15 Best Literature Courses Online
We compared 15 Literature courses currently listed on edX, Coursera and Udemy, priced from $19.99 to $536.40. 10 come from a named university or institution, including University of California, Berkeley, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and University of California, Santa Cruz. They are ordered by our CourseAsk score, which is built from how thoroughly each course describes what it teaches, whether it comes from a named institution, and how it compares on price — not from star ratings, which our course data does not include.
- Courses compared
- 15
- Price range
- $19.99 – $536.40
- Providers
- edX, Coursera, Udemy
- Last updated
- 18 Sep 2026
How these 15 courses were chosen
Every course below is a real, currently listed course from edX, Coursera, Udemy, matched to "literature" by our catalog and ordered by our CourseAsk score. Courses whose own title names the topic rank above those only tagged with it.
The grade on each entry scores how much the provider publishes about the course before you pay — the length and detail of the description, whether it lists learning outcomes and objectives — and whether a named university or institution stands behind it. A is fully documented and institution-backed; E is little more than a title and a price. Courses with almost nothing published are left ungraded rather than marked down, because an unknown course and a poor one are not the same thing.
There are no star ratings on this page — the course feeds we license do not include them, and we would rather leave a column out than fill it with a number we cannot stand behind. What we do have is price: these range from $19.99 to $536.40, as listed by the provider when we last updated the page.
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1
AP® English Literature & Composition – Part 1: Stories
Offered by University of California, Berkeley
Enhance your ability to read and write about great literature in preparation for the AP® English Literature & Composition exam.
$169.00listed price -
2
The Essence of Leadership: Explorations from Literature
Offered by Indian Institute of Management Bangalore
What does it mean to lead by example? Enter the world of classic literature and explore different aspects of leadership embodied by strong, and sometimes quirky characters and complex situations that pose dilemmas.
$149.00listed price -
3
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry
Offered by University of California, Santa Cruz
The Holocaust: The Destruction of European Jewry is an adaptation of an on-campus course that has been co-taught by Murray Baumgarten, Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature (Literature Department)...
$49.00listed price -
4
Capstone: Bringing it all together
Offered by University of Cambridge
Having completed the seven other courses in the MicroMasters in Writing for Performance and Entertainment Industries, this course gives you the opportunity to put it all together. The course webinar will focus on the ass...
$299.00listed price -
5
Age of Cathedrals
Offered by Yale University
An introduction to some of the most astonishing architectural monuments the world has ever known—Gothic cathedrals. We shall study the art, literature, intellectual life, economics, and new social arrangements that arose...
$49.00listed price -
6
Theo-Humanism: God's Ways in Today's World
Offered by Georgetown University
This course is based on a classical method of theology that begins from the workings of our own humanity. Drawing on a heritage of humanistic literature, enriched by the work of university experts across disciplines, thi...
$179.00listed price -
7
Shakespeare's Life, Work, and Characters
Offered by Harvard University
This course offers a deep exploration of Shakespeare's life, work, and the array of characters that populate his plays. You'll get to understand the historical and cultural context in which he wrote, providing valuable i...
$536.40listed price -
8
Italian Language and Culture: Intermediate (2025-2026)
Offered by Wellesley College
Improve your Italian language skills and expand your vocabulary while you learn about Italian art, literature and contemporary society.
$59.00listed price -
9
Kursus Menulis Buku
Menulis itu penting, karena dengan adanya tulisan kita bisa memberikan informasi yang bermanfaat bagi orang lain yang membutuhkan. Sesederhana apapun kata yang dituliskan, pasti bermanfaat bagi yang sedang membutuhkannya...
$19.99listed price -
10
A Psicologia do Amor
Como a Psicologia pode nos ajudar a entender algo tão complexo quanto o amor?O amor se encontra por toda parte. Na vida, amamos, nos apaixonamos e inevitavelmente sofremos no processo. Na clínica, psicólogos recebem o te...
$34.99listed price -
11
Russian Language - Basics
Learning Russian language is not such a difficult task! Like any language, Russian has some unique features. It has a very rich vocabulary, a huge variety of literature and amazing history. But the key to understanding R...
$19.99listed price -
12
Basic Understanding of China and Chinese Culture
Course Description:This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the People's Republic of China, designed for international learners seeking to understand China’s national identity, culture, society, and practical l...
$19.99listed price -
13
Let's Speak Urdu - Reading Practice
Urdu is a beautiful language that is spoken by more than 200 million people worldwide in countries like Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates and other parts of the world. Urdu started developing in North In...
$19.99listed price -
14
The Modern and the Postmodern (Part 2)
Offered by Wesleyan University
This course examines how the idea of "the modern" develops at the end of the 18th century in European philosophy and literature, and how being modern (or progressive, or hip) became one of the crucial criteria for unders...
$49.00listed price -
15
The Power of Words
Offered by The University of Tokyo
This course examines how words retain power amidst crises, focusing on Japanese and English literature. It explores how words aid in resilience and self-renewal. Emphasis is on understanding form's role in texts and soci...
$59.00listed price
Best Literature Courses Online compared
Prices shown are the provider's listed price when we last updated this page. Confirm on their site before enrolling.
What the prices here tell you
The 15 priced courses on this page run from $19.99 to $536.40, with the middle of the range around $49.00 — a spread of $516.41. That is a wide gap for one subject. A higher price on this page usually reflects who is behind the course rather than how much material it contains, so it is worth opening two or three at different price points and comparing their syllabus before deciding.
Who is behind these courses
These courses come from edX, Coursera and Udemy. The platforms differ in how they sell: some charge once per course, others expect a subscription, and the listed price is not always what you pay at checkout after a promotion. 10 of these are produced by a named university or institution, including University of California, Berkeley, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and University of California, Santa Cruz — which usually means a fixed syllabus and a recognised certificate, rather than an individual instructor’s own course.
Before you enrol
Open the provider’s own page and check three things this comparison cannot tell you: when the course was last updated, what the syllabus actually covers in its later sections, and what recent learners say. Prices shown here are the provider’s listed price when we last rebuilt this page on 18 September 2026 — they change often, and a promotion can move them substantially. We earn a commission if you enrol through our links, which costs you nothing and never affects the order courses appear in.