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ApplyGRADUATE COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATION READING LIST SELECTED BY THE GRADUATE FACULTY
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The degree candidate is responsible for having read all of the following works:
PROSE:
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. Selections from The Spectator Papers
Aphra Behn. Oroonoko
James Boswell. Selections from The Life of Johnson
Edmund Burke. Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful
Daniel Defoe. Robinson Crusoe or Moll Flanders
Olaudah Equiano. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Henry Fielding. Shamela, Joseph Andrews
David Hume. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Section X, Parts I-II (“Of Miracles”)
Samuel Johnson. Rasselas, Selections from The Rambler
John Locke. An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding: Book II, Chapter I (“Of Ideas in general, and their Original”); Book IV, Chapter XIX (“Of Enthusiasm”)
Samuel Pepys. Selections from The Diary
Ann Radcliffe. The Mysteries of Udolpho
Samuel Richardson. Pamela
Laurence Sterne. Tristram Shandy
Jonathan Swift . “A Modest Proposal,” Gulliver’s Travels
Horace Walpole. The Castle of Otranto
Mary Wollstonecraft. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Chapter 2; Chapter 9; Chapter 13, Section 6
VERSE:
Aphra Behn. “The Disappointment”
Samuel Butler. Hudibras: Book I, Canto I
John Dryden. “MacFlecknoe,” Absalom and Achitophel
Oliver Goldsmith. “The Deserted Village”
Thomas Gray. “Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard”
Samuel Johnson. “The Vanity of Human Wishes,”“London”
Bernard Mandeville. “The Grumbling Hive; or, Knaves Turned Honest” (from The Fable of the Bees: Or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits)
Alexander Pope. “An Essay on Criticism”; “The Rape of the Lock”; An Essay on Man: “Epistle I”; The Dunciad: “Book the First”
Jonathan Swift , “A Description of the Morning,”“A Description of a City Shower,” “Cassinus and Peter,” “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift”
John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester. “A Satyr Against Mankind”
DRAMA
Any Restoration Comedy. Suggested: William Congreve, The Way of the World; George Etherege, The Man of Mode; William Wycherley, The Country Wife
John Gay. The Beggar’s Opera
Oliver Goldsmith. She Stoops to Conquer
A candidate may also submit a list of readings to supplement, but not replace, the readings from the core list above. The supplementary list should be submitted for approval with the declaration of intent to take the comprehensive examination form.
*Rev. 1 August 2014
