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.
Set in Northern Ireland, Reading in the Dark is a portrayal of life in Catholic, impoverished Ireland. Written by Seamus Deane in 1996, the book won several awards, including the 1996 Guardian Fiction Prize and the Irish Literature Prize in 1997.
...The Dim Sum of All Things is a fictional novel published in 2004 and written by Kim Wong Keltner. The book follows the path of Lindsey Owyang, a poorer woman of Chinese descent, living in America and working a regular job. Lindsey tries to fit in...
William Makepeace Thackeray, born in 1811, was an English writer and journalist. Thackeray’s early childhood was spent in India before the family moved back to England after his father’s death. He displayed a strong interest in painting and many...
First published in 1782, Letters from an American Farmer is a series of letters by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur centering around various topics of the time period, including the birth of American nationalism and aspects of the slave trade. It...
Ruth Ozeki is an American-Canadian novelist born on March 12, 1956 in New Haven, Connecticut. As a child, her father, who worked as an anthropologist, encouraged her to focus on her studies and emphasized education as a top priority in life. With...
Ben Jonson is far probably far better known today for his career as a contemporary rival of the Bard for the hearts and minds of Elizabethan Era theatergoers. Indeed, his big hit as a dramatist—Every Man in His Humour—actually featured a young...
Beauty's Gift is a compelling story written by Sindiwe Magona. It was published during 2011 by NB Publishing. This novel tells the story of four women who cope with the lost of their best friend. This journey starts with five best friends known as...
The Last Battle (1956) is the seventh and final novel in the high-fantasy classic Chronicles of Narnia series by author C.S. Lewis. Illustrated by Pauline Baynes, The Last Battle is set almost entirely in Narnia and from the middle of the novel...
Relesed in 1954, The Horse and His Boy is the fifth novel of seven published in the The Chronicles of Narnia. Written before the first book was even out and for the first and only time featuring native Narnian children, The Horse and His Boy tells...
The Silver Chair is the sixth novel in the Chronicles of Narnia series, penned in the early 1950s by acclaimed British author and literary scholar C.S. Lewis. Despite the fact that these chronicles are some of the most popular and enduring stories...
A year after another resounding success with Prince Caspian, C.S. Lewis released its sequel, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Finished before the first novel in the Chronicles of Narnia series was released, Dawn Treader follows Edmund and Lucy...
After conjuring a unique fantasy world in 1950's The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis released Prince Caspian, 1951's followup to the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series.
Prince Caspian directly continues the story started...
Charles Bukowski, an underground American poet, was born during 1920 and died during 1994. He was born in Germany and was brought to the United States at two-years-old. In addition to poetry, he wrote prose, novels, and short stories - all...
Ever wonder why a particular breed of woman in the 1920s who rebelled against traditional and conservative conventions was called a “flapper.” This is not the place to answer that question. Thoroughly Modern Millie will do the job, however, along...
Stanley Kubrick is a master of both satire and science fiction, but also achieved renown with the 1960 historical epic Spartacus. The film has positive reviews and grossed $60 million (the most of any Universal Studios film until Airport grossed...
Franklin Schaffner directed the original Planet of the Apes for release it would come to be the single most amazing year ever for science fiction movies. In 1968, the world was not only introduced to the idea of a future earth ruled by apes, but...
Lucky is a memoir by prominent novelist Alice Sebold, who also wrote The Lovely Bones. The book chronicles her experience as a rape survivor and the tumultuous months that followed where she had to defend herself against her father, her peers, and...
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange things is a collection of short stories. The stories are of Japanese origin and are retold by the narrator, stories that he heard of during his time in Japan. The stories are based on Buddhist religion and...
Think of this film as the original Trainspotting, except that in this version, trains are actually spotted instead of bare arms. Closely Watched Trains became only the second film produced in Czechoslovakia to win the Academy Award for Best...
The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World is a play written by Suzan-Lori Parks, premiering in 1990 and eventually receiving an Off-Broadway production in 2016. The play was praised by critics for its complexity, covering diverse...
Couple in the Cage: Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West is a performance art piece written, directed, and staged by Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gomez-Pena for their international touring art exhibition The Year of the White Bear and Two...
Abe Akira is a renowned Japanese author, known for his unique style of storytelling and his ability to weave together elements of fantasy and reality in his short stories. Born in Tokyo in 1924, Abe began writing at a young age and quickly...
The title of Jesmyn Ward’s wistful memoir about growing up in Mississippi and the men who shaped and defined that live derives from come from one of the quotes attributed to Harriet Tubman. Tubman was talking about the pain of losing the men so...
The Orkneyinga Saga is the history of the Earls of Orkney which was written anonymously by an Icelandic author. It was originally published in the 1200s but has since been translated by Hermann Pálsson and Paul Edwards. Joseph Anderson served as...