Although there were many writers and books before, the first world-known English writer is William Shakespeare ( 1564 – 1616). He is one of the world’s well-known playwrights, he wrote historical plays, comedies and tragedies, his sonnets are well-known as well. His earlier plays include histories (for example Richard III, Julius Ceasar,....), comedies (Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ....) and tragedies (Romeo and Juliet). Later his best tragedies came (Hamlet, Othello, Mackbeth).
Daniel Defoe (1660 – 1731) – was a journalist who became famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe – the story about a castaway on a deserted island.
Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745) – was especially popular with children for his Gulliver Travels. In part one, the hero comes to the Land of Lilliput where only very tiny people live, next tells about his life among giants.
Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870) – was a representative of critical realism. In his novels he depicted the life of the poor in 19th century (Oliver Twist).
George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950) - his most famous play is Pygmalion – it tells about how two different social classes meet and shows the change of the two main characters. Later, a film musical was made based on the play, called My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn.
George Orwell (1903 – 1950) – born in India, he was educated in England, and lived even in the poorest parts of London and Paris, which gave him inspiration for his own works. Animal Farm – it satirizes the political situation of the Soviet Union.
Agatha Christie – known as the Queen of Detective Fiction. She wrote about 100 detective stories, novels and plays. She gave life to marvellous detectives – Ms Jane Marple, a woman of intuition who knows well both people and the habits of a small town, and Hercule Poirot, a Belgian-born detective.
From American literature of the 19th century we can mention Hermann Melville (Moby Dick – a famous symbolic novel about chasing a whale and fight between a man and an animal) and Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer – it describes Huck’s adventures on the Mississippi river).
Ernest Hemingway (1898 – 1962) – one of the most famous 20th century writers, he belongs to the Lost Generation writers. His story The Old Man and the Sea is a symbolic parallel between an old fisherman – Santiago – struggling for days with a huge marlin, and suffering
Christ.
John Steinbeck (1902 – 1968) – famous for Travels with Charley and The Grapes of Wrath (the story of an Oklahoma farm family working as fruit pickers).
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