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.
The story of the production of Tommy Wiseau's The Room is one of the most fascinating stories in movie history. Delusionally, Wiseau wanted to create the next great American masterpiece, but The Room is widely regarded as one of the worst films...
Angelina Grimke and her sister Sarah were Southern-born women, but very early on in life developed an antipathy for slavery of all kinds, both racial and gender-based. They became staunch abolitionists, and also a brave proponent of rights for...
Stray is an urban fantasy book written in 2007 by Rachel Vincent. The book is the first in her Shifter’s series. The book was written at a time when paranormal fantasy books relating to mythical creatures, such as werewolves and vampires, became...
Friedrich Hölderlin: Poems is a collection of poems by German poet Friedrich Hölderlin. Originally published in German, the translated version was written by James Mitchell and published in 2007 by Ithuriel’s Spear. The result of the translation...
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi was a famous Italian poet and philosopher, of the nineteenth century.He was brought up in a privileged aristocratic family in the small town of Recanati in Italy. Having been born...
Written and directed by Todd Haynes, Far from Heaven (released in 2002) follows a 1950's housewife called Cathy Whitaker. At first glance, Cathy is a seemingly ordinary woman with a reasonably happy life and a good marriage. However, her life...
Directed by Douglas Sirk, All That Heaven Allows tells the story of a young and rich widow called Cary Scott who one day falls in love with a landscape designer named Ron Kirby, who has virtually no interest in living a ritzy lifestyle. Still, Ron...
It is undeniably true that Malcolm Gladwell is best known for his full-length books. However, over the course of his long career, he has written several dozen articles. Nineteen of those articles are collected in What the Dog Saw (published in...
Desdemona is a play that first debuted at Theater Akzent in Vienna, Austria in 2011 and published in 2012 by Oberon Books. The work was a team effort consisting of Toni Morrison, Rokia Traoré, and Peter Sellars. The titular role belongs to...
Speaking in Tongues is a play by Andrew Bovell that debuted in Sydney, Australia in 1996. It was produced by Griffin Theater Company at The SBW Stables. The play was adapted into an award-winning and commercially successful feature film titled ...
The Anchoress (published in 2015) is set in 13th century England and tells the story of a young girl called Sarah. One day, Sarah decides to become what's called an anchoress, or a person that completely and totally withdraws from society for...
Limitless is both a thriller and a sci-fi movie, directed by Neil Berger, and released on March 8, 2011. The movie is based on the novel, The Dark Fields, by Alan Glynn, and was adapted for screenplay by Leslie Dixon.The movie revolves around the...
Directed by Sarah Polley, The Stories We Tell (2012) is a documentary which covers the story - and secrets - of her family. Particularly, the film examines the oftentimes strange and strained relationship between Polley's parents, a relationship...
Iphigenia at Aulis is widely regarded as the acclaimed last play of Euripides. It tells the story of a man called Agamemnon, who was the king in charge of the "Greek coalition [of armies] before and during the Trojan War." To that end, Agamemnon...
The Voyage of Mael Duin's Curragh is a novel by American author Patricia Aakhus. It was published in 1989 by Story Line Press. In his debut novel, Aakhus re-examines the life of Irish legend Mael Duin. He grew up as an orphan who was adopted by a...
Robin Davis Gibran Kelley wrote much of "Freedom Dreams" in 2000 when he taught at Dartmouth College. He is a history professor who focuses largely on African American history and popular culture, and has also taught at places like Emory...
The release of John Bolton's The Room Where it Happened (2020) - the former National Security Advisor to President Trump for the better part of a year - was marred by legal threats and media attention. Not only did the Trump administration sue to...
Ralph Ellison is best-known for his first novel called Invisible Man, while his second novel entitled Juneteenth could definitely be considered a classic novel in its own right. Published right after Ellison's death in 1999, Juneteenth (an...
Decline and Fall was first published in 1928 and is Evelyn Waugh's first published book. It follows a young, former college student called Paul Pennyfeather, who was expelled from Oxford for obscene behavior. After this, Pennyfeather is offered...
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) was supposed to be the final film in the Indiana Jones series. Series creator George Lucas and director Steven Spielberg had always intended to make a trilogy if - and only if - the first two films were...
Outside of academic circles, The Harley 2253 Manuscript (also called the "Harley Lyrics"), is not widely known. However, it is one of the most important collections of works to have ever been written because of, mainly, its utilization of...
It is exceedingly rare that a sequel outpaces the original film. In the eyes of many, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom does just that. Temple of Doom once again follows Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, who goes to India with Short Round and a...
Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit (released in 2017) nominally tells the story of the 1967 Detroit Race Riots and the horrible Algiers Motel incident in which police officers murdered several unarmed people - both white and black. More broadly, though, ...
"Quality" is a story written by John Galsworthy and was first published in “The Inn of Tranquillity: Studies and Essays” in 1912.The story revolves around the tale of the Gessler brothers, renowned shoemakers in Germany. The book takes the format...