AQA A Level English Literature Specification A

Reading suggestions for LTA4 from Tom Rank

These are editions of the set texts and some books that I have found useful for this unit. Teachers might find they contain some helpful suggestions for discussion or contexts. Students are reminded that the text itself is most important; don't try to grapple with the ideas in the other books until you are thoroughly familiar with the play or poetry.

If you click on the title (or the picture of the book jacket) you will be taken to the entry on the English Online Bookshop, which will give more details and the opportunity to buy the book from Amazon UK.

There are many more resources you could use for this unit. Please let us know if you have found other useful material.

The Duchess of Malfi
The Duchess of Malfi, edited by Brian Gibbons
The New Mermaid edition of the play, with a helpful introduction.

Webster: the Tragedies by Kate Aughterson
Detailed exploration of The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil.

The Duchess of Malfi, edited by Dympna Callaghan
This New Casebook gives a survey of recent discussions of the play, with a special emphasis on "gender-conscious criticism".

Volpone
Volpone, edited by Philip Brockbank
The New Mermaid edition of the play, with a helpful introduction

Volpone, edited by Brian Parker and David Bevington
Revels Student Edition, with useful introduction and notes.

Jonson: Volpone, edited by Jonas A Barish
Casebook volume: a survey of critical opinions of the play from 1662 to about 1970.

The Cambridge Companion to Ben Jonson, edited by Richard Harp and Stanley Stewart
A guide to Jonson's life and works.

The Prelude (1805), Books I and II
The Prelude (1805), edited Ernest de Selincourt and Stephen Gill
This is the edition specified by AQA; it contains the original 1805 text edited from manuscripts with a comprehensive introduction and notes.

A Preface to Wordsworth by John Purkis
Useful survey of Wordsworth's ideas, cultural context, etc. Comments on The Prelude are brief but apposite.