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.
Stephen Leacock enjoyed the privilege of studying economics under the tutelage of the most prescient and greatest economist America has yet—and likely will ever—produce: Thornstein Veblen. Vebelen’s writings are notorious dense and aesthetic; he...
My Brother Jack is George Johnston's classic 1964 novel that tells the story of two brothers and how the cope with grief, death, and loss in their own separate ways. The novel is semi autobiographical and takes place during the tumultuous times of...
The Assault is a historical novel written by Dutch author Harry Mulisch. The novel was translated and published in English in 1985 by Random House. The story is partially based on a true event that happened during World War II. The Assault tells...
Jennifer L. Morgan's Laboring Women: Reproduction and Gender in New World Slavery is an academic work that was published in 2004. Morgan received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1986, and completed her PhD in 1995 at Duke University. Morgan now...
The Lesser Blessed (1996) is a coming-of-age novel by Richard Van Camp that tells the story of Larry Sole, a Native growing up in the forests of Canada. Larry befriends Johnny Beck, who is new to the area. Johnny, however, is in a relationship...
Based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go is a dystopian movie released by Fox Searchlight Pictures and directed by Mark Romanek. The movie was released on 03 September 2010 at the Telluride Film Festival; in terms of genre, the film...
The Story of America: Essays on Origins is a book written by Jill Lepore and published quite recently in 2012. Lepore is an American writer and historian who focuses on American history, politics, and literature, and writes for The New Yorker. She...
The Little School is an autobiographical novel by Alicia Portnoy. Portnoy, perceived to be a political dissident, was "disappeared" during the Dirty War period in Argentina, principally from 1976 to 1979. Although it was commonplace throughout...
"Town and Country Lovers" and Other Stories is a 1982 collection of short fiction by South African writer and activist Nadine Gordimer. The titular short story was first published in Gordimer's 1980 collection, A Soldier's Embrace.
Gordimer's...
A 2013 poll revealed that when it comes to seeing the glass as half-full, only half of Americans are prepared to admit they are optimists. Still, the number positively dwarfed those who consider their outlook to be outright pessimistic: a mere 3%...
The Short Stories of Patricia Highsmith is a collection of short stories written by Patricia Highsmith, a widely-respected American writer. Over the course of her writing career, Highsmith has published over 20 novels and even more short stories,...
While many poets can chart the trajectory of their success or recognition along a line leading directly to winning a prestigious literary prize or award, very few go on to have their name attached to such an honor. Among that select few is...
Thomas Malthus's An Essay on the Principles of Population proposed one of the most important economic core beliefs that we hold true even today: the Iron Law of Wages, which states that when population rises and subsequently so does workforce,...
One of the first noted lesbian literature novels, Nightwood is a book written by Djuna Barnes published in 1936. It was one of the first books to explore explicit themes of homosexuality between women, and is also known for its intense, gothic,...
Absurdism’s King of Comedy, Luigi Pirandello, adapted a 1915 short story he wrote titled “Signora Frola and Signor Ponza, Her Son-in-Law” into a play two years later. Right You Are (If You Think Are) was presented in dramatic form as a “A Parable...
Does My Head Look Big in This is a Young Adult Contemporary novel written by Randa Abdel-Fattah. It was published on August 1, 2005, by Pan MacMillan Australia. Randa is an Egyptian-Palestinian author who lives in Australia and has won Kathleen...
The Madonna of Excelsior is a novel by South African writer Zakes Mda that was published in 2005. Although a work of fiction, the book deepens the reader's understanding of the complex political situation under the shadow of apartheid and also the...
Cardenio is considered a lost play. The authors are believed to be John Fletcher and William Shakespeare. The attribution is based primarily upon two 1613 performances by the King’s Men acting troupe of a play listed by either the title Cardenno...
Henry James is a large figure in the development of culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He stood at the origins of modernist literature and techniques of subjective writing which later developed into the well-known “stream of...
Dorothy Wordsworth is the sister of famous English poet William Wordsworth. The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals is exactly as titled, her two journals kept in the late 1700's through 1800's, documenting the aspects of her daily life including her...
When The Killing's Done is a novel by T.C. Boyle that is both a drama and a book about the environmental abuse within a national park in California. The book is mainly set around the Channel Islands, specifically Santa Cruz and Anacapa, and...
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia was written by Sir Philip Sidney towards the end of the Sixteenth Century. It is a long work of prose that is sometimes known by the abbreviated name of Arcadia. After finishing the first draft of his original...
Charlie Chaplin took two years to produce The Gold Rush. During that time he got an underage girl pregnant and was forced into a marriage he didn’t want. That pregnancy incurred a change in leading ladies and by the time film was into full swing...
Born in the town of Rugby in 1887, the fun-loving, spirited, and handsome young poet Rupert Brooke would tragically be cut down in the very prime of life, and would become the patriotic hero for a generation of dead Britons. Brooke was sailing for...