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According to the syllabus given by BPSC, instructions have been given that 15 (15) questions of 15 marks will be asked from the subject of English Literature. According to the given syllabus, instructions have been given to discuss the English Literature Part from the Elizabethan period to the 21st Century. Therefore, according to the instructions, the English Literature Part was divided into 5 parts and discussed under the titles of Quotations from drama/Poetry of different ages Genres of Literature & Literary Terms in the light of the analysis of the questions of the past BCS examination.

Part-II: English Literature-15

As per the syllabus given in the book 'Name of the writers of literary pieces from Elizabethan period to the 21st Century', discussion guidelines have been provided for literature from the Elizabethan period to the Post Modern period. Therefore, for the convenience of chapter analysis, the question analysis and brief guidelines have been provided by dividing the Renaissance period into five parts and providing the Post Modern period.

• Part 1: 'Renaissance period (1500-1660)' includes writers from The Elizabethan Age, The Jacobean Age, The Caroline period and The Commonwealth period.

  • In Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Hamlet was prince of - Denmark (41st BCS);

  • 'Shylock" is a character in the play- The Merchant of Venice (41st BCS); 

  • William Shakespeare was born in-1564 (40th BCS); 

  • 'Sweet Helen make me immortal with a kiss'. The sentence has been taken from the play-Doctor Faustus (40th BCS); 

  • Who wrote the poem 'The Good-Morrow'?- John Donne (40th BCS): 

  • "To be, or not to be, that is the question" is a family dialogue from- hamlet (39th BCS); 

  • The play 'The Spanish Tragedy' is written by- Thomas kyd (38th BCS); 

  • Which period is known as "The Golden Age of English Literature"?- The Elizabethan Age (38th BCS): 

  • Fill in the blank. '___ Is Shakespeare's Last Play. Tempest (37th BCS); 

  • Who has written the play 'Volpone? Ben Jonson. (37th BCS); 

  • Shakespeare composed much of his plays in what sort of verse?- Iambic pentameter. (37th BCS); 

  • Othello gave Desdemona ___ as a token of love - Handkerchief. (37th BCS); 

  • Shakespeare's 'Measure for Measure' is a successful- tragi-comedy, (37th BCS): 

  • "The Merchant of Venice' is a Shakespearean play about - a Jew. (37th BCS): 

  • Othello is a Shakespeare's play about- A Moor. (35th BCS) 

There are questions of this type. Therefore, questions and short discussions from previous years' exams, including important discussions on William Shakespeare, have been added based on topics.

• Part 2: The 'Neo-Classical period (1660-1790)' section includes writers from The Restoration period, The Augustan period The Age of Sensibility. In the previous exam, two questions were asked about the famous books of the writers of this section. In particular, questions were asked about the literary works and famous quotes of writers such as John Milton, John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Henry Fielding, Thomas Gray.

  • 'The Rape of the Lock' by Alexander Pope is a/an- mock-heroic poem. (40th BCS): 

  • Of the following authors, who wrote an epic?- John Milton. (40th BCS); 

  • Who is not a Victorian poet?-Alexander Pope. [Alexander Pope, Mathew Arnold, Robert Browning, Alfred Tennyson) (38th BCS); 

  • Who has written the poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"? Thomas Gray. (37th BCS); 

  • 'Restoration period' in English literature refers to- 1660. (37th BCS) 

There are questions like this. Therefore, the identity of the important writers of this period and their literary works have been briefly discussed.

• Part 3: More questions have been asked about the writers of the 'Romantic period' period in the past exams. Especially, more questions are asked about their famous books and quotes. Among the writers of this period, those whose literary works come up the most are-William Blake, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, Sir Walter Scott, P. B. Shelley, Lord Byron, John Keats, Jane Austen, etc. More questions have been asked about the literary works of writers such as: 

  • Who is not a romantic poet?- T. S. Eliot [T. S. Eliot, P. B. Shelley, S. T. Coleridge, John Keats] (41st BCS); 

  • Who wrote "Biographia Literaria'?- S. T. Coleridge. (37th BCS); 

  • P.B. Shelley's 'Adonais' is an elegy on the death of- John Keats. (37th BCS): 

  • The Romantic age in English literature began with the publication of- Preface to Lyrical Ballads. (37th BCS): 

  • The poem "The Solitary Reaper" is written by- W. Wordsworth. (37th BCS); 

  • Which of the following writers belongs to the romantic period in English Literature?- S. T. Coleridge. (36th BCS): 

  • Who is known as "the poet of nature" in English literature?-William Wordsworth. (36th BCS) 

Questions like these are asked. Therefore, the chapter has been arranged by discussing the summaries of important books and famous lines of the writers of this period. 

• Part 4: There have been several questions in the past exams about the writers of the Victorian period (1832-1901). In particular, questions are asked about the literary works and characters created by writers such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold, William Makepeace Thackeray, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, George Eliot, Leo Tolstoy, Alexander Dumas, Maxim Gorky. For example:  

  • 'Pip' is the protagonist in Charles Dickens' novel- Great Expectations (41st BCS); 

  • 'Vanity Fair' is a novel written by-William Makepeace Thackeray (41st BCS): 

  • Tennyson's In Memoriam' is an elegy on the death of-Arthur Henry Hallam. (40th BCS); 

  • Who is the central character of 'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte?- Heathcliff. (40th BCS): 

  • 'A Christmas Carol' is a ___ by Charles Dickens.- short novel (39th BCS); 

  • Robert Browning was a ___ poet. - Victorian, (37th BCS): 

  • Which of the following books is written by Thomas Hardy?- The Return of the Native. (37th BCS); 

  • London town is found a living being in the works of- Charles Dickens. (36th BCS) 

There are questions like this. Therefore, the chapter has been arranged by discussing the summaries of important books of the writers of this period, famous characters and quotes from various books. 

• Part 5: Among the writers of the Modern period (1901-1939) and The Post Modern period (1939-present), the writers of the Modern Period are most often asked about their literary works. Among the writers of these two periods, the ones who are most often asked about are- Henrik Ibsen, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling. Fitzgerald, Guy de Maupassant, John Millington Synge, George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russell, O'Henry, William Butler Yeats, William Somerset Maugham, Winston Churchill, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Pearl S. Buck, Ernest Hemingway, George Orwell, E. M. Forster, Nadine Gordiner, Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Orhan Pamuk, Saul Bellow, Samuel Becket, Ted Hughes, Harold Pinter, Kaiser Haq, Amitav Ghost, Arundhati Roy, J. K Rowling, Jhumpa Lahiri, Monika Ali, Tahmima Anam, Guntar Grass, etc. More questions arise from the nationality, name and genre of famous books of writers. For example:  

  • "A Passage to India" is written by:- E. M. Forster (42nd BCS): 

  • Who wrote Dr. Zivago?- Boris Pastornak (42nd BCS):

  • "September on the Jessore Road" is written by:- Allen Ginsberg (42nd BCS); 

  • The Character 'Alfred Doolittle' is taken from Shaw's play titled-Pygmalion (41st BCS): 

  • The poem 'The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock' is written by- T. S. Eliot (41st BCS); 

  • Who is the author of the first scientific romance, 'The Time Machine?- H. G. Wells (41st BCS): 

  • Adela Quested and Mrs. Moore are characters from the novel- A Passage to India (41st BCS): 

  • 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' was written by the author of  - The Rainbow (41st BCS):  | Note: both written by D. H. Lawrence. 

  • The play "The Birthday Party' is written by - Harold Pinter (41st BCS): 

  • Which of the following is not an American poet?- W. B. Yeats [W. B. Yeats, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes] (40th BCS); 

  • Who translated the 'Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' into English?- Edward Fitzgerald (40th BCS); 

  • 'Ulysses' is a novel written by James Joyce (40th BCS): 

  • The short story "The Diamond Necklace' was written by- Guy de Maupassant (40th BCS); 

  • Who among the following Indian English writers is a famous novelist?- R. K. Narayan. [Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, R. K. Narayan, Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das] (38th BCS); 

  • "Gerontion" is a poem by- T.S. Eliot (38th BCS): 

  • 'The Sun Also Rises' is a novel written by- Ernest Hemingway. (37th BCS): 

  • The play 'Candida' is by- G. B. Shaw. (36th BCS); 

  • "A Passage to India" is written by E. M. Forster, (36th BCS); 

  • 'Gitanjali of Rabindranath Tagore was translated by- W. B. Yeats. (36th BCS); 

  • Who among the following writers is not a Nobel Laureate? - Grahame Greene. (35th BCS); 

  • Who of the following writers was not a novelist?- W. B. Yeats. (W. B. Yeats, Charles Dickens, James Joyce, Jane Austen) (36th BCS); 

  • The play "Arms and the Man" is by- George Bernard Shaw, (35th BCS); 

  • Riders to the Sea is - a one-act play. (35th BCS): 

  • Find the odd-man-out - George Eliot. [George Eliot, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, James Joyce] (35th BCS): 

  • Find the odd-man-out - As I Lay Dying [As I Lay Dying, The Bluest Eye, Sula, A Mercy] (35th BCS): | Note: Explanation -> The other three novels ("The Bluest Eye," "Sula," and "A Mercy") are all written by Toni Morrison, while "As I Lay Dying" was written by William Faulkner. 

  • The poem "Isle of Innisfree" is written by W. B. Yeats. (35th BCS) 

There are questions of this type. Therefore, the chapter has been arranged by discussing the summaries of important books of the writers of this period, famous characters and quotes from various books.

• "Quotations from drama/Poetry of different ages' topics have been asked multiple times each time. In particular, quotes from writers such as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Donne, Ben Jonson, Robert Herrick, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, Thomas Gray, William Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, P. B. Shelley, Lord Byron, John Keats, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, George Eliot, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, Karl Marx, Aristotle appear. However, Shakespeare's famous quotes, the names of the quoters and the source books appear more often. For example:  

  • "For God's sake, hold your tongue and let me love" occurs in a novel by:- Rabindranath Tagore (42nd BCS): 

  • 'Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium?" Who speaks the famous lines?- Faustus (41st BCS); 

  • 'Why, then, 'tis none of you, for there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. This extract is taken from the drama - Hamlet (41st BCS); 

  • 'Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield' is taken from the poem written by- Alfred Tennyson (41st BCS); 

  • 'Time held me green and dying/Though I sang in my chains like the sea. These lines have been quoted from Dylan Thomas' poem - ​​Fern Hill (41st BCS): 

  • What's in a name?- That which we call a rose, By any other name would smell as sweet'- Who said this? Juliet. (40th BCS): 

  • 'Man's love is of man's life a thing apart, "Tis woman's whole existence. This is taken from the poem of Lord Byron. (40th BCS): 

  • 'All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. -Who said this?- Lady Macbeth. (40th BCS); 

  • 'Where are the songs of Spring? Aye, where are they? Think not them, thou of hast thy music too. Who wrote this?- John Keats. (5th BCS); 

  • 'The Old Order Changth, Yielding Place to New. This line is extracted from tennyson's poem - Morte d ' Arthur. (5th BCS): 

  • "Frailty Thy Name is Woman" is a Famous Dialogue from. W. Shakespeare. (5th BCS); 

  • 'Child is the father of man' is taken from the poem of - W. Wordsworth. (5th BCS); 

  • "Man is a political animal" who said this?- Aristotle, (36th BCS); 

  • Who wrote the following lines: "all at once I saw a crowd, a host of golden daffodils"?- Wordsworth. (35th BCS) 

Such quotes and the names of the quoters are included. Therefore, at the end of the discussion of important writers, their famous quotes (with the source book and the name of the quoter) have been added. Moreover, there is a separate arrangement under the title Important Quotations.

• One/two questions are asked every time from the 'Genres of Literature & Literary Terms' topic. Especially, more questions come from Literary Terms. For example:   

  • The literary term 'euphemism' means - in offensive expression. (38th BCS): 

  • A speech of too many words is called- A verbose speech. (38th BCS); 

  • The word 'Panegyric' means- elaborate praise, (38th BCS); 

  • The repetition of beginning consonant sound is known as - alliteration, (37th BCS); 

  • Which of the following is not a poetic tradition?- The Occult. [The Occult, The Epic, The Comic, The Tragic] (37th BCS); 

  • What is a funny poem of five lines called?- Limerick (37th BCS): 

  • The comparison of unlike things using the words like or as is known to be - simile. (37th BCS); 

  • The "climax" of a plot is what happens - at the height. (35th BCS); 

  • Class relations and societal conflict is the key understanding of - Marxism. (35th BCS) etc. 

There are questions like this. Therefore, the English Meaning (including Bengali meaning) of important Literary Terms has been provided in the form of a table. Questions from these topics in various exams including BCS have been attached. 

English Literature Part has consistently presented the identities of major writers throughout this era, summaries of their important literary works, the types of famous books, characters created, famous quotes (including who uttered them in which books), their titles and awards.

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