The English Renaissance celebrated human potential and achievement. This volume chronicles the Protestant Reformation, scientific discoveries and the political events of the period, and hightlights the burst of creativity in drama and poetry.

A time of industrial growth, urbanization and scientific and economic upheaval, the Victorian period also witnessed drastic social change. Dickens, Tennyson, Hardy, Trollope and others explored such developments and the consequences on the human experience.

This volume covers the the wide-ranging historial, social and cultural developments since the end of World War II. The works of George Orwell, Samuel Beckett, Doris Lessing, Margaret Atwood, Tom Stoppard, Salman Rushdie and others are examined for their depiction of this period.

This five volume set puts English literature in context by providing the historical, cultural and social background of five major periods. Each volume is a basic introduction to the period, and provides summaries of the literary genres or each period and the representative writers and works.