The late Victorian and early modern periods are spanned by two novelists of foreign birth： the American Henry James （1843-1916） and the Pole Joseph Conrad （Josef Korzeniowski； 1857-1924）。 James relates character to issues of culture and ethics， but his style can be opaque； Conrad's narratives may resemble adventure stories in incident and setting， but his real concern is with issues of character and morality. The best of their work would include James's The Portrait of a Lady and Conrad's Heart of Darkness， Nostromo and The Secret Agent.
Other notable writers of the early part of the century include George Bernard Shaw （1856-1950）， H.G. Wells （1866-1946）， and E.M. Forster （1879-1970）。 Shaw was an essay-writer， language scholar and critic， but is best-remembered as a playwright. Of his many plays， the best-known is Pygmalion （even better known today in its form as the musical My Fair Lady）。 Wells is celebrated as a popularizer of science， but his best novels explore serious social and cultural themes， The History of Mr. Polly being perhaps his masterpiece. Forster's novels include Howard's End， A Room with a View and A Passage to India.
Joyce and Woolf
Where these writers show continuity with the Victorian tradition of the novel， more radically modern writing is found in the novels of James Joyce （1882-1941）， of Virginia Woolf （1882-1941）， and of D.H. Lawrence （1885-1930）。 Where Joyce and Woolf challenge traditional narrative methods of viewpoint and structure， Lawrence is concerned to explore human relationships more profoundly than his predecessors， attempting to marry the insights of the new psychology with his own acute observation. Working-class characters are presented as serious and dignified； their manners and speech are not objects of ridicule.
Other notable novelists include George Orwell （1903-50）， Evelyn Waugh （1903-1966）， Graham Greene （1904-1991） and the 1983 Nobel prize-winner， William Golding （1911-1993）。
Poetry in the later 20th century
Between the two wars， a revival of romanticism in poetry is associated with the work of W.H. （Wystan Hugh） Auden （1907-73）， Louis MacNeice （1907-63） and Cecil Day-Lewis （1904-72）。 Auden seems to be a major figure on the poetic landscape， but is almost too contemporary to see in perspective. The Welsh poet， Dylan Thomas （1914-53） is notable for strange effects of language， alternating from extreme simplicity to massive overstatement.
Of poets who have achieved celebrity in the second half of the century， evaluation is even more difficult， but writers of note include the American Robert Lowell （1917-77）， Philip Larkin （1922-1985）， R.S. Thomas （1913-2000）， Thom Gunn （1929-2004）， Ted Hughes （1930-1998） and the 1995 Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney （b. 1939）。
Notable writers outside mainstream movements
Any list of "important" names is bound to be uneven and selective. Identifying broad movements leads to the exclusion of those who do not easily fit into schematic outlines of history. Writers not referred to above， but highly regarded by some readers might include Laurence Sterne （1713-68）， author of Tristram Shandy， R.L. Stevenson （1850-94） writer of Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde， Oscar Wilde （1854-1900）， author of The Importance of Being Earnest， and novelists such as Arnold Bennett （1867-1931）， John Galsworthy （1867-1933） and the Americans F. Scott Fitzgerald （1896-1940）， Ernest Hemingway （1898-1961）， John Steinbeck （1902-68） and J.D. Salinger （b. 1919）。 Two works notable not just for their literary merit but for their articulation of the spirit of the age are Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. The American dramatist Arthur Miller （b. 1915） has received similar acclaim for his play Death of a Salesman （1949）。 Miller is more popular in the UK than his native country， and is familiar to many teachers and students because his work is so often set for study in examinations.
Literature and culture
Literature has a history， and this connects with cultural history more widely. Prose narratives were written in the 16th century， but the novel as we know it could not arise， in the absence of a literate public. The popular and very contemporary medium for narrative in the 16th century is the theatre. The earliest novels reflect a bourgeois view of the world because this is the world of the authors and their readers （working people are depicted， but patronizingly， not from inside knowledge）。 The growth of literacy in the Victorian era leads to enormous diversification in the subjects and settings of the novel.
Recent and future trends
In recent times the novel has developed different genres such as the thriller， the whodunnit， the pot-boiler， the western and works of science-fiction， horror and the sex-and-shopping novel. Some of these may be brief fashions （the western seems to be dying） while others such as the detective story or science-fiction have survived for well over a century. As the dominant form of narrative in contemporary western popular culture， the novel may have given way to the feature film and television drama. But it has proved surprisingly resilient. As society alters， so the novel may reflect or define this change； many works may be written， but few of them will fulfil this defining r？？le； those which seem to do so now， may not speak to later generations in the same way.
Evaluating literature
The "test of time" may be a cliché， but is a genuine measure of how a work of imagination can transcend cultural boundaries； we should， perhaps， now speak of the "test of time and place"， as the best works cross boundaries of both kinds. We may not "like" or "enjoy" works such as Wüthering Heights， Heart of Darkness or The Waste Land， but they are the perfect expression of particular ways of looking at the world； the author has articulated a view which connects with the reader's search for meaning. It is， of course， perfectly possible for a work of imagination to make sense of the world or of experience （or love， or God， or death） while also entertaining or delighting the reader or audience with the detail and eloquence of the work， as in A Midsummer Night's Dream， The Rime of the Ancient Mariner or Great Expectations.
