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AQA A level English Literature set texts 2027

The texts students choose from for AQA A level English Literature exams in 2027, paper by paper, read from the board's specification. The school picks which ones its students study, so ask the English department which your child has.

AQA A-level English Literature A (7712) (7712)

7712/1Love through the ages

Shakespeare (study one)

  • Othello, William Shakespeare
  • The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
  • Measure for Measure, William Shakespeare
  • The Winter's Tale, William Shakespeare

Comparative set texts: poetry and prose (study two: one poetry and one prose, one written pre-1900)

  • Anthology of Love Poetry through the Ages: Pre-1900, AQA ed.
  • Anthology of Love Poetry through the Ages: Post-1900, AQA ed.
  • Persuasion, Jane Austen
  • Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
  • Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
  • The Awakening, Kate Chopin
  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
  • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • A Room with a View, E.M. Forster
  • The Go-Between, L.P. Hartley
  • Rebecca, Daphne Du Maurier
  • Atonement, Ian McEwan
  • The Island of Missing Trees, Elif Shafak (from 2027)

7712/2ATexts in shared contexts: WW1 and its aftermath

Core set texts (study at least one)

  • Regeneration, Pat Barker
  • Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
  • Oh! What a Lovely War, Joan Littlewood
  • Journey’s End, R.C. Sherriff
  • Up the Line to Death, ed. Brian Gardner
  • Scars Upon My Heart, ed. Catherine Reilly

Comparative set texts (study two, from this list or the core list)

  • Life Class, Pat Barker
  • A Long, Long Way, Sebastian Barry
  • The first Casualty, Ben Elton
  • Goodbye to All That, Robert Graves
  • A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
  • Strange Meeting, Susan Hill
  • Wake, Anna Hope (from 2027)
  • All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria RemarqueVintage paperback edition, translated by Brian Murdoch
  • The Return of the Soldier, Rebecca West
  • The Accrington Pals, Peter Whelan
  • Blackadder Goes Forth, Richard Curtis and Ben Elton
  • My Boy Jack, David Haig
  • The Wipers Times, Ian Hislop and Nick Newman
  • The Penguin Book of First World War Poetry, ed. George Walter
  • The Oxford Book of War Poetry, ed. Jon Stallworthy
  • The War Poems of Wilfred Owen, ed. Jon Stallworthy

7712/2BTexts in shared contexts: Modern times: literature from 1945 to the present day

Core set texts (study at least one)

  • The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
  • Waterland, Graham Swift
  • Top Girls, Caryl Churchill
  • A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
  • Feminine Gospels, Carol Ann Duffy
  • Skirrid Hill, Owen Sheers

Comparative set texts (study two, from this list or the core list)

  • Mr Loverman, Bernardine Evaristo (from 2027)
  • Spies, Michael Frayn
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey
  • The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
  • The Help, Kathryn Stockett
  • The Color Purple, Alice Walker
  • Oranges are not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson
  • Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates
  • Translations, Brian Friel
  • All My Sons, Arthur Miller
  • Our Country’s Good, Timberlake Wertenbaker
  • Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Tennessee Williams
  • Selected Poems 2013 Edition, Tony Harrison
  • New Selected Poems 1966-1987, Seamus Heaney
  • Birthday Letters, Ted Hughes
  • Ariel, Sylvia Plath

Printed for AS and A-level exams from June 2026. Paper 2 is taken as Option A (7712/2A) or Option B (7712/2B). The non-exam assessment (Texts across time) has no set list. Read from the specification (Version 1.7.1, 1 October 2025), pp. 17-22, on Saturday 26 September 2026.

AQA A-level English Literature B (7717) (7717)

7717/1ALiterary genres: Aspects of tragedy

Shakespeare (study one)

  • Othello, William Shakespeare
  • King Lear, William Shakespeare

Further set texts (study two, including one drama; at least one written pre-1900)

  • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • Tess of the D’Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
  • ‘Lamia’, ‘Isabella or The Pot of Basil’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, 'The Eve of St. Agnes', John Keats
  • Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
  • Richard II, William Shakespeare
  • AQA English Literature B Poetry anthology (tragedy)

7717/1BLiterary genres: Aspects of comedy

Shakespeare (study one)

  • The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare
  • Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare

Further set texts (study two: one pre-1900 drama and one further text)

  • Emma, Jane Austen
  • The Nun’s Priest’s Tale, Geoffrey ChaucerIncluding Prologue and Epilogue
  • She Stoops to Conquer, Oliver Goldsmith
  • Small Island, Andrea Levy
  • The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde
  • AQA English Literature B Poetry anthology (comedy)

7717/2ATexts and genres: Elements of crime writing

Set texts (study three: one post-2000 prose, one pre-1900 poetry and one further text)

  • When Will There Be Good News?, Kate Atkinson
  • The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Agatha Christie
  • The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge
  • ‘Peter Grimes’, ‘The Laboratory’, ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘Porphyria’s Lover’, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol', George Crabbe, Robert Browning and Oscar Wilde
  • Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens
  • Brighton Rock, Graham Greene
  • Atonement, Ian McEwan
  • Hamlet, William Shakespeare
  • Kala, Colin Walsh (from 2027)

7717/2BTexts and genres: Elements of political and social protest writing

Set texts (study three: one post-2000 prose, one poetry and one further text; one written pre-1900)

  • The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
  • Songs of Innocence and of Experience, William Blake
  • Harvest, Jim Crace
  • Hard Times, Charles Dickens
  • Brotherless Night, V. V. Ganeshananthan
  • Selected Poems, Tony Harrison'V', 'National Trust', 'Them and [uz]', 'Divisions', 'Working', 'Marked with D'
  • The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini
  • A Doll’s House, Henrik IbsenMethuen Drama edition, translated by Michael Meyer
  • Henry IV Part I, William Shakespeare

Printed for AS and A-level exams from June 2026. Paper 1 is taken as Option 1A or 1B and Paper 2 as Option 2A or 2B. The non-exam assessment (Theory and independence) has no set list. Read from the specification (Version 1.5.1, 1 October 2025), pp. 21-26, on Saturday 26 September 2026.

Also: past papers, grade calculator, and other boards' A level set texts.

cookie is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any exam board. The lists are facts read from each board's own specification, last checked on Saturday 26 September 2026; the specification is the final word.