Newest Study Guides
Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format.
Each study guide includes essays, an in-depth chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quiz. Study guides are available in PDF format.
In 1645 Milton published “L’Allegro” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “Il Penseroso.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker in “L’...
Dryden himself acknowledged that his 1667 play All for Love is an imitation of William Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, which was written in the early 1600s). It is a heroic drama that follows many of the same story beats of Shakespeare's ...
The Three Musketeers was first published in 1844. It was serialized (published in monthly installments) in the newspaper Le Siecle between March and July 1844. Later that same year, the novel was published as a complete eight-volume set. Dumas had...
“The Collar” appears in George Herbert’s collection of poetry The Temple, published in 1633. The poem likely draws on Biblical sources including the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv 11-32). It is unique among the poems in The Temple for its...
Pan's Labyrinth is a Mexican-Spanish fantasy film from 2006, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It stars Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil. It incorporates animatronics and CGI as a way of building its...
Fiela’s Child is a 1985 novel by the South African writer Dalene Matthee. It tells the story of Fiela Komoetie, a black woman in 19th-century South Africa who finds a white toddler at her doorstep. She takes him in, names him Benjamin, and raises...
In 1645, John Milton published “Il Penseroso” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “L’Allegro.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker...
Plautus was a Roman comic playwright, living from approximately 254 BC to 184 BC, and The Brothers Menaechmus is frequently considered to be his greatest work. Plautus’ comedies are the earliest Latin works to have survived in their entirety, and...
“Love (III)” is the final poem in George Herbert’s 1633 volume The Temple, Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations. In this volume, "Love (I)" discusses the difference between divine and mortal love, while "Love (II)" prays to God for the speaker to...
"Prayer (I)" is a sonnet from Hebert’s The Temple. “Prayer (I)” is a sonnet that can be viewed as a series of phrases describing and elaborating on the concept of Christian prayer. As a sonnet, it places itself in the tradition of love poetry. The...
Noli Me Tángere, known in English as Touch Me Not (a literal translation of the Latin title) or The Social Cancer, is often considered the greatest novel of the Philippines, along with its sequel, El filibusterismo. It was originally written in...
If I Stay is a young-adult novel narrated from the perspective of Mia, a seventeen-year-old girl whose mother, father and brother die in a car crash that puts Mia's body into a coma and her consciousness into an out-of-body state. Starting just...
Zoot Suit was written by Luis Valdez, a Mexican-American playwright and director who is widely known as the father of Chicano theater. It weaves together the story of the Sleepy Lagoon Murder Trials with the Zoot Suit riots, both of which took...
Because of Winn-Dixie is Kate DiCamillo's first novel, and it catapulted her into the top category of children's writers working today. The book has won a number of prestigious awards, including a Newberry Honor Distinction in 2001. The New York...
In early 1818, Percy and Mary Shelley set off for Italy with their two children, along with Claire Clairmont, Lord Byron's mistress, and Allegra, Byron's daughter. By December, Shelley found himself in dire straits. His first wife Harriet had...
On May 29, 1851, Sojourner Truth attended a women’s rights convention in Akron, Ohio. She approached the speaker’s platform and asked “May I say a few words?” The speech she gave that day was transcribed by Marius Robinson, a reporter in the...
Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The film follows a group of young adults in London, set during the Christmas season. Following ten couples, the film chronicles their romantic and...
“Diving into the Wreck” is the titular poem of Adrienne Rich’s seventh collection of poetry, which won the National Book Award in 1974. Written at the height of the second-wave feminist movement, this collection is considered one of Rich’s most...
The Dunciad is a scathing work of satire and critique written by Alexander Pope in the mock-heroic style. It was published three separate times, the first edition containing three books, and the final two editions containing an added fourth book,...
Cynthia Ozick’s “The Shawl” is a haunting short story published in the New Yorker in 1980. Ozick later included it with a novella about the main character, Rosa, in a single volume also entitled The Shawl.
Ozick is Jewish but did not experience...
It’s a Wonderful Life is a Christmas fantasy film from 1946, written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra, among others. Indeed, many people contributed to the script, including Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, Marc Connelly, and...
Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" is a short story about four men stranded in a small rowboat in rough seas after their ship capsizes. The men spend over thirty hours in the boat until they wash ashore only to discover that their strongest rower has...
The Devil in The White City, published by Erik Larson in 2003, is a factual account of incidents that occurred in Chicago at the end of the 19th century. Larson weaves the story of the Chicago World’s Fair overseer, Daniel Burnham, and his...
British author J.K. Rowling said that the idea for the Harry Potter series “fell into her head” in 1990 while she was riding a train from Manchester to London without a pen to write it down. While she started to write it that evening, her progress...