The Book of the Courtier was published in 1528 by the Italian Renaissance writer Baldassare Castiglione. The book outlines the ideal qualities of a Renaissance man and was widely influential in European society. It was particularly influential in British society, where it came to define the correct behavior of a wealthy British gentleman.

The majority of the Renaissance took place in Italy, as intellectuals from all over Europe flocked to booming cultural centers receiving vast amounts of wealth and support from patrons of the arts and sciences. Florence in particular had undergone a public revitalization of classical Greek studies that focused on poetry, mathematics, science, and art during the rule of the prominent and scholarly Medici family.

Shelley's generation was disillusioned with the values of the Enlightenment that touted reason above all else. She and other Romantics believed that feeling and emotion were important, too. Her work did not discuss improving the lives of workers, nor did it encourage further alchemical studies.

The Renaissance represented a revival of Greco-Roman culture, and therefore its art began to reflect classical art and themes, including myths. Nevertheless, religious themes continued to be popular in art. During the Renaissance, the status of the artist increased greatly: individuals such as Michelangelo were widely revered for their artistic genius. Additionally, individual patrons more frequently began to commission art (most famously, the Medici family in Florence); the portrait became a more common genre; and even religious paintings often portrayed the patron and his family. Note that during the Renaissance, the human body began to be depicted in a more naturalistic manner, and was typically glorified. Consider, for example, Michelangelo’s David.

Don Quixote is the most famous work in the history of Spanish literature. It was written by Cervantes in the sixteenth century and is primarily a mockery of the culture that existed in Spain in Cervantes’ time period. Cervantes wanted to shine a light on the absurd glorification of chivalry and anachronistic reverence for medieval values. Cervantes' disdain, and muted, vexed respect for, chivalric cultural values can be found in the most lasting image of the work, and one of the most lasting images in all of literature, that of Don Quixote riding valiantly into battle against a windmill.

Charles Dickens is probably the most famous writer of the Victorian period of British history. His writings coincided with the Industrial Revolution and often focused on portraying social injustices and the arduous lives of the British working class. Famous works by Charles Dickens include Oliver Twist and Hard Times.

The Rococo artistic movement was widely popular in eighteenth century and is characterized by sentimentality and deviations from realism. The Neoclassical movement, which emerged in the late eighteenth century around the time of the French Revolution, is widely understood as a backlash against this movement. Neoclassicism focused on recreating the styles of classical Greece and Rome and valued realism and the accurate representation of the human form.

Wilfred Owen's poetry, including his celebrated Dulce et Decorum Est, railed against the horrors of the First World War and helped give a voice to a generation destroyed by violence. John Keats was a 19th century Romantic poet. Jack Kerouac was a mid-century poet and novelist, and a prominent member of the Beat movement. Michel de Montaigne was 16th century French writer widely credited with inventing the modern form of the essay. Philip Larkin is a poet of the mid-20th century.

In the Merchant of Venice (1605), which takes place in, you guessed it Venice, features a character named Shylock who is a Jewish Moneylender. Bassanio, a venetian noble needs to borrow money in order to woo the woman he loves so he is sent to Shylock by a merchant friend, Antonio. Instead of requiring payment of interest on the loan, Shylock requires that Antonio, as guarantor on the loan, to give a pound of flesh if Bassanio does not pay back the money.

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was published in 1899 and is one of the most influential works in the English language. The book deals with European ideals of what constitutes barbarism and the right to call oneself “civilized” by exploring the harsh reality of European imperialism on the African continent. Conrad is sharply critical of the racial motivations behind European imperialism.