English literature the book is designed to acquaint students with the main outlines

M argaret D rabble (born in 1939 )
Margaret Drabble is an English novelist. She has become popular for realistic portrayals of middle-class women .
Drabble’s early novels, such as “A Summer Bird-Cage” (1963) and “The Garrick Year” (1964) are considered to be almost autobiographical studies of conflicts, young women experience in their careers, marriages, and family lives. Her best novels contain detailed and perceptive analyses of dilemmas women face in modern world (e.g. “The Needle’s Eye”, written in 1972.)
Her novels “The Realms of Gold” (1975) and “The Ice Age” include a larger number of characters representing a broad section of English society.
Drabble’s later works are characterized by more emphasis on
economic, political and social problems. In her novels “The Middle Ground” (1980) and “The Radiant Way” (1987) she de­ scribes how social change influences the human characters. In “Natural Curiosity” (1989) and “The Gates of Ivory” (1992) the author continues the social concern and develops characters of the earlier works.
Margaret Drabble has also written historical works and literary
criticism. She was the editor of the fifth edition of “The Oxford Companion to English Literature”. (1985).


Susan Hill (born in 1942)
Susan Hill was bom in Scarborough, Yorkshire, and educated at Scarborough and Coventry grammar schools and King’s College, University of London. At the beginning of her career she wrote literary criticism for the Coventry Evening Telegraph for five years and reviewed fiction for several periodicals.
Since 1963 Susan Hill is known as a full-time writer and the author of several novels, volumes of short stories, essays and a number of plays. Her popular works include: “The Enclosure” (1961), “Do Me a Favour” (1963), “Gentleman and Ladies” (1968), “A Change for the better” (1969), “The Albatross and Other Sto- ries”(1970), “I Am the King ofthe Castle” (1971). “Strange Meet­ ing’l l 971), “The Bird of Night” (1972), “In the Springtime ofthe Year” (1974), “The Land of Lost Content”(1976), “The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year” (1982) and many other works. Her
works received considerable attention and were awarded several times. In 1972 she was elected a Fellow ofthe Royal Society of Literature.
Susan Hill is highly appreciated as a contemporary writer of psychological fiction. Her style is powerful in its simplicity and unexpected juxtaposition of images.