This free website contains analyses of texts by some of the most important writers in English Literature. It is intended for the more advanced student or dedicated general reader and there will never be any charge to view. I should be grateful if you would acknowledge it and quote the address if you use it for photocopying and distribution etc. since I retain the copyright as Barbara Daniels M.A. (Oxon), Dip.Ed. (Oxon), Ph.D. (London.)
I have tended to go through each text from beginning to end but students should not use this method in their own essays. For advice on the structure of an essay, particularly for examination purposes, visit the page Writing a Literature Essay.

I have blog with some technical terms defined as well as hints on language and approaches to literature: it is called Top Marks and the URL is http://tipsbarbaradaniels.blogspot.com

The texts covered so far here are:
Chaucer: selections from The Canterbury Tales: The General Prologue; The Pardoner; The Wife of Bath; The Franklin; The Merchant; The Nun's Priest; The Knight.
Shakespeare: Henry IV pt i; Othello; Macbeth; King Lear; Hamlet; The Merchant of Venice;
Antony and Cleopatra. Further recommended reading: Essential Shakespeare: The Arden Guide to Text and Interpretation by my ex-colleague Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens and its illuminating successor: ​Shakespeare and Early Modern Drama.
John Donne: selected love and religious poems.
Jane Austen: Emma; Sense and Sensibility.