Literature
The Seagull
by Anton Chekhov Konstantin Treplev shoots himself and kills title bird after giving the title bird to his ex Nina and she reveals she loves Trigorin Irina Arkadina- Konstantin Treplev's mother, she belittles him after seeing his play-within-a-play Set on Sorin's estate
The Cherry Orchard
by Anton Chekhov Lopakhin, a merchant, purchases Madame Lyubov Ranevsky/Ranevskaya's estate Ends with sound of axes chopping down estate, elderly servant Firs(nicknamed "Twenty-Two Calamities") lies down on a sofa locked inside estate, presumably dies, Ranevskaya and Anya return to Paris Peter Trofimov is called the "eternal student" Anya, Ranevskaya's daughter loves Trofimov Varya, Ranevskaya's adopted daughter, loves Lopakhin but he never proposes to her Ranevskaya is haunted by the drowning of her son, Grisha, receives telegraphs from sick lover in Paris Constantin Stanislavsky directed it as a tragedy(Chekhov described it as a comedy)
The Three Sisters
by Anton Chekhov Olga, Masha, and Irina give up their dream of returning to Moscow Solony kills Baron Tuzenbach in a duel
Uncle Vanya
by Anton Chekhov Title character loves Elena, attempts to shoot Professor Serebryakov Character named "Waffles"
The Bet
by Anton Chekhov the Lawyer agree to spend fifteen years in solitary confinement for money
The Gladiators
by Arthur Koestler About the Spartacus Revolt
Darkness at Noon
by Arthur Koestler Nicholas Rubashov is imprisoned in Cell 404, he falsely confesses to attempting to poison Number 1 and is executed during Moscow show trials Number 1 implicitly represents Stalin Title refers to event during the crucifixion of Jesus, novel is broken into three sections called "hearings" and final section titled "Grammatical Fiction" Fellow prisoner called Hare-Lip refuses to tell Rubashov his name, is later revealed to be Rubashov's old associate Kieffer, testifies against Rubashov Rubashov invents a "quadratic alphabet" so that he can communicate with the prisoner across from him in Cell 402 by tapping on the wall Gletkin and Ivanov interrogate Rubashov Little Loewy commits suicide after Rubashov forces him to militarily supply a country against whom he led a shipping boycott while working on the Belgian Dockyard Rubashov reminisces about the affair he had with his secretary Arlova Rubashov betrays a German named Richard after meeting with him near the Pieta at a museum Rubashov imagines putting a cigarette out on his hand for 30 seconds
Arrival and Departure
by Arthur Koestler Peter Slavek refuses to give in to Fascist ideology and travels via parachute to the country of Neutralia Psychoanalyst Dr. Sonia Bolgar treats Peter's leg
The Thirteenth Tribe
by Arthur Koestler Proposes that Ashkenazi Jews are descended from Khazars
The Ghost in the Machine
by Arthur Koestler Titled for a term invent by Gilbert Ryle characterizing Cartesian dualism Coined the term "holon" for entities which are simultaneously wholes and parts
The Sleepwalkers
by Arthur Koestler subtitled History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe Early history of astronomy
Tomorrow's Eve
by Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam Popularized the term "android" Lord Ewald asks Thomas Edison to build him an artificial wife
Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak Title physician Yuri, set during russian revolution Title character's love interest, Lara Antipov, attempts to shoot Victor Komarovsky Pasha Antipov- Lara's husband, former army commander, nicknamed "the shooter" or Strelnikov Title character is kidnapped by cocaine addict Liberius, leader of the "Forest Brotherhood" Misha Gordon intervenes in Amalia Guishar's suicide attempt Title character whites the poem "Hamlet"
Clock Without Hands
by Carson McCullers About J.T. Malone
The Ballad of the Sad Cafe
by Carson McCullers Miss Amelia runs title location Marvin Macy- married to Miss Amelia Evans for 10 days, tries to ruin her life after getting out of jail Marvin steals Amelia's money and is aided by Cousin Lymon Willis, a hunchback taken in by Amelia Stumpy McPherson visits title location
Reflections in a Golden Eye
by Carson McCullers Set on an army base Repressed homosexual Captain Penderton's wife Leonora carries on an affair with Major Langdon and is secretly lusted after by Private Ellgee Williams
Songs and Sonnets
1633 collection by John Donne "The Flea" "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning"
Art, Truth, and Politics
2005 Nobel Lecture of Harold Pinter
Archilochus
7th century BC Greek lyric/iambic poet Fragments include, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." Was mimicked by Horace in Horace's Epodes
The God That Failed
A book written by former communists after WWII about the initial attraction toward, and later disillusionment, with communism Includes essays by Arthur Koestler and Ignazio Silone
Angry Young Men
A group of male British writers who created visceral plays and fiction at odds with political establishment and a self-satisfied middle class John Osborne Harold Pinter
Gonzo Journalism
A style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative Subset of New Journalism that was pioneered and popularized by Hunter S. Thompson
Crome Yellow
Aldous Huxley's first novel Title is a house Denis Stone and Henry Wimbush
The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved
Article/essay by Hunter S. Thompson Written for Scanlan's Monthly First person account of covering title Louisville race with illustrator Ralph Steadman, recalls "swilling mint juleps" Narrator claims he is in town to document an impending clash between Black Panthers and white supremacists
Socialist Realism
Artistic style whose goal was to promote socialism by showing Soviet life in a positive light Pioneered by Maxim Gorky Mikhail Sholokhov
A Moveable Feast
Autobiography by Ernest Hemingway
Black Boy
Autobiography by Richard Wright
Speak, Memory
Autobiography by Vladimir Nabokov Compares writing a novel to a chess problem
1958 Nobel Prize in Literature
Awarded to Boris Pasternak, but he was forced to decline by the USSR
When I Was One-and-Twenty
By A. E. Housman "I am two and twenty, and oh tis true tis true" "give crowns and pounds of Guineas" "But keep your fancy free"
Terence, This is Stupid Stuff
By A. E. Housman "You eat your victuals fast enough"
A Shropshire Lad
By A. E. Housman Collection of poems
The Plague
By Albert Camus Doctor Rieux notices rats dying in streets of Oran
The Stranger
By Albert Camus Meursault walks to his mom's funeral, feels nothing "mama died today" Meursault shoots and kills an Arab on the beach Salamano, Meursault's next door neighbor, beats his dog
The Count of Monte Cristo
By Alexandre Dumas Edmond Dantes is imprisoned in the Chateau D'if He was framed by three men- Villefort, Mundego, Danglars Dantes was about to marry Mercedes He meets a prisoner who tells him of Pharaoh's Lost Gold
The Three Musketeers
By Alexandre Dumas Title characters: Athos, Parthos, Aramis Joined by d'Artagnon, who wants to be part of title group- he rides into town on a sickly, yellow horse, and sets up three consecutive duels with Athos, Parthos, and Aramis Cardinal Richelieu Assassination of Duke of Buckingham
Crossing the Bar
By Alfred Lord Tennyson "I hope to see my pilot face to face"
Charge of the Light Brigade
By Alfred Lord Tennyson Battle of Balaclava in Crimean War "Into the valley of death rode the 600" Sequel to this poem written by Rudyard Kipling, in which the soldiers ask the author to write another poem about them
In Memoriam A. H. H.
By Alfred Lord Tennyson Requiem for Alfred Henry Hallam "Tis better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all"
Howl
By Allen Ginsberg Opening line: "I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness" Speaker tells Carl Solomon(who it is dedicated to) "I'm with you in Rockland" Laments the speaker's "starving hysterical naked" friends Repeated references to idol "Moloch" Sees a figures throw "potato salad at CCNY lecturers on Dadaism." Describes "angelheaded hipsters" Contains a footnote that repeatedly calls out "Holy!" Published by Lawrence Ferlinghetti's City Lights Bookstore First public reading at Six Gallery Reading
Kaddish
By Allen Ginsberg Titled for a Jewish prayer for the dead Elegy for the author's mother Naomi "Strange now to think of you, gone without corsets and eyes" as the speaker walks "on the sunny pavement of Greenwich Village." ends with repetitions of the phrase "lord lord lord" and crows saying "caw caw caw."
Penguin Island
By Anatole France St. Mael baptizes flock of birds in title location
The Immoralist
By Andre Gide Michel finds out he is a gay pedophile
The Caucasian Chalk Circle
By Bertolt Brecht Grusha adopts Michael, plans to wrestle with his birth mother over baby in title location
Mother Courage and Her Children
By Bertolt Brecht Katrin, Eilif, and Swiss Cheese are all killed set during 30 years war
Dracula
By Bram Stoker Abraham von Helsing- an old vampire hunter Lucy Westenra
Fog
By Carl Sandburg "Fog comes on little cat feet"
Les Fleurs du Mal
By Charles Baudelaire Title translates to The Flowers of Evil Forward called "To the reader", calls reader a hypocrite Stories: Spleen and Ideal, Parisian Scenes, Wine
David Copperfield
By Charles Dickens Clara Peggotty Edward Murdstone Agnes Wigfield Eurya Heap
Oliver Twist
By Charles Dickens Fagin The Artful Dodger Nancy Bill Sykes Mr. Brownlowe
Bleak House
By Charles Dickens Legal battle between Jaundice Jaundice Esther Summerson
Great Expectations
By Charles Dickens Phillip Pip. Parripp Abel Magwitch- escaped con from Australia becomes Pip's benefactor Ms. Haveshin always wears a wedding dress, all the clocks in her house are stopped at the same time, takes in young Estella Pip falls for Estella
A Christmas Carol
By Charles Dickens Scrooge is visited by 4 ghosts Bob Cratchit- has a crippled son named Tiny Tim Scrooge worked for Mr. Freezy Wig, loved Belle
Hard Times
By Charles Dickens Thomas Gradgrind Nicholas Bounderby
The Mystery of Edwin Drood
By Charles Dickens unfinished
Pickwick Papers
By Charles Dickens- his first novel Hunting club Mr. Snodgrass
Waiting for Lefty
By Clifford Odets Play about striking cab drivers
Waiting for the Barbarians
By Constantine Cavafy Greek poem based on J. M. Coetzee Novel
Child of God
By Cormac McCarthy About Lester Ballad Frog Mountain
Lady Chatterley's Lover
By D. H. Lawrence Constance Reid has an affair with gamekeeper Oliver Mellors
Sons and Lovers
By D. H. Lawrence Gertrude Morel romantically pursues her son Paul after her other son dies
The Divine Comedy
By Dante Alighieri Inferno- Dante is guided through hell by Virgil, "abandon all hope ye who enter", 9 circles of hell, Devil is encased in ice each of his three mouths hold sinners(Brutus, Cassius, and Judas) Purgatorio- Virgil guides Dante through purgatory Paradiso- Dante is guided by Beatrice
The Maltese Falcon
By Dashiell Hammet About a bird statue Detective Sam Spade Set in San Francisco
Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night
By Dylan Thomas 19 lines- villanelle "rage rage against the dying light"
I sing of Olaf, glad and big
By E. E. Cummings "Unless statistics lie" "More brave than me, more blonde than you" title character's heart "recoiled at war", is thrown into a "dungeon" by the president "trig westpointer most succinctly bred" has subordinates beat up title character About a conscientious objector
The Enormous Room
By E. E. Cummings Autobiography about his time as an ambulance driver
A Passage to India
By E. M. Forester Adela Quested accuses Doctor Aziz of raping her in Marabar Caves
A Room with a View
By E. M. Forester Lucy Honeychurch George Emerson Cecil Vyse Charlotte Bartlett
Howard's End
By E. M. Forester Margaret Schlegel
Eureka
By Edgar Allan Poe Compares the expansion of the universe to the "throb of Heart Divine"
Cyrano De Bergerac
By Edmond Rostand Title character has large nose, loves Roxanne Soldier Christian is also in love with Roxanne, Christian Dies
A Few Figs From Thistles
By Edna St. Vincent Millay "My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night." Collection of poetry
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
By Edward Albee Two Couples: Nick and Honey(younger couple), George and Martha(older couple) Three Sections: The Exorcism, Walpurgisnacht, and Fun and Games Games from Fun and Games section are "get the guest" and "bringing up baby"
Germinal
By Emile Zola Étienne Lantier Coal miner strike
The Scarlet Pimpernel
By Emma Orczy Hungarian superhero story
All Quiet on the Western Front
By Erich Maria Remarque WWI trench fighting Paul Baumer is best friends with Kat Kat dies in Paul's arms Himmelstoss- bully who puts bedwetter in bottom bunk and another bedwetter in top bunch Kemmerich's unused boots are passed around Baumer kills Gerald Duval Kantorek- teacher
Hills like White Elephants
By Ernest Hemingway A Couple goes to get an abortion
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
By Ernest Hemingway A man dies of Gangrene
A Farewell to Arms
By Ernest Hemingway Frederic Henry- ambulance driver in WWI Henry falls in love with nurse Catherine Barkley after being introduced by surgeon Rinaldi, desserts to Switzerland at Battle of Caporetto Ending was rewritten 47 times Protagonist plays billiards with Count Greffi
The Sun Also Rises
By Ernest Hemingway Jake Barnes goes to Spain, meets Pedro Romero the Bullfighter Pedro is beaten up by Robert Cohn, a boxer Set in Pamplona Lady Brett Ashley(financé of Mike Campbell) says "we could have had such a damned good time together", Jake responds "yes... isn't it pretty to think so?" Protagonist goes fishing with Bill Gorton in Burguete
For Whom the Bell Tolls
By Ernest Hemingway Robert Jordan tries to blow up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War Pablo (Pilar's husband) steals detonators El Sordo
The Old Man and the Sea
By Ernest Hemingway Title character named Santiago catches giant Marlin that he cant pull into the boat "Arm wrestling match that lasted all day" "dreams of lions on the beach" Santiago is a fan of the Yankees and "The Great Joe Dimaggio"
The Optimist's Daughter
By Eudora Welty Laurel comes for dying father, Judge McKleva
A Worn Path
By Eudora Welty woman delivers medicine to her son through the woods
Rhinoceros
By Eugene Ionesco Characters turn into title animal Jean Bérenger- recurring character in Ionesco stories Daisy is last character to transform
The Chairs
By Eugene Ionesco Old Man and Old Woman talk with invisible guests Empty title object are on stage the entire time
The Bald Soprano
By Eugene Ionesco a dinner with the Smiths and the Martins Smiths forget they are married to each other Fire chief shows up and tells poor stories The Smiths and Martins change places at the end of the play
The Iceman Cometh
By Eugene O'Neill Harry Hope's Saloon Everyone waits for Theodore Hickman to arrive "Pipe Dreams"
Mourning Becomes Electra
By Eugene O'Neill Title comes from Greek mythology
Long Day's Journey Into Night
By Eugene O'Neill Tyrone Family Doctor Hardy Edmund, the son, has TB, goes to sanatorium at end Mary, mother, has a morphine addiction, is sensitive about her rheumatoid hands
In a Station of the Metro
By Ezra Pound "Pedals on a wet black bow"
Hugh Selwyn Mauberley
By Ezra Pound "Resuscitate the dead art of poetry"
The Cantos
By Ezra pound Collection of poems The Pisan Cantos- written while author was imprisoned in Pisa, Italy
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
By F Scott Fitzgerald Title character ages backwards
Everything that Rises Must Converge
By Flannery O'Connor Julian and his racist mother(Mrs. Chestney) take the integrated bus to the YMCA(Local Y) Julian's mother tries to give a penny to African american boy Carver Carver's mother strikes Julian's mother down, both wear a horrendous green hat with purple velvet flaps Julian's mother has a stroke while walking home
Il Canzoniere
By Francesco Petrarch aka Songbook
Wizard of Oz
By Frank L Baum Slippers are Silver Analogy for bimedalism/gold standard
McTeague
By Frank Norris Dentist kills his wife and runs off with her lottery winnings
The Octopus
By Frank Norris Railroad magnate builds railroad which spreads 8 ways
Ode to Joy
By Friedrich Schiller Written to accompany Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Man and Superman
By George Bernard Shaw "Don Juan in Hell" - famous scene Title comes from Nietzsche
Pygmalion
By George Bernard Shaw Bet between professor of phonetics, Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering that professor can transform Eliza Doolittle into a "proper lady" "My Fair Lady"- musical based off of it Eliza marries Freddy Eynsford Hill Henry is referred to as "The Note Taker" Eliza tries to sell flowers Based on ancient Greek story about a sculptor
Arms and the Man
By George Bernard Shaw Title comes from the Aeneid Raina falls in love with a soldier
The Mill on the Floss
By George Eliot aka Marry Ann Evans Maggie and Tom Tulliver drown together in the Floss Mill is called Dorlcote Mill
Middle March
By George Eliot aka Marry Ann Evans Rosamond Vincy married to doctor Tertius Lydgate Dorthea Brooke- widow of Edward Casaubon, who dies while writing "The Key to All Mythologies", denies her inheritance if she marries Will Ladislaw Dorothea Brooke marries Will Ladislaw at end Banker Nicholas Bulstrode conspires to kill Sir John Raffles
Silas Marner
By George Eliot aka Marry Ann Evans The Weaver of Raveloe Godfrey Cass- secret wife Molly Farren
1984
By George Orwell(real name Eric Blair) "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism"- book written by Emmanuel Goldstein(leader of the Brotherhood) Winston Smith has affair with Julia Doublethink, Newspeak Mr. Charrington Winston tortured in Room 101 in Ministry of Love Glass coral paper weight Big Brother Oceania, Eastasia, and Eurasia superstates Winston writes fake story about Comrade Oglivy
Homage to Catalonia
By George Orwell(real name Eric Blair) About author's time in Spain Spanish Civil War Anti-Stalinism
Animal Farm
By George Orwell(real name Eric Blair) Battle of the Cowshed Moses the raven talks of Sugarcandy Mountain Boxer- "I will work harder" Napoleon=Stalin Snowball=Trotsky Benjamin the donkey can read fluently Beasts of England song taught by Old Major
Shooting an Elephant
By George Orwell(real name Eric Blair) Short story/anti-imperialist essay about Orwell's time in India Title animal goes into a "rut" and kills people
Sacred Emily
By Gertrude Stein "A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose"
Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
By Gertrude Stein Alice was her lover
The Decameron
By Giovanni Boccaccio 10 Florentine youths flee during black plague They hold storytelling competitions, each tells 10 stories Inspiration for the Canterbury Tales Griselda- story about husband who pretends to kill all their children
The Sorrows of Young Werther
By Goethe Epistolary-written as a series of letters Title character kills himself, causes a rash of suicides(the "Werther Effect")
The Rat
By Gunter Grass Future where nuclear bombs have been set off by rodents gnawing on microchips
The Tin Drum
By Gunter Grass(who was in the SS) First work of the Danzig Trilogy Oskar Matzerath- dwarf who decided to stop growing and received title object on his 3rd birthday Oskar can shatter glass with voice, is accused of killing Sister Dorothea Alfred Matzerath dies from choking on a Nazi Party Lapel Pin Jan Bronski steals a necklace for Agnes (Oskar's mother) Roswitha Raguna- lover of Bebra and Oskar is killed getting coffee by a stray shell during Normandy invasion Agnes dies by eating too many fish after seeing eels pulled from dead horse head Oskar leads street gang called "the Dusters," has son Kurt with Maria Truczinski Herbert Truczinski dies while attempting a sexual act with a wooden ship figurehead Niobe Oskar plays in jazz band with Klepp and Scholle in the club "The Onion Cellar," becomes tombstone engraver in Dusseldorf Vittlar turns in protagonist Lankes dates Ulla, a model who poses with Oscar for paintings Oskar brings Jesus to life using his drum
Madame Bovary
By Gustave Flaubert Emma Bovary is married to a surgeon named Charles Charles fails a surgery on Hippolyte(has club foot) Charles goes into depression Emma has affairs with Rudolf, Rudolf breaks up with her with a basket of apricots
Sentimental Education
By Gustave Flaubert Marie Arnoux has an affair with Fredrick Moreau
Ball of Fat (Boule de Suif)
By Guy de Maupassant Carriage of people trying to escape war Prostitute named Rousset
The Necklace
By Guy de Maupassant Matilda borrows title object from Madam Forestier for a ball held by Minister of Education She has to work 10 years to pay back Madam Finds out necklace was a fake at the end
The Horla
By Guy de Maupassant Vampire from Brazil (aka The Invisible Being)
The Invisible Man
By H. G. Wells Griffin learns how to change his body's "refractive index"
The War of the Worlds
By H. G. Wells Martians called Tripods invade earth Orson Welles did a reading of it on the radio
The Time Machine
By H. G. Wells The Eloi(beautiful race) and the Morlocks(monster race) conflict
The Island of Dr. Moreau
By H. G. Wells Title character splices animals
At the Meadows of Madness
By H. P. Lovecraft creation of Cthulhu Set in Antarctica Necronomicon summons Cthulhu
The Snow Queen
By Hans Christian Anderson Devil as a troll builds mirror which reflects reflects the worst of everything-"beautiful landscape to pot of spinach" Gertha has to save friend Khai Snow Queen Kidnaps Khai, makes him sit on frozen lake and is forced to spell a word before leaving Gertha recites Lord's Prayer to enter castle
The Red Shoes
By Hans Christian Anderson Girl marries into a rich family She is cursed and cannot stop dancing when she puts on title article of clothing The shoes are cut off and she gets wooden feet
The Steadfast Soldier
By Hans Christian Anderson Title character falls in love with paper ballerina they are both thrown into a fire and melt down
The Emperor's New Clothes
By Hans Christian Anderson title character buys clothes but nobody can see them
The Bridge
By Hart Crane Poem about the Brooklyn Bridge
Ghosts
By Henrik Ibsen Mrs. Alving discovers her husband has passed on syphilis to her son Oswald
A Doll's House
By Henrik Ibsen Nora and Torvald Helmer's marriage Nora forgers her father's signature to go to Italy, Krogstad tries to blackmail her with this information Kristine Linde is Krogstad's ex-lover, they reunite Dr. Rank is in love with Nora, has "tuberculosis of the spine"
Hedda Gabler
By Henrik Ibsen Title character is married to George Tesman but has a crush on Eilert Lovborg, George's rival Title character accidentally burns Eilert's manuscript he wrote with Thea Elvsted, he kills himself in a brothel with title character's gun after she asks him to "die beautifully" Judge Brack tells title character Lovborg is dead, blackmails her into sleeping with him but she refuses and kills herself
Omoo
By Herman Melville Sequel to Typee
The Encantadas
By Herman Melville in The Piazza Tales The Mestizo Hunilla is stranded on the title island, becomes "Chola Widow." Describes Barrington Isle and the giant turtles that inhabit Rock Redondo Tower Series of ten sketches about the Galapagos Islands
Steppenwolf
By Hermann Hesse Harry Haller plans to commit suicide on his 50th birthday, instead learns the foxtrot Harry stabs Hermine in Magic Theater because she slept with Pablo the saxophonist who loves Mozart Enters magic theater through door labeled "For madmen only," other signs say "all girls are yours" and "how one kills for love" Mozart appears and mocks Harry by playing Handel over a radio Harry meets Hermine in the Black Eagle Cafe who reminds him of childhood love Rosa Kreisler Hermine introduces Harry to Maria who he has an affair with and performs a nuptial dance with at the Fancy Dress Ball Harry offends a professor by insulting his wife's portrait of Goethe Harry is given a "Treatise on [TITLE]" on the street that describes his mental struggle with his animalistic side In a meeting with a chess player, Harry watches a mirror break into miniature versions of himself.
The Human Comedy
By Honore de Balzac Collection of stories about Père Goriot Eugenie Grandet loves cousin Charles, but is forced to marry another man to pay off gambling debts Père Goriot has two daughters- Anastasia and Delphine He has a stroke when he learns that family jewels must be sold Recurring character- Eugene de Rastignac
The Castle of Otranto
By Horace Walpole Manfred: villain Often considered the first Gothic Novel
I, Robot
By Isaac Asimov Three Laws of Robotics: Do not harm humans, cannot through an action allow a human to be harmed, can harm a bad human to save a good human
Call of the Wild
By Jack London Buck- Judge Miller's dog, is stolen and sold to miners to be a sled dog Buck eventually comes into the ownership of John Thorton Thorton is killed by Yeehat Indians Buck joins a pack of wolves
White Fang
By Jack London Half-dog half-wolf is taken in by Gray Beaver Kiche- mother of title character Rescued by Weedon Scott
To Build a Fire
By Jack London Man goes into snow alone in -80 degrees He falls into water and dies of frostbite because he cannot do the title action
Go Tell it on the Mountain
By James Baldwin recalls author's experience in harlem John Grimes experience with abusive step father Gabriel, who is a minister in a Harlem church
Ulysses
By James Joyce A day in the life of Leopold Bloom (June 16, 1904) Leopold uses pseudonym "Henry Flower", fantasizes about Gerty McDowell Molly Bloom has an affair with Blazes Boylan Stephen Daedalus Chapters named after events in The Odyssey Last lines- "yes I said yes I will Yes"
Finnegans Wake
By James Joyce Originally published in sections as "Work in Progress" Invents the word "quark" Humphrey Chimpdon- nickname "Earwicker" (HCE initials)
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
By James Joyce about Stephen Daedalus's growing up Father Arnall inspires catholic zeal Attends Clongowes school Begins with a stream of consciousness about a lullaby about a "moocow" and a "baby tuckoo"
Being and Nothingness
By Jean-Paul Sartre idea of bad faith, defining yourself through what you do "Just a waiter"
The Pilgrim's Progress
By John Bunyan Allegorical novel, Christian's journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City Lord Hate-good order's Faithful's execution in Vanity Fair Mr Worldly Wiseman distracts Christian on the way to the Wicket Gate which stands at the start of the King's Highway Christian battles the demon Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation Christian and Pliable begin to sink into a swamp called the Slough of Despond due to the weight of the sins on their backs, a character name Help saves Christian Christian travels through The Valley of the Shadow of Death which gets its name from Psalm 23 Christian climbs Hill Difficulty where the House Beautiful lies upon Second part focuses on Christian's wife Christiana Christian and Hopeful get trapped in Doubting Castle which is guarded by a pair of married giants named Despair and Diffidence
The USA Trilogy
By John Dos Passos The 42nd Parallel 1919 The Big Money
Travels with Charley
By John Steinbeck About author's travels with his poodle (title character)
Of Mice and Men
By John Steinbeck George and Lenny "Tend to the rabbits"
Grapes of Wrath
By John Steinbeck Joad Family goes from Oklahoma to California during Dust Bowl Rose of Sheron breast feeds a starving man
East of Eden
By John Steinbeck Retelling the story of Cane & Abel Aron and Caleb try to impress their father, Aron succeeds
The Winter of Our DisContent
By John Steinbeck Title comes from Shakespeare's Richard III
The Circular Ruins
By Jorge Borges A wizard creates a fireproof man by dreaming of him in title location
The Secret Agent
By Joseph Conrad Plan to blow up Greenwich Observatory
Nostromo
By Joseph Conrad Set in silver mining town
Heart of Darkness
By Joseph Conrad Set on Congo River in Africa Charlie Marlowe searches for Kurtz Kurtz dies, last words are "the horror, the horror" Harlequin- assistant to Marlowe "Exterminate all the brutes!" Nellie- name of boat
Lord Jim
By Joseph Conrad Title character abandons the Patna(ship)
From the Earth to the Moon
By Jules Verne Baltimore Gun Club builds giant cannon to shoot people to the moon
Journey to the Center of the Earth
By Jules Verne Otto Lidenbrock Through an Iceland volcano, comes out through an Italian volcano
Around the World in Eighty Days
By Jules Verne Phileas Fogg Passepartout International date line
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
By Jules Verne Pierre Aronnax goes aboard The Nautilus Captain Nemo The Nautilus is mistaken for a narwhal Sunken ship named Abraham Lincoln
R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots)
By Karel Capek Coined the word "Robot" from Czech word for "laborer" Harry Domin's factory makes synthetic robots that gain intelligence and take over the world Helena Glory- representative from the League of Humanity visits factory, ends up marrying Domin Alquist becomes last human alive, maintains robots over take over and attempts to recreate Rossum's formula for making robots Robots Helena and Primus become capable of love, become "new Adam and Eve" The psychologist Dr. Hallemeier tells Helena Glory that title beings are incapable of love The engineers Fabry and Dr. Gall give title creatures souls After being told some flowers are sterile, Helena Glory burns Rossum's formula Two of title characters are named Marius and Sulla because creator thought Sulla was a girl's name and thought they were lovers instead of enemies Robots Damon and Radius lead the revolution Busman is electrocuted by a fence when he gesticulates too much while negotiating a half a billion dollar ransom
A Pair of Silk Stockings
By Kate Chopin A woman gets $15 and decides to buy silk stockings instead of caring for her children
The Awakening
By Kate Chopin Feminist Novel Centers around Edna Pontellier's search for meaning Edna hears Mademoiselle Reisz play music which inspires her Edna has an affair with a gambler At the end, Edna walks into the Gulf of Mexico and drowns herself
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
By Langston Hughes "My soul has grown deep like the rivers" "Bathing in the Euphrates"
The Weary Blues
By Langston Hughes "drowsy syncopated tune"
Theme for English B
By Langston Hughes "go here and write a page tonight"
Anna Karenina
By Leo Tolstoy "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Count Vronsky accidentally breaks his horse Frou-Frou's back during a race Title character is married to Karenin, has an affair with Vronsky, Karenin refuses to divorce on the advice of a French psychic Landau Stiva(aka Stepan) Oblonksy cheats on his wife Dolly, the title character's sister Konstantin Levin becomes engaged to Princess Kitty Scherbatsky Title character has son named Seryozha, commits suicide by jumping under a train at the end
The Children's Hour
By Lillian Hellman Karen Write and Martha Doby- teachers at a school A student accuses them of being lesbians
The Little Foxes
By Lillian Hellman Title from the Song of Solomon Regina Hubert steals from husband Oscar to start a cotton Mill
Six Characters in Search of an Author
By Luigi Pirandello Family interrupts play The Father- attempts to seduce stepdaughter at dress shop where Madame Pace is summoned by hanging up coats and hats, gets rid of his wife by sending sending her off with his ex-secretary, possessed by "Demon of Experiment" The Mother- named Amalia The Stepdaughter- works as a prostitute, tells mother to "Scream as you screamed then," bursts into performance of cabaret number "Prenez garde à Tchou-Tchin-Tchou" The Son The Boy- shoots himself in the head off stage after his sibling drowns The Child- little girl who drowns in a fountain The Director/Manager of The Rules of the Game/Mixing it Up complains they "lost a whole day of rehearsal" Pale blue envelope containing money is laid on a mahogany table Leo Gala is told to "represent the shell of the eggs" after complaining about wearing a chef's hat (in Mixing it Up) Arguing between Stepdaughter Father and Mother in brothel scene prompts Manager to repeatedly ask for the curtain to fall Forms a trilogy of "theater within the theater" with Each in His Own Way and Tonight We Improvise
In Search of Lost Time
By Marcel Proust aka remembrance of things past Narrator- Marcel, falls for Albertine who he suspects is having lesbian affairs Swann's Way-first section Robert de Saint-Loup Narrator involuntarily flashes back to his childhood in Combray after eating a tea-soaked madeleine Other sections- The Guermantes Way, Time Regained
Gone with the Wind
By Margaret Mitchell Scarlett O'Hara owns a plantation named Tara Rett Butler "Where will I go what will I do" - Scarlett "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn" - Rett
Empedocles on Etna
By Matthew Arnold Collection of Poems
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
By Maya Angelou Autobiography set in Stamps, Arkansas Refuses to speak after she tells people about Mr. Freeman raping her and mob kills Mr. Freeman
The Misanthrope
By Moliere Al Ceste loves the flirtatious, Celimene Put on trial and into jail for criticizing a poem
The Imaginary Invalid
By Moliere Argan the hypochondriac, wants his daughter, Angelique to marry Thomas Diafoirus
Tartuffe
By Moliere Play Religious hypocrite tries to seduce Orgon's wife, Elmire, Orgon hides under table
The Prince
By Niccolo Machiavelli Rules for a successful ruler "Safer to be feared than loved" "You must be like a lion and a fox" Praises Cesare Borgia
The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel
By Nikos Kazantzakis 33,333 lines
Zorba the Greek
By Nikos Kazantzakis Title character works in a Lignite mine, is tricked into marrying Madame Hortense
The Ransom of Red Chief
By O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) Bill Driscoll and Sam kidnap the kid of a wealthy man They eventually pay the dad $250 to take his kid back
The Four Million
By O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) Collection named for the population of New York City at the time
The Gift of the Magi
By O. Henry (William Sydney Porter) Jim and Della want to give each other something for Christmas Jim has a pocket watch, Della has beautiful hair, would make King Solomon Jealous Store owned by Madame Sofronie- Della cuts off her hair to buy chain for Jim's watch, Jim sells his watch for combs
Elegy on the Death of a Mad Dog
By Oliver Goldsmith From The Vicar of Wakefield A dog who bites a well-respected man dies soon after
De Profundis
By Oscar Wilde Letter written in prison to Alfred Douglas
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
By Oscar Wilde Written in prison About the death penalty
The Picture of Dorian Gray
By Oscar Wilde- his only novel Sibyl Vane- actress in production of Romeo and Juliet, calls title character "Prince Charming" Basil Hallward creates title object Protagonist blackmails Alan Campbell into disposing of a body and receives a "little yellow book" which he buys several copies of Lord Henry Wotton corrupts title character Title character never ages- instead, painting of him ages in his place, when painting is destroyed he dies
Sympathy
By Paul Laurence Dunbar Poem "I know why the caged bird sings"
Ode to the West Wind
By Percy Bysshe Shelley "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?"
Adonais
By Percy Bysshe Shelley Elegy for John Keats
Ozymandias
By Percy Bysshe Shelley Greek name for Ramses II "Look upon my works ye mighty and despair" Written in a contest with Horace Smith
Sabbath's Theater
By Philip Roth about the lecherous puppeteer Mickey
Le Cid
By Pierre Corneille Don Rodrigue- Spanish folk hero who fought the Moors
Gitanjali
By Rabindranath Tagore Introduction written by Yeats aka Song Offerings "Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure."
Duino Elegies
By Rainer Maria Rilke "Who if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic orders?" Group of poems
Native Son
By Richard Wright Bigger Thomas murders Mary Dalton and Bessie Mears Boris Max- Lawyer Bigger Thomas also kills a rat with a frying pan
My Last Duchess
By Robert Browning Poem narrated by Duke of Ferrara who has wife killed "had a heart that was too soon made glad" Portrait of title character painted by Fra Pandolf Bronze statue of Neptune by Claus of Innsbruck gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name"
Auld Land Syne
By Robert Burns "Should old acquaintance be forgot"
To a Mouse
By Robert Burns "the best laid schemes of mice and men often go awry"
To a Louse
By Robert Burns Rhymes with other robert burns poem "To a Mouse"
Fire and Ice
By Robert Frost "From what I've tasted of desire"
The Road Not Taken
By Robert Frost "I took the road less traveled by" About author's friend Edward Thomas
Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
By Robert Frost "My little horse must think it queer"
Nothing Gold can Stay
By Robert Frost "Nature's first green is gold" "So Eden sang to grief" In the novel, The Outsiders
The Gift Outright
By Robert Frost "The Land was ours before we were the Land's" Read at JFK's inauguration
Out, Out
By Robert Frost Reference to Macbeth About a kid who cuts his hand on a buzz saw
Birches
By Robert Frost "One could do worse than be a swinger of Birches"
Kidnapped
By Robert Louis Stevenson Alan Breck saves David Balfour Catriona-sequel
Treasure Island
By Robert Louis Stevenson Long John Silver Ben Gunn
The Jungle Book
By Rudyard Kipling Collection of stories Mowgli raised by wolves "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi"- mongoose saves a kid from a cobras Nag and Nagaina Messua takes in Mowgli to replace long lost son Nathoo
The Man Who Would Be King
By Rudyard Kipling Dravot and Carnahan try to follow in the footsteps of Alexander the Great
Gunga Din
By Rudyard Kipling man serves water to English soldiers
Molloy
By Samuel Beckett Has a single paragraph spanning 100 pages Part of a trilogy including Malone Dies and The Unnamable Title paralyzed writer pursued by Jaques Moran
Krapp's Last Tape
By Samuel Beckett Man listens to a tape he made 30 years earlier on his 69th birthday
Endgame
By Samuel Beckett Title inspired by chess Nagg and Nell- elderly couple who lost their legs and live in trash cans Hamm and his servant Clov live in a post-apocalyptic world
Waiting for Godot
By Samuel Beckett Vladamir(Didi) and Estragon(Gogo) Pozzo and his slave Lucky Consider hanging themselves from tree Vladamir sings a song about a dog being beaten with a ladle Both acts end with boy claiming title character will "surely arrive tomorrow" Lucky delivers nonsensical monologue after being told to "think"
The Way of All Flesh
By Samuel Butler Ernest Pontifex- son of Theobald
Erewhon: or Over the Range
By Samuel Butler Satire of Utopias Title is an anagram of nowhere Narrator named Higgs
Kubla Khan
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge "in Xanadu did Kubla Khan" "woman wailing for her demon-lover" "Abyssinian Maid" written in an opium dream
Juno and the Paycock
By Sean O'Casey Title character is Juno Boil and her husband is the Paycock(he can't hold a job)
Winesburg, Ohio
By Sherman Anderson Collection of stories George Willard: character The Book of the Grotesque Hands: Wing Biddlebaum is a teacher who people suspect is a gay pedophile Paper Pills: Dr. Reefy The Teacher: teacher falls in love w/ George Willard
Elmer Gantry
By Sincalir Lewis Hypocritical preacher
It Can't Happen Here
By Sinclair Lewis Buzz Windrip defeats FDR and makes America into a totalitarian state
Doddsworth
By Sinclair Lewis Car dealer
Arrowsmith
By Sinclair Lewis Doctor who develops bacterial phage
Babbitt
By Sinclair Lewis Realtor whose wife Myra falls ill Setting: Zenith (in fictional state of Winnemac) Title character has an affair with Tanis Judique and supports the socialist Seneca Doane, ends both of these relationships to join "Good Citizen's League" Encourages his son Ted to become a mechanic, Ted elopes with Eunice Littlefield Paul Riesling is sent to jail for shooting his wife Zilla
Main Street
By Sinclair Lewis setting: Gopher Prairie The Thanatopsis Club chooses to put on "The Girl from Kankakee" instead of "Androcles and the Lion" Carol Kennicott attempts to reform the town, eventually leaves her husband Will and takes their son Hugh to Washington D.C.
A Study in Scarlet
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle First Sherlock Holmes Novel Irene Adler
The Lost World
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Not about Sherlock Holmes
The Final Problem
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle They fall over Reichenbach Falls
The Heart of Midlothian
By Sir Walter Scott Based on Porteus riots in Edinburgh
Ivanhoe
By Sir Walter Scott Rebecca is saved by title character Marries Lady Rowena Father: Cedric the Rotherwood Title character competes in jousting tournament under the name Desdichado Richard the Lionheart is disguised as the Black Knight
Waverly
By Sir Walter Scott series of novels
Prose Edda
By Snorri Sturluson Source for Norse myth Icelandic Author
The Red and the Black
By Stendhal Julien Sorel has an affair with Madame de Rénal Julien tries to shoot Rénal, gets sentenced to death Title colors refer to secular and clerical worlds
The Black Riders
By Stephen Crane Poem
The Blue Hotel
By Stephen Crane The Swede- dies The Easterner The Cowboy
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
By T. S. Eliot "Let us go then, you and I" "Do I dare disturb the universe" "Do I dare to eat a peach" Title character observes a room where "Women come and go, talking of Michelangelo"
The Hollow Men
By T. S. Eliot "This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang, but a whimper"
The Wasteland
By T. S. Eliot Five Parts: The Burial of the Dead, A Game of Chess, The Fire Sermon, Death by Water, and What the Thunder Said "April is the cruelest month" Edited by Ezra Pound "I will show you fear, and a handful of dust" "Shantih, Shantih, Shantih!"
Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats
By T. S. Eliot Where the musical "Cats" comes from
Sister Carrie
By Theodore Dreiser Caroline Meeber gets the lead in a performance called Under the Gas Light Meeber meets Charles Drouet, marries him
Far from the Madding Crowd
By Thomas Hardy Gabriel Oak Bathsheba Everdene Title comes from a Thomas Gray poem: "Elegy Written in Country Churchyard"
The Return of the Native
By Thomas Hardy Set on Guy Faux Day(November 5) At Egdon Heath
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
By Thomas Hardy Title character kills Alec after she is raped and impregnated(resulting in the baby named "Sorrow") by him Protagonist marries Angel Clare, works as a milkmaid with Retty Priddle and Izz Family horse named "Prince" Arrested and executed at Stonehenge after ensuring safety of her sister, Liza-Lu
Death in Venice
By Thomas Mann Gustav von Aschenbach contracts cholera, becomes obsessed with the smell of disinfectant, dies at the end Tadzio- Polish boy who dies from cholera
The Magic Mountain
By Thomas Mann Hans Castorp visits Joachim Ziemssen at the beginning Set in a Swiss sanatorium Mynheer Peeperkorn wins the love of Clavdia Chauchat over the protagonist
Doctor Faustus
By Thomas Mann Play based on play by Goethe Adrian Leverkuhn- composer who intentionally contracts syphilis to be more creative
The Skin of Our Teeth
By Thornton Wilder Antrobus Family lives through the ice age
Island of the Day Before
By Umberto Eco Roberto della Griva is stranded on an island that is split by the International DateLine
The Jungle
By Upton Sinclair Set in Chicago Responsible for 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act Jurgus Rutkis
The Congo
By Vachel Lindsay about title river "creeping through the black, cutting through the jungle with a golden track." "boomlay, boomlay, boomlay, BOOM." "Mumbo-Jumbo will hoo-doo you." "BLOOD" in all caps
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
By Victor Hugo Esmerelda marries pierre Quasimodo dies at end Claude Frollo- judge/church leader Captain Phoebus A goat learns how to spell
Les Miserables
By Victor Hugo Jean Valjean is arrested for stealing a loaf of bread, was prison 24601 he breaks parole, is pursued by Officer Javert Valjean is given silver candle sticks, he starts a glass factory Father Madeleine becomes mayor and adopts Cosette The Thenardiers- family of con artists Second part is set during July Revolution Marius leads a group of students, falls in love with Cosette
Candide
By Voltaire Title character is expelled from the castle of Baron Thunder-Ten-Tronckh, travels with Martin and Cacambo, wants to marry Cunegonde Dr. Pangloss- the tutor, represents Leibniz, contracts syphilis "The best of all worlds" Goes to El Dorado, finds red sheep The old woman, daughter of urban X, ate one of her buttocks Lisbon earthquake
Funeral Blues
By W. H. Auden "Stop all the clocks"
September 1, 1939
By W. H. Auden About the invasion of Poland by Germany
Musee des Beaux Arts
By W. H. Auden To go with the painting, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Bruegel
The Emperor of Ice Cream
By Wallace Stevens "Call the roller of big cigars" "Bring flowers in last month's newspapers"
Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
By Wallace Stevens "Only thing moving among 20 snowy mountains"
Drum-Taps
By Walt Whitman Appended to Leaves of Grass Inspired by Civil War "The Wound Dresser" "Beat! Beat! Drums!" "As I lay with My Head in Your Lap, Camerado."
O Captain! My Captain!
By Walt Whitman Describes Abraham Lincoln at the head of a ship "our fearful trip is done" Describes Abraham Lincoln whose "lips are pale and still," "fallen cold and dead" on the deck, "has no pulse nor will", tells him "to rise up and hear the bells" "the ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won." "swaying mass, their eager faces turning" "ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done"
Dulce et Decorum Est
By Wilfred Owen "How sweet and fitting it is to die for your native land" Title comes from Horace Odes
The Moonstone
By Wilkie Collins First detective novel Theft of huge title diamond Solved by Sargent Cuff
The Woman in White
By Wilkie Collins Laura Fairlie resembles Ann Catherick
My Antonia
By Willa Cather Immigrant from Bohemia moves to Blackhawk, Nebraska Is friends with Jim Burden Impregnated and abandoned by Larry Donovan Marries Anton Cuzak
The Red Wheelbarrow
By William Carlos Williams "Gleaming with rain" "So much depends upon the TITLE OBJECT" draws upon doctor's experience as a doctor
This is Just to Say
By William Carlos Williams "I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox" "They were delicious, so sweet, and so cold"
Paterson
By William Carlos Williams Epic Poem about author's home town in New Jersey
Invictus
By William Ernest Henley title means "incomparable" "I am the master of my faith, I am the captain of my soul"
As I Lay Dying
By William Faulkner The Bundren Family Mother Addy Dies- novel centers around moving her coffin to burial place Famous Chapter- "My Mother is a Fish" Cash- oldest son, makes coffin Darl- sets barn on fire
The Sound and the Fury
By William Faulkner The Compson Family Quentin- in love with his sister Caddy, castrates himself on a swinging fence, drowns Benjy- mentally handicapped Caddy- very promiscuous Dilsey- the maid
Absalom, Absalom!
By William Faulkner Title reference to biblical character About racial mixing and incest
Cakes and Ale
By William Somerset Maugham Edward Driffield represents Thomas Hardy Alroy Kear Protagonist William Ashenden Title comes from Twelfth Knight by Shakespeare
The Moon and Sixpence
By William Somerset Maugham Roman a Clef based upon life of Paul Gauguin Charles Strickland leaves his wife and kids to go to Tahiti
Of Human Bondage
By William Somerset Maugham clubfooted Philip Carey
Vanity Fair
By William Thackeray Title comes from Pilgrims Progress setting-Pinkerton Ladies School Becky Sharp, throws dictionary out window of carriage Amelia Sedley George Osborn Called "a novel without a hero"
The Little Prince
By: Antoine de Saint-Exupery Alien asteroid B-612 Crashes into Sahara desert Visits all planets of the solar system Misinterprets a drawing of a snake digesting an elephant for a hat Title character falls in love with a rose from his home planet
When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
By: Walt Whitman Speaker leaves after listening to lecture from title character Speaker is confronted with proofs and figures that "were ranged in columns" Narrator prefers to "look'd up in perfect silence at the stars," becomes "tired and sick" of "charts and diagrams" before leaving a lecture into "mystical moist night-air"
John Tenniel
Cartoonist for Punch Magazine who is most famous for illustrating Alice in Wonderland and many of Lewis Carroll's works
Detective Phillip Marlow
Character invented by Raymond Chandler appears in The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye
A Tale of Two Cities
Charles Dickens Madam Defarge- woman whose knitting registers those condemned to die by the guillotine Lucie- daughter of Dr. Manette, goes crazy, makes shoes, Miss Pross(kills Defarge) and Jerry Cruncher(Resurrection-Man) rescue her from Defarge Marquis de St. Evremonde- Darnay's uncle, murdered in his sleep with note signed "Jacques" left Sydney Carton is executed in Charles Darnay's place "It is a better thing to do than I have ever done" Title Cities: London and Paris "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" Three sections: Recalled to Life, the Golden Thread and the Track of a Storm
The Piazza Tales
Collection by Herman Melville "Bartleby the Scrivener" "Benito Cereno" "The Lightning-Rod Man" "The Encantadas" "The Bell Tower"
Helen in Egypt
Collection by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) Sections called "Eidolons" "All Greece hates the still eyes in the white face" "Did her eyes slant in the old way?"
A Friend of Kafka
Collection by Issac Bashevis Singer Named after author of The Metamorphosis
Cosmicomics
Collection by Italo Calvino narrated by Qfwfq who claims to be as old as the universe, succeeded by collection "t zero" Each story begins with a so-called scientific "fact." "The Distance to the Moon" - wife of Captain Vhd Vhd gets stuck on the moon after climbing a ladder to collect milk/cream-cheese like substance, Qfwfq jumps to the moon to save her, Qfwfq's deaf cousin also collects cream substance Kgwgk destroys a sign Qfwfq makes in space "The Aquatic Uncle" "All at One Point" - the Big Bang happens when a woman offers to make noodles for everyone located in the same point Two characters bet over whether Balzac will make Lucien commit suicide
The Burning Plain
Collection by Juan Rulfo "Tell Them Not to Kill Me!" "Because We Are So Poor"
Terrible Sonnets
Collection of six poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins Written while author was a professor at the University College Dublin "Carrion Comfort" "I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day" "No worst, there is none"
The Kalevala
Compiled by Elias Lonnrot National epic of Finland Väinämöinen Louhi drops Sampo in ocean, making the sea salty Untamo Inspired Finlandia by John Sibaleas
Pinter Pause
Concept of Harold Pinter Silence is just as important as what is said actions continue but words stop
Curtal Sonnet
Created by Gerard Manley Hopkins ten and a half line sonnet
Jeeves
Created by P.G. Wodehouse for his comic novels Butler for Bertie Wooster
Sprung Rhythm
Discovered by Gerard Manley Hopkins One stressed syllable, the rest of the line is unstressed
Gordon Lish
Editor for Esquire Magazine who's rewrites of Raymond Carver's works such as the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love shaped Carver's minimalist style
Miss Jane Marple
Elderly amateur detective created by Agatha Christie
Africa
Epic poem by Francesco Petrarch about Scipio defeating Hannibal
Daguerreotypes
Essay by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen Classifies women as housewives, guardian angels, dancers, or witches
Numero Zero
Final novel of Umberto Eco Mocks Italian media
The Edible Woman
First novel by Margaret Atwood Title character Marian McAlpin bakes a cake in the shape of a woman
Abbey Theatre
Founded in part by William Yeats In Dublin
Horace's Odes
Four books by Horace Source of many phrases "carpe diem" "dulce et decorum est pro patria mori" - gave title to Wilfred Owens poem "Now is the time for drinking"- in poem from first book about Cleopatra Claims to have "made a monument more lasting than bronze" in poem ending the third book One poem advises Licinius to follow the golden mean "the gift of a kid goat" will "stain your ice-cold waters with crimson blood" in a poem about the Bandusian fountain "brave men lived before Agamemnon" Begins with dedication to his patron Maecenas One tells Leuconoe to "strain" her wine
Oulipo
French literary movement including Italo Calvino, George Perec, and Raymond Queneau
Robert Bridges
Gerard Manley Hopkins posthumously achieved fame after this friend of his published an arranged collection of his poems He was poet laureate of England during WWI
R. K. Narayan
Graham Greene helped this author get published
Typee
Herman Melville's first novel Describes life on the island of Nuku Hiva A Peep at Polynesian Life Tommo and Toby, after jumping ship from the Dolly fend off cannibalistic natives Narrator takes canoe rides with exotic woman Fayaway
Thebes
Homes city of Pindar, his house was spared by Alexander the Great when he burned the rest of the city
Newark
Hometown of Philp Roth
Utilitarianism
Idea created by John Stuart Mill Idea of greatest good for greatest number
Group 47
Informal post-World War II German literary association that Gunter Grass was a part of
Peruvian presidential election of 1990
Mario Vargas Llosa was defeated in a runoff by the dark horse candidate Alberto Fujimori Vargas LLosa wrote about it in his memoir A Fish in the Water
Samizdat
Method of self-publication used by authors to get around censorship in the USSR and Soviet Bloc Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Boris Pasternak used this method
Don Quixote (Graham Greene)
Modernization of Cervantes work by Graham Greene Commentary on Catholicism and Communism Title character travels around in a SEAT 600 automobile named Rocinante
Imagism
Movement in early 20th-century English and American poetry that sought clarity of expression through the use of precise images Ezra Pound Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) William Carlos Williams Richard Aldington (briefly married to H.D.) Amy Lowell
Lost in the Stars
Musical by Maxwell Anderson(book and lyrics) and Kurt Weill(music) that is based on Alan Paton's Cry, the Beloved Country
Belle of Amherst
Nickname of Emily Dickinson
Japan, the Beautiful, and Myself
Nobel lecture of Yasuari Kawabata "suicide is not a form of enlightenment"
Nausea
Novel by Jean-Paul Sartre Antoine Roquentin "Swedish Sickness" Antoine meets "the self taught man" who is reading every book in a library in alphabetical order
Petrarchan Sonnet
Octet followed by a sextet
William Tell
Original story by Friedrich Schiller
Phantom of the Opera
Original story by Gaston Leroux
Sponono
Play by Alan Paton and Krishna Shah
The Sunset Limited
Play by Cormac McCarthy Ex-convict Black prevents the professor White from jumping in front of a train
Faust
Play by Goethe Walpurgisnacht celebration Guy makes a deal with the devil, demon Mephistopheles follows him around granting wishes, kills the soldier Valentine and falls for Gretchen Mephistopheles disguises himself as a poodle Goes back in time to meet Helen of Troy
Phaedra
Play by Jean Racine Title character is the wife of Theseus, falls in love with her step son Hippolyte Hippolyte rebuffs title character, who accuses him of rape Theseus has Hippolyte killed
No Exit
Play by Jean-Paul Sartre "hell is other people" Garcin, Estelle, and Inez are trapped in "a Second Empire-style room" in hell Estelle admits she murdered her baby
The Inspector General
Play by Nikolai Gogol Khlestakov fools the Mayor into believing he is title character
The Importance of Being Earnest
Play by Oscar Wilde Algernon Moncrieff and Jack Worthing both say their names are Earnest Jack was abandoned as a baby by Miss Prism(who is loved by Dr. Chasuble) in Victoria Station in a handbag Characters get out of situations by "bunburying"- fictional invalid friend Lady Bracknell becomes mad when cucumber sandwiches are eaten Gwendolen Fairfax Cecily Cardew
Our Town
Play by Thornton Wilder Play set in Grover's Corners Narrated by The Stage Manager Follows Emily Webb and George Gibbs growing up, Emily dies of childbirth in the 3rd Act "Blessed be the Ties that Bind" is sung by chorus Simon Stimson-Organist, commits suicide Emily is asked if she wants to visit any day, chooses her 12th birthday Howie Newsome- the milkman Boyscout dies from a burst appendix
Ulysses
Poem By Alfred Lord Tennyson "Do not strive to seek to find and not to yield"
Chicago
Poem by Carl Sandburg "City of big shoulders" "Hog butcher for the world" "tool maker" "stacker of wheat"
Goblin Market
Poem by Christina Rossetti(part of pre-raphaelite brotherhood) Lizzie and Laura see title creatures on the way to the market "Come buy, come buy"
Annabel Lee
Poem by Edgar Allan Poe, published posthumously "Kingdom by the sea"
Harlem
Poem by Langston Hughes "What happens to a dream deferred, does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?"
If
Poem by Rudyard Kipling "You'll be a man my son"
The Darkling Thrush
Poem by Thomas Hardy "fling his soul upon the growing gloom"
The Convergence of the Twain
Poem by Thomas Hardy about the sinking of the Titanic
My Sister, Life
Poetry collection by Boris Pasternak
Leaves of Grass
Poetry collection by Walt Whitman Preface includes the line "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." Influenced by Emerson's "The Poet" Revised 1892 "deathbed" edition "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed" "O Captain! My Captain!" "Song of Myself" "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer" "A Noiseless Patient Spider" Children of Adam sequence - "I Sing the Body Electric" Sea-Drift section- "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking", "On the Beach At Night Alone" Calamus Poems- depictions of homosexual love "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" "Pioneers! O Pioneers!"
Inscape
Proposed by Gerard Manley Hopkins The unique inner nature of a person or object as shown in a work of art, especially a poem. Contrasts with instress
Alcofribas Nasier
Pseudonym of Francois Rabelais, anagram of his name
Lewis Carroll
Real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking Glass Jabberwocky The Walrus and the Carpenter The Hunting of the Snark(By Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum) Was also a Mathematician
David Kepesh
Recurring character in Philip Roth novels Becomes a 155-pound version of the titular body part in The Breast The Professor of Desire
Enderby Quartet
Series of novels by Anthony Burgess Poet turned bartender Francis Xavier Enderby
Dubliners
Series of short stories by James Joyce "The Dead"- last story "Araby" love story set in a marketplace
The Illustrated Man
Series of short stories by Ray Bradbury Several stories depicted on tattooed carnival worker's body "The Veldt" - Peter and Wendy lock their parents George and Lydia inside a virtual reality nursery, where they are devoured by lions.
Blandings Castle
Setting for many of P. G. Wodehouse's stories Where giant pig named "The Empress of Blandings" lives with her owner Lord Emsworth
Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare's first tragedy Title character is a revenge-wracked Roman general Chiron and Demetrius killed and baked into pies, which are then fed to their mother Tamora, Queen of Goths Tamora's lover is Aaron the Moor Chiron and Demetrius rape title character's daughter Lavinia who writes their names with a stick in her mouth At the end, the Goths are driven out of Rome by title character's son Lucius, who sentences Aaron to death
All Summer in a Day
Short story by Ray Bradbury The sun comes out for the first time in seven years Margot gets locked in a closet by her classmates
The Bear
Short story by William Faulkner In collection Go Down, Moses Title character is named Old Ben Ike McCaslin watches Boon Hogganbeck kill title animal with a knife Dog named Lion Half-Chickasaw tracker Sam Fathers suffers a fatal seizure
A Rose for Emily
Short story by William Faulkner Title character murders her lover Homer Barron People find his corpse on the bed next to "a single strand of gray hair"
Dry September
Short story by William Faulkner Unseen lynching of Will Mayes
I Am Prepared to Die
Speech given by Nelson Mandela at Rivonia Trial Nadine Gordimer helped him edit it
Pindaric Ode
Strophe Antistrophe Epode
comedy of menace
Term coined by Irving Wardle for Harold Pinter plays that combines the hilarity of a humorous tone with the disturbance of a menacing tone. It is funny on the surface, but tragic when examined.
Southern Gothic
The stories often focus on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters. Flannery O'Connor Carson McCullers
Semiotics
The study of signs extensively studied by Umberto Eco
Jude the Obscure
Thomas Hardy's last novel Jude Fawley, a stonemason Sue Bridehead Little Father Time
Our Ancestors
Trilogy by Italo Calvino The Cloven Viscount The Baron in the Trees The Nonexistent Knight
Horace's Satires
Two books of poems by Horace, also known as his "Sermones" Often contrasted with Juvenal's Satires (these are more lighthearted and less angry) Includes a version of Aesop's fable about the country mouse and the city mouse Ninth one relates an encounter with a boring poet on the Sacred Way who wishes to be introduced to Maecenas
Beyond Belief, Among the Believer
Two works by V.S. Naipaul Depict his journeys through the Islamic world, examines fundamentalism of Islam
New Journalism
Type of journalism/literary movement developed in 1960s and 70s in which reporters immersed themselves in the stories as they reported and wrote them Tom Wolfe Hunter S. Thompson Norman Mailer
The discovery of Langston Hughes
Vachel Lindsay Boasted about him in a crowded Washington D.C. Restaurant
Maecenas
Wealthy patron of Vergil and Horace Gave Horace his Sabine farm
"Who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus?"
What Saul Bellow once asked an interviewer followed by asking who was the "Proust of the Papuans"
Lie Down in Darkness
William Styron's first novel
Leon Edel
Wrote a five-volume biography of Henry James
Latin American Boom
a significant literary time period of flourishing literature, poetry and criticism written in Spanish during the 1960s and 1970s, when writers from this region explored new ideas and came to international renown in a way that had not happened previously.
The Bus Stop
absurdist play by Gao Xingjian Several characters wait at title location for 10 years before realizing it has closed down Silent Man is the only character to leave early Hothead really wants yogurt Glasses raises his watch to reveal its been 10 years
Murder on the Orient Express
by Agatha Christie Belgian detective Hercule Poirot uses his "little grey cells" to determine that all 12 subjects participated in murder of Samuel Ratchett Ratchett turns out to actually be fugitive named Cassetti who had kidnapped Daisy Armstrong several years earlier Opens when Poirot meets Monsieur Bouc A scarlet kimono suddenly appears in Poirot's luggage Handkerchief monogrammed with an H actually turns out to be a Cyrillic N
The Mysterious Affair at Styles
by Agatha Christie Introduced Hercule Poirot
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie Justice Wargrave and nine murderers are invited to Soldier Island where they are killed off one by one by U.N. Owen
N or M?
by Agatha Christie Married duo Tommy and Tuppence Beresford seek out title German agents
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
by Agatha Christie Narrated by Dr. James Sheppard who admits he killed title man for the sole purpose of fooling Hercule Poirot
The Secret Adversary
by Agatha Christie Tommy and Tuppence work with British intelligence agent Mr. Carter
Too Late the Phalarope
by Alan Paton Pieter van Vlaanderen- white police officer who violates the Immorality Act of South Africa by sleeping with the black woman Stephanie Opens "Perhaps I could have saved him." Narrated by Pieter's aunt Sophie Pieter collects stamps with hi loyal Jewish friend Matthew Kaplan, known as Kappie, who talks him out of suicide Pieter gives his father Jakob a book about birds for his birthday despite that Jakob never reading anything except the Bible
Tales from a Troubled Land
by Alan Paton Short story collection
Ah, But You Land is Beautiful
by Alan Paton Six sections- including "The Cleft Stick" "The Defiance Campaign" and "Into the Golden Age" Robert Mansfield is forced to move to Australia A Proud White Christian Woman writes of interracial sex in letters to politicians An Indian woman named Prem Bodasingh is arrested for using a whites-only library Told through letters from Gabriel van Onselen to his aunt
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton Stephen Kumalo leaves Ndotsheni for Johannesburg to see the trial of his son, is addressed as "umfundisi" Stephen receives letter from fellow priest Theophilus Msimangu saying his sister Gertrude has fallen ill, finds out Gertrude has become a prostitute and sells moonshine John Kumalo (Stephen's brother) was once a carpenter, has become an anti apartheid politician, criticizes inequality of Gold Mines that are advocated for by Ernest Oppenheimer Mrs. Lithebe lodges Stephen and Gertude Opens with description of "A lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills" Johannes Parfuri, Matthew Kumalo (John's son), and Absalom Kumalo (Stephen's son) murder Arthur Jarvis during a break in, only Absalom is convicted and sentenced to death Protagonist fails to find Sibeko's daughter at Barbara Smith's house The lawyer Mr. Carmichael takes Absalom's case pro deo James Jarvis gives milk to village children and helps rebuild Ixopo after reading his son Arthur's "The Truth About Native Crime" and looking into Arthur's admiration for Abraham Lincoln (takes a copy of the Gettysburg adress from Arthur's room after talking with John Harrison) Tomlinson and Dubula organize a bus boycott Napoleon Letsitsi is hired by Jarvis to improve farming of Stephen's village Stephen has money stolen by a man who offers to buy him a bus ticket on his way to Sophiatown where he is escorted by Mr. Mafolo Stephen visits a colony of blind people Stephen consults Father Vincent and invokes God by saying "Tixo, tixo, forsake me not." Absalom marries his pregnant girlfriend while awaiting trial, she returns with Kumalo to Ndotsheni
Brave New World
by Aldous Huxley John the Savage, watches the movie, "Three weeks in a Helicopter" Mustapha Mond banishes Helmholtz Watson and Bernard Marx 632 A. F. (After Ford) In the year of our Ford Soma- drug for hypnosis Bokanovsky Process- splits up members of society into alphas, betas, etc.
Two Hundred Years Together
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Criticized for anti-antisemitism, claims Russian pogroms arose spontaneously
The Red Wheel
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Cycle of four novels (called "Knots") August 1914- first knot, follows Colonel Vorotyntsev
The Gulag Archipelago
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Depicts the USSR penal system, was banned in USSR Based on 227 testimonies A child's corpse is removed so that a coffin may be searched Recounts the Kengir Uprising
Matryona's Home
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Ilya's greed for timber/lumber results in the death of title relative
Cancer Ward
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Oleg Kostoglotov is treated in title Kazakhstan location Oleg meets government informer Pavel Rusanov, romances radiotherapist Vera Gangart and nurse Zoya Dyomka has his leg amputated against the advice of Asya Oleg visits Tashkent zoo after his release
The Love-Girl and the Innocent
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Play in which Lyuba sleeps with a doctor, Mereshchun, against the will of Nemov
Prussian Nights
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Poem about his experiences marching with the Red Army
In The First Circle
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Title based on Dante's Inferno Mathematician Gleb Nerzhin turns down a position as a cryptographer Begins with Volodin calling a US embassy under a NKVD wire tap Communist Lev Rubin befriends Nerzhin Sologdin trades his research for his freedom
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Title character is a zek in a gulag as part of Gang 104 under foreman Tyurin, is often called by his surname Shukhov Alyosha/Alyoshka the Baptist- friend of title character Kilgas- Latvian joker who works with title character at Power Station Title character waits in line for Caesar/Tsezar Markovich who receives packages of food Fetyukov and Gopchik work alongside the protagonist laying bricks Title character sews bread into his mattress, owns an aluminum spoon with the engraving "Ust-Izhma, 1944" Published by Russian literary magazine Novy Mir Pair of Estonians do everything together Title character overhears a conversation about "Old Man Whiskers" as he buys some tobacco
Ruslan and Ludmilla
by Alexander Pushkin Adapted into an opera by Mikhail Glinka Title knight's quest to rescue his new bride from the evil wizard Chernomor Farlaf stabs title hero, who is later resurected by the magician Finn Title knight acquires a sword from a giant talking head
Peter the Great's Negro
by Alexander Pushkin Based on author's great-grandfather Abram Gannibal
Boris Godunov
by Alexander Pushkin Became basis for a Mussorgsky opera Title tzar's death leads to Time of Troubles Title character is father of Feodor, plans to kill Dmitri The monk Grigory Otrepev opposes title character
The Bronze Horseman
by Alexander Pushkin Eugene/Yevgeny goes mad after witnessing his love Parasha die when the Neva river floods Yevgeny curses title Etienne Falconet statue of Peter the Great which comes to life and chases him around St. Petersburg and kills him Yevgeny survives flood by sitting on two marble lions that overlook title sculpture
The Golden Cockerel
by Alexander Pushkin Fairy tale about magic bird that was adapted into an opera by Rimsky-Korsakov
Poltava
by Alexander Pushkin Poem about title battle in Great Northern War The Cossack Ivan Mazeppa elopes with Maria, the daughter of the chieftain Kochubey before losing battle against Peter the Great
The Captain's Daughter
by Alexander Pushkin Romanticized view of Pugachev's Rebellion Pyotr Grinyov gives his hareskin jacket to Pugachev in a snowstorm
Little Tragedies
by Alexander Pushkin Series of 4 plays The Stone Guest- about statue that killed Don Juan Mozart and Salieri- based on myth that Mozart died after drinking champagne poisoned by a rival composer A Feast in the Time of Plague The Covetous Knight - moneylender Solomon advises Albert to poison his father
Queen of Spades
by Alexander Pushkin The German Hermann goes insane and commits suicide after drawing title card instead of an ace in a game of faro against Chekalinsky Three secret winning cards of the Count of St. Germain Hermann attempts to seduce Lizavetya in order to get close to and learn gambling secrets from the Countess Hermann imagines a corpse winking at him, accidentally scares the Countess to death with an unloaded pistol Hermann repeats "three, seven, ace" in an asylum Adapted into a Tchaikovsky opera
The Belkin Tales
by Alexander Pushkin Title character is told five short stories "The Blizzard" - Vladimir gets lost in a snow storm on the way to his secret wedding with Marya Gavrilovna "The Shot" - Silvio enters a duel, shoots a painting
Eugene Onegin
by Alexander Pushkin Verse Novel-sonnets alternating masculine and feminine rhymes (Onegin Stanzas aka Pushkin Sonnet), style was adopted by Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate Title superfluous man kills his friend Vladimir Lensky in a duel after title character dances with Olga Larina at Tatyana's name day celebration Zaretsky- title character's second Guillot- Lensky's second Title character is compared to Lord Byron's Childe Harold, inherits his uncle's country mansion Title character originally rebuffs Olga's sister Tatyana but eventually fall for her and is rejected Tatyana explores title character's library, reads notes written in margins of Don Juan, dreams about being chased by a bear Title character's "sermon" in response to Tatyana's love letter in which he discusses how he would get bored in marriage Nabokov criticized Walter Arndt's translation of this work before creating his own (published with the essay "Notes on Prosody") that was criticized by Edmund Wilson, leading to a falling out between Nabokov and Wilson
Sunflower Sutra
by Allen Ginsberg "How many flies buzzed round you innocent of your grime?" Repeats the word "locomotive" eleven times. "When did you look at your skin and decide you were an impotent dirty old locomotive?" "You never were no locomotive" Inspired after hallucinatory vision while reading the works of William Blake
Wichita Vortex Sutra
by Allen Ginsberg "I am an old man now, and a lonesome man in Kansas."
America
by Allen Ginsberg "I've given you all and now I'm nothing" "Go frick yourself with your atom bomb"(but he doesn't say frick 😳)
A Supermarket in California
by Allen Ginsberg Asks Garcia Lorca what he is doing down by the watermelons Notices Walt Whitman "eying the grocery boys" and calls him a "childless, lonely old grubber, poking among the meats." Whitman asks : "Who killed the pork chops? What price bananas? Are you my Angel?" Asks Walt Whitman, "Which way does your beard point tonight?"
Plutonian Ode
by Allen Ginsberg Inspired Phillip Glass's sixth symphony Denounced atom bombs
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess About Alex DeLarge(Your humble narrator.") and his gang of Droogs(Pete,Dim, and George), visit the Korova Milk Bar Nadsat- slang combination of Russian and English Ludovico technique used on Alex to condition him against ultraviolence, forced to watch violent "special films" while listening to classical music, also prevents him from listening to Beethoven("Ludwig Van"), he is overseen by P.R. Deltoid Title comes from F. Alexander's manuscript Jumps out window after hearing music by Otto Skadelig Dr. Brodsky
Nothing Like the Sun
by Anthony Burgess Fictional biography of Shakespeare's love life Titled for four-word phrase taken from Sonnet 130, "my mistress's eyes are..." Shakespeare contracts syphilis from The Dark Lady
The Long Day Wanes
by Anthony Burgess First novel in Malay Trilogy Multiracial schoolteacher Victor Crabbe, fictionalizes Britain's withdrawal from Southeast Asia
Earthly Powers
by Anthony Burgess Intertwined lives of the clergyman Carlo Campanati and the homosexual novelist Kenneth Toomey Kenneth receives a message from the archbishop on his 81st birthday Kenneth said to be based on William Somerset Maugham
The Lady with the Little Dog
by Anton Chekhov Aka "The Lady with the Lapdog" Dmitri Gurov encounters his lover Anna Sergeyevna and her "white Pomeranian" in Yalta Inspired by author's time in Yalta
Ward No. 6
by Anton Chekhov Dr. Ragin is institutionalized in the mental facility where he works, dies of a stroke
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers The deaf-mute John Singer kills himself when he learns that his friend Spiros Antonapoulos died in insane asylum Mick Kelly and Jake Blount befriend Singer at a cafe run by Biff Brannon Bubber accidentally shoots Baby Wilson Portia- maid married to Highboy, daughter of the black doctor Benedict Copeland Mick Kelley- Bubber's tomboy sister, has sex with jewish boy Harry Minowitz, is deeply moved by hearing Eroica Symphony on the radio, makes a violin out of a broken ukulele Dr. Copeland gives Christmas Speech about Marx, also has sons named Hamilton and Karl Marx Willie- Dr. Copeland's son who has his feet amputated after attempting to escape from prison and being put in cold room Jake Blount- socialist carnival worker, fights with Dr. Copeland
The Member of the Wedding
by Carson McCullers Title character is twelve-year-old tomboy Frankie Addams who wants to join her brother Jarvis on his honeymoon to Alaska Janice Evans- Jarvis's wife Opens with Frankie playing cards with her cousin John Henry Berenice Brown- black cook that looks after Frankie Frankie wants to take on the identity "F. Jasmine" in Alaska A drunk soldier tries to seduce Frankie after buying her a drink in the Blue Moon Cafe
A Man of the People
by Chinua Achebe Chief Nanga is deposed by his former student, Odili
An Image of Africa
by Chinua Achebe Essay calling Heart of Darkness and Joseph Conrad, "bloody racist"
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe Protagonist- Okonkwo, an inhabitant of the Igbo village of Umuofia, gains fame by defeating Amalinze the Cat in a wrestling match Unoka- Okonkwo's father, did nothing but play flute, Okonkwo is ashamed of him Ikemefuna- boy looked after by Okonkwo, given as repayment from the Mbaino village, Okonkwo later kills him in a ritual ordered by village oracle Ezeudu- elder, during his funeral, Okonkwo's gun explodes, killing Ezeudu's son and Okonkwo is forced to live in exile for 7 years Okonkwo beats his wife during Week of Peace Upon Okonkwo's return, Christianity has taken over village Enoch kills sacred python and takes off mask of village elder during a ritual, villagers riot and burn down Mr. Smith's church, white govt imprisons Okonkwo and village leaders Okonkwo tries to start revolution, beheads a messenger, and hangs himself to avoid being tried in colonial court Nwoye- Okonkwo's son, converts to christianity and changes name to Isaac Ezinma- Okonkwo's favorite daughter Obierika- Okonkwo's friend
No Longer at Ease
by Chinua Achebe Sequel to Things Fall Apart Obi Okonkwo- descendent of Okonkwo, educated in Britain, joins civil service, is convicted of taking bribes Obi wants to marry Clara Okeke Title comes from "Journey of the Magi" by T S Eliot
Civil Peace
by Chinua Achebe Short story Johnathan sells bikes, is robbed
Anthills of the Savannah
by Chinua Achebe The dictator Sam rules Kangan, orders the execution of reporter Idem Osodi Narrated by Chris Oriko
Arrow of God
by Chinua Achebe The priest Ezeulu clashes with T. K. Winterbottom
Leaving a Doll's House
by Claire Bloom Depicting marriage between her and Philip Roth
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín Eilis Lacey emigrates from Ireland to New York City
The Master
by Colm Tóibín Fictionalized version of Henry James which depicts his struggles with his craft and sexuality Depicts incident where James was booed at a showing of his play Guy Domville
The Border Trilogy
by Cormac McCarthy All the Pretty Horses The Crossing Cities of the Plain
All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy First novel in Border Trilogy John Grady travels around Texas trying to find horse thief Jimmy Blevins's missing horse and Colt pistol Lacey Rawlins- John Grady Cole's friend John Grady begins an affair with Alejandra before Jimmy Blevins is hanged
Suttree
by Cormac McCarthy Set in Knoxville Title character(Cornelius Suttree) is introduced as living on a houseboat, while making a living by fishing for catfish. Gene Harrogate- friend of title character, narrowly recovers from typhoid fever, given a lift by a friendly hitchhiker at end, jailed for having sex with watermelons
Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy The Kid collects Native American scalps with the Glanton Gang and the huge hairless albino Judge Holden Ex-priest Tobin David Brown, a man who wears a necklace of human ears the Judge says, "whatever in creation exists without my knowledge exists without my consent." and "war is god" The protagonist joins a rogue army led by Captain White after burning down a hotel with earless man named Louis Toadvine
No Country for Old Men
by Cormac McCarthy Title from the Yeats poem "Sailing to Byzantium" Coin-flipping hitman Anton Chigurh chases Llewellyn Moss, who takes a suitcase of money he found at the scene of a shootout between drug dealers Sheriff Ed Bell chases Chigurh Carla Jean is killed by Anton Chigurh
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy Unnamed father and his son try to reach sea after an unspecified disaster Carry a pistol with two bullets Father says they are one of the "good guys" after stumbling upon a basement full of bodies eaten by cannibals Repeatedly remind themselves that they are "carrying the fire"
Dictation
by Cynthia Ozick Imagines a lesbian affair between the secretaries of Joseph Conrad and Henry James
The Shawl
by Cynthia Ozick Set in a concentration camp Ends with Rosa sucking the baby Magda's saliva off of the title garment after Magda is thrown against an electric fence
The Puttermesser Papers
by Cynthia Ozick Title character creates a female golem that becomes mayor of NYC
Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress
by Daniel Defoe Anonymously published final novel of the author Title character prostitutes herself all over the world Has a maid named Amy Settles down with a Dutch Merchant
Conjugal Lewdness
by Daniel Defoe Compares contraception to infanticide
The True Born Englishman
by Daniel Defoe In defense of William III or William of Orange
The Shortest Way with Dissenters
by Daniel Defoe Satirical pamphlet from point of view of Church of England official, asking for complete suppression of Non-Conformists 1703 publication caused the author to be imprisoned in Newgate Prison for seditious libel
A Journal of the Plague Year
by Daniel Defoe Title "great" disaster of 1665 Narrated by H.F. Many believed was non-fiction
Memoirs of a Cavalier
by Daniel Defoe Title Englishman serves under Gustavus Adolphus
The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders
by Daniel Defoe Title character is born in Newgate Prison, her mother escapes hanging by "pleading the belly" Becomes a thief in London, marries her half brother and many others Returns to England with her "Lancashire husband" at the age of 69 Moves to Virginia, marries the criminal Jemmy and meets Humphrey, her sun she had with her half brother
Captain Singelton
by Daniel Defoe Title character is raised by gypsies and becomes a pirate in the Arabian Sea Quaker doctor William Walters
Robinson Cruseo
by Daniel Defoe Title character most likely based on Alexander Selkirk Lands on "Island of Despair", sees a single footprint in the sand, rescues cannibal whom he converts to Christianity and names Friday(originally worshiped the god Benamuckee) Keeps track of dates by marking wooden cross Enslaved by Turkish pirates at Sallee, escapes with a Moor named Xury and Ismael to Brazil where he comes to own a plantation Is left ashore in China after his shipmates and nephew are annoyed by his preaching following a massacre Skins a lion with Xury Fights off wolves while crossing the Pyrenees Poll- parrot he teaches to say his name
Sea Grapes
by Derek Walcott "The classics can console. But not enough." "The ancient war between obsession and responsibility will never finish" "That sail which leans on light tired of islands" "great hexameters come to the conclusions of exhausted surf." "the adulterer hearing Nausicaa's name in every gull's outcry."
The Mongoose
by Derek Walcott About author's disdain for V.S. Naipaul "I must avoid infection/Or else I'll be as dead as Naipaul's fiction."
Tiepolo's Hound
by Derek Walcott Book-length poem that uses 26 of Walcott's own paintings as illustrations Draws parallels between himself and Camille Pissarro
Ruins of a Great House
by Derek Walcott Compares England to a rotting mansion "a smell of dead limes quickens in the nose / The leprosy of empire" "Stones only, the disjecta membra" remain of title structure "Farewell, green fields, farewell, ye happy groves" Narrator asserts men like "Hawkins, Walter Raleigh, Drake" are "ancestral murderers and poets" who perpetrate "ulcerous crime"
Omeros
by Derek Walcott Epic-length poem inspired by the Iliad, set on st. Lucia Fishermen Achille and Hector battle for the affections of Plunkett's maid Helen, Hector is mourned by both Helen and Achille after he dies by crashing his van nicknamed "the Comet" Achille sails to Africa on a boat with the misspelled words "In God we Troust" painted on it Ma Kilman heals the wound on the leg of the fisherman Philoctete Exiled Englishman Major Plunkett works as a pig farmer with his wife Maud The blind man Seven Seas represents Homer, frequents Ma Kilman's No Pain Cafe Opens with fisherman showing tourists how trees are felled to make canoes Afolabe (Achille's father) is renamed because of his bravery at the Battle of the Saints, teaches Achille about his African roots
Dream on Monkey Mountain
by Derek Walcott Felix Hobain, who takes on the alias Makak, works as a charcoal burner in the title place Makak has a vision of a white goddess causing him to drunkenly attack a cafe Coffin maker Basil hovers over Makak during his trial, figure from voodoo Makak is tried by Corporal Lestrade alongside Tigre and Souris, Makak reluctantly beheads the white goddess before gaining his freedom alongside Tigre and Souris Makak joins Moustique on a journey to Africa from title location
A Far Cry From Africa
by Derek Walcott Opening line: "a wind is ruffling the tawny pelt" Ending line: "How can I turn away from [title place] and live?" "How can I face such slaughter and be cool?" "The gorilla wrestles with the superman," speaker claims he is "poisoned with the blood" "brutish necessity wipes its hands/Upon the napkin of a dirty cause" "statistics justify and scholars seize the salients of colonial policy" Imagines a worm crying "Waste no compassion on these separate dead!" Speaker wonders how he could chooses between title location and "the English tongue I love." "the violence of beast on beast is read as natural law" "upright man seeks his divinity by inflicting pain." "Where shall I turn, divided to the vein?"
The Schooner Flight
by Derek Walcott Opening poem of Star-Apple Kingdom "either I'm nobody, or I'm a nation" narrated by the sailor Shabine
Pantomime
by Derek Walcott White Harry Trewe plays Friday and black Jackson Phillip plays Robinson Crusoe when acting out Robinson Crusoe
The Swamp
by Derek Walcott gives title to Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood
The Capeman
by Derek Walcott and Paul Simon Play based on the murderer Salvador Agron
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog
by Dylan Thomas parody of Joyce work
Buffalo Bill's
by E. E. Cummings "how do you like your blue eyed boy Mr. Death" "watersmooth-silver stallion" "break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat"
maggie and milly and molly and may
by E. E. Cummings "it's always ourselves we find in the sea" "chased by a horrible thing which raced sideways while blowing bubbles" Title characters find a starfish, a shell, a "horrible thing" and a "smooth round stone"
i carry your heart with me
by E. E. Cummings "the deepest secret nobody knows"
the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls
by E. E. Cummings "unbeautiful and have comfortable minds" "believe in Christ and Longfellow, both dead" "moon rattles like a fragment of angry candy"
anyone lived in a pretty how town
by E. E. Cummings "with up so floating many bells down" "only the snow can begin to explain how children are apt to forget to remember" Cycles through words "sun moon stars rain" "noone stopped to kiss his face" "he sang his didn't he danced his did."
r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r
by E. E. Cummings Meant to look like a grasshopper taking flight
l(a
by E. E. Cummings l(a le af fa ll s) l iness The work loneliness interrupted by "A leaf falls"
The Conqueror Worm
by Edgar Allan Poe "the play is the tragedy, 'Man.'" Appears in Ligeia
Sonnet - To Science
by Edgar Allan Poe "true daughter of old time." describes the title concept as a "vulture, whose wings are dull realities"
The Cask of Amontillado
by Edgar Allan Poe After crying "For the love of God, Montresor!" Fortunato is buried alive in Montresor's labyrinthine family crypt Narrator takes a trowel out to demonstrate he is a mason "Nemo me impune lacessit" - family motto
The Purloined Letter
by Edgar Allan Poe C. Auguste Dupin recovers a stolen incriminating document (it was hidden in plain sight) Title object is taken by Minister D Monsieur G- a policeman who offers 50,000 francs to recover title object
The Black Cat
by Edgar Allan Poe Narrator accidentally buries title animal Pluto alive
The Tell Tale Heart
by Edgar Allan Poe Narrator smothers his landlord after being unsettled by the man's "vulture eye", is driven mad by beating of title object and confesses to police Sound compared to a "watch...enveloped in cotton" Hides the body under the floorboards
The Gold-Bug
by Edgar Allan Poe Popularized cryptograms in literature William Legrand is bitten by title creature
The Masque of the Red Death
by Edgar Allan Poe Prince Prospero and guests at a colorful seven-room ball die from title plague
Ligeia
by Edgar Allan Poe Short Story Lady Rowena Trevanion becomes the title character
The Raven
by Edgar Allan Poe Title bird repeats the word "Nevermore", perches upon a "pallid bust of Pallas" Set "once upon a midnight dreary" where narrator "pondered weak and weary" Narrator laments the death of Lenore, commands title figure to "get thee back into the tempest and night's Plutonian shore!", calls title figure a "prophet" and "thing of evil" "rapping" at his "chamber door" "is there balm in Gilead?" "The Philosophy of Composition"- essay written by author about this poem
The Fall of the House of Usher
by Edgar Allan Poe Title estate sinks into the ground Narrator reads The Mad Trist, in which the knight Ethelred kills a dragon, to his friend Roderick "The Haunted Palace" - poem inside this short story Roderick buries his sister Madeline alive prompting the narrator to flee
The Bells
by Edgar Allan Poe Title objects "Keeping time, time, time" with "tintinnabulation that so musically wells," "iron", "silver", and "wedding" varieties
A Descent into Maelstrom
by Edgar Allan Poe Tour guide describes a rainbow cites Archimedes
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
by Edgar Allan Poe an orangutan commits title crimes Camille L'Espanaye was discovered in a chimney
Spoon River Anthology
by Edgar Lee Masters Poetry collection narrated by the dead Final section-Beelzebub meets with Loki and Yogarindra, follows a mock epic by Jonathan Swift Somers "The Hill"- poem which introduces work, "of what Abe Lincoln said one time at Springfield.", asks "Where are Elmer, Herman, Bert, Tom, and Charley", responds "All, all are sleeping on the hill." Poem about Lucinda Matlock, "Degenerate sons and daughters,/ Life is too strong for you-/ It takes life to love life." Abraham Lincoln's rumored boyhood love, Ann Rutledge Fiddler Blind Jack spends his afterlife listening to Homer recount the fall of Troy Village poetess Minerva Jones wants her works published Benjamin Pantier's wife drives him out to live with his dog Thomas Rhodes owns the bank of the title location The Village Atheist says "Immortality is not a gift"
Patriotic Gore
by Edmund Wilson Literary criticism of Civil War literature Title comes from James Ryder Randal's "Maryland, My Maryland." Discusses Mary Chesnut's diary
Axel's Castle
by Edmund Wilson Overview of literature from the Symbolist movement that takes its title from a work by Auguste Villiers de L'Isle-Adam
Memory of Fire Trilogy
by Eduardo Galeano Genesis Faces and Masks Century of the Wind
The Open Veins of Latin America
by Eduardo Galeano famously gifted to Barack Obama by Hugo Chavez polemical history of Latin America
J'accuse!
by Emile Zola Dreyfus Affair- jewish author framed for leaking secrets
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died
by Emily Dickinson "Blue - uncertain - stumbling Buzz -" "could not see to see" Title creature comes "between the light and me" "The Stillness in the Room / Was like the Stillness in the Air -"
Success is counted sweetest
by Emily Dickinson "By those who ne'er succeed"
I taste a liquor never brewed
by Emily Dickinson "Debauchee of Dew" Author calls herself "inebriate of air" "tankards scooped in pearl"
Safe in their Alabaster Chambers
by Emily Dickinson "Diadems drop and Doges surrender"
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
by Emily Dickinson "How public like a frog-to tell one's name to an admiring Bog!" "Don't tell! / They'd banish us, you know"
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
by Emily Dickinson "then a Plank in Reason, broke." "a Service, like a Drum"
Letters to "Master"
by Emily Dickinson My life had stood-a loaded gun: "but the power to kill without the power to die" series of letters to unknown man
Because I could not stop for Death
by Emily Dickinson Title gentleman passes by stages of human life and the "setting sun" Title entity "kindly stopped for me" Carriage that "held but just ourselves/and Immortality." "The Dews drew quivering and chill" "surmised the Horses' Heads / Were toward Eternity" "a house that seemed / a swelling of the ground."
"Hope" is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson title entity "that perches in the soul". describes title feeling as "little bird / that kept so many warm"
The Beautiful and Damned
by F Scott Fitzgerald About relationship between Gloria and Anthony Patch, Anthony is disinherited for his drunken parties
Flappers and Philosophers
by F Scott Fitzgerald Collection of short stories Bernice Bobs Her Hair The Ice Palace The Cut-Glass Bowl The Offshore Pirate Head and Shoulders
The Crack-Up
by F Scott Fitzgerald Essay published in Esquire about author's mental breakdown at age 39 Opens with line: "of course all life is a process of breaking down" Part of a 3 part series, followed by "Pasting it Together"
Absolution
by F Scott Fitzgerald Father Schwartz collapses after hearing confession from Rudolph Miller
The Last Tycoon
by F Scott Fitzgerald Final, unfinished novel Set in LA, about Hollywood film producer Monroe Stahr
May Day
by F Scott Fitzgerald Gordon Sterrett prepares for the Gamma Psi dance
Winter Dreams
by F Scott Fitzgerald In collection All the Sad Young Men Dexter Green works as a golf caddy as a teenager, falls in love with Judy Jones Dexter's father owns the second best grocery shop in Black Bear Lake Lud Simms marries Judy Jones
The Offshore Pirate
by F Scott Fitzgerald In collection Flappers and Philosophers Ardita Farnam is captured by the swashbuckling Curtis Carlyle while vacationing with her uncle in Florida
The Cut-Glass Bowl
by F Scott Fitzgerald In collection Flappers and Philosophers Evylyn and Harold Piper receive title piece of kitchenware as a wedding gift
The Ice Palace
by F Scott Fitzgerald In collection Flappers and Philosophers Sally Carrol Harper leaves the south and her fiance Harry Bellamy
Head and Shoulders
by F Scott Fitzgerald In collection Flappers and Philosophers Symbolizes athletic and intellectual qualities of Marcia Meadow and Horace Tarbox as the title body parts
Babylon Revisited
by F Scott Fitzgerald Protagonist Charlie Wales travels to Paris to pick up his daughter Honoria Lincoln and Marion Peters deem Charlie an unfit father after Dunstan Schaeffer and Lorraine Quarrles drunkenly barge into a house and refuse to give him custody Charlie locked his wife Helen (Marion's sister) out of the house during a snowstorm causing her to freeze to death
The Pat Hobby Stories
by F Scott Fitzgerald Series of short stories about a hack screenwriter
This Side of Paradise
by F. Scott Fitzgerald About Princeton student Amory Blaine and his many romantic entaglements Amory becomes an alcoholic after being dumped by Rosalind Connage for a wealthy man Eleanor Savage ends her relationship with Amory after almost attempting suicide by riding a horse off a cliff Amory's first kiss is with Isabelle Borge Ends with Amory line: "I know myself, but that is all--" Amory befriends Monsignor Darcy and the poet Thomas Parke D'Invilliers at Princeton Amory sees a hallucination of his friend Dick Humbird who died in a car crash
Bernice Bobs Her Hair
by F. Scott Fitzgerald In collection Flappers and Philosophers Marjorie tricks her cousin, the title character, into getting title provocative haircut at the Sevier Hotel after title character draws the attention of Warren McIntyre Title character retaliates by cutting off Marjorie's braids in her sleep and putting them on Warren's front porch before leaving for her home in Eau Claire, Wisconsin Title character greets people by saying "Hello, shell shock!", is told she has an "awfully kissable mouth"
The Diamond as Big as the Ritz
by F. Scott Fitzgerald John T. Unger leaves his home of Hades, Mississippi and visits Percy Washington's massive estate in Montana whose wealth is based on title object Percy Washington is descended from George Washington, his family convinces their slaves that the South won the Civil War to keep them in servitude, they shoot down airplanes and imprison pilots that get too close and see title object The Washingtons blow up title object at the end, Unger escapes explosion with Kismine who suffers from lettuce poisoning Unger declares "Everybody's youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness"
The Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald Narrated by Nick Carraway who lives on West Egg next to title character Jay Gatsby Gatsby loves Nick's cousin Daisy who is married to Tom Buchanan Tom has an affair with Mrytle who lives in the Valley of Ashes with her husband George Wilson who runs a garage/gas station Title character calls people "old sport," owns yellow Rolls Royce, which Daisy is driving when they run over Mrytle causing George to shoot title character in his pool Billboard for optometrist T. J. Eckleburg watches over Valley of Ashes Meyer Wolfsheim- gangster who fixed the 1919 World Series, wears cufflinks made of human molars, Nick visits him at Swastika Holding Company, Wolfsheim refuses to go to title character's funeral Owl Eyes marvels at title character's library full of uncut books during a party, calls title character a "regular Belasco," is one of three who attend title character's funeral Ewing Klipspringer lives in title character's house, plays "The Love Nest" on piano, phones Nick after title character's death to task for his tennis-shoes back Title character fixates on a green light on Daisy Buchanan's dock Nick dates a cheating golf player Jordan Baker who is "incurably dishonest" Daisy cries over a pile of colorful shirts that the title character shows her Title character asks orchestra to play Tostoff's Jazz History of the World Dan Cody mentors title character, whose real name is James Gatz and who drops out of St. Olaf's College and is called an "Oxford man" despite only having attended for five months Nick realizes it is his 30th birthday following a fight between title character and Tom The Greek Michaelis - George's neighbor, tells Nick about events surrounding title character's murder Title character shows Nick his war medal from Montenegro, five crates of oranges and lemons arrive at his house every Friday in preparation for his parties Thomas Parke D'Invilliers- a character from Fitzgerald's first novel This Side of Paradise, is cited as the author of the poem in this novel's epigraph Closing line- "boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past" Francis Cugat designed most popular cover Title character's father shows Nick a title character's schedule in a copy of Hopalong Cassidy before title character's funeral
Tender is the Night
by F. Scott Fitzgerald Represents marriage between Fitzgerald and Zelda Follows decaying marriage of psychoanalyst Dick Diver and his former patient, the schizophrenic Nicole Warren Nicole and Dick meet in Dr. Franz Gregorovius's clinic in Zurich where Nicole is attempting to deal with psychological effects of her incestuous relationship with her father, they entertain many American expatriates on the French Riviera Dick has an affair with the star of the film Daddy's Girl, Rosemary Hoyt Albert McKiscko challenges Tommy Barban to a duel A black man named Jules Peterson is found dead in Rosemary Hoyt's hotel bed shortly after arguing with Abe North, Dick helps smuggle the body out Maria Wallis shoots an Englishman on a train Mary- wife of Abe North, weds the Conte di Minghetti after Abe is beaten to death in a speakeasy Protagonist thinks his eye has been gouged out after fighting a member of the Carabinieri
Parker's Back
by Flannery O'Connor Contained in collection named after Everything that Rises Must Converge which also contains Revelation Titled for one part of protagonist's skin that does not have a tattoo on it
Revelation
by Flannery O'Connor Epiphany experienced by Mrs. Turpin Wellesley student Mary Grace throws textbook "Human Development" at Ruby Turpin in doctor's office waiting room Mary tells Turpin to "Go back to hell where you came from, you old wart hog."
Good Country People
by Flannery O'Connor Hulga/Joy Hopewell(has philosophy Phd) has her wooden artificial leg stolen by fake bible salesman Manley Pointer Climax occurs in barn loft, Manley takes condoms, cards, and whiskey out of hollow bible
The Displaced Person
by Flannery O'Connor Polish refugee settles on a farm
A Late Encounter with the Enemy
by Flannery O'Connor Sally Poker hopes to see her grandfather attend her college graduation
The Violent Bear it Away
by Flannery O'Connor Teenage preacher from Powderhead, Francis Marion Tarwater Francis tries to avoid his uncle Rayber's command to baptize his nephew Bishop who is mentally handicapped
The Life You Save Might be Your Own
by Flannery O'Connor Tom Shiftlet drives off after abandoning his mute wife at a bar, sees title phrase following "Drive Carefully" on a billboard One-armed Tom Shiftlet devises scheme to fix up and steal car from Mrs. Lucynell Crater Lucynell Crater wants her mute daughter(with same name as her mother) to marry Tom Tom teaches Lucynell to say "bird"
A Good Man is Hard to Find
by Flannery O'Connor the Grandmother's family is killed by escaped criminal, The Misfit while on road trip to Florida Cat Pitty Sing causes a crash by jumping out of a picnic basket onto Bailey's neck Grandmother "might have been a good woman if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" Hiram and Bobby Lee kill John Wesley and June Star Title comes from conversation with Red Sammy at The Tower Grandmother can't remember if house with secret panel is in Tennessee or Georgia
Wise Blood
by Flannery O'Connor- her first novel Hazel Motes founds The Church Without Christ after meeting fake blind preacher Asa Hawks(tries to blind himself with lye) Zookeeper Enoch Emery steals mummy to become "new Jesus", kills a man in a Gonga the Gorilla suit and steals the suit Sabbath Lily- nymphomaniac daughter of Asa Hawks who Enoch tries to seduce Enoch sleeps with prostitute Leora Watts
Gargantua and Pantagruel
by Francois Rabelais/ Alcofribas Nasier G is father of P G drowns paris by urinating on it, is taught by tutor Ponocrates Abbey of Theleme- built by G for Friar John of the Funnels, motto is "Do What Thou Wilt" P and Panurge go in serach of Oracle of the Holy Bottle Picrochole wages war with King Grandgousier(father of G)
Dune
by Frank Herbert Science fiction novel about Spice/Melange produced by giant sandworms on the planet Arrakis
The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Rogozhin murders Nastassya Filipnova The epileptic Prince Myshkin Aglaya- lover of Myshkin
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Set in St. Petersburg Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov uses an axe to kill Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta after Lizaveta walks in on the murder Dunya- Raskolnikov's sister, is first engaged to Luzhin, marries Razumikhin Svidrigailov- Dunya's former employer, shoots himself after saying he is "going to America" Rodion confesses to prostitute Sonya, eventually falls in love with her, she convinces him to confess to Porfiry Petrovich who was investigating him Raskolnikov wears a cypress cross and kisses the ground before confessing, is sentenced to eight years of hard labor in Siberia Protagonist writes an article about "great/extraordinary men" (aka übermensch) such as Napoleon that he is like, dreams about peasants beating a mare to death Marmeladov- drunken man who is run over by a carriage, Sonya's father
Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky the underground man encounters the prostitute Liza in a section entitled "Apropos of the Wet Snow."
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Dmitri is put on trial for murder of his father at the end(actually done by Smerdyakov) The parable of the "Grand Inquisitor" is told by Ivan to Alyosha- Alyosha kisses Ivan on the lips imitating a kiss from Christ/Jesus in the story
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez About the relationship between Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza Begins with the suicide of the photographer Jeremiah de Saint-Amour and smell of bitter almonds Dr. Juvenal Urbino- Fermina's first husband, dies after falling off a ladder to chase after his pet parrot, Fermina discovers his affair with Barbara Lynch by smelling his clothes Ends with Florentino and Fermina consummating relationship on a riverboat with yellow flag, signifying it is infected with cholera Hildebranda and Thugut help the main characters exchange telegrams
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Account of the murder of Santiago Nasar by brothers Pablo and Pedro Vicario Angela- sister of Vicario brothers, her husband, Bayardo San Roman, discovers she is not a virgin, she says Nasar took her virginity Loudly proclaim in public they will kill him at Clotilde Armenta's milk shop, nobody tells Santiago Bishop arrives on steamboat but doesn't come ashore Colonel Lazaro Aponte does not prevent death
The General in his Labyrinth
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Centers around later life of Simon Bolivar
Leaf Storm
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez First appearance of Macondo About The Father's attempts to bury The Doctor Several short stories in collection
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Seven generations of the Buenida family in Macondo started with Jose Arcadio Buenida and Ursula Iguaran Colonel Aureliano Buenida- makes golden fishes, has 17 illegitimate children of the same name who have ash Wednesday crosses on their foreheads Pietro Crespi- Italian pianola instructor who commits suicide after failing to marry both Rebeca and Amaranta Rebeca carries around bones of her parents Remedios the Beauty, refuses to wear clothes, ascends to heaven while washing sheets Aureliano born from incestuous relationship, has a pig tail and is devoured by ants Catalonian bookseller Mauricio Babilonia constantly pursued by yellow butterflies, is mistaken for chicken thief and shot and paralyzed Melquiades wrote a Sanskrit manuscript of Macondo's past and future
The Autumn of the Patriarch
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez Six-part stream of consciousness novel that revolves around the death of an unnamed Caribbean dictator who is between 107 and 232 years old Love affair with Manuela Saenz
Innocent Erendira
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez expands a subplot of One Hundred Years of Solitude where title character has to prostitute herself every night to pay back her grandmother after accidentally burning down house
The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Leaf Storm Children find a corpse on the beach, which is taken back to town for a funeral Women decide his name must have been Esteban, make clothes for him Give him a sea burial but decide not to weigh body down so it might someday return to them
A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Leaf Storm Subtitled "A Tale for Children" Couple Pelayo and Elisenda discover title person in backyard after a three day storm passes They keep the man, who most believe to be an angel, in chicken coop, charge 10 cents for people to come see him Priest doesn't believe title man is an angel because he does not understand Latin People lose interest because of a girl who has been transformed into a tarantula who eats meatballs Title entities grow back and title man flies off
Soul Mountain
by Gao Xingjian Autobiographical- inspired by author's travels along the Yangtze following a false lung cancer diagnosis Unnamed protagonist searches for Lingshan (title location) Narrators called "I," "you," "she," and "he" Narrator meets a peasant who chopped off his arm after a poisonous snake bite, tells a story about a man who watches a nun wash her own entrails
One Man's Bible
by Gao Xingjian Juxtaposes sexual encounters with scenes from the Cultural Revolution Narrator travels with the French woman Sylvie after being abandoned by Margarethe
The Accident
by Gao Xingjian Short story in collection Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather Cyclist gets hit by a bus
The Temple
by Gao Xingjian Short story in collection Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather Honeymooning couple stops in a rural village
Cramp
by Gao Xingjian Short story in collection Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather Narrator almost drowns and returns to find out nobody knew he was missing
Adam Bede
by George Eliot Title virtuous carpenter loves Hetty Sorrel Arthur Donnithorne leaves Hayslope for militia duties, Hetty Sorrel abandons her illegitimate child with him and is hung for infanticide Title character marries Methodist preacher Dinah Morris Title character works with Johnathan Burge and lives on the Poyser's dairy farm, argues with Bartle Massey over price of a frame sold to Miss Lydia Chapter titled "In Which the Story Pauses a Little" Shoemaker Joshua Rann
Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins "Glory be to God for dappled things" "All things counter, original, spare, strange" "skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow" Ends by saying "praise him" Example of a curtal sonnet created by Hopkins
The Caged Skylark
by Gerard Manley Hopkins "Man's mounting spirit in his bone-house".
Spring and Fall
by Gerard Manley Hopkins "Margaret, are you grieving / Over Goldengrove unleaving?" "worlds of wanwood leafmeal"
The Wreck of the Deutschland
by Gerard Manley Hopkins Depicts death of five Franciscan nuns at title event "the Happy Memory of five Franciscan Nuns exiled by the Falk Laws" "on Saturday sailed from Bremen, American-outward-bound." "O Christ, Christ, come quickly" "Hope had grown grey hairs"
Carrion Comfort
by Gerard Manley Hopkins In the collection, Terrible Sonnets "I...lay wrestling with (my God!) my God" Speaker will not "Despair, not feast on" the title entity "lay a lionlimb against me?"
No Worst, There is None
by Gerard Manley Hopkins In the collection, Terrible Sonnets "creep, wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind"
God's Granduer
by Gerard Manley Hopkins Proclaims title entity will "flame out, like shining from shook foil" and "gather to a greatness, like the ooze of oil." "Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; / And all is seared with trade."
Felix Randal
by Gerard Manley Hopkins Reaction to the death from tuberculosis of Hopkins' blacksmith/farrier friend "some fatal four disorders" "O he is dead then?"
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
by Gerard Manley Hopkins TITLE PHRASE is followed by ", dragonflies draw flame." "each mortal thing does one thing and the same"
The Windhover
by Gerard Manley Hopkins dedicated "To Christ our Lord" About a "kingdom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon." "I caught this morning morning's minion." "blue-bleak embers... Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion." "the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!" "O, my chevalier!"
The Confidential Agent
by Graham Greene "D" is an expert on The Song of Roland
Brighton Rock
by Graham Greene Cafe owner Ida Arnold pursues the gang leader Pinkie Brown, who murders the journalist Fred Hale who wrote an article that put Pinkie in jail for racketeering Titled after a type of hard candy Pinkie marries the waitress Rose, leaves her a recording that says "god dam you you little b*tch" Fred goes by the name "Kolley Kibber" in a newspaper contest Prewitt- Pinkie's lawyer Pinkie attacks Dallow, a member of his gang
The Human Factor
by Graham Greene Communist Carson helps the wife of MI6 agent Maurice Castle escape to South Africa
Stamboul Train
by Graham Greene Dr. Czinner travels aboard the Orient Express John Priestly felt he had been defamed in the form of the character of Quin Savory, sued Greene
The End of the Party
by Graham Greene Francis Morton dies from shock when his twin brother Peter grasps his hand during a game of hide and seek in the dark
Our Man in Havana
by Graham Greene James Wormold fakes his way through a job as a MI6 spy in order to supplement his income as a vacuum cleaner salesman (submits sketches of insides of vacuums saying they are blueprints for secret weapon) Drawings of Atomic Pile lead to mission for Wormold and his partner Beatrice Severn that leads to them being fired by boss Hawthorne Wormold kills Carter with Captain Segura's gun to avenge the death of Dr. Hasselbeck (who decoded messages using Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare Carter tries to poison Wormold's whiskey but a dog drinks it and dies instead at a dinner of the European Trader's Association Segura is defeated by Wormold in a game of checkers with whiskey bottle pieces, carries a cigarette case made of human skin Milly- James Wromold's daughter who convinces him to buy her a horse
The Heart of the Matter
by Graham Greene Major Henry Scobie- honest chief of police in a British West African district, purposely overdoses on evipan to avoid deciding between his wife Louise and Helen Rolt. Scobie's love letter to Rolt is intercepted and used as blackmail by Syrian named Yusef Scobie searches ships such as the Portuguese Esperança for smuggled diamonds, discusses his affair with a Catholic priest Scobie's servant Ali is killed by "wharf rats"
The Destructors
by Graham Greene Mr. Thomas (who is called Old Misery) is locked in an outhouse while the "Wormsley Common Gang" senselessly destroys his stately home
The End of the Affair
by Graham Greene Sarah Miles breaks off her liaison with neighbor Maurice Bendrix after a V-1 rocket destroys her London flat and she finds religion An ugly strawberry mark miraculously disappears from the face of Richard Smythe Bendrix hires Alfred Parkis to recover Sarah's diary Sarah is married to the impotent English statesman Henry
The Third Man
by Graham Greene Screenplay Film noir starring Orson Welles as the title character, Harry Lime Holly Martins tries to track down Harry Lime
The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene Set in Tabasco, Mexico "Whiskey priest"- protagonist Catholic priest lured into a trap when asked to hear a dying confessions of the Gringo and is executed by the Lieutenant after being betrayed by the yellow-toothed mestizo Coral Fellows houses the whiskey priest in her barn and teaches him Morse Code Brigida- illegitimate daughter of the whiskey priest and Maria The dentist Mr. Tench meets the whiskey priest at the wharf The whiskey priest also stays with Mr. Lehr, fights a crippled dog over scraps of meat on a bone, eats a lump of sugar placed by the mouth of a dead Indian boy in a cemetery Interspersed stories about Juan Whiskey priest agrees to help wounded American outlaw named James Calver Padre Jose refuses to hear protagonist's final confession
The Quiet American
by Graham Greene Title character is the intellectual Alden Pyle, CIA agent who works to bring about the "Third Force" described in the work of York Harding Narrator- Journalist Thomas Fowler covers the French war in Vietnam, spends night in a watch tower with title character Pyle steals the girl Phuong away from Fowler who helps assassinate Pyle at end Vigot investigates title character's death Alden Pyle uses bicycle pumps filled with explosives to conduct acts of terrorism on Vietminh, visits the brothel House of Five Hundred Girls
Local Anaesthetic
by Gunter Grass About a dentist
The Call of the Toad
by Gunter Grass Alexander Reschke and Alexandra Piatkowska establish the Polish-German-Lithuanian Cemetery Association.
Dog Years
by Gunter Grass Follows Cat and Mouse in Danzig Trilogy Parodies concepts of Heidegger Eduard Amsel narrates first section collects various S.A. uniforms to dress his scarecrows in Harry Liebenau narrates second section which features Tully Pokriefke, mother of Paul in Grass's Crabwalk Ex-Nazi Walter Matern is friends with Amsel, breeds animals
Cat and Mouse
by Gunter Grass Follows The Tin Drum and precedes Dog Years in Danzig Trilogy Joachim "The Great" Mahlke disappears after Pilenz encourages him to dive into a shipwreck (half-sunken Polish minesweeper) Mahlke has a huge Adam's apple that is scratched by a cat, gets expelled after stealing Iron Cross of a U-Boat captain
Peeling the Onion
by Gunter Grass Memoir that was criticized for obscuring author's time in the Waffen SS
The Flounder
by Gunter Grass Nameless narrator is married to Ilsebill Title fish is put on trial before Women's Revolutionary Tribunal Loosely based on Grimm fairy tale The Fisherman and His Wife. Tells the stories of nine cooks whom the narrator met throughout history
The Meeting at Telgte
by Gunter Grass Simon Dach leads a 1647 convention of intellectuals into the title town at the end of the 30 Years' War
Danzig Trilogy
by Gunter Grass The Tin Drum Cat and Mouse Dog Years
Crabwalk
by Gunter Grass Title describes the way the protagonist Paul Pokriefke moves through time Paul Pokriefke is born on life boat of the sinking cruise ship Wilhelm Gustloff David Frankfurter assassinates Wilhelm Gustloff in Davos, namesake of the cruise ship Wolfgang Stremplin is shot by Paul Pokriefke Paul's mother Tully also appears in Dog Years
Old Times
by Harold Pinter Anna admits to borrowing Kate's underwear and letting Deeley look up her skirt
The Caretaker
by Harold Pinter Aston takes in the homeless Mac Davies, offers him the title job Characteristic Pinter Pauses in dialogue Mick smashes a statue of the Buddha while arguing with Davies Bernard Jenkins(actually Davies) says he will go down to Sidcup to pick up his papers Aston reveals he was admitted into a mental hospital at age 16 and given electroshock therapy
The Room
by Harold Pinter Bert beats a blind man named Riley when he finds him with his wife, Rose Hudd who also goes blind.
A Slight Ache
by Harold Pinter Originally written as a radio drama Flora seduces a seller of matches
The Homecoming
by Harold Pinter Philosophy professor Teddy and Ruth visit Teddy's family in London after having lived in America Ruth goes upstairs with Teddy's brother Joey for two-hour encounter without going "whole hog" Lenny and Joey convince Ruth to leave Teddy to become a prostitute Sam reveals that Max(retired butcher, father of Teddy)'s late wife Jessie cheated on him with Macgregor in his taxi before collapsing of a heart attack Teddy eats Lenny's specially made cheese-roll
Ashes to Ashes
by Harold Pinter Rebecca describes her dreams to her therapist-like lover Devlin, tells him to put his hands around her throat
Betrayal
by Harold Pinter Scenes are mostly in reverse chronological order Depicts seven-year affair between Emma and Jerry, Jerry confesses love for Emma in final scene at a party Characters bash the popular writing of Roger Casey, whose work is published by Robert(Emma's husband) Emma modeled after Joan Bakewell, who Pinter had an affair with Robert and Jerry discuss how they never play squash anymore Robert talks about reading Yeats after taking the speedboat to Torcello
The Birthday Party
by Harold Pinter Title event is planned by Meg Bole at her husband Petey's boarding house for pianist Stanley Webber, she gives him a toy drum Stanley breaks his drum and glasses and tries to rape LuLu during game of Blind Man's Bluff Stanley is taken by Goldberg and McCann to "Monty" for "special treatment", they scream rhetorical questions at him like "Why did the chicken cross the road?" and "Is the number 846 possible or necessary?" Petey skips title event to play chess, tells Stanley, "Don't let them tell you what to do!" Ends with Meg proclaiming "I was the belle of the ball" Begins with Meg bringing cornflakes and fried bread to Petey Several characters in this play whistle The Mountains of Morne and worry about the appearance of a large vehicle containing a wheelbarrow Goldberg is also called Simey, Nat, and Benny
The Dumb Waiter
by Harold Pinter Title machine brings food to the assassins/hitmen Ben and Gus in a basement They discuss unseen character Wilson, why the toilet takes so long to flush, argue over semantics of the phrases "light the kettle" and "put on the kettle" Ben claims to be able to make "Ormitha Macarounda" Argument over Birmingham-Tottenham soccer game Ends with whistle from a speaking tube and Ben receives orders to shoot Gus Begins with newspaper stories about an eight-year-old girl killing a cat and an old man hit by a carriage
A Kind of Alaska
by Harold Pinter Title state is a metaphor for suspended animation Deborah was held in(30 year coma) before Hornby(her brother in law) awakens her
An Enemy of the People
by Henrik Ibsen Dr. Stockman discovers the tannery is leaking off harmful materials and therefore the bathhouses cannot be built because of this He is ostracized for speaking out
The Altar of the Dead
by Henry James A man dies before he can add a candle to an altar for the despised Acton Hague
The Tragic Muse
by Henry James About Nick Dormer and Miriam Rooth
The Spoils of Poynton
by Henry James Adela Gareth takes furniture from the title estate
Washington Square
by Henry James Catherine Sloper's meddling father Dr. Austin Sloper prevents her from marrying Morris Townsend Named after its setting- an elite neighborhood in New York Catherine's aunt Lavinia Penniman dispenses unwanted matrimonial advice to Townsend Lavinia introduces Catherine to Morris at Catherine's cousin Marian Almond's engagement party
The American
by Henry James Christopher Newman tries to marry Claire de Cintre in Paris
Guy Domville
by Henry James Disastrous play, was booed
The Jolly Corner
by Henry James Ghost story involving Spencer Brydon
New York Edition
by Henry James Heavily-edited 24 volume collection of his work Did not include Washington Square and The Europeans
The Portrait of a Lady
by Henry James Isabel Archer inherits a fortune from her uncle Ralph Touchett, is courted by Lord Warburton and Caspar Goodwood Madame Merle manipulates Isabel into marrying Gilbert Osmond (an American expatriate living in Florence, Italy) and moving to Europe Henrietta Stackpole- journalist friend of Isabel Countess Gemini gossips constantly, reveals that Pansy is the illegitimate daughter of Merle and Osmond
The Beast in the Jungle
by Henry James John Marcher likens his sense of foreboding to the lurking title creature Marcher realizes he has wasted his life waiting, flings himself on his wife May Bertram's grave Opens with Marcher staying at Weatherend
The Ambassadors
by Henry James Lambert Strether is sent to Paris to find Chad Newsome Strether meets Madame de Vionnet at Notre Dame Cathedral, declines Maria Gostrey's proposal of marriage An artist goes by the name Little Bilham because he is short Strether gives a climactic speech in the garden of a sculptor named Gloriani, includes the line "Live all you can" Sarah and Mamie Pocock go to Europe The lawyer Mr. Waymarsh travels with Strether Strether takes a train ride to see country landscape that reminds him of a Lambinet painting
The Golden Bowl
by Henry James Maggie Verver discovers affair between Charlotte Stant and Prince Amerigo (maggie's husband) after purchasing title object Fanny Assingham introduces Maggie to Amerigo, destroys title object Shopkeeper who is fluent in Italian recognizes photograph of Amerigo and Charlotte
The Turn of the Screw
by Henry James Narrated by the Governess who believes she is being haunted by ghosts of Miss Jessel and Peter Quint The governess succeeds Miss Jessel in her position at Bly The children Flora and Miles are visited by ghosts Miles is expelled from school, exclaims "Peter Quint—you devil!" (devil could refer to Quint or the governess) before dying in governess's arms at the end The governess sees an apparition of a man in a tower and later in a dining room window The servant Luke is blamed for never delivering a letter but it turns out Miles stole it and burned it Edmund Wilson argued that the ghosts were imagined by protagonist in his essay "Ambiguity in Henry James" Miles claims to have put out a candle that interrupts the writing of a letter Frame story of this novel is a manuscript by the governess being read at a party by Douglas Housekeeper Mrs. Grose takes Flora to her uncle
The Figure in the Carpet
by Henry James Narrator writes a review of Hugh Vereker's most recent novel and tries to become close with Gwendolen
The Bostonians
by Henry James Popularized the term "Boston marriage" which refers to a lesbian couple cohabiting for a long time Verena Tarrant is groomed by Olive Chancellor to be a spokesperson for the feminist movement, runs away with lawyer Basil Ransom instead of giving speech at Music Hall Opens with mesmerist quack Selah and the pioneering Dr. Prance attend the party hosted by Miss Birdseye Tarrant turns down proposal from Matthias Pardon
Paste
by Henry James Reverse of the plot of "The Necklace" by Maupassant A string of pearls is eventual found to be genuine Mrs. Guy buys pearls after Charlotte Prime's cousin Arthur sells it
Roderick Hudson
by Henry James Rowland Mallet meets title sculptor who loves Christina Light
The Wings of the Dove
by Henry James Set in Venice Merton Densher attempts to woo the terminally ill Milly Theale though he loves Kate Croy Kate Croy wants to escape being financially dependent on her aunt Maud Lowder Last line: "We shall never be again as we were!"
The Aspern Papers
by Henry James Set in Venice Juliana Bordereau calls the narrator a "publishing scoundrel" after she catches him sneaking into her room to steal title objects from her desk Miss Tita- Juliana's niece, burns title objects
The Princess Casamassima
by Henry James Title character earlier appeared in James's book Roderick Hudson Hyacinth Robinson gets involved with revolutionary politics and the title royal figure named Christina Light Hyacinth inherits money from Miss Pynsent and works with revolutionary Paul Muniment
Daisy Miller
by Henry James Title character is an American woman in Europe, is ostracized for her relationship with Mr. Giovanelli Narrator Frederick Winterbourne loves title character, recites lines from Byron's Manfred after seeing her with Giovanelli at the Colosseum at night where she contracts and later dies from Roman fever (malaria) Title character is uninvited from Mrs. Walker's parties after she walks alone with Italian men and offends guests such as Mr. Costello Winterbourne accompanies title character to Chillon Castle(Chateau de Chillon) in Vevey, Switzerland The courier Eugenio disaproves of title character's plan to go boating on a lake with Winterbourne Randolph- title character's younger brother, prefers Schenectady to Europe, complains about being unable to get "American candy" Winterbourne's aunt asks him to bring a copy of Cherbuliez's Paule Méré
What Maisie Knew
by Henry James Title child character deals with the divorce of her parents Beale and Ida Farange
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville "Call me Ishmael" Pequod, owned by Captains Bildad and Peleg, is destroyed by a giant white whale Captain Ahab- lighting bolt shaped scar, nails a gold doubloon to mast Queequeg- tattoo'd cannibal from Rokovoko, worships the idol Yojo, stays with Ishmael in Spouter-Inn Starbuck- first mate, he and Flask are in command of Daggoo and Tashtego Father Maple delivers a sermon on story of Jonah The Rachel saves Ishmael while he floats on Queequeg's coffin Pip- black cabin boy, goes crazy after Stubb leaves him at sea Zoroastrian/Parsee Fedallah predicts Ahab will die only if he sees two hearses on the ocean and that he can be killed only by hemp, has a white turban
Pierre, or the Ambiguities
by Herman Melville After having a vision of the giant Enceladus, the titular character eventually kills Glen Stanley and commits suicide using his sister Isabel's poison
The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids
by Herman Melville Describes being taken to a club of lawyers in London where time was measured by "a wine chronometer"
The Confidence-Man
by Herman Melville Final novel Allegory in which the title figure interacts with passengers on the steamboat Fidele on the Mississippi Set on April Fools' Day
Battle-Pieces
by Herman Melville Novel containing author's civil war poetry
White-Jacket
by Herman Melville Sailor aboard the Neversink, stitches the title garment from scraps of rags
Billy Budd, Sailor
by Herman Melville Title stuttering sailor is executed for punching and killing Master-at-Arms of the HMS Bellipotent, John Claggart Title character says "God bless Captain Vere!" before being hanged Old man Dansker warns title character that Jimmy Legs dislikes him Ends with a ballad about title character "in the Darbies" Title "Handsome Sailor" hits Red Whiskers, is harassed by Squeak
The Bell-Tower
by Herman Melville in The Piazza Tales Bannadonna's pursuit of perfection leads to his death when he tries to fix a device located at the top of the title structure.
Bartelby the Scrivener
by Herman Melville in The Piazza Tales Narrator employs Ginger Nut(brings cakes to title character), Turkey, Nippers, and title character at law office Title character responds "I would prefer not to" to every request Protagonist used to work at a Dead Letter office, starves to death in The Tombs as he "would prefer not to" eat Ends with narrator exclaiming "Ah, humanity!" One character has indigestion in mornings while other is intoxicated in the afternoons
Benito Cereno
by Herman Melville in the Piazza Tales Amasa Delano(captain of the Bachelor's Delight) discovers that Babo led a slave-rebellion against the title captain of the San Dominick A servant accidentally draws blood while shaving the nervous, shaking captain Figurehead inscribed with "follow your leader" revealed to display the skeleton of Alexandro Aranda
The Lightning-Rod Man
by Herman Melville in the Piazza Tales Character who considers it dangerous to sit near a fireplace in a thunderstorm is given the joking nickname "Jupiter Tonans" Title character claims to be able to control the weather with a long, copper object
Narcissus and Goldmund
by Hermann Hesse First title character teaches second title character in a monastery called Mariabronn Second title character leaves monastery to become an artist/sculptor after having sex with a gypsy while first title character remains and eventually becomes head abbot Second title character is forced to stab his traveling companion Viktor after Viktor attacks him Second title character apprentices under woodcarver Master Niklaus
Beneath the Wheel
by Hermann Hesse Hans Giebenrath is crushed by German education system, is expelled from Maulbronn seminary, and is shortly found drowned in a river thereafter Hans Giebenrath befriends Hermann Heilner, becomes a blacksmith's apprentice
The Glass Bead Game
by Hermann Hesse Joseph Knecht achieves the title of Magister Ludi in the fictional province of Castalia after becoming master of title game Knecht retires his title and quits title game to become Tito's tutor before drowning in a lake while teaching him Thomas van der Trave - is succeeded by Knecht as Magister Ludi Knecht studies at Waldzell with Plinio Designori, the father Tito Knecht travels to Mariafels, a monestary in Castalia where he befriends Father Jacobus and studies the I Ching with Elder Brother in the Bamboo Grove Fritz Tegularius- based on Nietzsche, studies at Waldzell The Music Master tests Knecht Knecht writes stories including one titled "Three Lives"in which a self-sacrificing rainmaker, a hermit, and an Indian Prince named Dasa represent reincarnations of its protagonist Modern era is described as the "Age of Feuilleton" by a historian named Plinius Ziegenhalss
Journey to the East
by Hermann Hesse Protagonist joins "The League" and goes on a quest to find the "ultimate truth" The League fails shortly after Leo abandons them at the gorge Morbio Inferiore Various of Hesse's other characters appear in this novel including Vasudeva and Goldmund
Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse Title Brahmin searches for meaning Title character first defies his father by standing outside his window all night, leaves with his friend Govinda to become an ascetic Samana in the forest Title character leaves Govinda who joins the Buddha(called Gotama) Title character learns business from Kamaswami and becomes rich in order to gain affections of the courtesan Kamala, gambles with dice in order to renounce his wealth Kamala and title character become lovers, he leaves her after dreaming of the death of her songbird in a cage, realizes her child is his after she dies from a snake bite Title character reaches enlightenment with the ferryman Vasudeva who teaches him to listen to the river Title character contemplates suicide while hanging onto a coconut tree above the river Ends with Govinda kissing title character's forehead
Demian
by Hermann Hesse Title character Max prods narrator Emil Sinclair(pseudonym used by Hesse to publish this work) to spiritual realization The organist Pistorius becomes Sinclair's mentor, introduces him to the god Abraxas who appears in Sinclair's dream as a sparrow hawk hatching from an egg Title character telepathically stops Franz Kromer from bullying Sinclair Sinclair becomes infatuated with title character's mother Frau Eva Several characters bear the Mark of Cain, title character explains an alternate interpretation of the story of Cain and Able to Sinclair Alfons Beck introduces Sinclair to alcohol Early in this novel, Sinclair is scolded by his father for muddy shoes after he steals a sack of apples, leading to him being blackmailed by Kromer
Gertrud
by Hermann Hesse Title character marries Heinrich Muoth instead of the composer Kuhn
Klingsor's Last Summer
by Hermann Hesse Tu Fu attempts to help his friend, the title painter
Trilogy
by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) "These Walls Do Not Fall" "Tribute to the Angels" "The Flowering of the Rod"
Oread
by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) Tells the sea to "Whirl up...hurl your green over us, cover us with your pools of fir."
Ars Poetica
by Horace "in medias res" - (good plots begin in the middle of the action) Warns against use of "deus ex machina" Written as an epistle to Lucius Calpurnius Piso and his sons (the Pisones) "ut pictura poesis" - ("as in painting, so in poetry") "even good Homer nods" Asserts that plays should have five acts Opens by describing the absurdity of a painter attaching a human head to a horse's neck
Carmen Saeculare
by Horace Choir of 27 boys and 27 girls To be sung at Secular Games celebrating end of the century
Horace's Epodes
by Horace Draws heavily on the iambic poetry of Archilochus
Hell's Angels
by Hunter S. Thompson "Strange and Terrible Saga" about title motorcycle gang lead by Sonny Barger that Thompson infiltrated, launched his career
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson Adapted from a piece in the Rolling Stones About drug-laced adventures of Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo who are sent to title city to cover the Mint 400 motorcycle race Man asks the narrator to throw a toaster into his bathtub when the song "White Rabbit" plays Opens with Samuel Johnson's quote "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man"
Fatelessness
by Imre Kertész First part of trilogy that also includes Fiasco and Kaddish for an Unborn Child Semi-autobiographical story about György "Gyuri" Köves, a 14 year old boy from Budapest who bounces around concentration camps Gyorgy stops in Auschwitz and Buchenwald before ending up in Zeitz where he meets Bandi Citrom Gyorgy is repeatedly ostracized for not being a "real Jew"
Kaddish For An Unborn Child
by Imre Kertész Follows Fiasco and Fatelessness in a trilogy Holocaust survivor B. repeatedly says "no" to his wife's requests to start a family, explains to Dr. Oblath why he does not want children
Liquidation
by Imre Kertész Kingbitter discovers a play written by B.
Shosha
by Isaac Bashevis Singer A character nicknamed Tsutsik refuses to leave Poland because of his love for the title character
The Magician of Lublin
by Isaac Bashevis Singer About title womanizing stage performer Yasha Mazur Yasha cheats on his barren Jewish wife Esther with his acrobat assistant Magda who commits suicide and with the Catholic Emilia
The Family Moskat
by Isaac Bashevis Singer Asa Heshel interacts with title family
Enemies, A Love Story
by Isaac Bashevis Singer Herman Broder, a Holocaust survivor accidentally commits bigamy and discovers his first wife Tamara survived
Satan in Goray
by Isaac Bashevis Singer Messianic cult of Sabbatai Zevi sweeps through title town
The Spinoza of Market Street
by Isaac Bashevis Singer The intellectual Nahum Fischelson marries the old maid Black Dobbe
Gimpel the Fool
by Isaac Bashevis Singer Title baker is married to the verbally abusive Elka, refuses to believe her adultery until she reveals the six children she had without him on her deathbed Spirit of Evil convinces title character to urinate in loaves of bread that he later buries, tells title character there is no God only a "thick mire" Set in Frampol whose other residents frequently take advantage of title character, title character leaves Frampol to become a wandering storyteller Rietze the Candle-dipper makes fun of title character Saul Bellow translated this work into English
Seven Gothic Tales
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen "The Deluge at Norderney" "The Old Chevalier" "The Monkey" "The Roads Round Pisa" "The Supper at Elsinore" "The Dreamers" "The Poet"
Sorrow-Acre
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen Anne-Marie Kiil dies after mowing an entire field of rye in one day to free her son
Out of Africa
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen Describes her experience owning a coffee plantation in Ngong Hills of Kenya with her husband. Narrator falls in love with Denys Finch Hatton who dies in a plane crash Two lions gather at grave of Finch Hatton One section describes dances called "ngomas" Narrator sends Kamante to hospital after failing to heal his sore legs, he converts to Christianity
The Monkey
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales A Prioress, possessed by the title animal, tries to get Boris to rape Athena Hopballehus
The Old Chevalier
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales About a baron's affair with the young Nathalie
The Deluge at Norderney
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales Calypso marries Jonathan Maersk in a hayloft, where they are trapped while waiting out a flood along with Cardinal Hamilcar and Malin Nat-og-Dag The Cardinal reveals he is actually Kasparson, tells the story "The Wine of the Tetrarch" - about a man named Barabbas
The Dreamers
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales Opera singer Pellegrina Leoni losers her voice in a fire
The Roads Round Pisa
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales Prince Potenziani asks Count Nino toimpregnate his wife
The Supper at Elsinore
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen In Seven Gothic Tales Set in town named for castle Hamlet lived in Fanny and Eliza De Coninck are visited by the ghost of their brother Morten
Babette's Feast
by Isak Dinesen aka Karen Blixen Lorens Löwenhielm and Achille Papin pursue the pious sisters Martine and Philippa forty-nine years before the title Parisian chef uses 10,000 francs of lottery winnings to throw them an elaborate dinner The sisters are named after Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon In collection Anecdotes of Destiny
Why Read the Classics?
by Italo Calvino 14 definitions of title books Discusses Candide and Borges Includes the essay "The World is an Artichoke"
The Castle of Crossed Destinies
by Italo Calvino Group of travelers become mute in a forest and tell stories using tarot cards
Six Memos for the Next Millennium
by Italo Calvino Illustrates "lightness" and compares The Unbearable Lightness of Being to "Ovid's fragile Medusa" in first memo Another discusses "multiplicity" with a quote from a Carlo Emilio Gadda novel
Invisible Cities
by Italo Calvino Marco Polo describes 55 title entities to Kublai Khan while playing chess in imperial magnolia garden "Thin," "Trading," "Continuous", and "Hidden" varieties One title location, Despina, looks like a camel to those approaching by ship and like a ship to those approaching by camel All are thinly veiled versions of Venice and are named after women such as Theodora, Octavia, Diomira, and Berenice Ersilia contains no people but merely strings charting the former inhabitants' relationships "It is not the voice that commands the story: it is the ear" One is a massive spider-web over an abyss
The Nonexistent Knight
by Italo Calvino Part of Our Ancestors trilogy alongside The Cloven Viscount and The Baron in the Trees Agilulf- knight under Charlemagne whose body is a suit of armor Gurduloo- Agilulf's squire Torrismund is sought by Agilulf
The Baron in the Trees
by Italo Calvino Part of Our Ancestors trilogy alongside The Cloven Viscount and The Nonexistent Knight Cosimo Piovasco becomes title character after renouncing his parent's estate, refuses to eat his sister Battista's snail soup at the start Ends with Cosimo grabbing onto a hot air balloon Narrated by Cosimo's brother Biagio Cosimo works with the beekeeper Carrega to set up an irrigation system, wars with "fruit theives", has an affair with Viola Protagonist trades books with the brigand Gian dei Brughi, owns a dog named Ottimo Massimo
The Cloven Viscount
by Italo Calvino Part of Our Ancestors trilogy with The Nonexistent Knight and The Baron in the Trees A cannonball splits Medardo, the title nobleman from Terralba, into two halves- "The Good 'Un" and "The Bad 'Un." Dr. Trelawney stitches title character together so that he can marry Pamela and regain his position Dr. Trelawney walks around graveyards searching for will-o-the-wisps, believes chickens tied to a terrace railing represent diarrhea Colony of lepers lives in Pratofungo
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino Protagonist is "you", the Reader who is depicted in odd chapters while even chapters are the first chapters of different books that together create a long sentence You meet Ludmilla(love interest) after you both return Tazio Bazakbal's Outside the Town of Malbork due to printing error You and Ludmilla seek out Professor Uzzi-Tuzzi, a researcher of Dead Languages who explains conflict between Cimmeria and Cimbria Ludmilla's sister Lotaria wants to create a machine that condenses literature into a series of numbers. Antagonist- shadowy fake translator Ermes Marana who lives in Ataguitania Includes the diary of Silas Flannery- author of "In a network of lines that enlace" who meets a UFO cult, tries to plagiarize Crime and Punishment A professor hears various telephones ringing in different houses while jogging before picking one up to find out a stranger has kidnapped his crush/student Marjorie Stubbs Outside the town of Malbork- Mr. Kauderer fights Ponko over a picture of Zwida Policeman uses the password "Zeno of Elia" at a train station to tell another man to hang on to his suitcase Ukko Ahti- Cimmerian author who wrote Leaning from the Steep Slope One section- Narrator has sex with Madame Miyagi while her daughter Makiko watches
The Path to the Nest Spiders
by Italo Calvino Set during WWII Pin steals a Nazi's gun and later shares title hiding place to the Communist Red Wolf Pin's sister is a prostitute nicknamed "the Dark Girl of Long Alley"
Mr. Palomar
by Italo Calvino Title man spies on a cheese shop
A Sportsman's Sketches
by Ivan Turgenev "Hamlet of the Shchigrovsky District"- compares an indecisive nobleman to Hamlet "Khor and Kalinych"- dialogue between the two title peasants
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev Arkady Kirsanov is friends with Evgeny Bazarov, they advocate for "nihilism" Arkady's father Nikolai struggles to understand his son Bazarov dissects frogs, contracts typhus while performing an autopsy and dies, calls Anna Odintsova to his deathbed Nikolai's brother Pavel marries Princess R Pavel duels Bazarov over Fenichka Arkady marries Katya "A passable chemist is twenty times as useful as any poet"
Diary of a Superfluous Man
by Ivan Turgenev Tchulkaturin recounts his childhood Title man archetype- Russian Literary figure that is born with goodwill, wealth, power, and status but is unable to accomplish anything
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin David's fiancé Hella discovers his homosexuality Guillaume is murdered
The Fire Next Time
by James Baldwin Examines his experiences with The Nation of Islam Essays: "My Dungeon Shook" and "Down on the Cross."
Emma
by Jane Austen Title character Woodhouse Title character sets up best friend, Harriet Smith with Robert Martin before confessing love for George Knightly Frank Churchill is revealed to have been secretly engaged to Jane Fairfax(niece of the chatty Miss Bates) Title character rejects Mr. Elton Piano is anonymously given to Jane
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
by John Bunyan Autobiography written in Bedford Gaol
The Life and Death of Mr. Badman
by John Bunyan dialogue between Mr. Wiseman and Mr. Attentive
The Flea
by John Donne "sucked me first, and now sucks thee" "you and I and this our marriage bed" "hast thou since / Purpled thy nail in blood of innocence?"
Death be not Proud
by John Donne In author's Holy Sonnets "Batter my heart, three-person'd God."
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
by Jonathan Edwards "let everyone that is out of Christ now awake" Nothing but the "mere pleasure of God" keeps "wicked men" out of hell "over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider" "Their foot shall slide in due time."
Everything is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer About author's family's experience with the Holocaust, fictional version of Foer travels to Ukraine
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer Oskar Schell's father dies in 9/11, he attempts to contact everyone with the surname "Black" as he searches for a lock that matches a key he finds
Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote
by Jorge Borges About a French writer who has rewritten a Cervantes work word for word
The Garden of Forking Paths
by Jorge Borges Doctor Yu Tsun is a Professor of English & spy for Germany in WWI Yu Tsun is pursued by Irish MI5 agent Richard Madden, murders Sinologist Stephen Albert to send message to superiors about location of an artillery park in Albert Title refers to novel written by protagonist's ancestor, Ts'ui Pen that considers every outcome of every action to create an infinite labyrinth- "I leave the several futures (not to all) my garden of forking paths"
Death and the Compass
by Jorge Borges Red Scharlach murders the detective Erik Lonnrot at Triste-le-Roi
Ficciones
by Jorge Borges The Library of Babel The Garden of Forking Paths Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius
The Library of Babel
by Jorge Borges Title building has infinite hexagonal rooms & contains all possible books- books contain all possible arrangements of 22 letters, spaces, commas, and periods in 410 pages Faction of workers in title structure called "Purifiers" seek out Crimson Hexagon at the center, another faction seeks out "Man of the Book" who is said to have read index of the library One book is full of gibberish except phrase "Oh time, thy pyramids" on second to last page Other Books: The Combed Thunderclap and The Plaster Cramp
Funes, the Memorious
by Jorge Borges Title character can remember everything after falling off a horse
The Aleph
by Jorge Borges Title location is a point in space where one can see every point in the universe from every angle, is located in a Carlos Daneri's cellar and he tries to use it to write a poem
Tlön, Uqbar, Orbus Tertius
by Jorge Borges Tlön is a fictional country in an encyclopedia which eventually becomes the real world Borges's friend Adolfo Bioy Casares maintains the fictional world Language contains no nouns Hronir begin appearing in the real world
Pedro Paramo
by Juan Rulfo Juan Preciado travels to town of ghosts Comala to meet his father Title narrator is stabbed to death by his illegitimate son Abundio Martinez Initial narrator is sent to home of Dona Eduviges After death of Susana San Juan, title character "crosses his arms" and lets whole village starve to death Gabriel Garcia Marquez claimed he was only able to finish writing One Hundred Years of Solitude after reading this novel Father Renteria is bribed into absolving a killer and rapist Bartolome lowers his daughter into a mine shaft to look for gold coins, she sees a skeleton
Tell Them Not to Kill Me!
by Juan Rulfo in the collection The Burning Plain Character makes title plea to his son Justino after arrival of the firing squad
Because We Are So Poor
by Juan Rulfo in the collection The Burning Plain Sibling of Tacha describes losing the cow named La Serpentina in a flood
The Insect Play
by Karel Capek "Butterflies" section
War with the Newts
by Karel Capek Captain van Toch discovers a group of intelligent lizards on an island near Sumatra that take over and destroy Earth's landmass to make more coastline Captain van Toch enslaves title creatures for pearl farming and industrialist Gussie H. Bondy harnesses them for hydroengineering projects Includes Mr. Povondra's newspaper clippings One of the title creatures kept in the London Zoo named Andrew Scheuchzer learns English by reading newspapers Includes mock-academic account of the "Sex Lives" of the titular creatures
The Makropulos Affair
by Karel Capek Opera singer Emilia Marty procures a formula that allows her to live for 300 years Inspired an opera of the same name by Leos Janacek Inspired an essay of the same name by Bernard Williams subtitled "Reflections on the Tedium of Immortality"
Hordubal
by Karel Capek Peasant returns home from working in American coal mines
The White Disease
by Karel Capek Play satirizing Nazi Germany in which Dr. Galen cures a disease that only affects people over the age of 45
The Absolute at Large
by Karel Capek Rudolph Marek invents the Karburator, a machine which uses the title residue-less energy
Sometimes a Great Notion
by Ken Kesey Henry Stamper- woodcutter whose motto is "Never give an inch!" Title comes from line from the song "Goodnight Irene" Set in Wakonda, Oregon Henry's half brother Lee elopes with Viv
One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey Mental institution in Oregon run by Nurse Ratched, residents are divided into "acutes" and "chronics" Randall McMurphy attempts to rebel, is lobotomized, and smothered by narrator Chief Bromden Billy Bibbit- stutters, has sex with prostitute named Candy Starr, commits suicide sparking attack on Ratched Narrator refers to forces of authority as "the Combine" which he believes can control fog Characters go on a fishing trip and watch the world series Bromden reveals he is not a deaf-mute after being offered Juicy Fruit, throws a control panel through a window in order to escape
Colonel Sun
by Kingsley Amis First non-Fleming James Bond novel published under pseudonym "Robert Markham" Title Chinese agent sends two servants to kidnap a man at his estate called Quarterdeck
The Green Man
by Kingsley Amis Ghost of Dr. Underhill haunts the inn owned by Maurice Allington
Lucky Jim
by Kingsley Amis Title character is Professor Jim Dixon, gives a drunken lecture on "Merrie England" resulting in him being fired by Professor Ned Welch His rival Bertrand gives him a black eye after Jim sleeps with Bertrand's girlfriend Christine Callaghan After boyfriend Catchpole dumps her, Margaret Peel pretends to attempt suicide. Julius Gore-Urquhart gives protagonist a job Protagonist's paper on shipbuilding techniques is plagiarized in an Italian translation by Dr. Caton
The Old Devils
by Kingsley Amis, won the Booker prize Alun Weaver and his wife Rhiannon drink themselves into a stupor after returning home to Wales Relives past with Charlie Norris
Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist, becomes "unstuck in time" during WWII, survives bombing of Dresden Protagonist is forced to mate with Montana Wildhack in a public zoo on Tralfamadore for aliens shaped like toilet plungers. Ends with a bird saying "Poo-tee-weet" Every time someone dies the phrase "So it goes" is recited Eliot Rosewater introduces protagonist to the books of Kilgore Trout Paul Lazzaro commits murder to avenge the death of Roland Weary Edgar Derby is executed for stealing a teapot
All the King's Horses
by Kurt Vonnegut Captured army pilot forced for participate in human game of chess
The Sirens of Titan
by Kurt Vonnegut Malachi Constant visits Saturn
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
by Kurt Vonnegut Norman Mushari attempts to have title character declared insane to steal his fortune
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut Pontiac salesman, Dwayne Hoover goes on a rampage after reading a Kilgore Trout novel, becomes obsessed with Trout
Bluebeard
by Kurt Vonnegut Rabo Karabekian paints a potato barn
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut Set mostly on Caribbean Island of San Lorenzo Ice-Nine is invented by Felix Hoenikker which can freeze an entire world Bokononism- manufactured religion, practitioners put their bare feet together in a ritual, have a fake language where "karass" is a group of cosmically linked people, "granfalloon" is a false karass Hoosiers are a granfalloon
Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut, his first novel Paul Proteus is set up as leader of Ghost Shirt Society
The Kreutzer Sonata
by Leo Tolstoy Based on a work by Beethoven Pozdnyshev kills his wife after he finds her having an affair with a violinist
Resurrection
by Leo Tolstoy Dmitri Nekhludoff falls in love with Maslova
War and Peace
by Leo Tolstoy Set during Napoleon's invasion of Russia Pierre Bezhukov initially marries Helene Kuragin, she has an affair with Nikolay Rostov who almost dies in a subsequent duel with Pierre Anatole- brother of Helene, son of Vassily Natasha Rostov is initially married to Prince Andrei Bolkonsky who dies at Battle of Borodino Pierre Bezhukov joins the Freemasons and marries Natasha Rostov
How Much Land Does a Man Need
by Leo Tolstoy The devil challenges Pahom to collect as much property as possible He collapses while running and dies
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
by Leo Tolstoy Title action occurs when title character falls while hanging curtains Title character is a judge served by Gerasim
The Walrus and the Carpenter
by Lewis Carroll In Through the Looking Glass Two travelers eat a group of sentient oysters and "talk of many things" They discuss "cabbages and kings."
The Old and the Young
by Luigi Pirandello Flaminio tries to starve Sicilian workers by shutting down a mine
Tonight We Improvise
by Luigi Pirandello Forms a trilogy of "theater within the theater" with Six Characters in Search of an Author and Each in His Own Way A group of actors directed by Doctor Hinkfuss attempt to put on a production of Pirandello's Leonora, Addio!
Each in His Own Way
by Luigi Pirandello Forms a trilogy of "theater within the theater" with Six Characters in Search of an Author and Tonight We Improvise Play-within-a-play in which Delia Morello plays an unfaithful fiancée Francesco Savio and Doro Palegari duel over affections of Delia
One, No One, and One Hundred Thousand
by Luigi Pirandello Genge goes mad after his wife comments that his nose tilts to the right
Right You Are (If You Think You Are)
by Luigi Pirandello Lamberto Laudisi attempts to dissuade a group of townspeople from determining whether Signora Frola's daughter Lena is dead or actually Ponza's wife Laudisi discuses insanity with a mirror Counselor Agazzi also attempts to find out Signora Ponza's identity Policeman Centuri announces "there is news"
The Man With the Flower in His Mouth
by Luigi Pirandello One-act dialogue in which a man who has missed his train converses on a terrace with a man dying of facial epithelioma (title cancerous growth new his mustache) Produced on BBC as a TV experiment
Playful Evil
by Luigi Pirandello Poetry collection
The Late Mattia Pascal
by Luigi Pirandello Title character wins a small fortune in Monte Carlo, finds out a corpse has been mistaken for him and he has been declared dead Title character assumes the name Adriano Meis to start a new life Title character abandons his wife Romilda Pescatore
Enrico IV
by Luigi Pirandello or Henry IV Man hits himself on the head after falling off of a horse during a pageant and believes himself to be the title Holy Roman Emperor. Title character stabs Tito Belcredi who stole his beloved Donna Matilda Spina during pageant Count de Nolli- nephew of title character, funds actors to play roles in "court" of title character for 20 years Frida- Matilda's daughter who dresses as Matilda in attempt to "cure" title character Title character gets angry when he thinks a character disguised as a monk is Peter Damian Dr. Dionysius Genoni helps cure title character
Bound to Violence
by Malian writer Yambo Ouologuem Sued by Graham Greene for plagiarism
Eternal Curse on the Reader of these Pages
by Manuel Puig Dialogue between wheelchair-bound union organizer Mr. Ramirez and his part-time assistant Larry
Heartbreak Tango
by Manuel Puig Nene Fernandez sends letters to Leonor about tubercular Juan Carlos Etchepare "Big Fanny" kills the police officer Francisco
The Kiss of the Spider Woman
by Manuel Puig Novel which Puig also adapted into a play Homosexual Molina relates the plots of movies to his cellmate Valentin Films include one about woman who turns into a cat person, one about a zombie infested island, and a fictional Nazi propaganda film Ends with Valentin being tortured, morphine-induced dream where he lands on a tropical island and meets his lover Marta Footnotes explaining psychoanalytic ideas about homosexuality
Betrayed by Rita Hayworth
by Manuel Puig, his first novel Centers on Jose Casals, aka Toto's obsession with films Includes Toto's school essay about The Great Waltz called "The Movie I Liked Best"
Alias Grace
by Margaret Atwood Framed as a dialogue between the title character and Dr. Simon Jordan Title character is institutionalized for murders of Nancy Montgomery and Thomas Kinnear, hopes to be proven hysteric
Oryx and Crake
by Margaret Atwood Jimmy/Snowman is last man on earth, former salesman for genetically engineered products like the BlyssPluss pill Jimmy plays with Glenn(who he calls Crake) in Extinctathon trivia game, discover the other title character on the child porn site HottTotts Crake attends Watson-Crick Institute, is hired by RejoovenEsense, creates the bubble dome of Paradice, develops perfect race (his namesake "Children") Sequels-The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam Pet rakunk named Killer
Cat's Eye
by Margaret Atwood Painter, Elaine Risley reflects on one of her works, keeps title marble in red purse
The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood Protagonist Offred, described as "two-legged womb", sleeps with the chauffeur Nick, a member of the Mayday resistance Set in the Republic of Gilead Offred works for Serena Joy- who is married to the Commander Offred plays Scrabble with the Commander, steals butter(hides it in her shoes) to use as lotion Latin phrase is translated to "Don't let the bastards grind you down" Transcribed from cassette tapes discovered by Professor Pieixoto Judd came up with the Particicution(aka "salvaging" where title characters beat to death someone at the signal of a whistle) in its epilogue Offred trains at the Red Center with Aunt Lydia, is friends with a lesbian named Moira who becomes a prostitute at Jezebel's Luke- husband of Offred "The Wall"- where bodies are often hung Secret police - the Eyes of God, Ofglen commits suicide before she can be arrested
Hag-Seed
by Margaret Atwood Retells The Tempest from point of view of Felix, a theater director
The Year of the Flood
by Margaret Atwood Sequel to Oryx and Crake, its sequel is MaddAddam Ren- prostitute, former God's Gardener Toby- God's Gardener, goes into hiding at AnooYoo spa
The Penelopiad
by Margaret Atwood The Odyssey from a female perspective Poems from the perspective of twelve hanged maids lead by Melthano
The Robber Bride
by Margaret Atwood Tony, Charis, and Roz each encounter their long dead classmate Zenia
The Blind Assasssin
by Margaret Atwood sisters Iris and Laura Chase- daughters of a button factory owner in Port Ticonderoga Contains novel within a novel written by Laura but published by Iris to expose how Robert Griffin raped Laura Opens with suicide of Laura when she drives a car over a bridge Title refers to a novel within a novel within a novel inspired by Laura's affair with Alex Thomas- man falls in love with a girl from Zycron in the city of Sakiel-Norn
The War of the End of the World
by Mario Vargas LLosa About War of Canudos uprising in Brazil state Bahia Inspired by Rebellion in the Backlands(or Os Sertoes) by Euclides da Cunha, Cunha is represented as the Nearsighted Journalist in this work Antonio Conselhiero, known as "The Counselor." leads the Canudos Redheaded Scottish phrenologist named Galileo Gall joins the Canudos and smuggles guns after being tricked by Epaminondas Goncalves Jurema, wife of Rufino, is raped by Galileo Gall
The Dream of the Celt
by Mario Vargas Llosa About Roger Casement and the Easter Revolution
The Temptation of the Impossible
by Mario Vargas Llosa Analysis of Les Miserables
The Way to Paradise
by Mario Vargas Llosa Follows the lives of Paul Gauguin and his feminist grandmother Flora Tristan as they meet in Tahiti
A Fish in the Water
by Mario Vargas Llosa Memoir discussing his 1990 loss to Alberto Fujimori in the Peruvian presidential election
The Time of the Hero
by Mario Vargas Llosa Original title translated to The City and the Dogs Set in Leoncio Prado Military Academy Events are told by Lieutenant Gamboa to Alberto "The Poet" Jaguar- leader of "The Circle" murders Ricardo Arana, a boy nicknamed "the Slave" and was raised by his Aunt Adelina Porfirio Cava breaks a window to steal a chemistry test Circle member Boa molests children, chickens, and his own dog Skimpy Many students lose their virginity to the prostitute Golden Toes
The Bad Girl
by Mario Vargas Llosa Retelling of Madame Bovary Title character goes by the names Lily and Arlette, is admired by Ricardo
Conversation in the Cathedral
by Mario Vargas Llosa Santiago Zavala- protagonist who meets his chauffer Ambrosio at a dog pound where a dachshund is beaten to death and they continue their conversation at title bar Depicts life in Peru under dictator Manuel Odria Don Fermin- lover of Ambrosio Santiago asks "At what precise moment had Peru f'ed itself up?" Cayo Bermúdez- military dictator who inspires Ambrosio to murder Hortensia Superbrain- nickname of Santiago
The Storyteller
by Mario Vargas Llosa Saul Zuratas integrates himself into the Machiguenga tribe
Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
by Mario Vargas Llosa Semi-autobiographical about Mario's affair with first title character Radio Panamericana, lead by the Genaros hires Pedro Camacho to write soap operas, goes insane and mixes up and kills characters in big fire at a monastery during an earthquake. First title character and Mario travel with Javier and Pascual from town to town to try and get a mayor to marry them Jehovah's Witness Gumercindo Tello threatens to castrate himself to prove himself innocent of rape Epigraph is from The Graphographer and contains the quote "I write. I write that I am writing." Pedro Camacho's wife is an Argentinian prostitute, fueling his irrational hatred for the country Joaquin Hinostroza Bellmont- famous soccer referee Federico Tellez Unzategui becomes obsessed with killing rats after they eat his baby sister Donald Duck comic-reading policeman Jaime Concha One character learns to hate children after accidentally running one over with the help of a psychiatrist
Captain Pantoja and the Special Service
by Mario Vargas Llosa Title straitlaced Peruvian army officer is tasked in creating a prostitution service for a group of demoralized army troops in the Amazon.
The Green House
by Mario Vargas Llosa Title structure is a brothel built by the harp player Don Anselmo in the jungle Anselmo abducts Antonia to be his wife, her eyes and tongue are eaten out by vultures, she dies giving birth to Chunga Chunga rebuilds title structure Bonifacia becomes a prostitute named "Wildflower" in title location Sargent Lituma, husband of Bonifacia, plays Russian Roulette
The Feast of the Goat
by Mario Vargas Llosa Urania Cabral returns to the Dominican Republic after her rape by dictator Rafael Trujillo Agustin- aka "Egghead", paralyzed father of Urania who works for Trujillo Studies the rule of Rafael Trujillo and his assassination, which took place in a car
The Perpetual Orgy
by Mario Vargas Llosa study of Madame Bovary Highlights extended metaphor comparing Emma's memory of Léon to a campfire Calls Flaubert the "first modern novelist" Subtitled "Flaubert and Madame Bovary"
Time's Arrow
by Martin Amis Follows the life of a doctor at Auschwitz in reverse chronology Narrator assumes the alias Tod Friendly to conceal his true identity, Odilo Unverdorben
Money
by Martin Amis John Self goes to New York to work on dissatrous movie that turns out to be fake, is stalked by Frank the Phone, realizes his father is actually Fat Vince
London Fields
by Martin Amis Samson Young narrates the story of Nicola Six's murder that hasn't happened yet.
Mother
by Maxim Gorky Pelagea Nilovna supports her revolutionary son Pavel who is arrested while carrying a banner at a May Day celebration Pelagea makes copies of her Pavel's speech and distributes them as pamphlets
Children of the Sun
by Maxim Gorky Protasov is a chemist during a cholera outbreak
Twenty-six Men and a Girl
by Maxim Gorky Soldier successfully seduces Tanya after a challenge from a baker, leading to the collective heartbreak of a group of pretzel-makers who loved her
The Artamanov Business
by Maxim Gorky The hunchbacked Nikita gives up on being a monk
The Lower Depths
by Maxim Gorky The vagrant Luka visits title boarding house, briefly bringing hope to residents inside Kostilyoff- runs title location, is killed by Vaska Pepel Natasha- Kostilyoff's sister, plans to run off with Vaska before Vassilisa (Kostilyoff's wife) pours boiling water on her feet, leading the a brawl where Vaska kills Kostilyoff The Actor sustains himself with a belief in a "land of righteousness," hangs himself after abandoning hope of going to a sanatorium to cure his alcoholism One character spends all day fitting old keys and locks while sitting on a bench in the basement of title location while his wife Anna dies of tuberculosis Satine argues with Luka, cheats at cards causing devout Muslim, Hassan the Tartar, to erupt Bubnoff and Zoba sing while playing cards The Baron hits a woman over the head with a copy of romance novel Fatal Love
Summerfolk
by Maxim Gorky Vlass goes to work with Dvoetochie to found new schools Ends after Ryumin's failed suicide
Rabelais and His World
by Mikhail Bakhtin Asserts title author employed trope of the "grotesque body" to critique the wars of his time connects the carnivalesque with the "grotesque realism"
Death of the Poet
by Mikhail Lermontov Poem about the death of Alexander Pushkin
Get a Life
by Nadine Gordimer About ecologist Paul Bannerman's struggle with thyroid cancer He becomes radioactive
Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer About the title character Rosa's involvement in the anti-apartheid movement Rosa has to come to terms with Lionel's membership in SACP (communist party), was raised alongside a black boy called "Baasie" by her mother Cathy The professor Bernard Chabalier has an affair with the protagonist while she is visiting Lionel's first wife Katya Bagnelli in France Marisa Kgosana and protagonist are arrested following Soweto riots at the end Rosa has an affair with Conrad Title family loosely based on Bram Fischer's whose quotes are included in this work What Happened to it, or How South African Censorship Works- essay by Gordimer discussing banning and un-banning of this work Brand Vermeulen helps title character get a passport
Occasion for Loving
by Nadine Gordimer Ann Davis's affair with the painter Gideon Shibalo is sheltered by Jessie Stillwell
A Soldier's Embrace
by Nadine Gordimer Collection of short stories "Oral History" - village of Dilolo is burned after its chief reveals that it is harboring guerrillas during the Rhodesian Bush War
The Soft Voice of the Serpent
by Nadine Gordimer Collection of short stories "The Talisman" "The Umbilical Chord"
What Happened to Burger's Daughter or How South African Censorship Works
by Nadine Gordimer Discusses banning and subsequent un-banning of Burger's daughter
None to Accompany Me
by Nadine Gordimer Disintegrating marriage of Vera Stark, who takes a government position and forces her husband Bennet to join a luggage company
July's People
by Nadine Gordimer Historical fiction depicting reality where apartheid has been overthrown in a violent revolt by black population. White couple Bamford and Maureen Smales take refuge with title character, their former servant, in tribal village Gina, Victor, Royce- Smales children Ends with Maureen running towards a helicopter whose inhabitants are unknown. July drives the Smales' yellow "bakkie" truck Bam shoots two warthogs with shotgun, Daniel steals shotgun to go fight with black rebels Maureen feels guilty for photograph of her servant Lydia carrying Maureen's books as a kid that appeared in Life magazine Maureen drowns two kittens after Gina and Nyiko play with them, refuses to finish reading a copy of Manzoni's The Betrothed Title character accidentally kills a chicken that still has eggs within it
A Sport of Nature
by Nadine Gordimer Kim Capran decides to rename herself "Hillela" before becoming first lady of South Africa
The Late Bourgeois World
by Nadine Gordimer Max commits suicide by driving his car into the ocean
The Pickup
by Nadine Gordimer Mechanic named Abdu, an illegal Arab immigrant, meets a wealthy white woman named Julie whose car breaks down in the street
The Conservationist
by Nadine Gordimer Set on four hundred acre farm of white businessman Mehring, bought it as a tax write off and a place to take his girlfriend, Antonia Mancebo. Terry - gay son of Mehring (discovered when Mehring finds the erotic handbook Eros Himself in Terry's backpack) who ran away to New York The foreman Jacobus finds the buried body of a black man on the farm that is washed up by a rainstorm and given a more proper burial afterwards Opens with children playing with eleven freckled guinea fowl eggs against orders of Mehring Interspersed quotes from the Reverend Henry Callaway between chapters
The Day the Leader was Killed
by Naguib Mahfouz About assassination of President Anwar Sadat Randa has to marry her boss, whom her ex-boyfriend Elwan kills at the same time as title murder
The Children of Gebelawi
by Naguib Mahfouz Controversial allegorical history of the Abrahamic religions set in Cairo- lead to Mahfouz being stabbed in neck by extremists in 1994 Five sections First four: Adham, Gabal, Rifa'a, and Qasim--represent Adam, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed Final section: Arafa represents science and progress, his attempts to discover secrets of title character leads to title character's death Chief Strongman- controls alley, each character tries to overcome him Satanic Idris tries to tempt title characters
Sugar Street
by Naguib Mahfouz Final novel in Cairo trilogy Typhoid epidemic kills all of Aisha's family except her and on daughter causing her to go mad Yasin's son Ridwan becomes a gay politician Ahmad- Khadija's son who becomes Marxist journalist and marries a co-worker Kamal becomes a teacher, carries Al-Sayyid Ahmad to an air raid shelter
Palace Walk
by Naguib Mahfouz First novel in Cairo trilogy Al-Sayyid Ahmad Abd al-Jawad- patriarch, hypocritically returns home drunk and has many affairs with women he meets at his grocery store despite demanding extreme piety from his family Amina- Al-Sayyid Ahmad's wife, fractures her collar bone after feinting from heat and being hit by a car while heading to the al-Hussein mosque Fahmy- Eldest son of Amina, law student who is killed in peaceful demonstration, loves Maryam Yasin- Eldest son of Al-Sayyid Ahmad from his first marriage, realizes his father's hedonism after seeing him play the tambourine, tells Fahmy after Jalila confronts their father at Aisha's wedding, marries Zanuba Kamal- youngest son, based on Mahfouz Aisha- prettiest daughter marries Khalil Shawkat Khadija- eldest daughter, marries other Shawkat brother
The Thief and the Dogs
by Naguib Mahfouz Recently freed Said Mahran plans to get revenge on those who put him in jail, takes shelter with cafe-owner Tarzan and prostitute Nur Said targets ex-wife Nabawiyya, her husband Ilish, and the rich journalist/Said's mentor Rauf Ilwan using title animals Said accidentally kills two innocent people instead
Palace of Desire
by Naguib Mahfouz Second novel in Cairo Trilogy Yasin marries and divorces Maryam Kamal writes a magazine article about Darwin, enraging Al-Sayyid Ahmad Kamal falls for Aida and studies philosophy
Arabian Nights and Days
by Naguib Mahfouz Sequel to 1001 Nights including such stories as "The Invisibility Cap."
Beneath the Shelter
by Naguib Mahfouz Set in a bus stop
Midaq Alley
by Naguib Mahfouz Set on title street in Cairo Hashish-smoking cafe owner Kirsha and the sexually insatiable Salim Alwan Mr. Booshy- dentist who makes a living by stealing from corpses Hamida tries to escape the titular location through marriage and prostitution The barber Abbas is beaten to death by British soldiers at the end after smashing beer glass on former-lover Hamida
Miramar
by Naguib Mahfouz Title boarding house is run by Mariana. Various characters represent Egyptian political philosophies and most are entranced with the servant girl Zohra
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
by Nathan Englander Title inspired by Raymond Carver collection Short story collection originally published in the New Yorker about title author
Nevsky Prospect
by Nikolai Gogol Lieutenant Pirogov and Piskaryov travel along the title street
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol Pavel Chichikov buys dead serfs in order to use as collateral in a loan Sobakevitch and Maniloff sell him the title entities Protagonist accused of being Napoleon or Captain Kopeikin in disguise
Diary of a Madman
by Nikolai Gogol Poprishchin believes he is heir to the Spanish throne
The Overcoat
by Nikolai Gogol Title article of clothing is stolen from Akaky Akakievitch, he dies and his ghost haunts st. petersburg Ghost assaults the "person of consequence", steals title object from "very important person" Title object made by Petrovich
The Nose
by Nikolai Gogol Yakovlevich finds title object in his loaf of bread Title object briefly becomes a State Councillor Title object returns to face of Platon Kovalyov at the end
Fearful Symmetry
by Northrop Frye Critical study of The Tyger by William Blake
Anatomy of Criticism
by Northrop Frye Historical approach to the modes of literature Composed of four essays Last essay classifies genres Contrasts "high" and "low" forms of mimesis
The Vicar of Wakefield
by Oliver Goldsmith About the tribulations of the Primrose family George Primrose marries Arabella Wilmot Title character is Dr. Charles Primrose Sophia marries Mr. Burchell who saves her from drowning and turns out to be uncle of Squire William Thornhill Ephraim Jenkinson swindles Moses out of a horse for a gross of green spectacles Olivia Primrose fakes her death and obtains her marriage license to Squire Thornhill
The Deserted Village
by Oliver Goldsmith Describes going to Auburn, where "wealth accumulates and men decay" Inspired George Crabbe's poem "The Village" "where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain"
The Citizen of the World
by Oliver Goldsmith Letters attributed to Chinese traveler Lien Chi
She Stoops to Conquer
by Oliver Goldsmith Titled for Kate Hardcastle's strategy to marry Charles Marlow At the Three Pigeons alehouse, Tony Lumpkin tricks two travelers into thinking Hardcastle Manor is an inn, allowing the Kate to pose as a barmaid Constance Neville steals jewels to elope with George Hastings at the end Prologue written by David Garrick begins with actor Mr. Woodward lamenting that the "Comic Muse, long sick, is now a-dying" Mr. Hardcastle tells story of Duke of Marlborough Opens with complaining about boring houseguests Mr. Cripplegate and Mrs. Oddfish
The New Life
by Orhan Pamuk Dr. Fine who leads a conspiracy to assassinate readers of the title book
The Museum of Innocence
by Orhan Pamuk Kemal falls in love with shopgirl Füsun, collects every day objects that remind him of her eventually filling a museum with them Pamuk created a real life version of title location in Istanbul Objects in the museum include 4,213 cigarette butts, china dogs, Jenny Colon handbag Kemal buys a counterfeit handbag for his fiance Sibel from Füsun Fusun's earring becomes first object in the museum after she dies in a car crash Kemal fails to launch Lemon Films
The White Castle
by Orhan Pamuk Narrator is a traveling Italian scholar kidnapped and becomes the slave of the Ottoman scholar Hoja, is forced to help build giant weapon to take title location
My Name is Red
by Orhan Pamuk Set in 16th century Istanbul under the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murad III Opens with Elegant Effendi's recently murdered body being thrown in a well Various narrators include a gold coin, Satan, the dead Elegant Effendi, title color, a horse, and a tree Protagonist named Black arrives in Istanbul at the request of his uncle Enishte Effendi, who is later murdered Black loves his cousin Shekure (Enishte's daughter) whose husband is missing and has children Orhan and Shevket Jewish clothier Esther delivers messages between Black and Shekure Enishte is commissioned by the Sultan to make a book in secret, in the style of the Venetian masters, he employs miniaturists Olive(Murderer of Elegant and Enishte), Elegant, Stork, and Butterfly Master Osman, who taught the miniaturists, helps Black find killer by examining imperfections in the nostrils of a drawing of a horse (fake contest having miniaturists draw horses for comparison) Osman blinds himself with plume needle in the Sultan's treasury Many stories about style, signature, and blindness in the lives of master miniaturists
The Black Book
by Orhan Pamuk The lawyer Galip searches for his wife Ruya and her brother, the columnist Celal Galip tries to live the life of Celal to find them, discovers them both shot dead outside Aladdin's shop
Snow
by Orhan Pamuk The poet Ka returns to Turkey from exile in Germany, prompted by reports of women committing suicide after being forced to remove their headscarves Set in city of Kars Kadife- leader of the "headscarf girls," loves character named Blue, shoots actor Sunay Zaim after removing her headscarf during an adaptation of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy Ka reunites with his childhood love Ipek, older sister of Kadife who once had an affair with Blue Discussion about headscarves in New Life Pastry Shop leads to shooting of director of the Institute of Education High school student and aspiring science-fiction writer Necip competes with Ka for love of Ipek and is killed during performance of My Fatherland or My Head Scarf in the National Theater when soldiers march onstage and fire into crowd Narrator is fictionalized version of Orhan Pamuk who loses his green notebook containing poetry and searches for it in an apartment in Frankfurt
The Red-Haired Woman
by Orhan Pamuk Well-digging apprentice obsessed with both Oedipus Rex and Rostam and Sohrab becomes entranced by the title actress.
Sir Vidia's Shadow
by Paul Theroux Account of terse friendship between Theroux and V.S. Naipaul
The Great Railway Bazaar
by Paul Theroux Describes traveling from London to Tokyo on Trans-Siberian railroad
The Mosquito Coast
by Paul Theroux Titled for region on eastern coast of Nicaragua and part of Honduras
American Pastoral
by Philip Roth About Seymour "The Swede" Levov's supposedly idyllic life, his daughter Merry converts to Jainism and bombs a postal office in protest of the Vietnam War Nathan Zuckerman- Narrator Seymour inherits his father's glove factory, moves to Old Rimrock with wife, former Miss New Jersey Dawn Dwyer Dawn has affair with Bill Orcutt who stabs Swede in face with fork at the end Rita Cohen helps Seymour find his daughter
The Human Stain
by Philip Roth About professor Coleman Silk who is secretly black, calls two black students "spooks" Narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, set in Athena College Janitor Faunia Farley has affair with Silk after his wife dies Delphine Roux- assistant professor
I Married a Communist
by Philip Roth Anti-semetic Eve Frame reveals socialist past of her husband, radio host "iron rinn" Based on Philip Roth's ex-wife Claire Bloom
The Plot Against America
by Philip Roth Charles Lindbergh, assisted by Rabbi Bengelsdorf, defeats FDR in 1940 election, turns America into a fascist state A radio broadcast of world series is interrupted to announce death of Presidential candidate Walter Winchell Set during WWII
Exit Ghost
by Philip Roth E. I. Lonoff George Plimpton publishes the writing of Nathan Zuckerman
Goodbye, Columbus
by Philip Roth Includes short story "Defender of the Faith" Neil Klugman woos Brenda Patimkin, who runs into trouble when her mother discovers her diaphragm "The Conversion of the Jews" - Ozzie Freedman is slapped by Rabbi Binder for asking about the possibility of Mary's virgin birth. Takes title from record Ron owns commemorating his graduation ceremony at Ohio State
Operation Shylock
by Philip Roth Philip Roth visits John Demjanjuk's trial in Israel
Portnoy's Complaint
by Philip Roth Title character Alexander describes his adolescent obsession with masturbation(with a piece of liver) and his Oedipal love for his mother Sophie to his psychiatrist, Dr. Spielvogel Girlfriends nicknamed "The Pilgrim", "The Pumpkin", and (Mary Jane Reed) "The Monkey" "Now vee may perhaps to begin. Yes?"- only line of dialogue from Spielvogel
Epinikia of Pindar
by Pindar, aka his "victory odes" Commemorates athletic achievements at the Olympic Games
Red Oleanders
by Rabindranath Tagore Nandini leads revolution against king of Yakshapuri who forces citizens to mine gold
Jana Gana Mana
by Rabindranath Tagore National anthem of India Originally in Bengali
The Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore love triangle between Nikhil, Sandip, and Bimala
Something Wicked This Way Comes
by Ray Bradbury 13-year-old best friends Jim Nightshade and William Halloway encounter the evil being Mr. Dark who terrorizes Green Town, Illinois with his sinister carnival Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show Charles Halloway (William's dad) shoots the Dust Witch with a wax bullet Mr. Electrico A lightning rod salesman named Tom Fury tells Jim his house will be hit by lightning in the next storm
A Sound of Thunder
by Ray Bradbury Eckels accidentally steps on a butterfly and changes the future when he goes back in time to shoot a T-rex Leads to the fascist Deutscher defeating Keith in an election Title phenomenon is heard before Travis shoots Eckels
Usher II
by Ray Bradbury In collection The Martian Chronicles William Stendahl rebuilds the mansion from Edgar Allen Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher" and takes revenge on the people of mars
Fahrenheit 451
by Ray Bradbury Mechanical Hound pursues the fireman(salamander insignia) Guy Montag who burns books Clarisse McClellan- Guy Montag's neighbor, 17yo girl who is killed by a speeding car Professor Faber- helps Montag escape the Hound and embrace books, gives him a "green bullet" that is a two way radio for communication Montag kills his boss Captain Beatty with a flamethrower and meets Granger after the city burns down Montag's wife Mildred watches four TV walls in parlor, is addicted to sleeping pills. Montag reads "Dover Beach" for Mildred, Mrs. Phelps, and Mrs. Bowles which horrifies Mildred and makes Mrs. Phelps cry Montag memorizes parts of Ecclesiastes after his copy of the Bible was burned, is almost run over by a group of teenagers in a "beetle car" Stoneman and Black- Montag's coworkers
The Third Expedition
by Ray Bradbury Originally titled "Mars is Heaven!" Explorers find an idyllic small town populated by their families, only to be murdered in their sleep
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury Sequel is Farewell Summer Douglas Spaulding nearly dies after learning of his own mortality, spends his summers in Green Town, Illinois Leo Auffman creates a Happiness Machine that only makes his family sad 12yo Doug Spaulding runs errands for Mr. Sanderson in exchange for new shoes
There Will Come Soft Rains
by Ray Bradbury in collection The Martian Chronicles Breakdown of an automated house that continues to function long after its inhabitants are killed in a nuclear explosion Titled after a Sara Teasdale poem of the same name, the house continues to read title poem out loud to no one A dog dies in living room as stove makes breakfast
A Small, Good Thing
by Raymond Carver Extended version of Carver's earlier story "The Bath" After Howard and Ann Weiss get home from the hospital, a baker insistently calls them to ask them to pick up a cake for their son Scotty who died in a car crash on his birthday
Where I'm Calling From
by Raymond Carver Frank Martin's "drying-out facility" Narrator J.P. describes his alcoholism by comparing himself to the protagonist of "To Build a Fire." Roxy offers a good luck kiss to J.P. when she comes to sweep his chimney Tiny has seizures
Gazebo
by Raymond Carver In collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Hotel managers Holly and Duane
Cathedral (collection)
by Raymond Carver Title short story "Where I'm Calling From" "A Small, Good Thing"
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (collection)
by Raymond Carver Title story "Gazebo" "So Much Water So Close to Home" "The Bath" "The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off" Edited by Gordon Lish of Esquire Magazine
Cathedral (story)
by Raymond Carver Titles collection it is in Narrator watches TV film about the Middle Age and smokes marijuana with his wife's blind friend Robert, the two share a spiritual experience while drawing the title building Narrator's wife Beulah dies of cancer, narrator comments that her name is "a name for a colored woman." Beulah writes a poem about having her face touched by Robert, corresponds with him using audio tapes
So Much Water So Close to Home
by Raymond Carver in collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Narrator Claire is perturbed that her husband Stuart may have committed murder
The Bath
by Raymond Carver in collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love predecessor of "A Small, Good Thing" Scotty is walking to school when he is hit by a car and knocked unconscious
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love (story)
by Raymond Carver in namesake collection Cardiologist Mel McGinnis talks about an elderly couple that was injured in a car accident Mel and Terri debate whether her abusive ex-husband Ed had really loved her Nick and Laura- other couple that listen, the two couples discuss title concept Ed fails to kill himself by drinking rat poison Mel discusses wanting to use bees to kill his ex-wife Marjorie Manuscript version is called "Beginners"
Will You Please Be Quiet Please?
by Raymond Carver short story collection "Neighbors" "Signals" "Fat" "Are You a Doctor"
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson Scientist creates a potion which turns him into a monstrous alter-ego. Mr. Enfield discusses incident in which Mr. H tramples a little girl, goes on walks with the lawyer Gabriel Utterson Utterson investigates murder of Sir Danvers Carew Dr. Lanyon dies of shock after seeing Dr. J transform into Mr. H
At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers
by Salman Rushdie About author's beloved childhood film The Wizard of Oz which inspired his writing career
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
by Salman Rushdie Alternative history of rock and roll Rock musician Ormus Cana and the half-Indian singer Vina Apsara become 20th-century analogues of Orpheus and Eurydice
Shalimar the Clown
by Salman Rushdie American diplomat Max Ophuls is killed Title character walks the tightrope
Grimus
by Salman Rushdie Flapping Eagle drinks a magic immortality potion, searches for his sister for 777 years, goes to Calf Island
The Enchantress of Florence
by Salman Rushdie Juxtaposes Machiavelli's childhood and friendship with Amerigo Vespucci's with the court of Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great where a blonde traveler saves himself from Akbar's elephant by claiming descent from Lady Black Eyes
Joseph Anton: a Memoir
by Salman Rushdie Memoir about the time he spent in hiding following the fatwa Titled after the pseudonym/fake identity he took in hiding, comes from the first names of Conrad and Chekhov Describes Rushdie's marriages to Padma Lakshmi and Marianne Wiggins
The Moor's Last Sigh
by Salman Rushdie Narrated by Moraes Zogoiby, title refers to where last Muslim ruler of Spain, Boabdil surrendered Granada
The Jaguar Smile
by Salman Rushdie Nonfiction, about author's travels to Nicaragua, documents the rise of the Sandinistas
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie Resulted in Ayatollah Khomeini placing a fatwa on author for violating anti-blasphemy laws Opens with a hijacked plane explosion over the English Chanel involving survivors Bollywood actor Gibreel Farishta and voice over actor Saladin Chamcha Gibreel Farishta takes the role of the archangel Gabriel, shoots his producer Whisky Sisodia Farishta kills himself after throwing his mountaineer girlfriend Alleluia "Allie" Cone off of Everest Apartments where she lives Allie once summited Everest Saladin Chamcha takes the role of Satan/the Devil, begins transforming into a goat Even chapters depict Farishta's dreams which follow the butterfly-eating prophet Ayesha and her followers' pilgrimage, they walk into the Arabian Sea and all drown In Farishta's dream sequences, Mahound or "the Messenger" (represents Mohammad) conquers Jahilia The priestess Hind and the poet Baal appear in Farishta's dreams Mishal's breast cancer inspires Ayesha's pilgrimage Rekha Merchant- Farishta's former lover, haunts him A disgraced poet hides in a brothel where he "marries" twelve prostitutes Riots break out when the black activist Uhuru Simba dies after being wrongly imprisoned for the"Granny Ripper Murders." Pamela Lovelace- Saladin Chamcha's wife who has an affair with Jumpy Joshi after she believes him dead Chamcha gets fired from the show "The Aliens"
Shame
by Salman Rushdie Set in the fictional town "Q" which represents Pakistan Describes relationship between Sufiya Zenobia Hyder and Dr. Omar Khayyam Shakil Fictionalizes Zulfikar Ali Bhutto as Iskander Harappa Sufiya beheads 218 turkeys, transforms into a white panther before beheading husband Omar and exploding into a fireball General Raza Hyder deposes Iskander Harappa The three sisters Chunni, Munnee, and Bunny- mothers of Omar Khayyam, never reveal which is his real mother
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
by Salman Rushdie Title character and his father Rashid Khalifa travel with the water genie Iff to the moon Kahani Rashid works for corrupt politician Snooty Buttoo Title character meets Butt the Hoopoe and helps defeat Khattam-Shud
Luka and the Fire of Life
by Salman Rushdie Title character is the brother of Haroun Khalifa from Haroun and the Sea of Stories Title character seeks title substance which is gaurded by the Aalim Prometheus throws a phantom named "Nobodaddy" into space
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie Title characters are born on August 15, 1947, at the exact moment of the partition of India Protagonist Saleem Sinai has a gigantic, always dripping nose that gives him telepathic abilities, loses powers after sinus surgery Saleem marries Paravati the Witch "the Widow" - represents Indira Gandhi, sterilizes title characters Saleem's grandfather, the doctor Aadam Aziz slowly falls in love with Naseem(who refers to things as "whatsitsname") while viewing her through hole in a perforated bedsheet Saleem's sister Jamila Singer aka "Brass Monkey" becomes a singer in Pakistan Mary Pereira runs a pickle factory, switches Saleem with Shiva "of the Knees" at birth on the Methwold estate, Saleem later becomes manager of the pickle factory William Methwold sells cheap villas, seduces the wife of accordionist Wee Willie Winkie Methwold is Saleem's biological father, Winkie is Shiva's Joseph D'Costa betrays Pereira leading to her swapping Saleem and Shiva A silver spittoon falls on Saleem's head causing him to lose his memory Amina- Saleem's mother, daughter of Aadam Aziz Awarded the first "Booker of Bookers" Saleem's son Aadam's first word is "abracadabra"
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
by Salman Rushdie Title is equal to 1001 nights
The Adventures of Augie March
by Saul Bellow Opening sentence: "I am an American, Chicago born" Title character has brothers Simon and the mentally-disabled Georgie, their landlord Grandma Lausch helps raise them Title character goes to Mexico with Thea Fenchel to catch lizards with a trained eagle named Caligula during which time he falls off the horse Bizcocho and fractures his skull Title character ends up marrying Stella, enlists in the merchant marines during WWII and is stranded on a lifeboat with the insane/homicidal man Bateshaw Title character works for the crippled business man Einhorn Title character helps his friend Mimi Villars get an abortion, leading to his breakup with Lucy Magnus Title character is briefly adopted by the Coblin family including character named Five Properties Opening paragraph paraphrases Heraclitus's thought that "a man's character is his fate."
Henderson the Rain King
by Saul Bellow Title American millionaire pigfarmer Eugene travels to Africa to satisfy his inner voice that repeats "I want" over and over Title character meets Romilayu in Arnewi who guides him to a Wariri village where he carries and whips a gigantic statue of Mummah earning title epithet and becoming a spiritual leader of the tribe Title character builds a bomb to kill the frogs in a cistern in the village Arnewi that ends up destroying the entire cistern King Dahfu dies on a quest to hunt the lion he believes is the reincarnation of his dead father, after which title character returns to America Dahfu's wife teaches title character about grun-to-molani
The Dean's December
by Saul Bellow Title character Albert Corde travels with his wife Minna to his mother's deathbed in Romania Albert writes politically charged articles for Harper's
Herzog
by Saul Bellow Title character Moses writes many letters to many living and dead people including Nietzsche and Eisenhower but never sends them Title character's wife Madeleine leaves him for his friend Valentine Gersbach, title character plans to shoot them both and struggles to win custody of his daughter Junie Title character has an affair with Ramona, is arrested after a car accident when police find his dead father's revolver in the car Lucas Asphalter is mentioned in a newspaper article after he attempts to revive his tuberculosis-infected monkey Rocco with mouth to mouth Title character condemns "potato love," uses lawyers Simkin and Sandor Himmelstein
Humboldt's Gift
by Saul Bellow Title character Von Humboldt Fleisher is based on writer Delmore Shwartz Charlie Citrine- Poet based on Bellow, is mentored by title character The gangster Roland Cantabile takes a baseball bat to Citrine's Mercedes Benz for unpaid poker debts
Mr. Sammler's Planet
by Saul Bellow Title character is a one-eyed Polish holocaust survivor
Seize the Day
by Saul Bellow Titled for an expression coined by Horace Failed actor Tommy Wilhelm is given the title advice by the sinister psychologist Dr. Tamkin Tommy loses seven hundred dollars investing in lard stocks Maruice Venice - talent agent that recruits Tommy Wilhelm Ends with Tommy crying at the funeral of a stranger after his father Dr. Adler refuses to help him financially
Ravelstein
by Saul Bellow, his final novel Title character Abe is based on Bellow's friend Allan Bloom Narrator is "Chick" the alter ego of Bellow writes memoir about title philosophy professor who dies of AIDS Title character has male lover Nikki
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
by Stephen Crane Title woman becomes a prostitute after her lover, the bartender Pete, leaves her for Nellie Mary(mother) and Jimmie Johnson(her brother) throw her out Opens on street fight between residents of Devil's Row and Rum Alley Her mother screams "I'll fergive her!" at the end
The Open Boat
by Stephen Crane, based on his experience after the sinking of the Commodore Billie the oiler died The cook, the correspondent, and the captain survive Opening line: "None of them knew the color of the sky." "Funny they don't see us!"
American Names
by Stephen Vincent Benet Final line: "Bury my heart at Wounded Knee" Says he has "fallen in love" with title things
The Devil and Daniel Webster
by Stephen Vincent Benet New Hampshire farmer Jabez Stone's soul is saved by the lawyering of an American senator Judge Hathorne rules in favor of Jabez Stone against Mr. Scratch References John Greenleaf Whittier's "Ichabod."
By the Waters of Babylon
by Stephen Vincent Benet Post-apocalyptic story where "The Great Burning" left old houses as "dead places" title from Psalm 137 The priest John travels to the Place of the Gods
The Mountain Whippoorwill
by Stephen Vincent Benet Tells the story of how a country bumpkin wins a violin contest at a county fair
Western Star
by Stephen Vincent Benet Unfinished About American frontier
John Brown's Body
by Stephen Vincent Benet, epic poem Narrated by Connecticut soldier Jack Ellyat Describes the raid on Harper's Ferry Title object "lies a-mouldering in the grave" while "His soul's marching on."
This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen
by Tadeusz Borowski Short story collection inspired by author's time in Auschwitz
The Four Prentices of London
by Thomas Heywood Elizabethan play about the sons of the Earl of Boulogne
A Woman Killed with Kindness
by Thomas Heywood Wendoll seduces Master Frankford's wife Anne, leading Frankford to exile her to a country house Anne dies of a broken heart
The Real Thing
by Tom Stoppard About playwright Henry who writes the play The House of Cards to be performed by his wife Charlotte and Max in the first act Henry has an affair with the actress Annie, who tries to free the Scottish soldier Brodie from prison Annie convinces Henry to ghostwrite a play for Brodie Ends with the protagonist listening to "I'm a Believer" by the Monkees
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
by Tom Stoppard Andre Previn wrote the music for it
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
by Tom Stoppard Based on two minor characters from Hamlet, they are sent on a ship with a swapped out letter from Hamlet that demands their execution Begins with title characters betting on whether a birth year doubled is an odd number after first title character wins a game flipping a coin 92 times by calling heads every time, leading second titular character to wonder whether the world operates within "un-, sub- or supernatural forces" Title characters meet the Player, who leads a troupe of actors called the Tragedians The Tragedians put on a performance of "The Rape of the Sabine Women" in which Alfred is forced to wear a skirt Title characters "impossibly" hide in barrels after being ambushed by pirates following a Tragedian performance of The Murder of Gonzago that angers Claudius Music emanates from barrels the Tragedians are hiding in Tennis scoring is used in a "game of questions" which Hamlet wins over title characters 27 to 3 Second titular character believes he has killed the Player with a retractable knife only for the Player to stand up moments later Title characters often end the Lord's Prayer "give us this day our daily-" with words like "week" "mask" "cue" and "music". One character muses that a certain event "must be indicative of something, besides the redistribution of wealth."
The Coast of Utopia
by Tom Stoppard Cycle of three plays: Voyage, Shipwreck, and Salvage Real life Russian thinkers Alexander Herzen, Mikhail Bakunin, and Ivan Turgenev engage in a lot of philosophical discussion
Indian Ink
by Tom Stoppard Eldon Pike investigates Flora Crewe's death
Arcadia
by Tom Stoppard Set at Sidley Park, where in 1809, Septimus Hodge (a friend of Lord Byron) tutors to the precocious mathematical prodigy Thomasina Coverly In second plot set centuries later, Bernard Nightingale and Hannah Jarvis study the life of Lord Byron In opening scene, Thomasina asks Septimus "What is carnal embrace?", Septimus replies "the practice of throwing one's arms around a side of beef" Septimus asks Thomasina to prove Fermat's last theorem in hopes of getting enough time to finish reading "The Couch of Eros" Hannah disproves Bernard's theory that Lord Byron killed Ezra Chater in a duel Lightning and Plautus are tortoises which are featured in every scene Valentine does research about grouse population, helps Hannah research the "hermit of Sidley Park" (Septimus) Thomasina begs Septimus to teach her how to waltz, he finally agrees at end of play Septimus burns a letter by Lord Byron in front of Lady Croom, another letter from Lord Byron to Septimus discusses how you can stir jam into rice pudding but never unstir it
Rock 'n' Roll
by Tom Stoppard Set in Cambridge and Prague Jan studies under Max Morrow at Cambridge
Travesties
by Tom Stoppard Set in World War I Zurich Henry Carr reminisces about being in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest Portrays a fictional meeting between Tristan Tzara, Vladimir Lenin, and James Joyce Tristan Tzara creates a poem by pulling words from Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 out of a hat
Jumpers
by Tom Stoppard Sir Archie uses the "more gymnastic members" of philosophy professors for title acrobat troupe
Hapgood
by Tom Stoppard Title spymaster must figure out if Ridley is a traitor
The Real Inspector Hound
by Tom Stoppard Two critics named Birdboot and Moon watch a murder mystery set at Muldoon Manor before becoming involved in said mystery Muldoon Manor is served by the maid Mrs. Drudge
Sula
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford About friendship between title character and Nel Wright Title character accidentally drowns Chicken Little, learns that Albert Jacks was the real name of her lover, Ajax Set in "The Bottom"
The Origin of Others
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford Author's most recent and final novel, came out in September, 2017
Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford Members of the Dead family are named by placing a pin randomly in the bible Protagonist Milkman Dead, who got his name because he breastfed at a late age, travels to the south to find his ancestral home Milkman's siblings are First Corinthians, Magdalene, and Pilate(who is "navel less") Guitar Bains- Milkman's childhood best friend
A Mercy
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford Set in 17th century America Florens and Lina are slaves on Jacob Vaark's plantation
Beloved
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford Sethe kills her baby (title character) to save it from slavery, escapes with her daughter Denver from plantation Sweet Home to Cincinnati where they live at 124 Bluestone Road which was once occupied by Baby Suggs Title character returns as a ghost to haunt Sethe Protagonist believes Paul D's heart is like a "tobacco tin" with the lid sealed shut The protagonist mistakes Mr. Bodwin for Schoolteacher and attacks him with an ice pick Protagonist is guided across the Ohio River by Stamp Paid Protagonist's sons Howard and Buglar flee 124 Bluestone Road as they think it is haunted Paul D refuses to believe that a person in a newspaper picture is Sethe and says "that ain't her mouth"
The Bluest Eye
by Toni Morrison aka Chloe Ardelia Wofford The chapter titles come from a Dick and Jane book Pecola Breedlove seeks title body part, is raped by her father Cholly, eventually goes insane and believes she has title feature Narrated mostly by Claudia MacTeer Pecola idolizes Shirley Temple The half-Chinese pedophile Soaphead Church tricks protagonist into giving his landlady's dog poisoned meat in exchange for "granting her wish" Protagonist's mother, Polly, stepped on a nail as a child, leading to a deformed foot and a limp
Foucault's Pendulum
by Umberto Eco "The Plan"- Three publishers, Belbo, Diotallevi, and Casaubon, use Colonel Ardenti's book about the Knights Templar(secret society) to construct a conspiracy Plan to use the title device to search for "telluric currents." They work for Garamond Publishing, use the computer Abulafia Narrator Casaubon follows his girlfriend Amparo to Brazil where she was taken after being kidnapped by Aglie, who claims to be the Count of St. Germain
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco Apprentice Adso of Melk and monk William of Baskerville solve murders in a 14th-century monastery Blind librarian Jorge of Burgos eats poisoned pages of Aristotle's Second Book of Poetics and burns down the aedificium Inquisitor Bernard Gui burns Remigo, the hunchback Salvatore, and a village girl Venantius is found dead in a vat of pig's blood Adelmo is persuaded by Berengar to have sex with him, and commits suicide Herbalist Severinus dies One character deduces whereabouts of lost horse, Brunellus Finds hidden room finis Africae
The Prague Cemetery
by Umberto Eco Framed as diaries of Simone Simonini, who forges the note that sets off Dreyfus affair and writes The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Destroys Ippolito Nievo's ship Simonini is revealed to be Abbé Dalla Piccola
Baudolino
by Umberto Eco Title character recounts searching for Prester John's kingdom to Niketas Choniates during fourth crusade siege of Constantinople Title character is adopted son of Frederick Barbarossa, loves Hypatia, a satyr, is friends with the monopod Gavagai
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana
by Umberto Eco Yambo has a stroke and can only remember books he has read until he discovers copy of First Folio, returns to Solara
How to Travel with a Salmon
by Umberto Eco computer glitch at a hotel causes a delay in him putting a fish he bought in Stockholm in a minibar fridge
Travels in Hyperreality
by Umberto Eco essay which compares LBJ's presidential library to the Fortress of Solitude to explain the phenomenon of copies being more "real" than their originals Originally titled "Faith in Fakes" Also discusses Disneyland
The Enigma of Arrival
by V.S. Naipaul Autobiographical novel that gets its title and cover from a painting by Giorgio de Chirico
Miguel Street
by V.S. Naipaul Collection of stories set on title road Bogart- arrested for bigamy Mr. Popo- carpenter who tires to make "the thing without a name" B. Wordsworth- wrote first line of the greatest poem ever written Hat- gambler Man-man- declares himself a prophet after his dog dies, stages his own crucifixion and stoning Elias- becomes a cart-driver after failing exams Narrator passes exams and leaves title locale
The Mystic Masseur
by V.S. Naipaul Ganesh Ramsumair can cure illness with his hands, becomes a successful politician under the name G. Ramsay Muir
A Bend in the River
by V.S. Naipaul Indian muslim Salim sets up a store on title location in an African country lead by the dictator "Big Man" (based on Mobuto Sese Seko's Congo) The magician Zabeth patronizes Salim's shop, Salim helps Zabeth's son Ferdinand get an education from Belgian priest Father Huismans (collects African masks and is murdered) Salim builds a Madonna cult in honor of his mother(a former hotel maid), has an affair with Yvette(wife of Raymond, a scholar who works for Big Man) The Domain/New Domain created by Big Man Metty- Salim's servant/assistant, betrays Salim by framing him for selling ivory Salim marries Nazruddin's daughter Big Burger franchise is opened across from Salim's shop Ferdinand declares "We're all going to hell" Patrick French's biography of Naipaul takes its title from the opening line of this novel: "The world is what it is..."
A House for Mr. Biswas
by V.S. Naipaul Title character Mohun Biswas, marries Shama of the Tulsi family while working as a sign painter, sends her note that says "I love you and I want to talk to you", he spends the rest of his life trying to escape them Tulsi's live in Hanuman House, Owad (the "young god") leaves and studies in England, a man nicknamed W C Tuttle clashes w Biswas Mohun reports for the Sentinel in Port-of-Spain, finds "Deserving Destitutes", writes a series of "Escape" stories, reads Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus Mohun is born with six fingers and told to avoid water, his father drowns trying to save a calf Mohun lost while being distracted by seeing a river for the first time Mohun moves between the Chase, Green Vale, and Hanuman House while trying to acquire title object, has lifelong stomach problems after eating seven bananas Mohun's son Anand becomes terrified after his dog is killed during labor dispute
In a Free State
by V.S. Naipaul, won the Booker prize for it Consists of three stories Third story is gives novel its title: Bobby and Linda take a long drive through an African country going through a revolution between the King and the President, Bobby is beaten at an army checkpoint Other stories are "One Out of Many" and "Tell Me Who to Kill" Santosh works for Priya, who sets up a marriage for Santosh to gain American citizenship Dayo's brother moves to London
Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
by Vachel Lindsay "thinks of men and kings" Title figure figure paces in Springfield, Illinois, "cannot sleep upon his hillside" "bronzed, lank man" "high top-hat"
The Eagle That is Forgotten
by Vachel Lindsay Elegy for John Peter Altgeld
General William Booth Enters Into Heaven
by Vachel Lindsay procession following leader of the Salvation Army into paradise "Are you washed in the blood of the lamb?" "led boldly with the big bass drum"
The Waves
by Virginia Woolf Consists entirely of soliloquies spoken by six different characters, who describe their collective hero Percival
A Room of One's Own
by Virginia Woolf Essay about Shakespeare's sister Judith States women writers need title space
The Death of a Moth
by Virginia Woolf Essay comparing struggles of title creature to daily lives of humans
Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf One day in the life of title house wife Clarissa Septimus Smith throws himself out of a window Title character is married to politician Richard but reminisces about kissing Sally Seton and her time with Peter Walsh Begins with title character buying flowers for a party she is hosting
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf Painter Lily Briscoe lives with Ramsay family and they travel to title location
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf Protagonist and many characters are gender shifting Inspired by author's friend/lover Vita Sackville-West
Lolita
by Vladimir Nabokov About Humbert Humbert's love for the "nymphet" Dolores Haze Humbert shoots his rival Claire Quilty, playwright of "The Enchanted Hunters" at Beardsley School, Quilty kidnaps title character at one point Charlotte dies in car accident after reading Humbert's diary about title character(her daughter) Detective Gustave Trapp Humbert is jailed for shooting Quilty Title character attends Camp Q Annabel Leigh dies of Typhus
Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov Consists of John Shade's title 999-line poem and Charles Kinbote's editorial comments on that poem Kinbote believes he is the exiled king of Zembla Opening line: "I was the shadow of the waxwing slain"
The Defense
by Vladimir Nabokov Luzhin plays chess against Turati
Pnin
by Vladimir Nabokov about a professor at Waindell College
Beat! Beat! Drums!
by Walt Whitman "through the windows" and "through doors."
Song of Myself
by Walt Whitman 52 sections "(I am large, I contain multitudes.)" Opening line: "I celebrate myself, and sing myself" Ends "I stop somewhere, waiting for you" "Do I contradict myself?," admits "Very well then I contradict myself," A woman joins some young men "by the shore" as the "the twenty-ninth bather" Narrator sounds his "barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world." speaker answers "the beautiful uncut hair of graves" to a child's question of "What is grass?" "every atom belonging to me as good as belongs to you" "I loaf and invite my soul" "a uniform hieroglyphic" "I am the poet of the Body and I am the poet of the Soul"
Song of the Broad-Axe
by Walt Whitman Addressed to a "weapon, shapely, naked, wan"
A Noiseless Patient Spider
by Walt Whitman Compares his soul to title creature that "launches forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself" Surrounded by "oceans of space"
I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman Describes the carpenter "as he measures his plank of beam" "what belongs to him or her and to none else."
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
by Walt Whitman Elegy for Abraham Lincoln, he is compared to a "western orb sailing the heaven" "great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night" solitary thrush that "sings by himself a song." "Come lovely and soothing death, undulate round the world" "Song of the bleeding throat" Shifts into italics to demarcate a "carol of death" sung by a hermit thrush/"gray-brown" bird in a swamp "what shall I hang on the chamber walls?" "the fragrant pines and the cedars dark and dim" Narrator gives a sprig of the title flower to a "coffin that passes through lanes and streets." Final section begins "Passing the visions, passing the night"
Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking
by Walt Whitman First poem in Sea Drift section of Leaves of Grass Originally titled "A Word Out of the Sea" Set on Paumanok's shore Begins with a mockingbird crying out, describes a boy awakening as a poet Narrator says "the sea whisper'd to me," "the low and delicious word death" "the mocking-bird's throat, the musical shuttle." "solitary guest from Alabama" "A thousand warbling echoes have started to life within me, / Never to die"
I Sing the Body Electric
by Walt Whitman From "Children of Adam" sequence of Leaves of Grass Celebration of the human form, includes catalog of anatomical parts "the armies of those I love engirth me" "I say now these are the soul" "If the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?" describes the female body as "the bath of birth" Speaker assumes the role of a "sloven" auctioneer examining people on auction at a "slave-mart" to praise the male and female versions of the title object Description of an 80-year-old farmer who is "the father of five sons" "Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen."
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry
by Walt Whitman From the Calamus poems in Leaves of Grass Was first titled "Sun-Down Poem" A person travels over the East River "Flood-tide below me! I see you face to face!" "you furnish your parts toward the soul." "What is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?" "the similitudes of the past and those of the future" "Crowds of men and women attired in the usual costumes" "Whatever it is, it avails not- distance avails not, and place avails not" Speaker claims "the dark threw patches down upon me" before comparing himself to "the wolf, the snake, the hog" "I am he who knew what it was to be evil."
Pioneers! O Pioneers!
by Walt Whitman Provided title of Willa Cather novel Praises westward expansion, ends every line with title phrase "Come my tan-faced children"
On the Beach at Night Alone
by Walt Whitman Set to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams along with "A Passage to India"(Gave title to E M Forester book) Details a "vast similitude" that interlocks "all lives and deaths, all of the past, present, future"
Go Down, Moses
by William Faulkner set of seven interrelated stories "Delta Autumn" "The Bear"
The Confessions of Nat Turner
by William Styron About Virginia slave revolt Lawyer Thomas Gray listens to the title character Judge Jeremiah Cobb sentences title character and his friend Hark to death Title character is goaded into killing Margaret Whitehead by the crazed, axe-wielding Will Will murders Joseph Travis Controversial novel as title character is depicted as a sexual deviant
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron Title character(last name Zawistowska) has to decide which one of her children will survive the Holocaust Sophie has affair with novelist Stingo before committing suicide with schizophrenic lover Nathan Landau. Set in Auschwitz
The Lake Isle of Innisfree
by William Yeats "I will arise and go now" builds a cabin made of "clay and wattles"
The Second Coming
by William Yeats "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" "what rough beast . . . Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" "The falcon cannot hear the falconer"
Sailing to Byzantium
by William Yeats "This is no country for old men" "an aged man is but a paltry thing, a tattered coat upon a stick."
The Wild Swans at Coole
by William Yeats "scatter wheeling in great broken rings."
Easter 1916
by William Yeats about uprising in Ireland "a terrible beauty is born" "polite meaningless words"
Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata About doomed affair between Tokyo dilettante Shimamura and geisha Komako Shimamura is a self-appointed Western Ballet expert despite never having seen one Shimamura also fantasizes about Yoko, a girl he sees on a train on the way to hot spring town where Komako lives Komako lives in paralyzed music teacher's old home Yoko nurses Yukio(music teacher's son), who has tuberculosis and may have once been engaged to Komako Ends with Yoko dying in a silkworm cocoon warehouse fire as Shimamura feels the "Milky Way flow inside him." Opens with Shimamura enraptured with the reflection of a woman caring for a sick man in a frosted train window (Yoko and Yukio) Opening line: "The train came out of the long tunnel" Story of a farmer who started a restaurant named after his mistress only for his wife to run it after his mistress ran away Komako sings the song "Dark Hair" while accompanying herself with a samisen Shimamura visits weavers of Chijimi
The Grasshopper and the Bell-Cricket
by Yasunari Kawabata Array of different-colored lanterns around a playground attract a creature that a schoolboy offers to his classmate
The Master of Go
by Yasunari Kawabata Based on real match reported on by Kawabata Journalist Uragami chronicles the retirement match of title character Honinbo Shusai Otake- young player based on Minoru Kitani, beats Shusai after a 237-move, 5-month long match Match is sealed by Move 121, game is visualized with images of board interspersed Uragami takes pictures at Shusai's funeral, is pleased that Shusai's one long eyebrow signifies good luck
The House of the Sleeping Beauties
by Yasunari Kawabata Eguchi visits title location where men sleep with drugged young virgins
Thousand Cranes
by Yasunari Kawabata Kikuji Mitani begins an affair with the much older Mrs. Ota after meeting her at a tea ceremony Title comes from pattern on handkerchief of Yukiko Inamura, the suggested proper bride for Kikuji Kikuji also has an affair with Mrs. Ota's daughter Fumiko Fumiko smashes a cylindrical white tea bowl stained with a trace of her mother's lipstick after Mrs. Ota overdoses on sleeping pills Chikako has a huge black birthmark on her chest and tries to interfere with Kikuji marrying Yukiko
The Dancing Girl of Izu
by Yasunari Kawabata Narrator is a college student who becomes infatuated with drum-wielding title character only to discover she is actually a child
Beauty and Sadness
by Yasunari Kawabata Oki Toshio impregnates fifteen year old Otoko Ueno then abandons her Otoko Ueno begins lesbian relationship with her maid Keiko Sakami Oki writes book "A Girl of Sixteen" about his relationship with Otoko, prompting Keiko to drown Oki's son out of revenge
The Sound of the Mountain
by Yasunari Kawabata Only elderly businessman Shingo Ogata can hear title noise Shingo is married to Yasuko, has children Shuichi and Fusako who both experience failing marriages Shuichi cheats on his wife Kikuko with a war widow, Kinuko, Kikuko has an abortion Shingo lusts after his secretary Eiko and after Kikuko, suggests a family trip to see maple trees
The Old Capital
by Yasunari Kawabata Protagonist- foundling Chieko Sada, whose family runs a kimono business. Chieko finds out her parents abandoned her when she discovers her twin sister Naeko, confusing Hideo
Diary of My Sixteenth Year
by Yasunari Kawabata Relates having to help his grandfather urinate
One Arm
by Yasunari Kawabata Young girl gives one of her arms to protagonist who decides to replace it for one of his own
Their Eyes were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston Crawford has to shoot husband after he is bitten by a rapid dog Eatonville, Florida floods from a hurricane
Lyrical Ballads
by william wordsworth and samuel taylor coleridge Tintern Abbey The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather
collection by Gao Xingjian title story- narrator's fond memories are triggered by seeing title fiberglass object in store window "The Accident" "Cramp" "The Temple" "In the Park"
East, West
collection by Salman Rushdie "Chekhov and Zulu" - title characters give themselves names from Star Trek, story is book-ended by assassinations of Indira and Rajiv Ghandi "Yorick" - about the childhood of Hamlet
Ariel
essay by José Rodó "to reform oneself is to live"
Democratic Vistas
essay by Walt Whitman written in response to Thomas Carlyle's "Shooting Niagara"
Chekhov's Gun
if you are going to put something in a story, it needs to be used later "If a gun is placed on stage in Act I, it must go off by the end"
Palm-of-the-Hand Stories
name given by Yasunari Kawabata to his works of fiction and short stories Published as a collection of short stories later in his career
HERmione
novel by Hilda Doolittle (H.D.) Autobiographical, about her relationship with Francis Gregg
Santa Claus: A Morality
play be E. E. Cummings
The Mousetrap
play by Agatha Christie Frequently uses the music for "Three Blind Mice" which it is loosely based on Murder investigator Sergeant Trotter skis to Monkswell Manor, it turns out he is the perpetrator Monkswell- guesthouse owned by Mollie Ralston Maureen Lyon is murdered Christopher Wren is first guest to arrive at Monkswell
Axel
play by Auguste Villiers de I'Isle-Adam The protagonist and Sara kill themselves as the sun rises, since they believe that their love is too beautiful for the world Edmond Wilson overview of Symbolist literature titled after protagonist's "Castle"
Ti-Jean and His Brothers
play by Derek Walcott A frog sneezes and exclaims, "Aeschylus me!" at the beginning Devil is accompanied by aborted fetus Bolom
The Other Shore
play by Gao Xingjian Group of actors play a game with ropes before crossing river to reach title location
A Month in the Country
play by Ivan Turgenev
The Theater of the Absurd
plays stressed the illogical, irrational aspects of life Eugene Ionesco Luigi Pirandello Samuel Beckett
Star-Apple Kingdom
poetry collection by Derek Walcott Title poem: "let me in...I am the revolution." , "voice had the gutturals of machine guns / across khaki deserts" "The Schooner Flight"
The Martian Chronicles
series of short stories by Ray Bradbury "There Will Come Soft Rains" "Usher II" "Ylla" "The Third Expedition"
Life on the Mississippi
Autobiography of Mark Twain about his life on a river boat
Moxon's Master
By Ambrose Bierce About a chess playing "robot" (called automatons) Automaton ends up killing its creator
Chickamanga
By Ambrose Bierce Deaf boy stumbles upon a battlefield He runs home only to find that his house has been burned and his parents have been killed
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
By Ambrose Bierce Peyton Farquhar is given a tip that the Union will travel a certain way, he tries to blow up bridge but gets caught Farquhar escapes being hung Ticking noise of his pocketwatch Turns out it was all a dream, Farquhar was actually hung, dream ends when the ticking stops
Agnes Grey
By Ann Bronte, aka Action Bell
The Mysteries of Udolpho
By Ann Radcliffe One of the first Gothic Novels
The Luck of Roaring Camp
By Bret Harte Cherokee Sal Mining camp Kentuck dies to save Cherokee Sal when the camp floods
The Outcasts of Poker Flat
By Bret Harte Uncle Billy steals horses John Oakhurst commits suicide
Jane Eyre
By Charlotte Bronte, aka Currer Bell Governess at Thornfield hall owned by Mr. Rochester Bertha Mason married to Rochester, is kept in attic, burns down Thornfield Hall(Grace Poole is blamed) Saint John- cousin of title character, proposes to her Lowood- girl's school run by Mr. Brocklehurst, title character meets Helen Burns Title character is confined to "Red Room" where her uncle John Reed died Title Character marries Mr. Rochester at the end Wide Sargasso Sea- prequel written by Jean Rhys
The Yellow Wallpaper
By Charlotte Perkins Gilman Husband thinks wife is crazy after childbirth, locks her in a room with yellow wallpaper She hallucinates the wallpaper is moving and tears in down
Casey at the Bat
By Earnest Thayer Really good baseball player strikes out Set in a town called Mudville
The House of Mirth
By Edith Wharton Lily Bart is socially ostracized Book gets its title from The Book of Ecclesiastes
Age of Innocence
By Edith Wharton Newland Archer loves Ellen Olenska but ends up marrying May Welland Archer visits Europe with his son Dallas
Ethan Frome
By Edith Wharton Title character has an affair with Mattie Silver They attempt to commit suicide at the end by running a sled into a tree Setting: Starkfield Title character's wife Zeena is sick and he must care for her Red pickle dish is shattered by a cat
Paul Clifford
By Edward Bulwer-Lytton "It was a dark and stormy night"
Miniver Cheevy
By Edwin Arlington Robinson Poem about a "child of scorn" who "eyed a khaki suit with loathing" "Loved a Medici" "Born too late"
Richard Cory
By Edwin Arlington Robinson Poem about a "gentleman from sole to crown" who was "richer than a king" He went home one night and "put a bullet in his head"
Sonnets from the Portugese
By Elizabeth Barret Browning Collection of poems Sonnet #43- "how do I love thee, let me count the ways"
Wuthering Heights
By Emily Bronte, aka Ellis Bell about Heathcliff's(an orphan from Liverpool) romance with Catherine Earnshaw, he is forced to marry Isabella Linton instead Framed as narrative told by Nelly Dean to Mr. Lockwood Set at Thrushcross Grange Protagonist sees ghost hand of Catherine break the glass window and reach into the room
The New Colossus
By Emma Lazarus Poem on the Statue of Liberty
The Little Mermaid
By Hans Christian Anderson When walking, it feels like she is walking on knives doesn't get prince to fall in love, turns into seafoam
Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen "it is a truth universally acknowledged, that a bachelor..." Follows the Bennet family Elizabeth Bennet falls in love with Mr. Darcy who owns Pemberley Estate Jane Bennet Falls in love with Charles Bingley Lydia Bennet marries a militia officer George Wickham Netherfield Ball scene Clergyman Mr. Collins proposes to Elizabeth Bennet but is rejected and ends up marrying Charlotte Lucas
Sense and Sensibility
By Jane Austen The Dashwood Family Edward Ferrars Mr. Willoughby
Mansfield Park
By Jane Austen Fanny Price
Northanger Abbey
By Jane Austen- her only gothic novel, published after her death Catherine Morland The Tilneys
The Good Soldier Svejk
By Jaroslav Hasek Dog thief in WWI
Ode on a Grecian Urn
By John Keats "Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all" "Thou still unravished bride of quietness" "Sylvan Historian" A man looks at the art on the title object "Heard melodies are sweet/but those unheard are sweeter" "foster child of silence and slow time"
Ode to a Nightingale
By John Keats "do I wake or sleep" "was it a vision or a waking dream?" "thou wast not born for death immortal Bird" Ruth "stood in tears amid the alien corn"
La Belle Dame Sans Merci
By John Keats French for the young woman without mercy "O what can ail thee, knight at arms"
Trees
By Joyce Kilmer Poem "I think I'll never see a poem as pretty as a tree"
Story of an Hour
By Kate Chopin Short story about a wife who thinks her husband is dead Wife is happy about her husbands death Husband turns out to be alive and the wife dies of a heart attack
Desiree's Baby
By Kate Chopin Two white people have a black baby Husband is outraged and throws out his wife and baby He eventually finds out he is the descendent of an escaped slave
The Storm
By Kate Chopin Woman has an affair while her husband is out caught in a storm
Don Juan
By Lord Byron Parody of Don Juan story (Huron)
Little Women
By Louisa May Alcott March Sisters: Amy Meg Beth Jo Marmee- mom Boy's school at Plumfield Sequels: Little Men, Jo's Boys
The Prince and the Pauper
By Mark Twain About two guys who randomly meet and decide to switch places
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
By Mark Twain Becky Thatcher Engine Joe: Native American White washing scene: title character tricks kids into helping him wash a fence
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveris County
By Mark Twain Frog named Daniel Webster Stones are stuffed down the frog's throat so it cannot jump
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
By Mark Twain Hank Morgen is sent back in time He is saved from hanging because he knew a solar eclipse was coming
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
By Mark Twain Jim the slave runs away from Douglass Jim meets The Duke and The Dauphin(the king)- con artists
The Man that Corrupted Hadlyburg
By Mark Twain Man who died leaves his fortune to someone who knows his last words, the town becomes hostile and nasty fighting over the fortune
Pudd'nhead Wilson
By Mark Twain Southern aristocrat baby and a slave baby are switched at birth
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
By Marry Wollstonecraft, mother of Mary Shelley
Frankenstein
By Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley In the book the monster is yellow Robert Walton sails around arctic sea, finds title doctor running from his monster Monster kills Henry Clervill As monster runs comes across bag of books, reads Paradise Lost, Plutarch's Lives, and Sorrows of Young Werther(by Goethe)
Dover Beach
By Matthew Arnold "Seas of faith ebbing away" "Where ignorant armies clash by night"
Thyrsis
By Matthew Arnold Elegy for Arthur Hugh Clough
The Scholar-Gypsy
By Matthew Arnold Oxford student joins a band of gypsies
The Joke
By Milan Kundera "Long live Trotsky"
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
By Milan Kundera Thomas, surgeon, loses his job because writes letter comparing the government to Oedipus story, married to Tereza(photographer of Prague Spring) Sabina, Thomas's mistress, painter, moves to American has sex while wearing a bowler hat, hates "kitsch" Franz, lover of Sabina, professor, dies in Bangkok while being mugged Kerenin, Thomas and Tereza's dog, reference to Tolstoy, dies of cancer
Sonnets to Orpheas
By Rainer Maria Rilke Poems over ancient greek hero
The Ring and the Book
By Robert Browning 21,000 lines; each a dramatic monologue(style of writing where stories are from one character's perspective) 12 books
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
By Samuel Taylor Coleridge Recited by "the wedding guest" Famous line: "water water everywhere nor any drop to drink" Ship is destroyed after a man shoots an Albatross
A White Heron
By Sarah Orne Jewett Hunter goes to Maine, asks girl to show him where the white heron lives Metaphor for young women coming of age, white heron represents virginity
The Red Badge of Courage
By Stephen Crane Henry Fleming joins the Union army in the Civil War Red badge=wound he gets in battle Flemming's group called "mule drivers" or "mud diggers" Protagonist meets a "tattered soldier" Jim Conklin dies
An American Tragedy
By Theodore Dreiser Clyde Griffiths kills his girlfriend Roberta Alden at Big Moose Lake after he falls for Sondra Finchley
On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth
By Thomas DeQuincey Act II Scene 1 from Macbeth
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
By Thomas DeQuincey Based on real life of author Divided into "pleasures" and "pains" of title substance
The Garden Party
By Vaclav Havel Hugo Pludek becomes head of the Central Inauguration and Liquidation Party He is very good with answering with the "right answer" Criticism of communism
O Pioneers!
By Willa Cather Swedish Immigrant named Alexandra Bergson She gets married after her younger brother Emil is killed
The Song of the Lark
By Willa Cather Thea Kronberg becomes an opera singer and eventually dies at the end
A Poison Tree
By William Blake Guy gives his enemy a poisoned apple
The Tyger
By William Blake In collection called Songs of Experience Title animal "burning bright/in the forests of the night" "What immortal hand or eye/could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
The Lamb
By William Blake In collection called Songs of Innocence
Endymion
by John Keats "a thing of beauty is a joy forever" Greek shepherd's love for Cynthia
On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
by John Keats "stout Cortez" standing "upon a peak in Darian" looking out over the pacific ocean About reading a translation of the odyssey
The Eve of St. Agnes
by John Keats Angela allows Porphyro to visit Madeline on the title night
To Autumn
ode by John Keats "season of mists and mellow fruitfulness."