Essential facts about English Literature
1_ The English language is split into three large time periods, each represented by a main author or work: Old English (Beowulf), Middle English (Geoffrey Chaucer), and Modern English (William Shakespeare).
2_ The oldest surviving English text is Caedmon’s Hymn of Creation.
3_ When King Henry VIII had England’s monasteries burned down in 1535, many of the oldest texts written in English also went up in flames.
4_ The first novel wasn’t written in English (critics usually give that honor to Cervantes’ Don Quixote), but the first extremely successful novel was: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.
5_ Works written in English have won twenty-six Nobel Prizes in Literature, more than any other language. Of those twenty-six, nine were won by authors from the United Kingdom.
6_ Bede- the father of English learning. The first Historian.
7_ Caedmon- the first English poet.
8_ Cynewulf- first writer to sign his works.
9_ Alfred- first prose writer in English.
10_ Chaucer- father of English literature
11_ Dryden- father of English criticism
Bacon- father of English esaay
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