Newest Study Guides

Everyone thinks that they know the plot of traditional fairy tales forwards, backwards and upside down; however, Roald Dahl intends to prove otherwise with the shortest book he ever wrote, Revolting Rhymes, which is a collection of poetic parodies...

Knight of Cups is a philosophical drama, sometimes with mystical notes, about screenwriter Rick. Rick is a screenwriter who cannot understand the strange things that happen around him. After his brother's death, his relationship with his father...

Woody Allen is an anomaly in the film industry. While putting out a film every two or three years is enough for a director to be considered prolific, Woody Allen was putting out a film nearly every year between 1971. While some of his most highly...

This lesser-known Dickens novel was published under the longer and more formal title of Barnaby Rudge : A Tale of the Riots of Eighty, but over the years, this has been abridged to a less unwieldy Barnaby Rudge. It is an historical novel that is...

Around 1868 Emile Zola had the idea of writing a series of novels that would be devoted to one family - Rougon-Macquart. The fates of the members of this family have been investigated for several generations. The first books from the series did...

Through and Through: Toledo Stories is written by Joseph Geha and was originally published in 1990 by Graywolf Press for the first edition and in 2009 by Syracuse University Press for the second edition.

Joseph Geha was born in 1944 in Lebanon. In...

Sonia Sanchez has published many poems and essays in multiple different magazines and newspapers. She has written many books of poetry. She has also written children’s books, short stories, plays, and essays. Many of her writings focus on black...

Michael Drayton, born in the 16th century, was an English poet who became known and actively thrived during the Elizabethan era. He was born in a small town in England near Nuneaton, Warwickshire. Otherwise, very little is known about his early...

Born in raised in small town Ohio, author Toni Morrison accomplished a lot in her 88 year long life. After receiving her undergraduate degree in English from Harvard and her master's degree in American Literature from Cornell University, she went...

The Hunger Games is a dystopian action film directed by Gary Ross and based on the 2008 novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The film stars Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth and Woody Harrelson and its development began in...

Horace Smith has written many poems and novels. He was born in London on December 31, 1779. He had 7 siblings and was the 5th child. He went to Chigwell School, where he gained his education. In 1812, he and his brother, James, published their...

Thomas Paine's Common Sense (released in January 1776) is no doubt one of the most important books ever written in American History. Initially, Paine published the book anonymously. However, after three months in publication Paine was revealed as...

The ancients called the dramatic poet Sophocles a pupil and rival of Aeschylus. In 468, the twenty-eight-year-old Sophocles first won dramatic competition against Aeschylus and has reigned on stage for 60 years without knowing a single defeat. In...

Of all the poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, few were more important than Charlotte Mew. Her life was one of tremendous darkness and profound tragedy. When she was a small child, three of her brothers died. Later in her life,...

Prior to writing and directing 2008's In Bruges, Martin McDonagh was an accomplished playwright and short film maker, responsible for plays like The Pillowman and short films like the Oscar-winning Six Shooter (2004). The film is set and was...

The title of China Mieville's Un Lun Dun (published in January 2007) came from the name "UnLondon," which is the realm in which the book takes place. As the title suggests, the book is set in London in a different realm and follows two 12-year-old...

Gaudy Night is a 1935 mystery novel by English author Dorothy L. Sayers and the tenth installment in Sayers' series of works featuring Lord Peter Wimsey. It draws heavily from Sayers' experience of academic and social life at the Somerville...

Directed by Mel Gibson, Braveheart (released in 1995) is a war/drama about William Wallace, a Scottish patriot. When the war started between the Scottish and English people, Wallace immediately jumped into battle. When the love of his life was...

Robert Penn Warren (born in 1905 in Kentucky, USA, died in 1989) was an American writer and literary critic. Warren studied and later taught literature both at Yale University in the United States as well as at Oxford University in the UK.

In...

Born in 1854, Oscar Wilde was a prolific writer whose famous work includes novels like The Picture of Dorian Gray (originally published in 1890) and a play called The Importance of Being Earnest (which premiered in 1895). However, Wilde was also a...

Quicksands was published in 1884 and immediately translated into multiple languages including English. It found an eager audience on both sides of the Atlantic. The United States, having just survived the Civil War and Reconstruction, was in the...

Crazy Brave is a memoir written by the Native American poet Joy Harjo. The book spans over 176 pages and was published in July 2012 by W. W. Norton Company, before being republished a year later by the same publisher. In 2014, it was made into an...

Traditionally, candidates for the Office of the President of the United States write a book telling the public a little bit about themselves and their history (most are technically memoirs after all). Primarily, though, these books are meant to...

Traditionally, candidates for the Office of the President of the United States write a book telling the public a little bit about themselves and their history (most are technically memoirs after all). Primarily, though, these books are meant to...