Copywork from Classic Literature EBOOK

Compiled by M. Grubb

These selections for copywork are aimed at children aged 13-15 years and have been carefully chosen as good models of clever dialogue, powerful imagery, insightful descriptions of character and good descriptions of people, places and events. Many homeschooled children are avid and fast readers, however there is a definite advantage in learning the skill of reading slowly. Copywork trains your child in this skill, teaching them to take careful note of what is being said in the passages. Reading is one thing, but writing what you read teaches you skills that do not come by reading alone. Further skills that will be developed through copywork are vocabulary, grammar, punctuation and improved writing ability. One of the great things about classic literature of 100 years or more ago is its characteristic formal style of expression. Learning to write using a more formal style is a requirement of all tertiary level papers. In addition to all these advantages, there is also the hope that the reading of these snippets from good books will entice your child to delve deeper into the wonderful world of classic literature.

There are 70 lessons which will allow you to fit this course into about one-third of your academic year, meaning that 2-3 lessons could be done each week.

CWCL Sample Lessons

Books from which passages have been taken are:

Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard

Club of Queer Trades by G. K. Chesterton

Coral Island, The by R. M. Ballantyne

Eldorado: A Story of the Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

Emma by Jane Austen

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Henry V by William Shakespeare

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens

Lost World, The by Arthur Conan Doyle

Man in the Iron Mask, The by Alexandre Dumas

Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

Man Who Was Thursday, The by G. K. Chesterton

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

Poems by Christina G. Rossetti

Poems by G. K. Chesterton

Prisoner of Zenda, The by Anthony Hope

Quentin Durward by Sir Walter Scott

Salute to Adventurers by John Buchan

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

She by H. Rider Haggard

Shirley by Charlotte Bronte

Sir Nigel by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Tale of Two Cities, A by Charles Dickens

Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

The Three Musketeers  by Alexandre Dumas

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Waverly by Sir Walter Scott

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte