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.
Frank Wu is an Asian-American novelist born on August 20, 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating high school, he attended Johns Hopkins University, followed by the University of Michigan Law School, and then Harvard Graduate School of...
The Oresteia proved to be lucky number 13 for Greek dramatist Aeschylus. The playwright collected his thirteenth Athenian drama award with his horrifying and bloody tale of revenge and the nature of evil. The production was mounted in 458 B.C. and...
Published in 2015, The Coming is the fifth novel by African-American author Dr. Daniel Black. While Black's previous novels focused largely on the Black experience in rural Southern and Midwestern America (drawing from his own background and...
The Acharnians is a comedy written by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, and it was first performed in 425 BCE, during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The play centers around the character Dikaiopolis, a middle-aged...
A Summer Life by Gary Soto is a collection of 39 autobiographical essays in which Soto gives the readers a vivid description of his days in Fresno, California, as he grew from a young boy to a young adult. The book can be divided into three main...
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex was originally published in 1871 and is a book written by evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin. In it, Darwin explores evolutionary theory and natural selection, building upon his already...
Although no credit is actually given on screen, Joseph Mankiewicz ‘s Oscar-winning screenplay for All About Eve is actually based on a short story titled “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr. Actress Elisabeth Bergner related a story of an understudy...
Published in 1805, Fleetwood; Or, The New Man of Feeling is the third novel by William Godwin. Godwin, perhaps known more today for being the father of the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, was a radical figure of renown by the time Fleetwood...
Running in the Family is a memoir written by Michael Ondaatje and published first in 1982. Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan writer who has published many highly coveted works of poetry, fiction, essays, and even films. Ondaatje lives in Canada and has...
Notes on a Scandal is a novel published in 2003 and written by British author Zoe Heller. It deals with the social taboo of teacher-student relationships, and engendered a great deal of discussion regarding the differing ways in which male and...
The Chaneysville Incident is the result of a ten-year engagement with the story he wanted to tell by David Bradley; the author produced four different versions before reaching a state which most closely matched on paper what he had envisioned in...
Hrafnkel’s Saga is believed to have been written at some point in the latter half of the 1200’s. Since the earliest known manuscript only dates back to the early 1500’s, however, some argue that it could very well have been written as late as the...
American Son is a novel that was written by American author Brian Ascalon Roley and published by W. W. Norton & Company Publishing in paperback format in May 2001. It was originally published exclusively in the English langauge, but was later...
Goddamn This War! is the graphic novel follow-up from Jacques Tardi to his award-winning It was the War of the Trenches, published fifteen years earlier. Published in 2013, Goddamn This War! serves as another example of the extraordinary power...
Jennifer Egan’s 2010 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad may be the first Pulitzer Prize winner to accurately reflect the reading experience shared by the majority of Americans today. It is connected, to be sure, but in digestible chapter-sized...
Red Azalea is a memoir of Chinese American writer, Anchee Min, that was written from 1984 to 1992, her first eight years in the United States. The memoir depicts Min's personal experiences throughout her lifetime and her struggles during the...
The Stories of Alistair MacLeod is a compilation of MacLeod’s many short stories that draw upon the setting of Cape Breton Island. MacLeod is actually a Canadian writer who specializes in novels and short stories. He spent every free summer during...
Short Fiction of Margaret Atwood is a compilation of short stories written by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is from Canada, and she is an author, poet, teacher, and an environmental activist. She is a prolific writer, as she has published almost 20...
The Lemon Tree, written by Sandy Tolan, was published in 2006. The narrative concerns two families, both in Al-Ramla, one Arab and one Jewish. When Bashir Khairi goes to visit his own house in Al-Ramla he was forced to leave, he finds Dalia...
War Dances is a collection of short stories and poems written by Sherman Alexie and published in 2009. In 2010, War Dances won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. Sherman Alexie is a Spokane-Coeur d’Alene-American artist, writing novels, short...
The Wife of Martin Guerre is a short novel (or novella) that is based on the strange but true footnotes of history. A man named Arnaud du Tilh was tried in the 16th century for impersonating another man. The key component here is that Janet Lewis...
Alain Locke is an American author born on September 13, 1885 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a child, he was raised in an academia-focused family as his parents were educators who instilled in him a passion for the arts and literature. After...
Walter H. Miller, Jr. won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1961 for his nuclear tragicomedy A Canticle for Leibowitz. In the wake of such critical acclaim and recognition, the novel enjoyed commercial success unlike anything Miller had experienced...
The Woman and the Ape is a novel published by the Danish author Peter Høeg in 1996. The novel came after another series of novel that were well received but unfortunately, The woman and the ape was not as well received as the novels before it and...