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One of James Baldwin’s earliest works, “Sonny’s Blues” is a perennial favorite of college anthologies and perhaps his most widely read short story. Initially published in 1957, it was included in the 1965 collection entitled Going to Meet the Man....

Left to Tell is Immaculée Ilibagiza's memoir about her ordeal surviving the Rwandan Genocide. The book was published in 2006, 12 years after the 1994 genocide that claimed one million lives in 100 days. Immaculée recounts her life leading up to...

Cyrano de Bergerac is one of the most famous 19th century works for the stage. It has been staged countless times and is still a mainstay of high school, college, and professional theater. It has also received a great deal of scholarly attention...

Originally published in 1759, The Theory of Moral Sentiments revealsAdam Smith's comprehensive system that explains where morality arises from, how people make moral decisions, and what constitutes virtue. This philosophical tract was written...

An Enemy of the People is one of Henrik Ibsen's most popular and well-known plays among audiences and producers –but it is also one of Arthur Miller's best-known staged works. This situation results from the fact that Miller translated and...

Published in 1980, Midnight’s Children follows the tumultuous transition into India's and, to a lesser extent, Pakistan’s independence after the partition of British India. The story itself is allegorical with the main events being about the life...

Widely considered to be Ariel Dorfman's most influential play,Death and the Maidenexplores the challenges of restoring democracy and stability to a country recovering from an oppressive military dictatorship. Even though the play never...

Alas, Babylontells the story of what would have happened if the Cold Wardidresult in a nuclear attack, set entirely in the small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based on the real city of Mount Dora, Florida. The novel was published in 1959,...

Insurgentis the second novel in Veronica Roth's debut trilogyDivergent,preceded byDivergentand followed byAllegiant.It was published in May 2012by Katherine Tegen Books,and continues the story of protagonist Tris Prior and her quest to reform a...

"The Scarlet Ibis" is a short story written by James Hurst, first published in The Atlantic Monthlyin July 1960. It is the first and only piece by Hurst to come to prominence and reach a wide audience, but it has had a profound effect on the...

Published in 1682 and written by Puritan colonist Mary Rowlandson, TheSovereignty and Goodness of Godprovides a valuable departure from the elite, male, English perspectiveson King Phillip's War (1675-76), a war between the Indians and colonists...

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is loosely based on author Sherman Alexie's life. Alexie tells the story of Junior, a 14-year old boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. In adiary narration style, the novel explores...

The following stories are a collection of some of Ursula Le Guin’s most famous short stories and novelettes. They are set in various complex worlds in unknown galaxies; together, these stories explore concepts of sociology, psychology, religion,...

The Caretaker is one of playwright Harold Pinter's most popular plays, and certainly one of the 20th century's most notable works of the stage. It is Pinter's second full-length play, but his first major success. Critics delve into its historical,...

First appearing in printinHarper's Magazinein October 1937, "The Chrysanthemums" is considered by many to be the best story John Steinbeck ever wrote, and among the top short stories of the twentieth century. In 1938, "The Chrysanthemums" was...

Hannah Webster Foster wrote and published The Coquette under the pseudonym of "A Lady of Massachusetts" in 1797. The book, an epistolary novel (told through letters), became one of the most popular novels of the 18th century.

Foster based her...

The Testing is the first book in a series of the same name written by Joelle Charbonneau. The story follows 16-year-old Malencia "Cia" Vale as she battles her fellow peers from all across the United Commonwealth for a handful of seats in the...

Juno and the Paycock is the second of three O’Casey plays in what is known as the “Dublin trilogy,” set in the tumultuous years of 1916-1923. During Easter Week in 1916, Irish nationalists rose against the United Kingdom in an attempt to secede...

Though he could hardly have expected it during his lifetime, since his work was roundly condemned by the conservative commentators of hisday, John Keats becameone of the most revered English poets of the Romantic period within a few decades of his...

First published in 1926, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is one of the most celebrated and controversial detective novels of all time. The novel features one of Christie’s most beloved characters, the detective Hercule Poirot, who himself appears in...

Originally released in 1984, Love Medicine is Louise Erdrich's first published novel. Initially, Erdrich wrote "The World's Greatest Fisherman" after she earned her master's degree in creative writing, and this short story later became the basis...

Ihimaera published “The Whale Rider” in 1978 to critical acclaim. He wrote it in the earlier portion of his writing career, having only penned three other novels prior to it. In the introduction to the book, he explains his inspiration: his two...

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is Alison Bechdel's first graphic memoir. Bechdel, who has been working as acartoonist since the 1980s, took seven years to completeFun Home. Itspublication in 2006 brought her wide literary renown.

Bechdel used Adobe...

Roots: The Saga of an American Family was published in 1976 after Alex Haley spent 12 years researching his family's origins. Haley grew up hearing oral traditions passed down through his family, describing the experiences of his maternal...