A List of Canonical English Literature
In Chronological Order
This list, which gives titles and dates but not author names, is intended to give a good overview of canonical English literature, in order for any interested party to study for themselves. As the historical element of this is evidently important, it includes a few titles that, though not canonical, represent periods in which English literature was produced without any canonical texts arising. As the focus is on literature, it excludes non-fiction texts, as well as scripture, though some texts on religion are included. As a selection of canonical literature, it is necessarily dominated by white men, especially the wealthy; to alter this situation is a worthwhile goal, but one not suited to the present task, so this has been maintained. Inevitably, a large number of texts had to be excluded for sake of space, and in order to give a representation of various movements without allowing one to dominate too heavily. Though some inclusions toward the end will be controversial, the author believes they are justified.
Cædmon’s Hymn, about 670
Beowulf, about 1000
Battle of Maldon, somewhere between 991 and 1200
Layamon’s Brut, about 1200
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, about 1350-1399
The Canterbury Tales, 1400
Revelations of Divine Love, about 1410
York Mystery Plays, about 1470
Le Morte d’Arthur, 1485
The Summoning of Everyman, about 1500-1599
The Faerie Queene, 1596
Julius Caesar, 1599
The Duchess of Malfi, 1614
Paradise Lost, 1667
The Pilgrim’s Progress, 1678
Rape of the Lock, 1717
Robinson Crusoe, 1719
Moll Flanders, 1722
Journal of the Plague Year, 1722
Gulliver’s Travels, 1726
Pamela, 1740
The Dunciad, 1743
Fanny Hill, 1748
The Castle of Otranto, 1764
Tristram Shandy, 1767
The School for Scandal, 1777
Evelina, 1778
The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1795
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798
Pride and Prejudice, 1813
Frankenstein, 1818
Ozymandias, 1818
Ivanhoe, 1819
Ode to a Nightingale, 1819
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1820
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, 1821
Don Juan, 1824
Oliver Twist, 1838
The Fall of the House of Usher, 1839
The Raven, 1845
Vanity Fair, 1847
Jane Eyre, 1847
The Scarlet Letter, 1850
Moby-Dick, 1851
The Charge of the Light Brigade, 1854
North and South, 1855
The Woman in White, 1859
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, 1870
Middlemarch, 1872
The Portrait of a Lady, 1881
Treasure Island, 1883
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, 1886
She, 1887
Tess of the d’Urbervilles, 1891
The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1891
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 1892
The Jungle Book, 1894
The Invisible Man, 1897
Dracula, 1897
Heart of Darkness, 1899
Pygmalion, 1913
Dulce et Decorum est, 1920
The Waste Land, 1922
Ulysses, 1922
A Passage to India, 1924
Mrs Dalloway, 1925
The Call of Cthulhu, 1928
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 1928
Brave New World, 1932
Tropic of Cancer, 1934
Murder on the Orient Express, 1934
Brighton Rock, 1938
The Big Sleep, 1939
For Whom the Bell Tolls, 1940
Animal Farm, 1945
Under the Volcano, 1947
The Lord of the Rings, 1949
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, 1950
Casino Royale, 1952
Lord of the Flies, 1954
Waiting for Godot, 1955
Lolita, 1955
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, 1958
Things Fall Apart, 1958
Naked Lunch, 1959
To Kill a Mockingbird, 1960
Catch-22, 1961
A Clockwork Orange, 1962
We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 1962
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 1964
In Cold Blood, 1966
Slaughterhouse-Five, 1969
The Godfather, 1969
The Shining, 1977
The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, 1997