It was the night before the day fixed for his coronation, and the young King was sitting alone in his beautiful chamber. His courtiers had all taken their leave of him, bowing their heads to the ground, according to the ceremonious usage of the day, and had retired to the Great Hall of the Palace, to receive a few last lessons from the Professor of Etiquette; there being some of them who had still quite natural manners, which in a courtier is, I need hardly say, a very grave offence.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Irish dramatist, poet, and author wrote the darkly sardonic Faustian themed The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891);

This is the story of a mother's sacrifices to win back her child from the Death, which was written in typical poetic and imaginative Hans Christian Andersen style.

Among the five prizes provided for in Alfred Nobel's will (1895), one was intended for the person who, in the literary field, had produced "the most outstanding work in an ideal direction". The Laureate should be determined by "the Academy in Stockholm", which was specified by the statutes of the Nobel Foundation to mean the Swedish Academy.

Reading literature for fun is often different from reading literature for academics and work. Reading for information and analyzing literature from a critical perspective requires active reading and a concentrated effort. When reading to analyze literature, it is often best to read the book twice. The first time, to gain an overview of the work and the big picture the author was presenting. The second time, you read the work it is for a close-up view of all of the details and to clarify any issues or points in the novel that may have been unclear the first time around. Here are some points and questions to consider when reading and analyzing literature.

One of the great struggles for writers in literature is making and sustaining coherent arguments in their papers. Although argument is an essential part of all papers, the literary paper has aspects of rhetoric that are all its own.

I call it our English Renaissance because it is indeed a sort of new birth of the spirit of man, like the great Italian Renaissance of the fifteenth century, in its desire for a more gracious and comely way of life, its passion for physical beauty, its exclusive attention to form, its seeking for new subjects for poetry, new forms of art, new intellectual and imaginative enjoyments: and I call it our romantic movement because it is our most recent expression of beauty.

More than a quarter of teenagers in England are not taking English literature GCSE, according to figures published by the Conservatives.

Anna Katherine Green (1846-1935), American author of mysteries wrote The Leavenworth Case: A Lawyer's Story (1878).

Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) was as famous in his lifetime for his personality cult as for his poetry. He created the concept of the 'Byronic hero' - a defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event in his past. Byron's influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera, and painting has been immense, although the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), Scottish author and creator of the oft-quoted detective-hero Sherlock Holmes wrote The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891);

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888), American author wrote Little Women (1868)

“Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug. 
“It's so dreadful to be poor!" sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.
"I don't think it's fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.
"We've got Father and Mother, and each other," said Beth contentedly from her corner.

Mark Twain [pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910), quintessential American humorist, lecturer, essayist, and author wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876);

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863), author, illustrator, and editor wrote Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero (1848);

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), oft-quoted biographer, poet and lexicographer wrote A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), published in two folio volumes. In his time it was the most comprehensive English language dictionary ever compiled and remained the standard reference for over a century. The first edition included a “Grammar and History of the English Language” and thousands of quotations from such authors as John Dryden, William Shakespeare and John Milton to illustrate the use of the over 42,000 words it contained—many more were added in subsequent editions. At a time when literacy rates were improving and the realm of print media was expanding at a rapid pace, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines were becoming available at a reasonable cost. So, standard spellings, uses and meanings of words such as ‘Cough: A convulsion of the lungs, vellicated by some sharp serosity. It is pronounced coff’ was required among printing houses. Johnson was hired by a group of London booksellers and paid a little over £1500 to create this ambitious work. Having outlined his A Plan of an English Dictionary in 1747 Johnson, not without his sense of humour added several bon mots to the dictionary including ‘Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.’ The undertaking took almost nine years to complete.

Popular biographies of Elizabeth I, such as one recently published by Alison Weir often dwell too heavily upon the theatrics of Elizabeth on the stage of her reign, paying attention to her elaborate costuming, her flamboyant spectacles, and her flirtatiousness among the cast of her court. These are elements of her being which should not be ignored. After all, Elizabeth, too, is that stuff that dreams are made on. Yet, too often an appreciation of the appearance the queen projected fails to appreciate the intellectual substance that lay beneath the gowns.

Guy de Maupassant's short story ‘‘The Necklace’’ (‘‘La parure’’) was first published in the Paris newspaper Le Gaulois on February 17, 1884, and was subsequently included in his 1885 collection of short stories Tales of Day and Night (Contes dejour et de la nuit). Like most of Maupassant's short fiction, it was an instant success, and it has become his most widely read and anthologized story. In addition to its well-rounded characters, tight plotting, wealth of detail, and keen social commentary, ''The Necklace'' is conspicuous for its use of the "whip-crack" or ‘‘O. Henry’’ ending, in which a plot twist at the end of the story completely changes the story's meaning. Although Maupassant rarely made use of the device, its presence in this work has tied him to it irrevocably. Although it is not known where Maupassant got the idea for his story, certain connections may be made between ‘‘The Necklace’’ and the novel Madame Bovary, written by Maupassant's mentor and friend, Gustave Flaubert. Both stories feature a young, beautiful woman in a social situation that she finds distasteful. Like Madame Bovary, Mathilde Loisel attempts to escape her social station in life, but her scheming actions ultimately doom her.