Periods in English Literature

For convenience of discussion, old historians divide the continuity of English literature into segments of time which are called "periods." The exact number, names, and dates of these periods vary, but the following listing conforms to widespread practice.

450-1066 Old English (Anglo Saxon) Period

1066-1500 Middle English Period

1500-1660 The English Renaissance

1558-1603 Elizabethan Period

1603-1625 Jacobean Age

1625-1649 Caroline Age

1649-1660 Commonwealth Period (Puritan Interregnum)

166-1798 The Neo-Classical Period

1660-1700 The Restoration

1700-1745 The Augustan Age (Age of Pope)

1745-1798 The Age of Sensibility (Age of Johnson)

1798-1832 The Romantic Period

1837-1901 The Victorian Period

1848-1860 The Pre-Raphaelites

1880-1901 Aestheticism and Decadence

1901-1914 The Edwardian Period

1910-1936 The Georgian Period

1914-1939 The Modern Period

1939--- The Postmodern Period