Newest Study Guides

John Irving’s The Cider House Rules is an example of the evolutionary nature of the creative process of writing something as complex as a novel. Inspired by Victorian literature in general and the novels of Charles Dickens specifically, the novel...

Since graduating from The Queen's College, Oxford University with a degree in English Language and Literature, Caryl Phillips has authored plays, essays and novels. His oeuvre tackles a broad range of themes, but focuses in large part on the...

The poems of Billy Collins seem destined to assure he is always relegated to that odd sphere of “major” minor poet. As Ogden Nash discovered before him, having a sense of humor and not being afraid to flaunt it means a deduction in critical points...

Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a collection of Joan Didion’s nonfiction articles and essays, originally published in various magazines throughout most of the 1960s. Among the periodicals in which the contents appeared are the American Scholar and...

Published in 1922, Jacob’s Room was the first novel Virginia Woolf published herself through Hogarth Press, the in publishing house she co-founded. The novel represented another break with tradition by becoming the work that Woolf herself admitted...

By the day he met his untimely end on one of the many bloody battlefields of World War I, Edward Thomas had achieved a reputation as a writer and editor. His publication history included essays, critical studies of famous poets and biographies. He...

Frank Wu is an Asian-American novelist born on August 20, 1967 in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating high school, he attended Johns Hopkins University, followed by the University of Michigan Law School, and then Harvard Graduate School of...

The Oresteia proved to be lucky number 13 for Greek dramatist Aeschylus. The playwright collected his thirteenth Athenian drama award with his horrifying and bloody tale of revenge and the nature of evil. The production was mounted in 458 B.C. and...

Published in 2015, The Coming is the fifth novel by African-American author Dr. Daniel Black. While Black's previous novels focused largely on the Black experience in rural Southern and Midwestern America (drawing from his own background and...

The Acharnians is a comedy written by the ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes, and it was first performed in 425 BCE, during the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. The play centers around the character Dikaiopolis, a middle-aged...

A Summer Life by Gary Soto is a collection of 39 autobiographical essays in which Soto gives the readers a vivid description of his days in Fresno, California, as he grew from a young boy to a young adult. The book can be divided into three main...

The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex was originally published in 1871 and is a book written by evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin. In it, Darwin explores evolutionary theory and natural selection, building upon his already...

Although no credit is actually given on screen, Joseph Mankiewicz ‘s Oscar-winning screenplay for All About Eve is actually based on a short story titled “The Wisdom of Eve” by Mary Orr. Actress Elisabeth Bergner related a story of an understudy...

Published in 1805, Fleetwood; Or, The New Man of Feeling is the third novel by William Godwin. Godwin, perhaps known more today for being the father of the author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, was a radical figure of renown by the time Fleetwood...

Running in the Family is a memoir written by Michael Ondaatje and published first in 1982. Ondaatje is a Sri Lankan writer who has published many highly coveted works of poetry, fiction, essays, and even films. Ondaatje lives in Canada and has...

Notes on a Scandal is a novel published in 2003 and written by British author Zoe Heller. It deals with the social taboo of teacher-student relationships, and engendered a great deal of discussion regarding the differing ways in which male and...

The Chaneysville Incident is the result of a ten-year engagement with the story he wanted to tell by David Bradley; the author produced four different versions before reaching a state which most closely matched on paper what he had envisioned in...

Hrafnkel’s Saga is believed to have been written at some point in the latter half of the 1200’s. Since the earliest known manuscript only dates back to the early 1500’s, however, some argue that it could very well have been written as late as the...

American Son is a novel that was written by American author Brian Ascalon Roley and published by W. W. Norton & Company Publishing in paperback format in May 2001. It was originally published exclusively in the English langauge, but was later...

Goddamn This War! is the graphic novel follow-up from Jacques Tardi to his award-winning It was the War of the Trenches, published fifteen years earlier. Published in 2013, Goddamn This War! serves as another example of the extraordinary power...

Jennifer Egan’s 2010 novel A Visit from the Goon Squad may be the first Pulitzer Prize winner to accurately reflect the reading experience shared by the majority of Americans today. It is connected, to be sure, but in digestible chapter-sized...

Red Azalea is a memoir of Chinese American writer, Anchee Min, that was written from 1984 to 1992, her first eight years in the United States. The memoir depicts Min's personal experiences throughout her lifetime and her struggles during the...

The Stories of Alistair MacLeod is a compilation of MacLeod’s many short stories that draw upon the setting of Cape Breton Island. MacLeod is actually a Canadian writer who specializes in novels and short stories. He spent every free summer during...

Short Fiction of Margaret Atwood is a compilation of short stories written by Margaret Atwood. Atwood is from Canada, and she is an author, poet, teacher, and an environmental activist. She is a prolific writer, as she has published almost 20...