Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784), aka Dr. Johnson, was an English essayist, critic, poet, and novelist. He is probably most famous for the glowing biography written by James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, or for compiling the first modern English dictionary. He was destitute and unrecognized well into his forties, at which time he achieved a certain literary celebrity.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Samuel Johnson. In each case a summary knowledge will suffice.

1. "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (poem)
2. The Lives of the English Poets (literary biography)
3. The Rambler (journal)
-in which Johnson published essays frequently
4. Dictionary of the English Language
5. Rasselas (novel)

Johnson's work is probably not work reading in full for the GRE Literature exam.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) was a Irish-born English satirist. His work is very likely to appear on the GRE Literature exam.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Jonathan Swift.

1. Gulliver's Travels
-Worth knowing Liliput, Brobdignag, Laputa, Struldburgs, Houyhnhnms, and Yahoos
2. "A Modest Proposal"
-Swift ironically suggests that poor Irish infants might be sold to the rich as food.
3. A Tale of a Tub
-Religious satire: Peter (Catholicism) vs Jack (Calvinism & Dissenting Protestants) vs Martin (Luther, but also, confusingly, Anglicanism)

Gulliver's Travels might be worth adding to your exam prep reading list. I recommend the Penguin Classics Edition.

Charles Lamb (1775-1834)

Charles Lamb (1775-1834) was a Welsh essayist and minor poet. It's also notable that he knew Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley personally.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Charles Lamb.

1. Essays of Elia
-Conversational personal essays; Elia = Charles himself
2. Tales from Shakespeare
-Adaptations for children, written with his sister, Mary Lamb

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)

Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was an English Modernist novelist and essayist. She was one of the major figures of the Modernist movement.

She was a pioneer of the modern stream-of-consciousness techniques, though in her hands the effect is less pronounced as in other modernist works, such as Joyce's Ulysses.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Virginia Woolf. In each case, if you haven't read the book already, a general knowledge of plot, character, and style will suffice.

1. Mrs. Dalloway
-1 day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, in post-WWI England
-A famous example of stream of consciousness
2. To the Lighthouse
-Follows the Ramsay family, plus Lily Briscoe, before, during, and after WWI.
3. A Room of One's Own
-Book-length essay on barriers faced by woman writers of literature.
-Hypothetical "Judith Shakespeare;" coined the term "Oxbridge"
-Examines Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, and George Eliot in detail
-Tone is heavily ironic/sarcastic

There's the off chance that the GRE folks will expect you to know that Woolf, who could be more than a bit haughty, once dismissed Joyce's Ulysses as "illiterate" and "underbred."

If you're interested in reading more, I recommend starting with this annotated To the Lighthouse.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) was a British Victorian poet and humanist critic.

Besides familiarity with "Dover Beach" (his most famous poem), for the GRE Literature Exam, it's enough to know that he was a Classicist with a special fondness for the Greeks, his critical works often have moral or ethical overtones, many of his critical works deal with strongly personal themes, and he liked to bash philistines.

1. "Dover Beach"
-Often seen as an early example of modern sentiments.
-Laments the loss of (religious) faith.

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) was a British Victorian essayist, philosopher, and political economist. He was a classical liberal and a leading proponent of utilitarianism.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with J. S. Mill. In each case, a summary knowledge of the content will suffice.

1. On Liberty
-Most famous for its concept of the tyranny of the majority.
2. The Subjection of Women
-Co-written by his wife; an early argument (1869) for the equality of the sexes.
3. Autobiography
-All you need to know is that it includes an extended account of a bout of depression ("melancholia"); the GRE folks like to trip you up with this one, since it's not typical Mill.
4. "What is Poetry"
-Link goes to a summary of the central arguments.

John Henry Newman (1801-1890)

John Henry Newman (1801-1890) was a British Victorian essayist and theologian. He began his career in the Anglican church and later became a Roman Catholic cardinal.

For the GRE Literature exam, associate the following works with Newman. For each of the works below, a general knowledge of the content will suffice.

1. Apologia Pro Vita Sua
-Newman's explanation of his decision to convert to Catholicism.
2. The Idea of a University (link to full text--skim only)
-Outlining a Catholic approach to education and the liberal arts

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) was a Scottish Victorian essayist and satirist. He's most famous for calling economics "the dismal science."

Sartor Resartus is the work most likely to appear on the GRE Literature Exam.

Sartor Resartus (Latin, meaning roughly "The Tailor Re-tailored" or "The Tailor Re-clothed") is intentionally difficult to classify: it flits between satire and serious philosophy, between fact and fiction. The word was published in Boston with a preface by Emerson, where the work had a major effect on Transcendentalism.

For the exam, it's usually enough to be able to recognize the following characters and keywords as belonging to Carlyle's Sartor Resartus:

-Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (Latin, "God-born," and German, "Devil-shit")
-The Wanderer (another name for Teufelsdröckh)
-The Everlasting Yea (roughly, spiritual faith)
-The Everlasting No (roughly, spiritual doubt or cynicism)
-Weissnichtwo (Teufelsdröckh's hometown; German, "know not where")

If you want to go deeper, I recommend the Oxford World's Classics Edition.