The Penguin Guide to Literature in English: Britain and Ireland
provides an illustrated introduction to the work of the most important
writers and their historical background from the year 600 to the end of
the 20th century. It covers the works of novelists, dramatists, and
poets from Chaucer to Shakespeare, Austen to Dickens, James Joyce to
Seamus Heaney, right through to modern-day authors such as Jeanette
Winterson, Roddy Doyle, and Irvine Welsh. Written specifically for
non-native speakers of English, it offers many illustrations and
literary extracts as well as glossaries of literary and cultural terms,
a writer index, and a table showing the most important historical and
literary events.