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Hello!  I would like for the students with which I am working to gain a better perspective of what motivations were behind the writing of Beowulf, or Pride and Prejudice. In other words, I want them to research what was going on in the author's world/life that might have influenced the themes he/she chose to write about.  a particular writer (Edgar Allan Poe, Jane Austen)

Do you all know of websites that can help them with this?

Thanks!

www.webenglishteacher.com is a good website for teaching literature in general, and it often has links to other sites that give more information about the authors.

One of the best sources for helping students understand the historical and social background of Pride and Prejudice is Daniel Poole's What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew.  Here is a link from amazon.com:  http://www.amazon.com/Austen-Charles-Dickens-Whist-Nineteenth-Century/dp/0671882368

The book only costs $10.95 and is well worth it for the kind of interesting background information that will help students understand the Regency period (Austen) and Victorian period (Dickens).  Besides, students love it!  There was an excerpt from the book in the edition of Pride and Prejudice I taught from (in a former school), and when I assigned this excerpt, the kids came back the next day and said, "That was REALLY INTERESTING."

Also, there is a wealth of material available on Austen and Pride and Prejudice.  There are Austen fans (or Austenites) who post anything and everything Austen, including historical background analyses.  Start with e-notes, right here--always good for contextual background as well.  It's so important for kids to understand why it is "shocking" when Elizabeth goes for a walk and gets her skirts muddied.  They also wonder why Mr. Bennett doesn't work--they do not understand the concept of British aristocracy in the early nineteenth century.  Good luck helping your students. The Poole book would be a great investment.