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 winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Empire Falls is a novel written by American author Richard Russo. It was published in 2001, making it one of Russo's earlier works.
Empire Falls is primarily about a man named Miles Roby and his...
Joyce Carol Oates is an American writer born on June 16, 1938 in Lockport, New York. As a child, she was always immersed in the world of books and literature. Her early influences include Lewis Carroll, Ernest Hemingway, Emily Bronte, and Henry...
Through the Glass is a memoir by Shannon Moroney published by Simon and Schuster books in 2014. The non-fiction story is about her emotional recovery after her husband was accused of brutally raping and kidnapping two women. It follows her story...
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” stands out as Ambrose Bierce's career defining short story. As a Union veteran of the Civil War, Bierce undertook a writing career that reflected his own life-changing experience in the war. Suffering a sever...
Lucille Clifton’s first collection of poetry was published the year after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1969, Clifton was already over thirty and the mother of six children not even old enough for middle school yet. Once the New...
Published in 2009, White Is for Witching is a novel by British novelist Helen Oyeyemi. A multifaceted novel structured off gothic roots but also venturing into the supernatural genre, it intrigues and captivates with an unforgettably unique...
AM Homes is an American novelist born on December 18, 1961 in Washington, DC. After graduating high school, she attended Sarah Lawrence College and later earned her MFA at the University of Iowa. She started her literary career by writing short...
Over the course of a star-studded career, Terry Eagleton has carved out a role as a pre-eminent literary theorist, critic and academic. His Literary Theory: An Introduction, first published in 1983, has sold over half a million copies, proving it...
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a highly acclaimed novel by Anne Tyler. It is a work of realistic fiction following the lives of three siblings as they grow up with a tragic household. After its publication in 1982, the book was nominated for...
Oscar Wilde’s play A Woman of No Importance opened in London on April 19, 1893, and proceeded to run for 113 performances. Successful revivals were mounted on his home turf in both 1907 and 1915. Broadway was first delighted by Wilde’s adeptly...
The final installment of Canadian writer Margaret Atwood's three book dystopian trilogy, MaddAddam was published in August 2013. It concludes the storyline which started with Oryx and Crake, continuing on to The Year of the Flood.
MaddAddam...
Highly controversial and disputed, Portnoy's Complaint is a 1969 novel by Philip Roth which after its publication, sent waves of shock, outrage, and dissension through both critics and the public. The book is infamous for its extremely candid...
Jemmy is a children's fictional novel by American writer Jon Hassler. It was published in 1980, making it one of Hassler's earliest works. Hassler also wrote the notable works Staggerford and Dear James.
The novel centers around 17 year old...
The first truly great “modern” documentary ever made promises what it delivers: a man in Soviet-era Russian moving about the city and capturing everything. Filmmaker Dziga Vertov essentially creates the grammar of cinema-verite with his Man with a...
In August 1831, Nat Turner led a number of his fellow slaves in a rebellion against the slave-holding population and slave-holding enablers occupying Southampton County, Virginia. Before the insurrection ended as the sun rose over Belmont...
Published in 1980 and winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1982, Riddley Walker is a science fiction novel by American writer Russell Hoban. It is his most notable work, centering around a future devastated by nuclear warfare. The...
Askari was written by noteworthy author Jacob Dlamini and was published in 2014. It tells the story of small- and large-scale struggles faced during the calamity brought by Apartheid in South Africa between 1948 and 1991. More specifically,...
Brokeback Mountain is a 2005 film directed by Ang Lee. The screenplay was co-written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. The film is based on a short story by noted author Annie Proulx originally published in the New Yorker magazine almost a...
Freelance journalist by trade, Proulx wrote short stories that are a testament to her observation skills and attention to details. Her stories are born out of immaculate research which engenders stories peppered with numerous realistic minutiae...
Winnie Li is a Taiwanese-American novelist born and raised in New Jersey. After graduating high school, she attended Harvard University to study folklore and mythology. She later enrolled at the University of Ireland to obtain her masters degree...
Published in 1984 and winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, Empire of the Sun is by eminent English writer J.G Ballard. The book is to some extent based on Ballard's service as a soldier in World War II, but is still most essentially...
Mules and Men is a collection of African-American folklore by African-American author Zora Neale Hurston published in 1935. It features a variety of stories that Hurston herself collected by making trips to Florida and New Orleans (places notable...
Susan Sontag is an American author born on January 16, 1933, in New York City, New York. After graduating high school, she attended the University of Chicago and later enrolled at Harvard University to study philosophy and theology. Sontag began...
Murambi, Book of Bones was published in 2000 and remains Boubacar Boris Diop's most well-known novel. The book is presented in four parts and is a fictionalized telling of the 1994 genocide perhaps most familiar to Americans as a result of the...