These lines discuss the life of a saint, which makes this genre of writing a hagiography. Some of the earliest hagiographies are Aelfric’s Lives of the Saints and The Vercelli Book.

Passage adapted from The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints by Alban Butler (1866)

Written in the 1300s, this text, Revelations of Divine Love, is a canonical work of mysticism and is also the first English book known to have been written by a woman. The book delineates sixteen mystical visions as well as Julian’s musings about hope and divine love against a backdrop of turmoil and plague.

Passage adapted from Revelations of Divine Love by Julian of Norwich (1395)

John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress (full name: The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come; Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream) is an early example of English prose. Published in 1678, it constructs an elaborate moral allegory featuring Christian, the protagonist, and a host of personified virtues and sins that Christian encounters on his journey.

Passage adapted from The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come; Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream by John Bunyan (1678)

The novel is Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange. The work, which was later adapted into a film by Stanley Kubrick, is set in a futuristic English society with a subculture of violent young gangs. A Clockwork Orange examines, among other issues, drug use, prison conditions, the role of language and music in culture, and psychological brainwashing and aversion therapy. One of the novel’s most salient features is Burgess’s use of the invented slang Nadsat, which includes words such as "horrorshow" (good), "droog" (friend), and "starry" (old).

George Orwell’s Animal Farm, published in 1945, uses pigs, horses, dogs, and other animals on the fictitious Manor Farm to create an elaborate allegory of the 1917 Russian Revolution and subsequent rise of communism. In the novel, certain animals are meant to directly represent Communist Party leaders; for example, the pig Napoleon represents Joseph Stalin, the pig Snowball represents Leon Trotsky, and the human Mr. Jones represents the assassinated Tsar Nicholas. Although Orwell was a critic of capitalism and a proponent of socialism, he was inspired to condemn Russian communism in the novel because of its tyranny, despotism, and systematic manipulation of language to serve those in power.

Published in 1932, Brave New World was written by Aldous Huxley. The title was taken from Shakespeare’s The Tempest (V.i.187-190): “Oh, wonder! / How many goodly creatures are there here! / How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world, / That has such people in ’t!” The novel itself is concerned with advancements in reproductive technology and loss of individual identity in a mass-produced culture. In Huxley’s society, population is strictly limited and children are bred to belong to certain castes so as not to disrupt the harmonious consumer culture.

Published in 1928, Orlando: A Biography is Virginia Woolf’s classic examination of feminism, gender roles, and social satire. The best-known characters are Orlando; Princess Sasha; Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire (aka Shel); and the transgender Archduchess Henrietta/Archduke Harry.

The first book Lewis wrote was The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which was published in 1949. Characters in the series include Aslan, a powerful and benevolent lion meant to represent Jesus Christ; Mr. Tumnus, a faun; the evil White Witch Jadis; Prince Caspian, a hero and adventurer; and the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Lucy, and Edward.

This classic novel was written by William Golding and follows the story of Ralph, Piggy, Jack, Simon, and other boys as they try to survive on a desert island in the wake of a plane crash and nuclear war. The novel examines human nature and morality as well as the contrast between the needs of an individual and the needs of a society.

Brighton Rock is a 1938 novel by Graham Greene, a writer whose work often investigated contemporary moral, religious, and political issues. The novel begins as a traditional thriller set at the seaside resort town of Brighton but soon morphs into an examination of human morality and crime. The main characters in this novel are anti-hero Pinkie Brown, a teenage gangster who is blinded by acid in the story’s denouement; Rose, a naïve girl who is deceived by and marries Pinkie; and Ida Arnold, a kind and determined woman who tracks down Pinkie’s misdeeds.