English Literature Guide: Chronological Table of Major Works for Assistant Professor & NET Exams

 English Literature Table: Major Works, Their Authors & Themes 

(Last Updated: 12.05.2025). Check here Chronological list (table) of Major English Literature Works with their authors, themes, publication years, genres, and characters. This list is very useful for the students of English Literature who are appearing in competitive examinations of English Literature such as UGC NET/SET/SLET, HTET/TET, and other objective exams such as HPSC Assistant Professor English. Here is English Literature Important Works with their Authors.

 English Literature: List of Major Works, Authors, Genre, Themes and Characters 

Unit-I: Drama
Work	Author	Pub. Year	Genre	Themes	Main Characters
Oedipus Rex	Sophocles	c. 429 BCE	Greek Tragedy	Fate vs Free Will, Hubris, Blindness	Oedipus, Jocasta, Creon, Tiresias
Abhijnanasakuntalam	Kalidasa	c. 4th–5th century CE	Sanskrit Drama	Love, Separation, Divine Intervention	Shakuntala, King Dushyanta, Sage Kanva
The Pot of Gold	Plautus	c. 200 BCE	Roman Comedy	Greed, Misunderstanding, Social Status	Euclio, Megadorus, Phaedria
Doctor Faustus	Christopher Marlowe	c. 1592	Elizabethan Tragedy	Knowledge and Power, Sin, Damnation	Dr. Faustus, Mephistopheles, Wagner
Hamlet	William Shakespeare	c. 1601	Tragedy	Revenge, Madness, Mortality	Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Ophelia
Twelfth Night	William Shakespeare	c. 1602	Comedy	Love, Identity, Mistaken Identity	Viola, Orsino, Olivia, Malvolio
Henry IV Part 1	William Shakespeare	1597	History	Honor, Rebellion, Kingship	Prince Hal, Falstaff, Hotspur, King Henry IV
The Merchant of Venice	William Shakespeare	c. 1596	Comedy/Problem Play	Justice, Mercy, Prejudice	Shylock, Antonio, Portia, Bassanio
The Duchess of Malfi	John Webster	1614	Jacobean Tragedy	Corruption, Power, Gender	Duchess, Ferdinand, Bosola, Antonio
Volpone	Ben Jonson	1606	Satirical Comedy	Greed, Deception, Hypocrisy	Volpone, Mosca, Voltore, Corbaccio
The Way of the World	William Congreve	1700	Restoration Comedy	Marriage, Deception, Social Manners	Mirabell, Millamant, Lady Wishfort
The School for Scandal	Richard Brinsley Sheridan	1777	Comedy of Manners	Gossip, Hypocrisy, Reputation	Lady Teazle, Sir Peter, Charles Surface
Arms and the Man	George Bernard Shaw	1894	Anti-Romantic Comedy	War and Heroism, Love, Realism	Raina, Bluntschli, Sergius, Catherine
Look Back in Anger	John Osborne	1956	Kitchen Sink Drama	Disillusionment, Class Conflict, Alienation	Jimmy Porter, Alison, Cliff
Waiting for Godot	Samuel Beckett	1953	Absurdist Drama	Meaninglessness, Time, Human Condition	Vladimir, Estragon, Pozzo, Lucky
The Iceman Cometh	Eugene O'Neill	1946	Realist Drama	Illusion vs Reality, Hopelessness	Hickey, Harry Hope, Larry Slade
Death of a Salesman	Arthur Miller	1949	Tragedy	American Dream, Failure, Identity	Willy Loman, Biff, Linda, Happy
A Streetcar Named Desire	Tennessee Williams	1947	Southern Gothic Drama	Desire, Madness, Illusion vs Reality	Blanche DuBois, Stanley, Stella
A Doll’s House	Henrik Ibsen	1879	Realist Drama	Gender Roles, Individual Freedom	Nora, Torvald, Krogstad, Mrs. Linde
Tughlaq	Girish Karnad	1964	Historical/Political Drama	Idealism vs Reality, Power, Madness, Politics	Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, Aziz, Aazam, Step-Mother
Final Solutions	Mahesh Dattani	1993	Contemporary Indian Drama	Communalism, Identity, Prejudice	Ramnik, Hardika, Javed, Aruna
Unit-II: Poetry
Work	Author	Pub. Year	Genre	Themes	Main Characters
The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue	Geoffrey Chaucer	c. 1387–1400	Frame Narrative / Middle English Poetry	Social satire, class structure, pilgrimage, morality	The Narrator, The Knight, The Wife of Bath, The Pardoner, The Miller, The Host
The Faerie Queene	Edmund Spenser	1590, 1596	Epic Poetry / Allegory	Virtue, morality, Protestantism, chivalry	Redcrosse Knight, Una, Duessa, Prince Arthur, Gloriana
Sonnet 1: "Loving in truth, and fain in verse my love to show"	Philip Sidney	1591	Sonnet / Petrarchan Love Poetry	Unrequited love, poetic inspiration	Astrophil, Stella
Sonnet 2: "Not at first sight, nor with a dribbed shot"	Philip Sidney	1591	Sonnet / Petrarchan Love Poetry	Unrequited love, poetic inspiration	Astrophil, Stella
Sonnet 5: "It is most true that eyes are formed to serve"	Philip Sidney	1591	Sonnet / Petrarchan Love Poetry	Desire, reason, conflict	Astrophil, Stella
Sonnet 31: "With how sad steps, O Moon, thou climb’st the skies"	Philip Sidney	1591	Sonnet / Petrarchan Love Poetry	Loneliness, heartbreak	Astrophil, Stella
Sonnet 39: "Come Sleep! O Sleep, the certain knot of peace"	Philip Sidney	1591	Sonnet / Petrarchan Love Poetry	Escape, rest, unfulfilled love	Astrophil, Stella
Sonnet 18: "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?"	William Shakespeare	1609	Sonnet	Beauty, immortality, poetic praise	The Poet, Fair Youth
Sonnet 24	William Shakespeare	1609	Sonnet	Art and love, perception	The Poet, Beloved
Venus and Adonis	William Shakespeare	1593	Narrative Poem	Love, rejection, tragedy	Venus, Adonis
The Flea	John Donne	c. 1590s	Metaphysical Poetry	Seduction, union, logic	The Speaker, The Beloved
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning	John Donne	1611	Metaphysical Poetry	Separation, spiritual love	The Speaker, His Wife
The Ecstasy	John Donne	c. 1600	Metaphysical Poetry	Soul-body relationship, love	The Speaker, The Beloved
The Good Morrow	John Donne	c. 1600	Metaphysical Poetry	Awakening, true love	The Speaker, The Beloved
Paradise Lost (Book I)	John Milton	1667	Epic Poetry / Blank Verse	Fall of man, rebellion, temptation	Satan, Adam, Eve, God
To His Coy Mistress	Andrew Marvell	1681	Metaphysical Poetry	Carpe diem, love, time	The Speaker, The Mistress
Absalom and Achitophel	John Dryden	1681	Political Satire / Heroic Couplets	Betrayal, politics, power	David, Absalom, Achitophel
The Rape of the Lock	Alexander Pope	1712, 1714	Mock-Epic / Satire	Vanity, society, beauty	Belinda, The Baron, Ariel
The Vanity of Human Wishes	Samuel Johnson	1749	Satirical Poetry	Human ambition, futility	Generalized Figures
Tintern Abbey	William Wordsworth	1798	Romantic Lyric	Nature, memory, spiritual insight	The Speaker
Ode: Intimations of Immortality	William Wordsworth	1807	Romantic Ode	Childhood, loss, transcendence	The Speaker
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Samuel Taylor Coleridge	1798	Narrative Poetry / Ballad	Sin, redemption, nature	Ancient Mariner, Wedding Guest
Ode to the West Wind	P. B. Shelley	1820	Romantic Ode	Change, inspiration, renewal	The Speaker
To a Skylark	P. B. Shelley	1820	Lyric Poem	Joy, beauty, artistic inspiration	The Speaker, The Skylark
Ode to a Nightingale	John Keats	1819	Romantic Ode	Mortality, imagination, transcendence	The Speaker, The Nightingale
Ode on a Grecian Urn	John Keats	1819	Romantic Ode	Art, eternity, beauty	The Speaker, Urn Figures
To Autumn	John Keats	1819	Romantic Ode	Nature, fulfillment, time	The Speaker
The Lotus Eaters	Alfred, Lord Tennyson	1832	Narrative Poem	Escape, weariness, detachment	Mariners, Narrator
Ulysses	Alfred, Lord Tennyson	1842	Dramatic Monologue	Heroism, aging, perseverance	Ulysses
In Memoriam A.H.H.	Alfred, Lord Tennyson	1850	Elegy	Grief, memory, faith	The Speaker, Arthur Hallam
My Last Duchess	Robert Browning	1842	Dramatic Monologue	Power, jealousy, control	The Duke, The Duchess
The Last Ride Together	Robert Browning	1855	Dramatic Monologue	Love, loss, reflection	The Lover, The Beloved
The Lost Mistress	Robert Browning	1855	Dramatic Monologue	Regret, acceptance, memory	The Speaker, The Mistress
Dover Beach	Matthew Arnold	1851	Lyric Poem	Doubt, faith, modernity	The Speaker
The Scholar-Gipsy	Matthew Arnold	1853	Narrative Poem	Idealism, tradition vs. modernity	Scholar-Gipsy
The Blessed Damozel	Dante Gabriel Rossetti	1850	Pre-Raphaelite Poem	Love, death, reunion	The Damozel
The Portrait	Dante Gabriel Rossetti	1869	Pre-Raphaelite Poem	Love, art, memory	The Painter, The Muse
The Second Coming	W. B. Yeats	1919	Modernist Poem	Chaos, apocalypse, modern decay	The Speaker
When You Are Old	W. B. Yeats	1893	Lyric Poem	Love, memory, aging	The Speaker, The Beloved
A Prayer for My Daughter	W. B. Yeats	1921	Lyric Poem	Fatherhood, future, tradition	The Speaker, The Daughter
The Waste Land	T. S. Eliot	1922	Modernist Poem	Disillusionment, fragmentation	Tiresias, Speaker, Modern Figures
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock	T. S. Eliot	1915	Dramatic Monologue	Alienation, indecision, modern life	Prufrock
In Memory of W. B. Yeats	W. H. Auden	1940	Elegy	Mourning, legacy of poetry	The Speaker, Yeats
The Shield of Achilles	W. H. Auden	1955	Political Poem	War, disillusionment, modernity	Thetis, Achilles, Modern Figures
Daddy	Sylvia Plath	1962	Confessional Poetry	Trauma, father complex	The Speaker
Lady Lazarus	Sylvia Plath	1962	Confessional Poetry	Resurrection, suffering, identity	The Speaker
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d	Walt Whitman	1865	Elegy	Death, mourning, Lincoln	The Speaker, Lincoln
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry	Walt Whitman	1856	Transcendental Poem	Unity, time, identity	The Speaker
Because I Could Not Stop for Death	Emily Dickinson	c. 1860s	Lyric Poem	Mortality, eternity	The Speaker, Death
Success is Counted Sweetest	Emily Dickinson	c. 1860s	Lyric Poem	Achievement, perspective	The Speaker
I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed	Emily Dickinson	c. 1860s	Lyric Poem	Imagination, joy, intoxication	The Speaker
Night of the Scorpion	Nissim Ezekiel	1965	Narrative Poem	Superstition, sacrifice	The Mother, The Speaker, Villagers
Goodbye Party for Miss Pushpa T.S.	Nissim Ezekiel	1970	Satirical Poem	Indian English, farewell, humor	The Speaker, Miss Pushpa
The Patriot	Nissim Ezekiel	1965	Satirical Poem	Nationalism, irony	The Speaker
The Professor	Nissim Ezekiel	1970	Satirical Monologue	Education, tradition, Indian society	The Professor
The Freaks	Kamala Das	1960s	Confessional Poem	Alienation, sexuality, identity	The Speaker, The Husband
A Hot Noon in Malabar	Kamala Das	1960s	Confessional Poem	Nostalgia, longing, femininity	The Speaker
The Sunshine Cat	Kamala Das	1960s	Feminist Poem	Emotional abuse, oppression	The Speaker, Her Husband
The Looking Glass	Kamala Das	1960s	Confessional Poem	Self-image, love, empowerment	The Speaker
Unit-III: Fiction & Short Stories
Work	Author	Pub. Year	Genre	Themes	Main Characters
Robinson Crusoe	Daniel Defoe	1719	Adventure, Realism	Survival, Individualism, Colonialism, Providence	Robinson Crusoe, Friday
Tom Jones	Henry Fielding	1749	Comic Novel, Picaresque	Virtue, Hypocrisy, Social Class, Morality	Tom Jones, Sophia Western, Squire Allworthy
Pride and Prejudice	Jane Austen	1813	Romantic, Social Commentary	Marriage, Pride, Prejudice, Class, Family	Elizabeth Bennet, Mr. Darcy, Jane Bennet, Mr. Bingley
Wuthering Heights	Emily Brontë	1847	Gothic, Romantic Tragedy	Revenge, Passion, Class, Nature vs. Culture	Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, Nelly Dean
Hard Times	Charles Dickens	1854	Social Novel, Realism	Industrialization, Utilitarianism, Education, Class Divide	Thomas Gradgrind, Louisa, Sissy Jupe, Mr. Bounderby
The Mill on the Floss	George Eliot	1860	Bildungsroman, Domestic Fiction	Family, Gender Roles, Religion vs. Desire, Tragedy	Maggie Tulliver, Tom Tulliver, Philip Wakem, Mr. Tulliver
Tess of the d’Urbervilles	Thomas Hardy	1891	Tragedy, Naturalism	Fate, Purity, Injustice, Industrialization, Gender	Tess Durbeyfield, Angel Clare, Alec d’Urberville
Sons and Lovers	D.H. Lawrence	1913	Psychological Novel, Modernist	Oedipal Complex, Family Conflict, Love, Class	Paul Morel, Gertrude Morel, Clara Dawes, Miriam Leivers
Nana	Émile Zola	1880	Naturalism, Social Realism	Corruption, Sexual Power, Decadence, Heredity	Nana (Anna Coupeau), Count Muffat, Steiner, Fontan
To the Lighthouse	Virginia Woolf	1927	Modernist, Stream of Consciousness	Time, Memory, Gender Roles, Art, Family	Mrs. Ramsay, Mr. Ramsay, Lily Briscoe, James Ramsay
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man	James Joyce	1916	Modernist, Bildungsroman	Individual identity, religion, rebellion, artistic freedom	Stephen Dedalus, Simon Dedalus, Cranly, Emma Clery, Dante Riordan
A Passage to India	E. M. Forster	1924	Modernist, Postcolonial Novel	Colonialism, friendship, cultural misunderstanding, spiritual confusion	Dr. Aziz, Cyril Fielding, Adela Quested, Mrs. Moore, Ronny Heaslop
The Scarlet Letter	Nathaniel Hawthorne	1850	Romanticism, Historical Fiction	Sin and guilt, hypocrisy, legalism vs. morality, identity, isolation	Hester Prynne, Arthur Dimmesdale, Roger Chillingworth, Pearl
Lucky Jim	Kingsley Amis	1954	Comic Novel, Satire, Campus Novel	Hypocrisy in academia, social mobility, conformity, individual rebellion	Jim Dixon, Professor Welch, Margaret Peel, Bertrand Welch, Christine Callaghan, Julius Gore-Urquhart
Nineteen Eighty-Four	George Orwell	1949	Dystopian Fiction, Political Allegory	Totalitarianism, surveillance, manipulation of truth, individual vs. state, language as control	Winston Smith, Julia, O'Brien, Big Brother, Emmanuel Goldstein, Mr. Charrington
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn	Mark Twain	1884	Adventure, Satire, Picaresque	Racism and slavery, moral growth, freedom, hypocrisy of 'civilized' society	Huckleberry Finn, Jim, Tom Sawyer, Pap Finn
The Portrait of a Lady	Henry James	1881	Psychological novel, Realism	Personal freedom, independence, identity, societal expectations, betrayal	Isabel Archer, Gilbert Osmond, Madame Merle, Ralph Touchett, Lord Warburton
A Farewell to Arms	Ernest Hemingway	1929	War novel, Romance, Modernist fiction	Love and loss, war and its futility, disillusionment, stoicism, existentialism	Frederic Henry, Catherine Barkley, Rinaldi, The Priest
The Color Purple	Alice Walker	1982	Epistolary novel, African-American fiction	Race and gender oppression, resilience, sisterhood, spirituality, self-discovery	Celie, Nettie, Shug Avery, Mister (Albert), Sofia, Harpo
Kanthapura	Raja Rao	1938	Political novel, Indian English literature	Gandhian nationalism, caste discrimination, colonial resistance, oral tradition, reform	Moorthy, Achakka (narrator), Rangamma, Bhatta, Patel Range Gowda
Untouchable	Mulk Raj Anand	1935	Social Realism / Political Fiction	Caste discrimination, social injustice, purity vs. pollution, reform	Bakha, Lakha, Colonel Hutchinson, Charat Singh
The Guide	R. K. Narayan	1958	Philosophical Fiction / Satire	Transformation, love and betrayal, self-deception, spirituality vs. materialism	Raju, Rosie, Marco, Velan
The Shadow Lines	Amitav Ghosh	1988	Postcolonial Fiction	Memory, nationalism, partition, identity, boundaries (physical & imagined)	Narrator, Tridib, Ila, Tha'mma, Robi
That Long Silence	Shashi Deshpande	1988	Feminist Fiction / Domestic Realism	Silence and voice, gender roles, marital strain, self-realization	Jaya, Mohan, Kamat, Vanitamami, Rahul
Rosarita	Anita Desai	2024	Psychological Fiction / Diaspora	Memory, identity, cultural dislocation, maternal legacy, introspection	Bonita, Sarita/Rosarita, Vicky (the Stranger)
The Mistress of Spices	Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni	1997	Magical Realism / Diaspora Fiction	Cultural identity, tradition vs. desire, sacrifice, empowerment, immigrant life	Tilo, Raven, First Mother, Geeta, Haroun, Jagjit
The Twyborn Affair	Patrick White	1979	Literary Fiction	Identity, sexuality, transformation, societal expectations	Eddie/Eudoxia/Eadith Twyborn
The Handmaid's Tale	Margaret Atwood	1985	Dystopian Fiction	Oppression, gender roles, totalitarianism, resistance	Offred, Serena Joy, The Commander, Moira
Things Fall Apart	Chinua Achebe	1958	Historical Fiction	Colonialism, tradition vs change, masculinity, fate	Okonkwo, Nwoye, Ezinma, Ikemefuna
Karmabhoomi	Munshi Premchand	1932	Political/Social Novel	Duty, non-violence, caste, reform, idealism	Amarkant, Sukhada
A House for Mr. Biswas	V.S. Naipaul	1961	Literary Fiction	Identity, independence, colonialism, personal struggle	Mohun Biswas, Shama, the Tulsi family
Midnight's Children	Salman Rushdie	1981	Magical Realism	History, identity, partition, politics, memory	Saleem Sinai, Shiva, Padma
The Gift of the Magi	O. Henry	1905	Short Story	Love, sacrifice, poverty, irony	Della, Jim
The Tell-Tale Heart	Edgar Allan Poe	1843	Gothic Horror	Guilt, madness, paranoia, crime	Unnamed narrator, the old man
The Garden Party	Katherine Mansfield	1922	Modernist Short Story	Class divide, innocence, death, social awareness	Laura Sheridan, Mrs. Sheridan, the Scott family
The Necklace (La Parure)	Guy de Maupassant	1884	Realist Short Story	Vanity, pride, materialism, irony, social class	Mathilde Loisel, Monsieur Loisel, Madame Forestier
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World	Gabriel García Márquez	1968	Magical Realism / Short Story	Transformation, community, imagination, beauty, myth-making	Esteban (the drowned man), villagers
Kabuliwala	Rabindranath Tagore	1892	Short Story / Realist Fiction	Fatherhood, separation, friendship, cultural difference	Kabuliwala (Rahamat), Mini, Mini's father
The Blue Umbrella	Ruskin Bond	1980	Novella / Children’s Fiction	Kindness, jealousy, forgiveness, rural life	Binya, Ram Bharosa
The Shroud (Kafan)	Munshi Premchand	1936	Realist Short Story	Poverty, apathy, social injustice, irony	Ghisu, Madhav, Budhiya
Unit-IV: Non-Fictional Prose
Work	Author	Pub. Year	Genre	Themes	Main Characters
Of Studies	Francis Bacon	1597 (rev. 1625)	Essay	Value of learning, balance in study and practice	None (philosophical essay)
Of Truth	Francis Bacon	1597 (rev. 1625)	Essay	Nature of truth, human inclination to lie	None
Of Friendship	Francis Bacon	1612 (rev. 1625)	Essay	Importance and utility of friendship	None
Of Love	Francis Bacon	1612 (rev. 1625)	Essay	Love as passion vs. reason	None
Duelling	Steele/Addison	1711–1712	Periodical Essay	Social criticism, honor, masculinity	Spectator Club members
Of the Club	Steele/Addison	1711–1712	Periodical Essay	Social life, diverse personalities	Spectator, Sir Roger, etc.
Female Orators	Steele/Addison	1711–1712	Periodical Essay	Women's education and expression	Satirical portrayals
Aims of the Spectator	Steele/Addison	1711	Periodical Essay	Moral reform, improvement of society	Spectator, Mr. Spectator
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman	Mary Wollstonecraft	1792	Political Philosophy	Women's rights, education, equality	None (treatise)
Self-Reliance	Ralph Waldo Emerson	1841	Essay	Individualism, nonconformity, intuition	None
The American Scholar	Ralph Waldo Emerson	1837	Speech/Essay	Intellectual independence, education, national identity	None
The Foundations of Indian Culture	Sri Aurobindo	1918–1921 (essays collected)	Cultural Critique/Philosophy	Indian identity, spirituality, culture vs. Western materialism	None
My Experiments with Truth	M. K. Gandhi	1927	Autobiography	Truth, nonviolence (ahimsa), personal and political growth	Gandhi himself, family, Indian leaders
The Hindu View of Life	S. Radhakrishnan	1926	Philosophy/Religion	Hinduism, spirituality, tolerance	None (theoretical discourse)
Wings of Fire	A. P. J. Abdul Kalam	1999	Autobiography	Science, struggle, patriotism, inspiration	Kalam, mentors, family, colleagues
Long Walk to Freedom	Nelson Mandela	1994	Autobiography	Apartheid, justice, perseverance, leadership	Mandela, ANC leaders, family

Note: This list will be updated at regular intervals, so refresh this page continuously.

>> American Literature: List of Major Authors & Their Works

>> Indian English Literature: List of Major Authors and Their Works

>> 20th English Literature: List of Famous Books and Writers

See: HPSC Assistant Professor English Sample Paper 2025

See Also: English Literature Important Question-Answers (Objective type MCQs)