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What better place to begin your search for the finest in English literature than in our British writers section. Arguably the envy of the English speaking and writing world, the ‘Best of British’ writers can be traced back centuries to early Anglo-Saxon times. The first true, published novel, in a format we’d recognise today, written in English by a British citizen, is often cited as Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe (1660 -1731), first published in 1719. There have of course been millions of great British works published since Defoe’s time – here’s a small collection from the home shelves of Country House Library.
“Heaven was a word: hell was something he could trust.” - Graham Greene, Brighton Rock
Set in the quintessentially English seaside resort of the title, Brighton Rock, first published in 1938, is the story of the criminal underworld led by 17-year-old ‘Pinkie’. Hell-bent on establishing himself, he plans to murder the journalist who indirectly caused the death of the gang’s former leader. Though Graham Greene (1904 – 91) called the novel an ‘entertainment’, it was profoundly influenced by his Catholicism and the symbolic tensions between Pinkie and the two main female protagonists – one a saintly figure and the other, a fun-loving hedonist. Country House Library holds a wide selection of vintage works by this literary heavyweight of the 20th century including the lesser known later work The Comedians from 1966 – a must for any collector of great British writers.
“I desire no future that will break the ties of the past.” - George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss
One of the most widely read and admired of George Eliot’s (1819 – 1880) works, The Mill on the Floss is a wonderful portrayal of childhood, provincial life and the tumultuous family and love-life of beautiful heroine Maggie Tulliver. Born Mary Anne Evans in Warwickshire, Eliot was one of the leading writers (male of female) of the Victorian era. Her masterpiece Middlemarch is widely considered to be one of the most complete and accomplished works of fiction in the English language.
“This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don’t you think so?” - Thomas Hardy, Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Giving the 1891 novel its full name, Tess of the D’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented, Thomas Hardy’s (1840 – 1928) work rejected the conventional Victorian heroine provoking a controversy among the middle-class readership of the day. When this controversy continued with Hardy’s later novel, Jude the Obscure, the author abandoned fiction in favour of poetry. The tragic tale of Tess Durbeyfield’s downfall is one of the classic Victorian romantic novels by one of Britain’s best loved novelist and poet.
“A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.” - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen’s (1775 – 1817) famous novel, originally title First Impressions, was begun in 1796 when the author was only 21 years old, but finally appeared 17 years later in 1813, just a few years before the authors premature death. The romantic machinations of the Bennet and Bingley sisters, George Wickham and the aloof but dashing FitzWilliam Darcy have been made into numerous film versions and remains a firm favourite to this day. This 1850 publication from Random House, contains a ‘double bill’ with Austen’s first full publication Sense and Sensibility from 1811, when she was still working on Pride and Prejudice and Northanger Abbey (published posthumously, 1818).
Prolific Victorian author, Anthony Trollope (1815 – 82), is most renowned for his two separate series of novels; ‘The Barsetshire Novels’, centred around a fictitious religious county milieu of bishops, deans and archdeacons, and the ‘Palliser Novels’ (Can You Forgiver Her?, The Eustace Diamonds, Phineas Finn, Phineas Redux, The Prime Minister, and The Duke’s Children) focussed on the political intrigues of politics, power, Westminster and the office of Prime Minister. This collection of four of Trollope’s novels includes the author’s personal favourite from the Barsetshire series The Last Chronicle of Barset(1866-67) and the unusually named Is He Popinjoy? which he'd written in response to Victorian society’s fascination with a factual scandal and court case regarding a dishonest claim of a Baronetcy.
“I'll not listen to reason... reason always means what someone else has got to say.” – Elizabeth Gaskell, Cranford.
Friend of Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth (Cleghorn) Gaskell (1810 – 65), wrote prolifically from her first novel Mary Barton (1848) to her highly acclaimed later works including Wives and Daughters (1865, published posthumously). Set in a thinly disguised Knutsford in Cheshire, Cranford is a gently understated tale of a retiring spinster and the little circle around her – a book that pronounces on the fundamental verities and decencies of the human condition. In a century rich with female writers, Gaskell stands out for her sympathy with the deprived, her love of nature and gentle humour.
Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not... Both are equally terrifying – Arthur C. Clarke
One of the towering figures of British, and indeed international, Science Fiction, Sir Arthur C(harles) Clarke (1917 – 2008) co-wrote with Stanley Kubrick the screenplay for one of the most influential films of all time 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Most of Clarke’s literary output aimed at ‘technological realism’ including Rendevouz with Rama, 1973, and he published a number of short story collections including this one, Tales of Ten Worlds from 1963. An ardent champion of technological progress and space exploration, this author will always be a father figure of British and international science fiction.
“Love is not everything, Mademoiselle,' Poirot said gently. 'It is only when we are young that we think it is.” – Agatha Christie, Death on The Nile
The grand dame of British Detective Fiction, Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie (1890 – 1976) wrote more than 80 books making her beyond doubt the most prolific detective fiction writer of the 20th century. Her first published novel in 1920 introduced the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Ten years later, Christie introduced the shrewd but gentle Miss Marple. Perfunctory in setting and characterisation, her novels concentrate on the tantalising ingenuity of their plot. In this novel from 1960, Poirot endeavours to pinpoint the culprit who shot the beautiful Linnet Doyle on a luxury Nile steamboat.
In this selection of ‘Best of British’ we couldn’t overlook literature for children, and who better to represent the male authors than the Reverend Wilbert Vere Awdry OBE (1911 – 97) and his phenomenally successful series of fantasy books about steam railway engines. Based on stories the author invented for his infant son, Awdry’s characters of Thomas the Tank Engine, Gordon, the Big Engine, Edward, the Blue Engine, Daisy the Diesel Engine, and The Fat Controller, have delighted children both in book form and TV series, since his first book The Three Railway Engines (1945).
Our final entry in this roll-call of the ‘Best of British’ is the timeless children’s author and illustrator Beatrix Potter (1866 – 1943) - a prolific writer with most of her work describing the lives of a menagerie of animal characters including rabbits (Ginger and Pickles), squirrels (The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin), and hedgehogs such as this book with Mrs Tiggy-Winkle. Born into an upper-middle-class household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and spent holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developing a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. She wrote thirty books, many of which are currently available in vintage format from Country House Library.
With a roll call of names including Graham Greene, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Anthony Trollope, this can only be a small sample from Country House Library’s ‘Best of British’ authors. All highly influential in the history of English Literature, for adults and children, we should be rightly proud of our home-grown writers. Delve into our long list of other British writers for your choices of favourite books and authors, vintage and new.
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