This book is designed specially as a Core text for the First Degree Programmes under the CBCS system in B.A. English Literature and B.A. Communicative English, University of Kerala. It provides a need-based and student-friendly perspective on the history of English literature and a brief development of the language over the ages. This handy and useful textbook will help students understand, for example, how people lived during various ages in Britain, and the social and political organizations that evolved?as well as the literature that emerged?from these conditions It also provides an introduction to the study of the growth and development of the English language. Supported by detailed references and numerous quotations from representative works of literary importance and a timeline enumerating the major events that highlight the social and literary history of England, the book examines the representative literary works that have left an indelible mark over the years not only on British but also on world literature.