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.
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace) was an important Ancient Roman poet. He was closely integrated into Roman society, as he joined Brutus' army, before becoming a highly respected scribe and poet. He was also well educated, as he studied in Rome as...
Deliverance is a 1972 dramatic thriller movie produced and directed by John Boorman. It stars are Jon Voight and Burt Reynolds. The movie is based on the book of the same name by James Dickey and the author had a small role in the film as the...
Marcel Proust’s life-consuming literary epic is not just merely one novel, but a series of books. Throughout the 20th century, this collection of volumes was more often than not referred to by the collective title of Remembrance of Things Past....
The title characters the film Eight Men Out are those eight ballplayers for the 1919 Chicago White Sox who were banned from baseball for allegedly throwing the World Series. When you hear the story of the team that came to be referred to as the...
History of Rome, or Roman History, is a series of 80 books which chronicles the history of Rome from the arrival of Aeneas in Italy until the year 229 C.E., six years before the author’s death. The books were written over the course of 22 years...
Many critics argue that Kenneth Branagh’s 1989 film adaption of William Shakespeare’s “Henry V” is one of the greatest cinematic recreations of Shakespearean literature ever. The film, which was shot primarily on intricate theatrical sets with a...
The writings of Friedrich Nietzsche diverge significantly from the collected works of most other philosophers. Although certain concepts and theories recur with frequently and ideas are repeated often enough to become motifs, Nietzsche’s writings...
The genesis of Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame can be traced back to a single word. That word was “fate” written in Greek and carved into a wall on one the Notre Dame cathedral towers. From that chance discovery did the author...
Marivaux, French writer of the 18th century composed The Game of Love and Chance, a three-act romantic comedy that was first displayed on January the 23rd of 1730 by the Théâtre-Italien in the Hôtel de Bourgogne, one of the most famous Parisian...
The History of Rome (also known as the Compendium of Roman History) was written by Velleius Paterculus, a soldier and historian. It was published during 1924 by Harvard University Press. This written work is a summary of Rome's history between the...
Following hard upon the Valentine that was Bela Lugosi’s immensely popular portrayal of Count Dracula, Universal Studios execs were doubtlessly giving thanks nine months and a week later for the early Christmas gift that was Boris Karloff’s...
Despair is Vladimir Nabokov's novel in Russian, first published in the Paris émigré journal "Contemporary notes" in 1934. In 1936, it was published as a book in the publishing house "Petropolis" in Berlin.
Despair is the sixth Russian novel...
Doctor Zhivago has one of the strangest stories of publication in modern fiction. Written by Russian author Boris Pasternak, the book was initially published in Italy in 1957 and would not become available inside the Soviet Union for years....
Daniel Deronda is an English novel written by Mary Ann Evans under the pen name George Eliot and published in 1876. It is the last novel written by George Eliot through which George Eliot continues to analyze the Victorian society in which she...
Blues for Mister Charlie was written by James Baldwin for an express purpose. That purpose was education: the education of white America on the subject of the black experience in America. The epicenter of that black experience was Emmitt Till, a...
"Clarissa, or The history of a young lady" is a novel written by Samuel Richardson in 4 parts in 1748. It was created in the genre of a family character-studying novel in the era of the Enlightenment Mature. This genre was at that time very common...
The orations of the Roman lawyer Cicero are still available and read today because rhetorical arguments were very highly regarded. As an attorney presenting his arguments, Cicero would be called upon to display his oratorical skills outdoors in a...
Birthday Letters is Ted Hughes' final collection of poetry. It was published in 1998, months prior to Hughes' death. It contains eighty eight poems and is viewed as the poet's most successful and revered work. It is 208 pages long.
Birthday...
Crow, a book of poetry by Ted Hughes, was published in 1970 by the esteemed British publisher Faber and Faber. It is widely considered one of Hughes' most important works. Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow marks the second phase of Hughes'...
John Gower’s Confession Amantis exists in at least three separate and distinct versions. The very first edition published in 1390 is generally regarded as the definitive edition for scholarly and academic attention. That edition comprises more...
Continental Drift is the fourth novel from Russell Banks and marks the turning point of his career. The novel earned Banks the John Dos Passos Award and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award as well as being a finalist for the Pulitzer...
The publication of Lorrie Moore’s third collection of short stories catapulted her to the front ranks of major writers of short fiction. What her previous collection Like Life promised, the arrival in 1998 of Birds of America confirmed. Though she...
Playwright Eugene Ionesco once provided a definition of his favorite mode of literary examination that positively overflows with existential weight: “The Absurd is that which is devoid of purpose.” Some would suggest that every time Ionesco put...
Rarely performed for modern audiences, Richard Steele’s 1722 comedy The Conscious Lovers nevertheless is an essential component in a major turning in the history of the British stage. The play’s debut took place on the night of November 7, 1722 on...