This revised and updated volume explores the richness, diversity, and continuity of Britains literary heritage. Under the general editorship of Pat Rogers, some of Britain's foremost literary scholars trace the history of English literature from its first stirrings in Anglo-Saxon poetry to the present day.An Outline of English Literature, Second Edition, offers detailed treatments of major writers such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Wordsworth, Dickens, Eliot, and Auden, and up-to-date discussions of living authors such as Muriel Spark, Seamus Heaney, and Martin Amis. More than a mere chronology, this versatile work provides a basic core of information and invaluable supplementary material, including updated suggestions for further reading, maps, a chronological table of dates, and a detailed index with birth and death dates of individuals listed. It also moves beyond these facts and events to characterize the broad sweep of ideas and the main concerns of British writers over the past thirteen centuries. An Outline of English Literature, Second Edition weaves together the complex strands of English literature into a highly readable narrative.