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 Way Up to Heaven" is a short story by Roald Dahl, penned in 1954 for The New Yorker magazine. It was later included in a volume of short stories published in 1960, entitled Kiss Kiss. While Dahl's work has a reputation for dark imagery and...
Directed by David Fincher, The Social Network is a 2010 drama film loosely based on controversies surrounding the creation of Facebook.
In the fall of 2003, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) is an intelligent but arrogant Harvard sophomore. When...
"Cousin Kate" is a mid-nineteenth-century poem by Christina Rossetti, in which a suffering woman tells the tale of her subjugation at the hands of a powerful lord and her betrayal by a cousin. Throughout the work, Rossetti plays with readers'...
"A narrow Fellow in the Grass" is a poem by Emily Dickinson written in 1865 and first published in 1866. It is one of the few poems that was published, anonymously, in Dickinson's lifetime by a contemporary literary magazine. Born in 1830,...
Judith Wright is considered one of the most notable Australian poets in the country’s history, revered for her cerebral and evocative poems that explore the complexity of Australia’s natural landscape and its colonization by Europeans. Michael...
“American Animals": A Cautionary Tale of Ambition, Identity, and the Cost of Rebellion By Sachin Maurya
Synopsis Directed by Bart Layton, American Animals (2018) blurs the line between documentary and heist thriller to recount the audacious 2004...
A fourteen-volume epic, The Prelude is William Wordsworth's account of his own life and growth as a poet, published in various editions between 1799 and 1850. Intended to be the forerunner to another epic work entitled The Recluse, this work is...
The Tale of Sinuhe (or The Story of Sinuhe) is an Ancient Egyptian text composed around 1875 BC. Concerning the life of a fictional man who flees Egypt and becomes a hero abroad, it is one of the earliest known literary texts.
Translated from...
In the field of Bengali letters, Mahasweta Devi is an important figure, castigating political authorities for exploiting the poor and underprivileged and criticizing the literary establishment for failing to raise their voices against social...
Originally published in 1891, "'Hope' is the thing with feathers" is a poem by Emily Dickinson. In her lifetime, Dickinson was mostly known as something of recluse, rarely leaving her town or home. Her work was only published after her death in...
Killing Floor by Lee Child is a first-person point of view debut novel detailing the story of Jack Reacher. Jack is an ex-military man whose job gets terminated due to anomalous peace in Georgia. The military intelligence along with his background...
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri is a story based on the challenges experienced by refugees while escaping civil war in their countries. The book was inspired by the author’s interaction with refugees while working as a volunteer in...
Daniel Jose Older’s Shadowshaper is a fantasy novel based on the story of Sierra Santiago. Several characters in the book possess supernatural abilities capable of infusing spirits into artwork. Sierra is a young girl in her teens who loves...
At first glance, some readers might assume that the title of this book is a typo and that it is actually some sort of modern updating or possibly a feminist reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy about that guy who goes around...
Rules of Civility is the first novel published by author Amor Towles. The novel was accepted for publication but without excessive expectations for its success. After all, he had enjoyed a successful career in the banking industry since 1991 upon...
Red, White and Royal Blue is a romantic novel by American author Casey McQuiston. The cover art was designed by American illustrator Colleen Reinhart. Published in 2019 by St. Martin's Griffin and Macmillan, the novel explores the romantic...
Laurence Yep published his children’s historical novel Dragonwings in 1975. In light of subsequent sequels published over the next few decades, it would come to be known as the volume which commenced the author’s wildly popular Golden Mountain...
Venus and Adonis is a long narrative poem by William Shakespeare. It is historically important because it is believed to be Shakespeare's first ever published poem. When it was published in 1593, few had heard of the young man who would become one...
The Nickel Boys, published in 2019, is a novel by Colson Whitehead about the fictional Nickel Academy and its students (the "Nickel Boys"), based on the real-life Dozier school. The Dozier School, like its fictional counterpart, was a reform...
"Gimpel the Fool" is a short story written by Polish American writer Isaac Bashevis Singer. It was the work that made Singer a notable author in the English literary canon. Having previously written predominantly in Yiddish, this story was...
Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro's "A Family Supper" is a short story, first published in 1982, about a young man reuniting with his estranged family only to learn that his mother has died from eating poisonous fugu fish.
Likely set in...
Best known for plays like Ruined and Sweat, both of which earned her Pulitzer Prizes for Drama, American playwright Lynn Nottage has written a number of plays to great success. Her work typically deals with the difficulties of the lives of...
Brian Katcher is an acclaimed young adult author celebrated for tackling complex and sensitive topics with depth and empathy. His works often explore themes of identity, personal growth, and the social challenges faced by teenagers. Katcher...
More Happy Than Not is Adam Silvera’s young adult novel highlighting the challenges experienced by the queer group. The book reflects Silvera’s own experiences as a gay boy. The protagonist is a young boy called Aaron Soto living in a small...
