They provide chapter-by-chapter analysis; explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols; a review quiz; and essay topics. Lively and accessible, SparkNotes is perfect for late-night studying and paper writing. Includes: An A+ Essay—an actual literary essay written about the Spark-ed book—to show students how a paper should be written. 16 pages devoted to writing a literary essay including: a glossary of literary terms Step-by-step tutoring on how to write a literary essay A feature on how not to plagiarize

    Her desperate measures to create a 'normal' life can only wreak terrible consequences. How will Lucy's story ultimately play out? A psychological suspense novel for readers of books like 'I Let You Go' and 'Gone Girl.'

    This Faust-like and magical story is evidence of Hesse's searching philosophy and extraordinary sense of humanity as he tells of the humanization of a middle-aged misanthrope. Yet his novel can also be seen as a plea for rigorous self-examination and an indictment of the intellectual hypocrisy of the period. As Hesse himself remarked, "Of all my books Steppenwolf is the one that was more often and more violently misunderstood than any of the others".

    Setting out on his own exploration, Roberto Calasso enters the flow, the tortuous movement, the physiology of Kafka’s work to discover why K. and Josef K.–the protagonists of The Castle and The Trial–are so radically different from any other character in the history of the novel, and to determine who, in the end, is K. The culmination of Calasso’s lifelong fascination with Kafka’s work, K. is also an unprecedented consideration of the mystery of Kafka himself.

    In a deadpan, pseudo-scientific tone, the nameless narrator takes us on a tour of a bizarre village whose inhabitants lead such habitual, regulated lives that they resemble elements in a mathematical equation.

    His stories revel in the erotic tensions of city life, cross the threshold between rational and hallucinatory realms, celebrate the importance of games, and delve into the peculiar relationship between gambling and fortune-telling, and explore the themes that defined Benjamin. The novellas, fables, histories, aphorisms, parables and riddles in this collection are brought to life by the playful imagery of the modernist artist and Bauhaus figure Paul Klee.

    As a young man, he possessed the rare gift of dream singing – the ability to see the future, but lost it through a selfish act. A seemingly chance crossing of paths with a thirteen year-old runaway boy who has witnessed a murder in a railroad dramatically changes both their destinies. Part love story, tragedy, and mystery, Dream Singer is a story of the betrayal of love, and the quest for redemption, where listening to dreams and the spirit of the land is vital to Elijah and boy staying ahead of the killer – and staying alive.

    By the end of the Second World War, however, the reputation of both novels had grown and Faulkner's great fictional creation, Yoknapatawpha County, had become as much a part of America as any real area of the Mississippi landscape. This "Guide" explores the wealth of critical material generated by these two exceptional works of modernist fiction. From the initially mixed critical responses to the novels in the early 1930s, the "Guide" follows the enormous growth of interest in Faulkner's work across six decades. New writings shaped by a range of critical theories are discussed, offering the reader a clear view of the place now given to one of America's most innovative and influential novelists.

    

    A brilliant display of erudition, wit, and wisdom, his exploration of how great European writers from Homer to Virginia Woolf depicted reality has taught generations how to read Western literature. This new expanded edition includes a substantial essay in introduction by Edward Said as well as an essay, never before translated into English, in which Auerbach responds to his critics.A German Jew, Auerbach was forced out of his professorship at the University of Marburg in 1935. He left for Turkey, where he taught at the state university in Istanbul. There he wrote "Mimesis," publishing it in German after the end of the war. Displaced as he was, Auerbach produced a work of great erudition that contains no footnotes, basing his arguments instead on searching, illuminating readings of key passages from his primary texts. His aim was to show how from antiquity to the twentieth century literature progressed toward ever more naturalistic and democratic forms of representation. This essentially optimistic view of European history now appears as a defensive--and impassioned--response to the inhumanity he saw in the Third Reich. Ranging over works in Greek, Latin, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and English, Auerbach used his remarkable skills in philology and comparative literature to refute any narrow form of nationalism or chauvinism, in his own day and ours. For many readers, both inside and outside the academy, "Mimesis" is among the finest works of literary criticism ever written.

    

    Fikry. A comprehensive guide to Zevin's wonderful celebration of the world of literature, this book includes useful literary context; a full plot summary, discussion of themes and symbols; character notes; 15 thought-provoking discussion questions; recommended further reading and a quick quiz. **Amazon Reviews for the Reading Room Book Group Notes:** "Belong to a small book club and we had our liveliest, best discussion ever over this book." (Jeanne McCloskey) "I would definitely recommend it to other book groups." (Book Addict) "Insightful and made the discussion easy to begin." (C. Childress) "I'm in a book club that read this and it was SO helpful!" (AvidReaderAllGenres) The Reading Room Book Group Guides are designed to help you get the absolute best from your book club meetings. An invaluable reference tool, they provide a wealth of useful information on your chosen novel. *THIS BOOK IS A COMPANION GUIDE, DESIGNED TO BE READ IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE ORIGINAL NOVEL. PLEASE BE AWARE, IT DOES NOT CONTAIN THE ORIGINAL TEXT OF THE NOVEL.*

    In this early work, Böll’s style is already powerful and evocative, engaging in the moral drama that will come to fruition in such later works as Billiards at Half-Past Nine, The Clown, Group Portrait with Lady, and The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum.

    The aim of the series is to give readers accessible and informative introductions to some of the most popular, most acclaimed and most influential novels of recent years - from ‘The Remains of the Day' to ‘White Teeth'. A team of contemporary fiction scholars from both sides of the Atlantic has been assembled to provide a thorough and readable analysis of each of the novels in question.

    Here are thirty-eight brief, brilliant flashes of fiction, both classic and contemporary. Each work is superb, intense, and speaks to the human condition in a profound, often provocative way–a truly outstanding collection by some of the worlds greatest authors.