English portraits and essays Book

The context often overshadows the literature when it comes to this book. But it is, by all means, a good book to come to, to get an idea of how the social/political/economic/cultural milieu of a particular age helped shape its literature.

However, before coming to it, I'd suggest getting a general idea of English history. The text often just makes references to events, instead of going into detail. This is where prior knowledge would help. It is also not a good text if you want an in-depth study of the literature of that particular age. It does what it claims to do, show a basic connection between literature and its context.