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WJEC A level English Literature set texts 2027

The texts students choose from for WJEC 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.

2720U1AS Unit 1: Prose and Drama

Prose fiction pre-1900 (study one)

  • Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen
  • Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
  • North and South, Elizabeth Gaskell
  • David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
  • The Mayor of Casterbridge, Thomas Hardy

Drama (study one)

  • Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe
  • Lady Windermere’s Fan, Oscar Wilde
  • A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams
  • Top Girls, Caryl Churchill
  • Translations, Brian Friel

2720U2AS Unit 2: Poetry Post-1900

Poetry post-1900 (paired texts) (study one pair)

  • Selected Poems, Edward ThomasFaber; poems in Appendix B; paired with Alun Lewis
  • Collected Poems, Alun LewisSeren; poems in Appendix B; paired with Edward Thomas
  • Poems selected by Seamus Heaney, W. B. YeatsFaber; paired with Dannie Abse
  • Welsh Retrospective, Dannie AbseSeren; paired with W. B. Yeats
  • Poems selected by Simon Armitage, Ted HughesFaber; paired with Sylvia Plath
  • Poems selected by Ted Hughes, Sylvia PlathFaber; paired with Ted Hughes
  • The Whitsun Weddings, Philip LarkinFaber; paired with Carol Ann Duffy
  • Mean Time, Carol Ann DuffyPicador; paired with Philip Larkin
  • Field Work, Seamus HeaneyFaber; paired with Owen Sheers
  • Skirrid Hill, Owen SheersSeren; paired with Seamus Heaney

1720U3A2 Unit 3: Poetry Pre-1900 and Unseen Poetry

Poetry pre-1900 (study one)

  • The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, Geoffrey ChaucerCambridge
  • Selected Poems, John DonnePenguin Classics
  • Paradise Lost Book IX, John MiltonOxford
  • Poems selected by Patti Smith, William BlakeVintage
  • Selected Poems, Christina RossettiPenguin Classics

1720U4A2 Unit 4: Shakespeare

Shakespeare (study one)

  • King Lear, William Shakespeare
  • Antony and Cleopatra, William Shakespeare
  • Hamlet, William Shakespeare
  • Henry IV Part 1, William Shakespeare
  • The Tempest, William Shakespeare

For centres in Wales. The A level includes the two AS units (2720U1, 2720U2). WJEC's current set texts list (checked 2026-09-26) matches this version. Unit 2 texts are studied in the pairs shown in each note. Unit 5 (prose study, non-exam assessment) has no set list. Read from the specification (Version 3, December 2019), pp. 8, 10-11, 13, on Saturday 26 September 2026.

Also: past papers, 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.