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.
Petals of Blood is a 1977 novel by Ngugi wa Thiong'o set in post-independence Kenya; its title derives from a line in Derek Walcott’s poem, “The Swamp.” The story centers on four characters whose lives are drastically changed as a result of the...
"The Dictators," a 1950 poem by the Chilean writer Pablo Neruda, explores the power structures, inequalities, and violent conflicts in an unnamed dictatorship. It depicts ordinary individuals' suffering and death, juxtaposing these horrific scenes...
Written by Roald Dahl, Danny, the Champion of the World is a 1975 children's book about an impoverished English boy who helps his father poach pheasants from a villainous wealthy landowner.
After his mother dies when he is four months old, Danny...
A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle is a masque written by English poet John Milton and performed in 1634. Now known simply as Comus after the play's antagonist, the masque was originally performed on Michaelmas—a feast celebrating the archangel...
The Round House is author Louise Erdrich's fourteenth novel, and it was published in 2012. It is sometimes considered a thematic sequel to her 2008 novel, The Plague of the Doves, due to their shared focus on the concepts of justice and revenge....
Of Grammatology is a three-part philosophical text by French philosopher Jacques Derrida. Originally titled De la grammatologie, it was published in 1967 by Les Éditions de Minuit in France. It was later translated for the English world by Gayatri...
“Eat Drink Man Woman” is a Taiwanese comedy movie that revolves around a family dealing with daily life and drama that comes with it. The title of the movie is a reference to one of Confucius teachings about the acceptance of the human natural...
"Ode to a Large Tuna in the Market" is a 1957 poem by the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, describing the encounter between a human speaker and a dead tuna at a vegetable market. The speaker addresses the tuna with a blend of awe and sadness, describing...
John Donne is so widely quoted that he ranks near the top of the canon of well-known authors, not far behind his near contemporary, William Shakespeare. Perhaps his best-known line, from Meditation 17 in Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions, a prose...
The novel now known as Roxana was published in 1724; it is the third and last of Defoe's major novels, following Robinson Crusoe in 1719, and Moll Flanders in 1722. The original title was The Fortunate Mistress: Or, A History of the Life and Vast...
Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel by the author who draws inspiration from many classical tales, and re-tells them in a new light. This novel is a re-telling of the classic Cinderella, and as the title suggests, focuses on one of...
For almost the first decade of its existence, Gregory Maguire’s novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West was like a precious little secret treasure held dearly by those in the know. Fans of the novel tended to be...
Neverwhere is a novel by the famous author Neil Gaiman, and what is interesting about it is that it was written and published as a companion to a TV series. A few episodes into the show of the same name, the author decided to publish the novel,...
Magic's Price is an epic fantasy novel by American author Mercedes Lackey. It is the third and final novel in the Valdemar: The Last Herald Mage series and eighth in the Valdemar universe. It was published in 1990 by DAW books. A magical and...
Magic's Promise is an epic fantasy novel by American author Mercedes Lackey. It is the second novel in the Valdemar: The Last Herald Mage series and seventh in the Valdemar universe. It was published in 1990 by DAW books. A young-adult, romantic...
Magic’s Pawn is the first novel in a series called The Last Herald’s Mage. The novel centers around a Herald called Vanyel in the kingdom of Valdemar. A Herald mage is an individual possessing extraordinary psychic and magical abilities and...
The Dream House is one of South African novelist and playwright Craig Higginson's most popular novels. Published in 2015, it was adapted from a play of his entitled The Dream of the Dog (2010).
Higginson began writing the outline of a novel in...
Interior Chinatown (2020) is the second novel by American writer Charles Yu. It is the story of Willis Wu, a young Asian actor stuck playing two-dimensional caricatures like "Oriental Guy Making a Weird Face" and "Silent Henchman." Wu aspires to...
Bewilderment is a contemporary novel by American novelist Richard Powers. Published by W. W. Norton & Company in 2021, it is Powers' thirteenth book and a follow up to his 2018 novel The Overstory that won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction....
The Souvenir Museum is a collection of short stories by the award-winning author Elizabeth McCracken. The stories are of a contemporary genre, and each story deals with some real-life struggle in a witty way. All the characters have come to a...
Intimacies is a novel by American author Katie Kitamura. It was published in August 2021 after Jonathan Cape acquired the rights in February of the same year. It is her fourth novel after A Separation (2017) and both share a similar tone in terms...
Abundance is a contemporary novel by American author Jakob Guanzon. Published in 2021 by Graywolf Press, it is Guanzon's debut novel. It explores social menaces in the United States like poverty, wealth inequality, justice system, drug trade,...
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois is a novel by American poet Honoree Fanone Jeffers, on her first outing as an author. It was published in 2021 by Harper Collins. Set in the American deep South, the novel explores African-American history before...
Written by an award-winning author, Zorrie follows a young American girl called Zorrie Underwood, who has suffered a great deal in her life. She lost both her parents to an illness, and after an aunt, who was like a mother to her, passed, Zorrie...
