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Written by acclaimed playwright and journalist Sophie Treadwell, Machinal (released in 1928) was inspired by the real-life case of a woman named Ruth Snyder, who brutally murdered - along with her lover Henry Gray - her husband. Machinal, though,...

William Wordsworth’s “The Thorn” was written in 1789. Wordsworth's inspiration for the setting of the poem, a mountain, came from his own experience of seeing a hawthorn tree on Quantock Hill in Somersetshire. The poem was included in the first...

In 1645 Milton published “L’Allegro” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “Il Penseroso.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker in “L’...

Dryden himself acknowledged that his 1667 play All for Love is an imitation of William Shakespeare's Anthony and Cleopatra, which was written in the early 1600s). It is a heroic drama that follows many of the same story beats of Shakespeare's ...

The Three Musketeers was first published in 1844. It was serialized (published in monthly installments) in the newspaper Le Siecle between March and July 1844. Later that same year, the novel was published as a complete eight-volume set. Dumas had...

“The Collar” appears in George Herbert’s collection of poetry The Temple, published in 1633. The poem likely draws on Biblical sources including the parable of the prodigal son (Luke xv 11-32). It is unique among the poems in The Temple for its...

There is almost a disconnect between Roxane Gay and her body, hence the use of parentheses in the title. The memoir is the story of her body but it seems to have taken on an identity all of its own, because as far as Gay is concerned, there is...

Dirty Dancing is a romantic dance film produced by Linda Gottlieb and directed by Emile Ardolino. The film was made in 1987 and was distributed by Vestron Pictures. Leading cast members, Jennifer Grey and Patrick Swayze star as main protagonists...

My Year of Rest and Relaxation is Ottessa Moshfegh’s much-anticipated 2018 follow-up to her debut novel, Eileen. Eileen received rave reviews, won the author a coveted Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award, and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

My...

Had the oppressive Soviet regime not cracked down on author Victor Shklovsky and his Russian formalists. the world may have seen more books by the ingenious author. Still, the world was able to read Theory of Prose (originally published in 1929),...

Hamlet is often regarded as the Renaissance narrative which has most aggressively been put to film. Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 entry marks yet another entry into that series of films.

Based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name,...

Ireland has produced some of the best playwrights in the world - Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Martin McDonagh.

Throughout his long and illustrious career, McDonagh has produced a number of tremendous plays -- and some...

Although not exceptionally well-known, Masahiro Shinoda's film Double Suicide (1969) is one of the most unique films ever to have been produced. Based on a Japanese play called The Love Suicides at Amijima, Double Suicides tells the story of the...

Pan's Labyrinth is a Mexican-Spanish fantasy film from 2006, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. It stars Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu, Ivana Baquero, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil. It incorporates animatronics and CGI as a way of building its...

Fiela’s Child is a 1985 novel by the South African writer Dalene Matthee. It tells the story of Fiela Komoetie, a black woman in 19th-century South Africa who finds a white toddler at her doorstep. She takes him in, names him Benjamin, and raises...

In 1645, John Milton published “Il Penseroso” in a collection of poetry alongside another poem entitled “L’Allegro.” The poems take opposite sides in a debate about whether it is better to live a carefree life or a contemplative life. The speaker...

Bodega Dreams tells the story of a young man named Chino who lives in Spanish Harlem. One day he crosses paths with Willie Bodega, who is part man, part legend. He is also a gangster, a community activist and a man with dreams that know no limits....

Written by sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right examines the viewpoint of Tea Party Movement (a movement within the Republican Party which advocates for lower overall...

The Shoe Horn Sonata is a play by Australian playwright John Misto, one of Australia's most eminent playwrights who has also worked as a script writer for Australian television, creating and writing the hit television series The Damnation of...

Written by Gillian Flynn of Gone Girl fame, Sharp Objects (Flynn's debut novel which was published in 2006) tells the story of a woman named Camille Preaker. After a while away and after a short spell at a psychiatric hospital, Preaker returns to...

Same Kind of Different as Me : A Modern Day Slave, and International Art Dealer and the Unlikely Woman Who Bound Them Together may well be a contender for the longest, and most unwieldy, book title of 2006; co-written by Ron Hall and Denver Moore,...

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes was written in 1977 by Canadian author Ellen Coer. At the time of the book’s publication, Coerr was already an established children’s author, having written “Twenty Five Dragons” and “The Legend of the Golden...

In 1977, Robyn Davidson set off for the west coast of Australia from her starting point at Alice Springs. Her companions were her dog, and family of four camels that consisted of a larger male named Dookie, a smaller male named Dub, a wild female...

Naguib Mahfouz has written over one hundred short stories during his career, sixteen of which are published together in one volume, with his most famous allegorical work, Half a Day, also takes on the mantle of title.

Half a Day is an...