Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 novel of manners by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness.Mr. Bennet, owner of the Longbourn estate in Hertfordshire, has five daughters, but his property is entailed and can only be passed to a male heir. His wife also lacks an inheritance, so his family faces becoming poor upon his death. Thus, it is imperative that at least one of the daughters marries well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot.Pride and Prejudice has consistently appeared near the top of lists of "most-loved books" among literary scholars and the reading public. It has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, with over 20 million copies sold, and has inspired many derivatives in modern literature. For more than a century, dramatic adaptations, reprints, unofficial sequels, films, and TV versions of Pride and Prejudice have portrayed the memorable characters and themes of the novel, reaching mass audiences. Read more

What does it mean when a fictional hero takes a journey? Shares a meal? Gets drenched in a sudden rain shower? Often, there is much more going on in a novel or poem than is readily visible on the surface - a symbol, maybe, that remains elusive, or an unexpected twist on a character - and there's that sneaking suspicion that the deeper meaning of a literary text keeps escaping you. In this practical and amusing guide to literature, Thomas C. Foster shows how easy and gratifying it is to unlock those hidden truths, and to discover a world where a road leads to a quest; a shared meal may signify a communion; and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just rain. Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form, How to Read Literature Like a Professor is the perfect companion for making your reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun. Read more

A thoroughly revised and expanded edition of Thomas C. Foster’s classic guide—a lively and entertaining introduction to literature and literary basics, including symbols, themes and contexts, that shows you how to make your everyday reading experience more rewarding and enjoyable.While many books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings interwoven in these texts. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the eyes—and the literary codes—of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor.What does it mean when a literary hero is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower?Ranging from major themes to literary models, narrative devices and form, Thomas C. Foster provides us with a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower-and shows us how to make our reading experience more enriching, satisfying, and fun.This revised edition includes new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, and incorporates updated teaching points that Foster has developed over the past decade. Read more

Animal Farm is a beast fable, in the form of a satirical allegorical novella, by George Orwell, first published in England on 17 August 1945. It tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, the rebellion is betrayed, and under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon, the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before.According to Orwell, Animal Farm reflects events leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917 and then on into the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell, a democratic socialist, was a critic of Joseph Stalin and hostile to Moscow-directed Stalinism, an attitude that was critically shaped by his experiences during the Barcelona May Days conflicts between the POUM and Stalinist forces during the Spanish Civil War. [a] In a letter to Yvonne Davet, Orwell described Animal Farm as a satirical tale against Stalin ("un conte satirique contre Staline"), and in his essay "Why I Write" (1946), wrote that Animal Farm was the first book in which he tried, with full consciousness of what he was doing, "to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole". Read more

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to 12 Books to Read Before You Die, Volume 1 and learn about these classic books: Father Goriot - Honoré de BalzacThe Hound of the Baskervilles - Arthur Conan DoyleThe Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis StevensonTreasure Island - Robert Louis StevensonJane Eyre - Charlotte BrontëThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark TwainThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark TwainAlice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis CarrollThrough the Looking-Glass - Lewis CarrollThe Late Mattia Pascal - Luigi PirandelloAround the World in Eighty Days - Jules VerneCall of the Wild - Jack London Read more

Harold Bloom explores our Western literary tradition by concentrating on the works of twenty-six authors central to the Canon. He argues against ideology in literary criticism; he laments the loss of intellectual and aesthetic standards; he deplores multiculturalism, Marxism, feminism, neoconservatism, Afrocentrism, and the New Historicism. Insisting instead upon "the autonomy of aesthetic," Bloom places Shakespeare at the center of the Western Canon. Shakespeare has become the touchstone for all writers who come before and after him, whether playwrights, poets, or storytellers. In the creation of character, Bloom maintains, Shakespeare has no true precursor and has left no one after him untouched. Milton, Samuel Johnson, Goethe, Ibsen, Joyce, and Beckett were all indebted to him; Tolstoy and Freud rebelled against him; and while Dante, Wordsworth, Austen, Dickens, Whitman, Dickinson, Proust, and the modern Hispanic and Portuguese writers Borges, Neruda, and Pessoa are exquisite examples of how canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition. Read more

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Are you ready to journey through the most extraordinary literary masterpieces ever written? This book provides a unique opportunity to travel through the history of literature. Condensed information to know everything worth knowing: summaries, authors, dates, quotes, and messages of the most significant works ever written in every age and culture, including religious and philosophical texts, poems, plays, novels, and essays by the most outstanding authors.Three hundred books from ancient texts to modern-day works of art. You can explore the timeless wisdom of the greatest minds of our time. Experience the works of Homer, Shakespeare, Proust, and Hemingway, as well as today's contemporary classics. Be challenged, inspired, and captivated by timeless stories, poetic prose, and philosophical musings. This is your chance to experience the depth and breadth of literature all in one volume. With this book, you can delve into the beauty of the written word and explore the life-changing lessons of these timeless works. Read more

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest—a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing and literary devices that enrich these works, including symbols, themes, and contexts—teaches you how to make your everyday reading experience richer and more rewarding.While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor.What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun.The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea. Read more

Ever wish you had a place to capture your conversations about books? Join the club!  Whether your meetings are organized affairs or excuses to gather with friends, this brightly designed journal gives you plenty of space for writing, a reading list of crowd pleasers, and fun icebreakers so you can show up and share. Inside you’ll find • entries to catalog the discussion for each meeting • plenty of pages to record your personal thoughts• space to note what you ate and drank • suggestions for fun activities to try during your meetings• curated lists of compelling books to read together Book Club: A Journal acknowledges the wide range of interests and reading habits within book clubs, with recommendations organized in a way to help readers discover new voices from all kinds of backgrounds. Never again will you have to search far and wide to find your next great read! Read more

The original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.In CliffsNotes on To Kill a Mockingbird, you explore Harper Lee's literary masterpiece—a novel that deals with Civil Rights and racial bigotry in the segregated southern United States of the 1930s. Told through the eyes of the memorable Scout Finch, the novel tells the story of her father, Atticus, as he hopelessly strives to prove the innocence of a black man accused of raping and beating a white woman.Chapter summaries and commentaries take you through Scout's coming of age journey. Critical essays give you insight into racial relations in the South during the 1930s, as well as a comparison between the novel and its landmark film version. Other features that help you study includeCharacter analyses of the main charactersA character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the charactersA section on the life and background of Harper LeeA review section that tests your knowledgeA Resource Center full of books, articles, films, and Internet sitesClassic literature or modern-day treasure—you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides. Read more

In the CliffsComplete guides, the novel's ;complete text and a glossary appear side-by-side with coordinating numbered lines to help you understand unusual words and phrasing. You'll also find all the commentary and resources of a standard CliffsNotes for Literature.CliffsComplete Romeo & Juliet offers insight and information into a work that's rich both dramatically and thematically. Every generation since Shakespeare's time has been able to identify with some romantic or thematic aspect of the play.Discover what happens to these famous, star-crossed lovers and what causes the family feud between the Montagues and Capulets — and save valuable studying time — all at once. Enhance your reading of Romeo & Juliet with these additional features:A summary and insightful commentary for each actBibliography and historical background on the author, William ShakespeareA look at Early Modern English intellect, religion, politics, and societyCoverage of Shakespeare's source and the play's performance historyA character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the charactersReview questions, a quiz, discussion guide, and activity ideasA Resource Center full of books, articles, films, and Web sitesStreamline your literature study with all-in-one help from CliffsComplete guides! Read more

The Wheel of Time is now an original series on Prime Video, starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine! Since its debut in 1990, The Wheel of Time® by Robert Jordan has captivated millions of readers around the globe with its scope, originality, and compelling characters. The definitive encyclopedia of the series, the companion sheds light on some of the most intriguing aspects of the world, including biographies and motivations of many characters that never made it into the books, but helped bring Jordan's world to life. Over the course of fifteen books and millions of words, the world that Jordan created grew in depth and complexity. However, only a fraction of what Jordan imagined ended up on the page, the rest going into his personal files.Included in the volume in an A-to-Z format are:An entry for each named characterAn inclusive dictionary of the Old TongueNew maps of the Last BattleNew portraits of many charactersHistories and customs of the nations of the worldThe strength level of many channelersDescriptions of the flora and fauna unique to the worldAnd much more!The Wheel of Time Companion is required reading for The Wheel of Time's millions of fans.The Wheel of Time®New Spring: The Novel#1 The Eye of the World#2 The Great Hunt#3 The Dragon Reborn#4 The Shadow Rising#5 The Fires of Heaven#6 Lord of Chaos#7 A Crown of Swords#8 The Path of Daggers#9 Winter's Heart#10 Crossroads of Twilight#11 Knife of DreamsBy Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson#12 The Gathering Storm#13 Towers of Midnight#14 A Memory of LightBy Robert Jordan and Teresa PattersonThe World of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of TimeBy Robert Jordan and Amy RomanczukPatterns of the Wheel: Coloring Art Based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time Read more

The Complete Concordance is an entertaining and incredibly useful guide to Stephen King’s epic Dark Tower series by Robin Furth and features a foreword by Stephen King himself. The Dark Tower series is the backbone of Stephen King's legendary career. Eight books and more than three thousand pages make up this bestselling fantasy epic. The Complete Concordance covers books I-VII and The Wind Through the Keyhole and is the definitive encyclopedic reference book that provides readers with everything they need to navigate their way through the series. With hundreds of characters, Mid-World geography, High Speech lexicon, and extensive cross-references, this comprehensive handbook is essential for any Dark Tower fan.Includes: -A Foreword from Stephen King -Characters and Genealogies -Magical Objects and Forces -Mid-World and Our World Places -Portals and Magical Places -Mid-, End-, and Our World Maps -Timeline for the Dark Tower Series -Mid-World Dialects -Mid-World Rhymes, Songs, and Prayers -Political and Cultural References -References to Stephen King’s Own Work Read more

From Homer to Harry Potter, from Chaucer to Charlotte's Web, acompelling book of quizzes on history's most influential literary worksand writersDid a whale named "Mocha Dick" inspire Melville's masterpiece?Who was the first poet to speak at a presidential inauguration?Which French-speaking high school football star shook up the literary world?Do you freeze when someone mentions Faulkner? When the conversation turns to the Odyssey, do you want to take a hike? Have no fear. For years, Kenneth C. Davis's New York Times bestselling Don't Know Much About® books have enlightened and enthralled us with a winning blend of fascinating facts and wonderfully irreverent fun. Now he sets his sights on our literary IQ in Don't Know Much About® Literature. With this rich treasure trove of knowledge and intriguing information about the world's great books and authors, Kenneth Davis and his daughter, Jenny, demystify Dracula, capture Kafka, and help you brush up on your Brontë in the inimitable and endlessly entertaining Don't Know Much About® style. Read more

Karen Wynn Fonstad's THE ATLAS OF MIDDLE-EARTH is an essential volume that will enchant all Tolkien fans. Here is the definitive guide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in the Elder Days through the Third Age, including the journeys of Bilbo, Frodo, and the Fellowship of the Ring. Authentic and updated -- nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised -- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Hundreds of two-color maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principal characters day by day -- including all the battles and key locations of the First, Second, and Third Ages. Plans and descriptions of castles, buildings, and distinctive landforms are given, along with thematic maps describing the climate, vegetation, languages, and population distribution of Middle-earth throughout its history. An extensive appendix and an index help readers correlate the maps with Tolkien's novels. Read more

This deluxe edition of the world's most beloved, bestselling classic on Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology is stunningly illustrated with specially commissioned full-color plates and a beautiful gold-bordered pages.  Since its original publication in 1942, Edith Hamilton's Mythology has sold millions of copies throughout the world and established itself as a perennial bestseller. For nearly 80 years, readers have chosen Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes above all other books to discover the enchanting world of Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology -- from Odysseus's adventure-filled journey to Odin's effort to postpone the final day of doom. This deluxe, hardcover edition is illustrated throughout with specially commissioned, original artwork and beautifully illustrated lineages, making it a true collector's item. Read more

In the CliffsComplete guides, the novel's complete text and a glossary appear side-by-side with coordinating numbered lines to help you understand unusual words and phrasing. You'll also find all the commentary and resources of a standard CliffsNotes for Literature.CliffsComplete Hamlet covers details of the most widely produced and critiqued Shakespearean play. Written in poignant language, Hamlet contains all the elements necessary for a good tragedy, including a brave and daring hero who suffers a fatal flaw.Discover what happens to the complicated cast of characters — and save valuable studying time — all at once. Enhance your reading of Hamlet with these additional features:A summary and insightful commentary for each chapterBibliography and historical background on the author, William ShakespeareA look at Early Modern England historical, intellectual, religious, and social contextInsight into the play's classical elements and languageA character map that graphically illustrates the relationships among the charactersReview questions, a quiz, discussion guide, and activity ideasA Resource Center full of books, articles, films, and Web sitesStreamline your literature study with all-in-one help from CliffsComplete guides! Read more

Literary theory has now become integral to how we produce literary criticism. When critics write about a text, they no longer think just about the biographical or historical contexts of the work, but also about the different approaches that literary theory offers. By making use of these, they create new interpretations of the text that would not otherwise be possible. In your own reading and writing, literary theory fosters new avenues into the text. It allows you to make informed comments about the language and form of literature, but also about the core themes - concepts such as gender, sexuality, the self, race, and class - which a text might explore.Literary theory gives you an almost limitless number of texts to work into your own response, ensuring that your interpretation is truly original. This is why, although literary theory can initially appear alienating and difficult, it is something to get really excited about. Imagine you are standing in the centre of a circular room, with a whole set of doors laid out around you. Each doorway opens on to a new and illuminating field of knowledge that can change how you think about what you have read: perhaps in just a small way, but also perhaps dramatically and irrevocably. You can open one door, or many of them. The choice is yours. Put the knowledge you gain together with your own interpretation, however, and you have a unique and potentially fascinating response. Each chapter in Literary Theory: A Complete Introduction covers a key school of thought, progressing to a point at which you'll have a full understanding of the range of responses and approaches available for textual interpretation. As well as focusing on such core areas as Marxism, Modernism, Postmodernism, Structuralism and Poststructuralism, this introduction brings in recent developments such as Eco and Ethical Criticism and Humanisms. Read more