Top 10 Books to Read Before You Study Abroad in the UK

Published in 1899, Heart of Darkness is another novel often thought to contain many autobiographical elements, and has become an established part of the British literary canon due to its captivating exploration of the country’s murky colonial past. Conrad (actually Polish by birth) uses a frame narrative – a story within a story – to tell the tale of Charles Marlow, an ivory transporter sailing through Central Africa’s Congo River. While the novel is told from viewpoints divergent from modern society, a contemporary analysis can explore the historical attitudes towards “otherness” and the question of what constitutes a “civilized” society and what constitutes a “barbarian” one. Students looking to know more about British imperialism and the complex attitudes prevalent at the time will find enough in this densely packed novella to merit several readings.

Jean Rhys is a Dominica-born British novelist who wrote Wide Sargasso Sea in 1966 as a postcolonial prequel to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Rhys tells the story of Antoinette Cosway, a white Creole heiress from the Caribbean, who is sold into marriage to a greedy and lusty Englishman. As a prisoner in the man’s cold English home, Rhys portrays the sad story of Eyre’s madwoman in the attic, covering themes of racial inequality in 19^th century Britain, the oppressive nature of a patriarchal society, and the nature of displacement for Creole women at that time. For those who have read Jane Eyre, this novel provides important further critique on the sub-textual issues present in the book, and, for those who haven’t, Wide Sargasso Sea will allow you to approach Brontë’s classic novel with a more analytical mindset.

A truly terrifying post-apocalyptic novel, published in 1951, John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids depicts an imagined future London, in a world that has seen a plague of blindness befall it, allowing the “triffids”, an aggressive plant species, to slowly begin to take over the world. Wyndham’s narrative follows Bill Mason, as he wakes up in hospital and gradually realizes he may be the only person left in London with his eyesight intact. Mason makes his way through the city, discovering that fear and darkness have turned many of his fellow Londoners into blind, opportunistic savages. Influenced heavily by H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds, Wyndham’s novel delves further into the question of civilization in the context of war, conflict and fear. Students new to London will be able to recognize many of the landmarks referenced in the novel, making the tale all the more resonant. (If you scare easily, this may be one to save until after you’ve got to know your way around!)

Two-time Man Booker prize winner Hilary Mantel is hailed by many as British literature’s best current historical author. Wolf Hall depicts Tudor England with stunning accuracy and clarity, telling the story of an ambitious and political Thomas Cromwell during Henry VIII’s reign. Cromwell, a historical figure who has not been portrayed all that kindly throughout the centuries, is presented by Mantel more intimately as a pragmatic man wanting to serve his king and country amidst shifting political and religious structures. For study abroad students wanting to learn more about the murky past of British politics, Mantel offers a narrative both gripping and eye-opening. Mantel’s sequel, Bring Up the Bodies, also won the Man Booker prize.

David Mitchell, one of the shining stars of 21^st century postmodern British literature, is perhaps best known for the genre-defying Cloud Atlas – a 2004 novel made into a Hollywood movie in 2013. Spanning six incongruent stories, beginning on a remote South Pacific archipelago during the California Gold Rush of the 19^th century, and ending in a post-apocalyptic distant future, Mitchell links each narrative by depicting the same soul in each character throughout the novel’s time span. In doing this, Cloud Atlas conveys the universality of human nature and the reality that as long as humans exist there will be conflict and battle between individuals, nations and groups. A novel about morals, about reliving history and learning from it, Mitchell also offers fans of post-modernist, anachronistic literature a beast of a story to delve into.

Depicting a modern-day collector of Nazi memorabilia, a 20^th century entomologist with an interest in eugenics, a nine-toed, gay Jewish boxer and an aggressive Welsh hitman, Boxer, Beetle is a very recent example of great postmodern British literature. Boxer, Beetle travels through time and space from a smelly post-millennium East London flat, to the angry streets filled with Mosley’s black shirts, and to the laboratory of a high-society doctor submerged in a culture of 1930s British fascism, before the beginnings of World War Two.  Beauman weaves his story across 70 years of history, as his characters unravel a murder mystery and discover the story behind one particular genus of beetle; the Anopthalmus Hitleri. The novel covers historic narratives of riots, sex, love and murder through themes of Darwinism, fascism and insects. Boxer, Beetle is recommended for study abroad students heading for the UK capital, for its portrayal of London in all its past and present grimy glory.

Another London-based novel, Zadie Smith’s White Teeth takes inspiration from many great London novels and novelists throughout history, from Dickens to Ballard, producing an epic story with themes of immigration, family life, love and betrayal all set to the backdrop of the capital in the 1970s. Told from the viewpoints of different family members, including Archie Jones, a working-class Londoner married to a beautiful, toothless Jamaican woman, and his war-time friend, Samad Iqbal, a devout Muslim who finds himself corrupted by British society, drinking and committing adultery with his sons’ school teacher. Through its series of interconnected characters, the novel explores the struggle of assimilation for migrant families, as well as societal attitudes towards race and religion in 1970s Britain. Study abroad students will enjoy this novel not only for its humor and sharp satire, but also for its relevance to British society today.

Image source: Goodreads.com

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