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Viy is a mystical novel written by Nikolai Gogol, first published in his stories collection "Mirgorod" in 1835. The name of the story is the name of the Slavic demonic male creature with which the plot is associated.

In a footnote to the book,...

Prose series "Tales of Belkin" was written by Pushkin during the famous "Boldin Autumn" in 1830 and then published anonymously. These series consist of a preface ("From the Publisher") and five novels: "The Shot", "The Blizzard", "The Undertaker",...

"A Man Called Horse" is a short story by Dorothy M. Johnson, published in Collier's magazine in 1950. It was later published again in 1968 in her book called Indian Country. The short story revolves around a Boston aristocrat who is captured by a...

"Ship of Fools" is the only novel of the American writer Katherine Anne Porter, published in 1962.

The idea of the novel was born during her voyage from Mexico to Europe in 1931. To the work on a book Porter launched ten years later and had been...

“The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is an excellent introduction into the literary technique known as “stream of consciousness” for the uninitiated. Stream of consciousness is a device by which the writer provides not just a description of the...

Children of the River was written by Linda Crew, a children and young adult author. This novel was originally published during 1989 and was published again during 1991 by Laurel Leaf. It tells the story of a young girl named Sundara fleeing...

Decoded is a 2010 memoir and autobiography of rapper and business mogul Shawn Carter, although he is best known by his stage name:Jay Z.

In the book, Carter combines personal experiences and his own lyrics with hisideas about the interconnectibity...

What makes King Horn worth studying? A little thing academicians like to term literary history. King Horn has for some time and likely will continue for an indefinite period to enjoy the status of being the earliest extant example of romantic...

Richard Dawkins is an accomplished scientist and a fellow at Oxford. His accomplishments include his activity as a vocal atheist, considered within the New Atheist movement through which he hopes to weaken the effects of religious belief on the...

Where the Heart Is is a novel written by Billie Letts, an American novelist and educator, and published in 1995. The novel reveals a story of Novalee Nation, a poor seventeen-year-old girl, who is pregnant. Her mother had abandoned her at the age...

“The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs” was written by William Morris and is actually a tragic epic poem. It was published in 1876 and is based on the Volsunga Saga. The most important character is Sigmund, who is a Norse...

The Left Hand of Darkness is a science fiction novel written by Ursula K. Le Guin and published in 1969. After its publication, the novel attained great popularity, and it was just a year later that it was rewarded as the year’s Best Novel in Hugo...

"Everything line of serious work I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democraticsocialism, as I understand it."

So spoke George Orwell, in one of his better known essays, Why I Write...

Arthur Schnitzler is perhaps best known for his novel Dream Story because that novel was adapted into the final film made by Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut. The dreamlike, ambiguous stream-of-consciousness feel to that film in which certain...

The Ugly American was published by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick in 1958. In 1959, Senator William J. Fulbright of Arkansas rose from his seat inside the Capitol, stood up and proceeded to criticize the novel for characterizing American...

The Reivers is a novel written by William Faulkner and published in 1962. Faulkner is one of the most famous writers in American history, having won more than one Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Reivers won one of these prizes, in 1963. Faulkner...

By the time Mary Stewart published her standalone novel on the Arthurian legend titled The Prince and the Pilgrim, the first entry in what would come to be known as her Merlin Trilogy had already been around for a quarter of a century. The Prince...

The Wicked Day, published in 1983 and by Mary Stewart, is the fourth book of the quintet series. This series depicts a twist on the original King Arthur and Merlin stories. This book tells the story of King Arthur and Mordred, who is actually a...

The Last Enchantment is a fantasy novel written by Mary Stewart in 1979. The story revolves around the reign of Arthur Pendragon of Britain, and the novel is told from the perspective of a clairvoyant and the Wizard Merlin. In the story, Arthur is...

The Hollow Hills by Mary Stewart was published in 1973. As part of the series the Arthurian Legends, it is the sequel to The Crystal Cave. This story, in first person point-of-view from Merlin, tells the story of the birth and taking care of King...

The Crystal Cave is a fantasy novel written by Mary Stewart in 1970. The book mainly focuses on the character of Merlin, from the Arthurian legends, before he became the legendary magician. The Romans have recently left Britain and the kingdom is...

The Friends, by Rosa Guy, is the first book of a trilogy. It was published December 18, 1995, by Laurel Leaf. The other two books are called Ruby and Edith Jackson. The Friends is a novel about a little girl who lived in the sunlit West Indies...

Edwidge Danticat's The Farming of Bones is a historical fiction account of the 1937 Parsley Massacre, as seen through the eyes of Amabelle Desir.

The novel centers around the Parsley Massacre of 1937, when Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo...

Published in 1950, Elizabeth Yates's Amos Fortune, Free Man is a biographical novel which follows the story of an African prince sold into slavery who later buys his freedom and starts a business in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. The book has been...