The history of British literature is one of extraordinary breadth and complexity, extending from Aneirin and the poet of Widsith to Cædmon and the poet of Beowulf; from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Geoffrey Chaucer; from Spenser to Shakespeare; Donne and Milton to Dryden; Dr. Johnson to Keats, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Blake; from Thackeray, Dickens, Kipling, and Hardy to the modern and postmodern eras. This book is a comprehensive guide to all British literature, including literature in English from the colonial and postcolonial periods in Africa, Australia, Canada, the Caribbean, India, and New Zealand. Important authors from these areas are covered in substantive topical articles on their respective literatures.