A Level Literature Wider Reading Recommendations
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A Level Literature Wider Reading Recommendations
Contents
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 2
And Still I Rise – Maya Angelou (Poetry) ......................................................................................... 3
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (Prose) ................................................................. 7
Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut (Prose)............................................................................... 10
Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (Prose) ..................................................................................... 13
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (Prose) .............................................................................. 20
The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (Prose) ................................................................................................ 23
The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy (Poetry) ................................................................................. 26
Top Girls – Caryl Churchill (Drama) ............................................................................................... 29
The Glass Menagerie – Tennessee Williams (Drama) ................................................................... 34
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (Prose) .......................................................................... 38
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (Prose) ............................................................................. 43
Brighton Rock – Graham Greene (prose) ...................................................................................... 48
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (prose) ................................................................................... 53
1984 – George Orwell (prose)........................................................................................................ 58
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (Prose).................................................................................... 61
Student response sheet ................................................................................................................. 64
Further Suggestions for Wider Reading: ........................................................................................ 66
Drama......................................................................................................................................... 66
Poetry ......................................................................................................................................... 66
Novels ........................................................................................................................................ 66
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Introduction
Congratulations on choosing English literature A level! By choosing this challenging and respected
qualification you will prove to future employers and universities that you are well-read, can
appreciate contextual issues, can synthesize information from a wide range of sources analytically
and express your own ideas clearly in polished prose. Most of all, by studying literature, you will
show yourself to have the capacity for empathy because you have come across such a diverse
range of characters, places and situations in your wide reading.
In this booklet, your A level teachers have chosen a range of highly regarded texts that they think
you will enjoy and that they know well. We have provided you with front cover and blurb, and the
opening of each text. This booklet aims to serve two purposes:
1. To inspire you to read widely for pleasure and to thus increase your knowledge of the way
texts work. Wide reading will prepare you for the ‘unseen’ aspects of the course as well as
increasing your overall knowledge, enjoyment and understanding of literature.
2. To help you select texts for your A level coursework. For your coursework (which you will
start in Year 12, term 6) you will have to select two texts with similar themes and ideas.
With help from your teachers you will create an essay title and find critical essays where
other experts analyse your texts. During the Summer holidays between Years 12 and 13,
we will expect you to write a first draft of your coursework. Therefore, it is imperative that
you already lots of wider reading done before next July.
At the end of the booklet you will find a sheet with ideas as to how you can best go about your
initial reading. This might help you to decide whether or not you want to go ahead and read the
whole text. It might also help you decide whether you want to read this text for pure pleasure or
more with your coursework in mind.
How to use this booklet:
❑ Browse through this collection, explore the covers and the blurbs and read the openings of
at least six of the texts.
❑ For each of the six texts you have read, fill out a ‘Student Response Sheet’ which you can
find at the end of this booklet (so, 6 separate sheets).
❑ Email a copy of each completed sheet to Mr Elford and Ms Kendall (either one at a time as
you complete them, or all at once when you’ve completed all 6).
Please do contact Ms Cresswell or Ms Kendall if you would like any further suggestions for your
wider reading. We would love to hear from you.
tcresswell@wren.excalibur.org.uk
skendall@wren.excalibur.org.uk
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And Still I Rise – Maya Angelou (Poetry)
From the back:
Maya Angelou's poetry - lyrical and
dramatic, exuberant and playful -
speaks of love, longing, partings; of
Saturday night partying, and the
smells and sounds of Southern
cities; of freedom and shattered
dreams. 'The caged bird sings/ with
a fearful trill/ of things unknown/ but
longed for still/ and his tune is
heard/ on the distant hill/ for the
caged bird/ sings of freedom.' Of
her poetry, KIRKUS REVIEWS has
written, 'It is just as much a part of
her biography as I KNOW WHY
THE CAGED BIRD SINGS,
GATHER TOGETHER in MY
NAME, SINGIN' AND SWINGIN'
AND GETTING MERRY LIKE
CHRISTMAS, and HEART OF A
WOMAN.
Poems to empower all women
Themes of love, loneliness and racism
Lyrical poetry
Hopeful, sometimes humorous poetry despite dark themes
Bold and daring
Read on for the first few poems in the collection:
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey (Prose)
Why I love it:
Unreliable first-person narrator
Charismatic protagonist
Seminal US literary work
Critique of post WW2 US
Shocking
Read on for the novel’s opening:
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Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut (Prose)
Why I love it:
Unreliable first-person narrator
Time travel
Semiautobiographical
Based on historical fact
Dark humour
Read on for the novel’s opening:
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Song of Solomon – Toni Morrison (Prose)
Why I love it:
Gives an insight into the experiences and struggles of African Americans
Uplifting and funny despite some dark subject matter
Coming-of-age novel
Magic realism
Great characterisation and use of dialogue
Read on for the first few pages:
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Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (Prose)
Why I love it:
Classic Victorian triple-decker novel
Highly flawed protagonist
Complex characters
Excellent plot twist
Unconventional ending
Read on for Chapter 1:
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The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath (Prose)
Why I love it:
Troubled first-person narrator
Simple prose to create complex images
Gripping plot
Insight into life in the 1950s
Dry humour
Read on for opening of novel:
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The World’s Wife – Carol Ann Duffy (Poetry)
From the Back Cover:
Who? Him. The Husband. Hero. Hunk.
The Boy Next Door. The Paramour.
The Je t'adore.
Behind every famous man is a great woman - and from
the quick-tongued Mrs Darwin to the non-envying Frau
Freud, from the adoring Queen Kong to the traumatized
wife of the Devil himself, each one steps from her
counterpart's shadow to tell her side of the story in this
irresistible collection.
Original, subversive, full of imagination and quicksilver
wit, The World's Wife is Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy
at her beguiling best.
'A joyous, exuberant book of poems about women
usually excluded from myth and history' Guardian
'Sparkles with wit, intelligence and an impressive
lightness of touch, while drawing on some weighty
emotional experiences’ Independent
Why I love it:
Multiple narrative voices
Some hilarious wives
Some dark, troubling characters and stories
Range of interesting themes such as gender, relationships, identity, sexuality
Modern and accessible
Read on for the first 2 poems in the collection:
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Top Girls – Caryl Churchill (Drama)
From the back:
Marlene thinks the eighties are going
to be stupendous. Her sister Joyce has
her doubts. Her daughter Angie is just
frightened.
Since its premiere in 1982, Top
Girls has become a seminal play of the
modern theatre. Set during a period of
British politics dominated by the
presence of the newly elected Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher, Churchill's
play prompts us to question our
notions of women's success and
solidarity. Its sharp look at the society
and politics of the 1980s is combined
with a timeless examination of
women's choices and restrictions
regarding career and family.
Why I love it:
Ground-breaking dramatic techniques
Political
Feminist
Great female characters
Fascinating historical context yet relevant today
Read on for the opening of the play:
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The Glass Menagerie – Tennessee Williams (Drama)
.
Why I love it:
Beautifully drawn characters
Experimental theatrical techniques
Poetic stage directions
Critique of American values
Semiautobiographical – heart-breaking
Read on for the first few pages of the script:
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A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess (Prose)
Why I love it:
Language is a puzzle to begin with until you piece it together
Complex themes of ultra-violence and Beethoven
Dystopian comment on 1960’s culture
Intensely dislikeable characters
Deeply philosophical amongst all the madness
Read on for the first few pages:
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The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald (Prose)
Why I love it:
Beautifully decadent description of everything right and wrong with American culture
Describes parties that I want to go to
Interesting narrative viewpoint
Heart-breaking narrative twist
Interesting comment on capitalism in America society
Read on for the first few pages:
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Brighton Rock – Graham Greene (prose)
Why I love it:
British gang culture emerging from rich and poor divides
Interesting character arcs
Insight into 1930s British teen culture
Gang members who carry razor blades in their hats is cool
Read on for the first few pages:
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The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini (prose)
Why I love it:
Heart-breaking plot
Characters you grow to love
Interesting coming of age story
Rich description of the culture of a war-torn country
Read on for the first few pages:
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1984 – George Orwell (prose)
Why I love it:
It will change the way you view authority
Nightmarish dystopian vision of the future
Still relevant today
Interesting character arcs
Read on for the first few pages:
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Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (Prose)
Why I love it:
A chilling utopian vision of the future
Comments on the danger of an all-powerful state
The use of technological intervention to control society
Read on for Chapter 1:
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Student response sheet
Name of text:
Initial reaction …
Front cover?
Blurb?
Teacher reasons?
Read on? Explain
why/why not:
First reading
Summarise what you read
Something shocking?
Something surprising?
Something unexpected?
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Narrator/narrative voice
Language used
Style and structure
Overall impression
Themes, ideas and motifs
in the text
Predict what might come
next
Read the whole text? ❑ No
❑ For pleasure
❑ For coursework
Explain your choice:
65 | P a g eFurther Suggestions for Wider Reading:
Drama
Dramatic texts by playwrights such as:
William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlow, John Webster, John Ford, Aphra Behn,
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Oscar Wilde, G B Shaw, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Arthur
Miller, Peter Shaffer, Alan Bennett, Alan Ayckbourn, Harold Pinter, Trevor Griffiths, Cormac
McCarthy, Lorraine Hansberry, Tom Stoppard, Jez Butterworth, Caryl Churchill, Adrienne
Kennedy, David Mamet
Poetry
Collections of poetry by poets such as:
Shakespeare, Spenser, Marvell, Donne, Coleridge, Blake, Byron, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley,
Tennyson, John Clare, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Thomas
Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost, T S Eliot, Ezra Pound, Allen Ginsberg, Ted
Hughes, Sylvia Plath, Seamus Heaney, Stevie Smith, Philip Larkin, W H Auden, Dylan Thomas,
Maya Angelou, Owen Shears, Carol Ann Duffy, Simon Armitage, Benjamin Zephaniah, John
Cooper Clark, Grace Nichols
Winners of the Forward Prizes for Poetry. Explore Forward winners and nominees here:
https://www.forwardartsfoundation.org/forward-prizes-for-poetry/
Novels
Works by 19th Century authors such as:
Jane Austin, Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Emily Bronte, Charlotte Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Henry
James, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, Thomas Hardy
Works by 20th Century authors such as:
D H Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, Daphne du Maurier, Virginia Woolf, E M Forster, James Joyce,
George Orwell, Graham Greene, Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Angela Carter, Margaret Drabble,
John Fowles, Martin Amis, Pat Barker, Ian McEwan, A S Byatt
Works by 21st Century authors such as:
Zadie Smith, Monica Ali, Hilary Mantel, Julian Barnes, Sarah Waters, Ali Smith (you will find many
more suggestions in the prize lists below):
Any books on the Booker Prize long list. Search for a year here:
https://thebookerprizes.com/fiction/backlist
Any books on the Women’s Prize for Fiction long list. See past winners here:
https://www.womensprizeforfiction.co.uk/about/previous-winners
If you would like any suggestions for appropriate genre fiction (eg science fiction, fantasy, horror
etc) please contact Mr Elford or Ms Kendall. These lists are in no way exhaustive. If you want to
check your read is suitable for coursework, get in touch (not all texts are).
66 | P a g eYou can also read
