1.History until Renaissance and Humanism
2.Renaissance and Humanism
3.The 18th century
4.Romanticism
5.The19th century
5.1.Critical realism (Victorian age)
5.2.Decadence and symbolism
5.3.The life of upper English classes
5.4.Exotic stories
5.5.Humour and detective fiction
6.The 20th century
6.1.Prose
6.2.Drama

" the 18th century
- dominating the 18th century was the rational spirit of the lexicographer Samuel Johnson. He was the organizer of the intellectual life of this era and wrote a Dictionary of the English language.
- Jonathan Swift is famous for his immortal Gulliver’s Travels – a satire on British society
- it’s an allegory of Lemuel Gulliver's travelling thorough imaginary countries. He criticises politics in England, kingdoms, armies, bad politicians etc. He visits four quite different worlds. The first one is country called Lilliput, where the people are six inches high, the second country is Brobdingnag, which is inhabited by giants. The third is the “Flying island”, and the fourth one is with Yahoos, disgusting beasts in the shape of men, who live under the sensible race of horse’s authority.
- the journalist, poet and historian Daniel Defoe put his belief in the power of the human race into his novel Robinson Crusoe
- the founder of the modern novel was Henry Fielding - he wrote a realistic novel Tom Jones, where he described the life in the18th century England
- the rationalism of the 18th century was also reflected in poetry"

Některé pasáže práce jsou velmi stručné - například nejstarším období je charakterizováno pouze dvěma díly.