Honors English IV

Honors classes at Woods are independent and largely self-directed.  Students who opt to take Honors English IV will be responsible for 4 independent reading selections and written responses, due throughout the year (dates TBD). All written work will be graded according to a rigorous Honors standard.

 Titles must be chosen from the list provided, or approved by Ms. Berg. No essays on works of American literature will be accepted! Please review the expected assignments and reading list, and carefully consider your commitment to this independent study.

Suggested Honors titles and authors

English IV focuses on British literature. This list is not exhaustive, but should give you some ideas. Feel free to seek other works by these authors or others you might be interested in and check for approval. Some of these books are available for loan. You may need to provide yourself with books for your Honors reading. We welcome donations to the classroom when you are done!

Austen, Jane – Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park

·         Bronte, Charlotte – Jane Eyre

·         Bronte, Emily – Wuthering Heights

·         Byatt, A. S.  - Possession

·         Conrad, Joseph – Heart of Darkness, Lord Jim

·         Defoe, Daniel – Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders

·         Dickens, Charles – A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, etc.

·         DuMaurier, Daphne - Rebecca

·         Forster, E. M. – A Room with a View, Howard’s End, Passage to India

·         Graves, Robert – Goodbye to All That; I, Claudius

·         Greene, Graham – Power and the Glory, The Comedians, The Quiet American

·         Hardy, Thomas – Return of the Native, Tess of the D’Urbervilles

·         Huxley, Aldous – Brave New World

·         Ishiguro, Kazuo – Remains of the Day

·         James, Henry – The Portrait of a Lady, Turn of the Screw

·         Kipling, Rudyard – Captains Courageous, Kim

·         Lawrence, D. H. – Women in Love, Sons and Lovers

·         Lessing, Doris – The Fifth Child, Summer Before the Dark

·         Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea

·         Shakespeare, William – any dramatic works not previously read

·         Swift, Jonathan – Gulliver’s Travels

·         Waugh, Evelyn – Brideshead Revisited, Decline and Fall

·         Wilde, Oscar – The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray

·         Woolf, Virginia – To the Lighthouse, The Waves, Mrs. Dalloway

Honors Requirements  -  for each of the four required novels, you will

·         Read the entire book

·         Complete an annotations chart (to be provided)

·         Write a critical analysis of the book, including Direct Textual References (quotes) for support (800 words)