Overview
Test Series
Best English Book for UPSC: The Union Public Service Commission conducts various exams to recruit eligible candidates and appoint them for prime posts in the Administration, Police, Railways, Defence and many more sectors. With the level of competition and difficulty, cracking the exam without proper materials for preparation is very hard. The UPSC IAS exam is conducted in three stages, in which the Mains exam is solely based on written abilities. For all the candidates aspiring to appear for the exam, you must be well-versed in the language, including proficiency in English grammar and knowledge of literature. All the candidates have to pass the basic English test to advance to other stages. Furthermore, candidates can opt for English as a subject in the UPSC optional paper if they have a good grasp over the language.
In this article, you will get a list of English books and you can decide which English book for UPSC you need to refer to. The list of English books for UPSC is prepared strictly based on the latest syllabus and chosen carefully for an extensive understanding of the subject.
Start your UPSC preparation journey with expert coaching and advanced guidance with Testbook UPSC CSE Coaching to get your dream job!
Attempt UPSC Free Mock Test here to test your chances of acing the UPSC exam!
English is one of the most challenging subjects to score good marks in the UPSC exam. However, with consistent preparation with the right set of English books for UPSC, you can make it one of your most scoring papers in the exam. Check out the Best English Grammar Books for UPSC compulsory and optional papers in the table given below:
List Of Best English Books For UPSC PDF – Download Here!
Best English Book For UPSC (Compulsory English) | ||
Book Name | Publisher/Author Name | Book Description |
Compulsory English | A P Bhardwaj | A perfect English Guide for IAS aspirants to kickstart their basic understanding of general English. |
Contemporary Essays for Civil Services Examinations | Ramesh Singh | This book is meticulously written to imprint the candidates with the art of essay writing and has vital government data in it. |
UPSC Civil Services Main Exam – Indian Society: A General Overview 1st Edition | B Ramaswamy | Contains important features of Indian Society, the diversity of India, women’s organisations, effects of globalisation on Indian society, social empowerment, communalism, regionalism and secularism etc. |
Unique Quintessence of a Compendium of Essays | J K Chopra | This book covers political, economic, social and other topics. Also, it has solved papers of previous years in and is considered to be one of the best books for essay writing. |
The Vault of Essays | Yagya Nand Jha | This book talks about various issues on political, international, economical, national, social etc. and is highly recommended for UPSC aspirants for English. |
English Books For UPSC (Optional Paper) | ||
Introduction to English Literature | W. H. Hudson | A brief detail of the English language in a single author narrative. |
The Routledge History of Literature in English | Routledge | Routledge is famous for its prominent publication. History of Literature in English extensively talks about the various literary movements and ages covered in detail. |
A Short History of English Literature | Pramod K. Nayar | One of the best English book for UPSC preparation, this is a crisp and easy to understand text for history of English Literature. |
Check UPSC Preparation books for all subjects to ace the exam.
Reading some of the standard literature texts is crucial to make your preparation strong for the UPSC English optional paper. Below, we have listed some of the major English literature texts that you must be familiar with if you want to ace the English section in the UPSC IAS exam:
Standard UPSC English Literature Books and Texts | |
Author | Book |
William Shakespeare | King Lear |
The Tempest | |
John Donne | Canonization |
Death Be Not Proud | |
The Good Morrow | |
On his Mistress Going to Bed | |
The Relic | |
John Milton | Paradise Lost, I, II, IV, IX |
Alexander Pope | The Rape of the Lock |
William Wordsworth | Ode on Intimations of Immortality |
Tintern Abbey | |
Three Years She Grew | |
She Dwelt Among Untrodden Ways | |
Michael | |
Resolution and Independence | |
The World is Too Much With Us | |
Milton, thou shouldst be living at this hour | |
Upon Westminster Bridge | |
Jonathan Swift | Gulliver’s Travels |
Jane Austen | Pride and Prejudice |
Henry Fielding | Tom Jones |
Charles Dickens | Hard Times |
George Eliot | The Mill on the Floss |
Thomas Hardy | Tess of the d’Urbervilles |
Mark Twain | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |
William Butler Yeats | Easter 1916 |
The Second Coming | |
A Prayer for my daughter | |
Sailing to Byzantium | |
The Tower | |
Among School Children | |
Leda and the Swan | |
Meru | |
Lapis Lazuli | |
T. S. Eliot | The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock |
Journey of the Magi | |
Burnt Norton | |
W.H. Auden | Partition |
– | Musee des Beaux |
– | In Memory of W.B. Yeats |
– | Lay your sleeping head, my love |
– | The Unknown Citizen |
– | Consider |
– | Mundus Et Infans |
– | The Shield of Achilles |
John Osborne | Look In Anger |
Samuel Beckett | Waiting for Godot |
Philip Larkin | Next |
– | Please |
– | Deceptions |
– | Afternoons |
– | Days |
– | Bleaney |
A.K. Ramanujan | Looking for a Cousin on a Swing |
– | A River |
– | Of Mothers, among other Things |
– | Love Poem for a Wife |
– | Small-Scale Reflections on a Great House |
– | Obituary |
Joseph Conrad | Lord Jim |
James Joyce | Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man |
D.H. Lawrence | Sons and Lovers |
E.M. Forster | A Passage to India |
Virginia Woolf | Mrs Dalloway |
Raja Rao | Kanthapura |
V.S. Naipal | A House for Mr. Biswas |
When it comes to preparing from English Books for UPSC, candidates must be well aware of the right preparation strategy in order to cover the vast portions effectively. Answer writing is an art and English is all about excelling in that art. The following are the few steps through which you can tune your preparation strategy to the perfect frequency:
Find a winning strategy to prepare for the UPSC without coaching here.
With this article, we hope you are now familiar with the Best English book for UPSC exam needed to ace the English section in the UPSC exam. Found the article useful for your preparation? Download the Testbook App now to get a competitive edge in the exam.
UPSC Exam-Hacker, Author, Super Mentor, MA
Sign Up Now &