High School English Department
British Novels
Study guides to the great novels of Britain, for high school readers.
Proposals that go horribly wrong. Inheritances that vanish. Letters that change everything. British novels of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries were the box sets of their day, read aloud in parlours and passed from hand to hand, and they still have a lot to say about money, class, love and growing up.
Each guide here gives you the history behind the book, a who’s-who of the characters, the plot section by section, key quotations checked word for word against a free public-domain text, and a game and quiz to test what you know. Start with Jane Austen.
The guides
- Ready to read
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Austen · 1813 · 61 chapters in three volumes
Five sisters, an entailed estate, and a proud man who insults the wrong woman at a dance. Context on marriage and money in Austen’s England, characters by family, the plot volume by volume, a “Who Said It?” game and a quiz.
- Coming later
More British novels
More guides to British classics are being written for this shelf. Each will follow the same pattern: context, characters, plot, quotes, a game and a quiz.
In the meantime, try the Shakespeare and American Novels sections, linked at the bottom of this page.
How to read a British classic
Older novels move at a different pace. These five habits make them easier and more fun.
Follow the money
Write down who has how much, and where it comes from: land, trade, or a husband. Most plots turn on it.
Map the households
Characters arrive in families. Sketch a family tree in the first few chapters and keep adding to it.
Listen for irony
When the narrator says something grand, ask whether it is meant straight. Austen’s famous first line is a joke.
Read the letters closely
Letters carry secrets, confessions and news. They often turn the plot, so slow down when one arrives.
Check your first impressions
Note what you think of each character early on, then revisit those notes at the end. You may surprise yourself.
Word list: Regency English
Words you will meet in Pride and Prejudice, and what they meant then.
- Entail
- A legal arrangement that fixes who inherits an estate, often only male heirs. It is why the Bennet sisters will lose their home.
- “A year”
- Yearly income. “Ten thousand a year” means Mr. Darcy’s estate earns £10,000 every year.
- Living
- A paid post as a parish clergyman, often given by a rich landowner. Wickham claims he was cheated of one.
- Patroness
- A powerful supporter. Lady Catherine gave Mr. Collins his post and expects gratitude in return.
- Accomplished
- Trained in the polite skills expected of a young lady, such as music, drawing and languages.
- Militia
- Part-time regiments raised at home in wartime. Wickham’s regiment is quartered in Meryton for the winter.
- Trade
- Earning money from business rather than land. The Bingleys’ fortune came from trade, which some snobs looked down on.
- Elopement
- Running away to marry without family consent. It could ruin a young woman’s reputation, and her sisters’ too.
A short timeline of the British novel
Many famous British novels first appeared without their author’s real name, or in parts rather than as one book.
- 1719 Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is published, often called one of the first English novels.
- 1813 Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice appears in three volumes, signed only “By the Author of Sense and Sensibility.” Read the guide
- 1818 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is first published anonymously.
- 1847 Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre comes out under the pen name “Currer Bell,” and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights under “Ellis Bell.”
- 1860–61 Charles Dickens serialises Great Expectations week by week in his magazine All the Year Round.
- 1871–72 George Eliot (the pen name of Mary Ann Evans) publishes Middlemarch in eight instalments.
Sources: Wikipedia articles on Robinson Crusoe, Pride and Prejudice, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations and Middlemarch.
Art: The library banner and the Pemberley thumbnail are original SVG illustrations drawn for Jugami in a Regency palette of Wedgwood blue, primrose and sage.