In revising A Short History of English Literature Harry Blamires has thoroughly updated his final three chapters to bring the discussion on the plays, poetry and novels of the twentieth century into the 1980s; the bibliography has also been fully revised and now provides up-to-date guidance for further study. The second edition has lost none of the original's conciseness and readability. The author guides the reader through some six centuries of English literature, beginning with Chaucer's time, when the language became recognizibly our own, and goes on to analyse the background, interconnections and major achievements of individual writers in each period. He gives the reader a sense both of the continuning literary tradition and the radical changes that, for example, the Romantic Movement brought in. The book leaves the reader informed about each writer's main output, sensitive to the special character of his gifts and aware of the writer's place in the story of English literature as a whole. A lucid and readable guide, it is invaluable both to the student of English literature and to the general reader. -- Back cover.