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.
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...
Longfellow wrote "The Day is Done" in 1844 and included it as the proem to his anthology The Waif, a selection of sentimental poems mostly about nature that came out at the end of 1844. Some of the poets included were Percy Shelley, Robert...
The poem was written in 1859 and first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1860. It was later included in the collection Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863). Longfellow wrote the poem a few years after resigning from his professorship at Harvard to...
"A Psalm of Life" was first published in The Knickerbocker, attributed only to "L." It was then included in Voices of the Night, published in 1838 not long after Longfellow took on the position of Smith Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard...
“Paul Revere’s Ride” is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s most famous poem and certainly one of the most famous poems in American literature. Revered in its time and loved by schoolchildren today, it has suffered from critical dismissal and...
Evangeline is one of Longfellow’s most famous works, and with The Song of Hiawatha, one of his longest. Critics designate this poem as the one that secured his literary preeminence.
The provenance of the poem is an interesting one. On April 5th,...
The Infinite Sea is the second book in a published trilogy by Rick Yancey. The first book, The 5th Wave was turned into a movie, starring Chloe Grace Moretz, but it was not well-received. The following sequel is called The Lost Star. The Infinite...
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...
The 5th Wave is the first book of a science-fiction/fantasy trilogy by Rick Yancey and was published in 2013 by Penguin Group. The story is written from a first-person (diary) perspective from the viewpoint of Cassie Sullivan, the protagonist of...
The Death Cure is the last book in the Maze Runner trilogy, and the third book in the overall series. It was written by James Dashner and published on October 11, 2011, by Delacorte Press. Like the other books in the trilogy, this book will have a...
The Kill Order is the prequel to the Maze Runner series. It was published on August 14, 2012, by Delacorte Press. Like the Maze Runner trilogy, The Kill Order is set in the future. It is, however, set 13 years before the Trials with Thomas began....
We Need New Names is a coming-of-age story. A young girl named Darling lives in poverty in Zimbabwe following political unrest. She often steals guavas along with a group of other children, one of whom is pregnant, and is forced to attend church...
A tightly constructed, psychologically incisive commentary on race relations in the early decades of the 20th century, Passing (1929) is the single best-known work of African-American novelist Nella Larsen. On one level, the book is a study of a...
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...
The Scorch Trials is the second book of the Maze Runner trilogy. It was written by James Dashner soon after The Maze Runner, the first installment of the trilogy. It was published on September 18, 2010, by Delacorte Press. No one knows if it is a...
Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth is one of its author’s most beloved works. Engaging the themes of space and time, geology, travel, and discovery, it is a fantastic fusion of science and adventure. This book is part of the series...
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...