How to Get an Oxford English Education for Free

If I had to choose between going to Oxford University and studying English literature for three years again or getting sodomized by a bust of the bars for the same duration, I’d probably choose the latter. That’s quite a thing for somebody to say, especially someone who’s written so publicly about how to get into Oxford, how to pass the interview stage at Oxford, how to pass the ELAT, how to write a personal statement that would get you into an elite university.

Oxford

I’m quite pro education and pro higher education, and I make a lot of my living consulting and helping people get into the university of their dreams, but I do all of this with a real caveat. I want to say, if you want to go to Oxford or Cambridge or Harvard or Yale, really think if that’s right for you. If you want to be a lawyer, if you want to be a doctor, if you want to be something that really does require a degree, great. But if you’re going to study English language and literature, that bit of paper still is quite respectable, but you can get the same education for free. You need a library card, that’s all you need, and you’ll get the same education for free.

Basically, when you go to Oxford and you study English, the course is broken down into three years. For me, it will change depending on what college you go to. In my first year, I studied an introduction to English language and literature, Victorian literature, modern literature, and early medieval literature. In my second year, I studied the English language, Middle English, Renaissance literature, and Restoration era literature. In my third year, I had a special author module on Shakespeare, and I chose the beat generation as my special topic.

If you want to get a similar education to an Oxford English one for free, I would recommend reading one book a week and writing an essay or a book review on it. You can make it public by starting a website or a newsletter. You can even join affiliate programs like Amazon Associates to earn some money from your writing. This way, you can scale your hobby of reading and writing about books and potentially even build an audience or receive job offers.

Reading Tips for English Literature

When it comes to reading English literature, there are a few tips that can enhance your experience. Here are some recommendations:

Primary and Secondary Reading

In English literature, it is important to distinguish between primary and secondary reading. Primary reading refers to the core text, the actual book you are reading. Secondary reading includes criticism and analysis of the primary text. While it is important to engage with secondary sources, it is recommended to primarily focus on the book you have chosen.

Reading Shakespeare

Do not wait to read Shakespeare. Start early and read a play once a week or every two weeks. Take your time and enjoy it, as rushing through it may hinder understanding and enjoyment.

Recommended Modern Literature

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Dubliners by James Joyce
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
• Brighton Rock by Graham Greene
• A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

Other Modern Literature Recommendations

If the authors on the recommended list do not appeal to you, consider exploring the works of Kazuo Ishiguro, Christopher Logue, Ted Hughes, Ezra Pound, Philip Larkin, Sylvia Plath, Wilfred Owen, Arthur Conan Doyle, Henry James, Ian McEwan, Muriel Sparks, Zadie Smith, Virginia Woolf, Alan Bennett, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, or John Osborne.

English Literature Criticism Recommendations

For insights into English literature criticism, you may find the following books helpful:

• Narrative by Paul Cobley
• How Novels Work by John Mullan
• How Fiction Works by James Wood
• Mimesis by Eric Auerbach
• The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode
• The Anatomy of Criticism by Northrop Frye
• Harold Bloom (critic)

Old English Literature Recommendations

For Old English literature, consider exploring:

• Beowulf (translated by J.R.R. Tolkien or Seamus Heaney)
• Dream of the Rood
• The Wanderer
• Battle of Maldon
• The Riddles
• Kind of Wolf and Kynahd

Middle English Literature Recommendations

For Middle English literature, consider reading:

• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Troilus and Criseyde by Geoffrey Chaucer
• Pearl
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (translated by Simon Armitage)
• Le Morte d’Arthur
• Morality Plays
• Piers Plowman by William Langland

Restoration Era Literature Recommendations

For the Restoration era, consider exploring:

• A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe
• Paradise Lost by John Milton
• Clarissa by Samuel Richardson
• Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
• Oroonoko by Aphra Behn
• The Poetry of Andrew Marvell
• The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope
• The Country Wife by William Wycherley
• The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan
• Pamela by Samuel Richardson

Romantic Era Literature Recommendations

For the Romantic era, consider reading the poems of William Blake, William Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Other recommended works include Frankenstein, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful by Edmund Burke, Confessions of an English Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne, The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding, and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

English Language Recommendations

If you are interested in exploring the English language, consider reading The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry, Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson, The English Language: Structure and Development by Stanley Hussey, and A History of the English Language by Albert C. Baugh and Thomas Cable.

Remember that this list primarily focuses on English literature and may not include many works from other cultures. Feel free to explore world literature as well and discover authors from different backgrounds.