A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Comedy written by William Shakespeare c. 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta
1500s
Romeo and Juliet
Tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about two young Italian star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately reconcile their feuding families
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by Franois Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua and his son Pantagruel . The work is written in an amusing, extravagant, and satirical vein, features much erudition, vulgarity, and wordplay, and is regularly compared with the works of William Shakespeare and James Joyce
Wolf Hall
2009 historical novel by English author Hilary Mantel, published by Fourth Estate, named after the Seymour family’s seat of Wolfhall, or Wulfhall, in Wiltshire
The Prince
16th-century political treatise written by Italian diplomat and political theorist Niccol Machiavelli as an instruction guide for new princes and royals
Praise of Folly
Essay written in Latin in 1509 by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and first printed in June 1511. Inspired by previous works of the Italian humanist Faustino Perisauli De Triumpho Stultitiae, it is a satirical attack on superstitions, other traditions of European society and on the Western Church.Erasmus revised and extended his work, which was originally written in the space of a week while sojourning with Sir Thomas More at More’s house in Bucklersbury in the City of London
The Book of the Courtier
Lengthy philosophical dialogue on the topic of what constitutes an ideal courtier or court lady, worthy to befriend and advise a Prince or political leader
The Canterbury Tales
Collection of 24 stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is near-unanimously seen as Chaucer’s magnum opus