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GCSE English Literature set texts - revision library

Choose a text to see full revision notes, character maps, theme trackers, model paragraphs, and past-paper practice. Each entry below is tagged with the boards that prescribe it - pick your exam board to filter to just yours.

Shakespeare

Macbeth - ambition, guilt, the supernatural; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas / Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)
Romeo and Juliet - fate, love, family honour; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas / Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)
The Tempest - power, colonialism, forgiveness; AQA / Edexcel / OCR A-Level / Eduqas A-Level
Much Ado About Nothing - deception, gender, reputation; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas
Julius Caesar - political power, betrayal, rhetoric; AQA

19th-century novel

A Christmas Carol - redemption, poverty, Victorian social conscience; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - duality, repression, gothic; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas
Frankenstein - creation, hubris, outsider narrative; AQA / Edexcel / Edexcel IAL / Edexcel A-Level / OCR A-Level
Great Expectations - class, guilt, bildungsroman; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Edexcel IAL / Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)
The Sign of Four - empire, deduction, Victorian anxieties; AQA
Pride and Prejudice - marriage, class, irony; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas / Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1) / Cambridge Literature (0475)

Modern prose + drama

An Inspector Calls - social responsibility, class, generational change; AQA / Edexcel / OCR / Eduqas / Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)

Lord of the Flies - civilisation vs savagery, power, allegory; AQA / Edexcel / Eduqas

Animal Farm - allegory of Russian Revolution, corruption of power; AQA / Edexcel / OCR

Of Mice and Men - the American Dream, loneliness, dreams deferred; Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)

Blood Brothers - nature vs nurture, class, fate; AQA / Edexcel / Eduqas

DNA Coming soon - responsibility, group dynamics, tragedy; AQA / OCR

IGCSE + A-Level texts

A View from the Bridge - immigration, honour, tragedy; Edexcel IGCSE Literature (4ET1)

Pearson IGCSE Language A (4EA1) anthology

Parts 1 and 2 of the Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Anthology, set for English Language A. Part 1 (non-fiction) is examined in Unit 1 Section A. Part 2 (poetry and prose) is examined in Unit 2 Section A, or assessed by coursework for students on that route.

Non-fiction: The Danger of a Single Story, A Passage to Africa, The Explorer’s Daughter, Explorers, or boys messing about?, Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Young and dyslexic?, A Game of Polo with a Headless Goat, Beyond the Sky and the Earth, H is for Hawk, Chinese Cinderella.
Poetry: Disabled, ‘Out, Out—’, An Unknown Girl, The Bright Lights of Sarajevo, Still I Rise.
Prose: The Necklace, Significant Cigarettes, Whistle and I’ll Come to You, Night, The Story of an Hour.

Pearson IGCSE Literature (4ET1) anthology poems

Part 3 of the same anthology. All sixteen poems must be studied for English Literature (4ET1), examined in Unit 1 Section B. They are not studied for English Language A.

If -, Prayer Before Birth, Blessing, Search For My Tongue, Half-past Two, Piano, Hide and Seek, Sonnet 116, La Belle Dame sans Merci, Poem at Thirty-Nine, War Photographer, The Tyger, My Last Duchess, Half-caste, Do not go gentle into that good night, Remember.

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GCSE English Literature set texts - revision library

Shakespeare

19th-century novel

Modern prose + drama

IGCSE + A-Level texts

Pearson IGCSE Language A (4EA1) anthology

Pearson IGCSE Literature (4ET1) anthology poems

Other poems and short stories

Personalise your revision