History of English literature and language

[Scarlet Nettle]

I need to study history of English literature (from Elizabethan age to Victorian age) and history of English language (dialect of middle English, word formation and borrowings) for college. Please suggest me a few good books. :)

[ChicagoReader]

The Norton Anthology of English Literature is pretty great. Also, not sure that it will apply since it pertains to American English but The American Language by H.L. Mencken is very popular. I just recently picked up The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt, and while I've only read a couple dozen pages of the behemoth, I like it a lot. Of course it only considers the novel, but that's the form I've grown to like most.

[Lokasenna]

Melvyn Bragg's The Adventure of English is a very readable and popular book, or else Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable's A History of the English Language, which is a more academic text.

[WICKES]

Stephen Fry's Ode Less Travelled is a wonderful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable introduction to English poetry, how it works etc. I wish I'd had a copy when I began my English Literature degree. Fry is himself very English and the book quotes extensively from the great English poets: Shakespeare, Blake, Byron, Tennyson etc.

[mal4mac]

English Literature: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Bate

[AuntShecky]

The History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh

The Story of English in 100 Words by David Crystal

Non-fiction works by Anthony Burgess (a fabulous novelist as well!), along with books on language by Richard Lederer and Bill Bryson.