Based on the fifth edition of The Oxford Companion to English Literature, this is a reference book for the student or general reader. It focuses on the English literature of the British Isles but there is still coverage of the literature of other countries and of other disciplines which have influenced or have been influenced by literature. More than 5000 entries illuminate the plots of novel and plays; songs and poems; the lives and works of authors, poets, playwrights, essayists, philosophers, and historicans; fictional characters; literary movements; legends; theatres; periodicals. Entries have been updated and there are several new essays on topics such as anachronism, autobiography, foreign influences on English literature, parody and Senecan tragedy.