trade ( Britain)
1811 – The Luddites
1819 – The Peterloo Massacre
1845 –50 Irish Famine
1848 – Health reform acts passed
1851 – The Great Exhibition
1854-56 The Crimean War
1855 – Lord Palmerson becomes British PM
1861-1865 – Period of American Civil War
1861 – Abraham Lincoln 16th US President, Republican
1863 – Battle of Gettysburg
1865 – 13th Amendment (abolition of slavery) ratified
1866 – Ku Klux Klan founded in Tennessee
1870 – Education Act passed (UK)
1873 – Period of US economic depression
1885 – Marquis of Salisbury becomes British PM
1888 – Jack the Ripper murders London prostitutes
1899-1902 – The Boer War
VICTORIAN PERIOD (1832-1901)

14. • Important Writers
A. Edgar Allan Poe – Influenced by Gothic
Period
B. Ebenezer Elliot –Sonnet/Woman
C. Charlotte Elliot – On the death of his
Vincent
D. Thomas Carlyle – Comparative Slavery
E. Letitia Elizabeth Landon – A Suttee/The
Factory
F. Robert Browning – My Last
Duchess/Porphyria’s Lover
G. Lord Alfred Tennyson – In Memoriam/
The Lady of Shallot
H. Elizabeth Barrett Browning – The Cry
of the Children/Sonnets
I. Charles Dickens
J. Christina Rossetti – Goblin Market
K. Emily Dickinson (US)
L. Charles Baudelaire – Hymn to
Beauty/To the Reader
M. Henry James
VICTORIAN PERIOD (1832-1901)

15. • Important Writers
A. Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre (1847)
B. Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights (1848)
C. Victor Hugo - Les Miserables (1862)
D. George Elliot – Middlemarch (1872)
E. Leo Tolstoy – Anna Karenina (1873 – 1877 in installments)
F. Walt Whitman – Leaves of Grass (1900)
• The Edwardian Period (1901-1914)
A. Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness (1902)
• Naturalism
A. Emile Zola – Germinal
VICTORIAN PERIOD (1832 – 1901)

16. Important events:
1916 – Ireland – The Easter Rising
1917-22 – Bolshevik uprising - Vladimir Llyich
Lenin becomes Soviet Premier
1918-1939 – The Great Depression. By summer
1921 2 million unemployed. The Llyod George
Coalition government collapsed. Ramsay
Macdonald creates the first Labour
Government.
1924-53 Josef Stalin becomes Soviet Secretary
General
1924 – 35 James Ramsay Macdonald first
Labour Government
1926 – The British General Strike
1929 – Wall Street Crash (US)
1937 – Neville Chamberlain becomes British
PM
1939 – Hitler invades Poland, beginning of
Second World War.
1940 –45. Winston Churchill become British
War-Time PM re-elected 1951-55
CONSERVATIVE
1945 – End of WW2 V-E Day May 9th 1945.
President Truman drops A-Bombs on Japan;
Unconditional surrender of Japan August 15th
1945.
1945-51 Britain under Labour Government
1946 – The British Labour party establishes the
NHS
1947 – India and Pakistan gain independence
THE MODERN PERIOD (1914 – 1945)

17. • Important Writers
A. T.S Elliot
B. F. Scott Fitzgerald – The Great Gatsby (1925)
C. James Joyce
D. T.H Lawrence
E. Gabriel Marquez
F. George Orwell – 1984
G. Sylvia Plath
• Existentialism/Absurdism
A. Sartre – Nausea
B. Camus – The Plague
THE MODERN PERIOD

18. 1950 – Korean War North (Communist) Korea invades (US)
South Korea.
1951-65 – Britain under Conservative Governance
1953 – (July) – Korean War ceasefire signed. The two
countries have remained at a state of war ever since.
1957 – European Union formed
1959 –1975 The beginnings of the Vietnam War or the
Second Indochina War
1962 – (October) CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS October 18th-29th.
1963 – JFK assassinated
1963-69 – Lyndon Baines Johnson US President –
DEMOCRAT
1964 – ( Russia) Khrushchev dies and Leniod Brezhnev
becomes next Secretary General of Soviet Union
1964 – 70 Harold Wilson becomes British PM LABOUR
1969-1974 – Richard Nixon US President REPUBLICAN
1970 – 74 Edward Heath becomes British PM
CONSERVATIVE
1972 – January – Blood Sunday Northern Ireland
1975 – Vietnam war finally over, Vietnam reunified by NLF.
1974-77 – Gerald Ford US President REPUBLICAN
1977-81 – Jimmy Carter DEMOCRAT
1979 –90 Margaret Thatcher becomes first female British PM
1981 –1989 – Ronald Regan US President REPUBLICAN
1982 – The Falklands War
1989-93 – George Bush Senior US President REPUBLICAN
1990-97 – John Major becomes British PM and Conservative
leader
1991-99 - Boris Yeltsin becomes President of the Russian
Republic
1991 – Gulf War
1993-2001 – Bill Clinton US President DEMOCRAT
1997 – Tony Blair becomes British PM Labour Party
1999 – Vladimir Putin becomes acting President of the
Russian Federation
2001 – George Bush Jr. US President. (Re)- Elected 2004.
REPUBLICAN
THE POST MODERN PERIOD
1950 – 2001 (DEBATE)

19. • Important Writers
A. Arthur Miller – The Crucible (1953)
B. Nabokov – Lolita
C. William Golding – Lord of the Flies (1954)
D. Ken Kessey – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
E. Louise Erdich – Love Medicine
F. Philip Larkin
• Working Contemporary Writers
A. Billy Collins
B. Carol Anne Duffy
C. Simon Armitage
D. Andrew Motion
THE POST MODERN PERIOD