Study guides: books, letter b
Another satirical piece that exposes the flaws of American society by Sinclair Lewis was a huge success, and we can completely understand why it brought to its author the Nobel Prize in literature and why the word “babbitt” became a definition for the people who desperately try to fit themselves into the standards of the average middle-class by all costs. After the World War I and...
“Bartleby The Scrivener” is also often called “A Story Of Wall Street”. It is written by Herman Melville in 1853 and published in a magazine in two parts. The book version was published in 1856. Have you ever been confronted with objections? Some people are more successful with overcoming them while others are not. But what would you do if the objections of the other...
American literary history wouldn’t be the same if Toni Morrison didn’t write this legendary “Beloved” novel. It is partially based on a real story of an enslaved woman who fled Kentucky to escape to freedom, not without terrible sacrifices and consequences. It’s a fascinating plot that will keep you reading for hours. The setting of the book is symbolic: right...
“Benito Cereno” is a thrilling novel about the events on the fictional Spanish slave ship. It is a part of Herman Melville’s book “The Piazza Tales” and is considered one of the brightest jewels of this book. One of the main features of it is the constant tension and suspect that our main character, the captain of the ship passing by, feels on San Dominick. The...
Beowulf is definitely a must read as one of the oldest Anglo-Saxon poems written around 700 A.D. Today it’s hard to say what exactly was in the original text since it has been rewritten and reworked a couple times before reaching modern day publishing. But the book didn’t lose its relevance, historic value and linguistic beauty and is being admired now more than ever. It all begins...
Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville has a complicated story of publishing. After the death of the author, his widow discovered the manuscript of the novel, but it was still a draft. Trying to preserve the last work of her deceased husband, she started to transcript and edit it, but sometimes it was very complicated to choose the right variant from the many drafts and understand which plot turn...
Richard Nathaniel Wright is one of the most famous African American writers of the mid-20th century. He became the first black-skinned writer whose books were read by all of America. “Black Boy” is an autobiographical novel, which tells about author`s childhood. This work gave him the right to be called “the true father of all modern Negro literature.” Richard Nathaniel...
Black Elk Speaks is the nonfiction book that reflects the talks of the healer of the Lakota people named Black Elk. Neihardt was one of the few who was granted permission to enter Lakota reservation and talk to the people who still remember the specific rituals he wanted to depict. He went there with his two daughters and all the book is dedicated to his own description of what he saw there and...
This story is a rare example of non-fiction that can be read exactly like a fiction book - so unlikely are the events described in it. The author of the book, the journalist John Howard Griffin makes a brave experiment (totally discarding his instinct of self-preservation, because this experiment would have been greatly disapproved by both black and white people). He darkens his skin and...
“Bleak House” by Charles Dickens isn’t the most famous of his novels, but it is a brilliant satire on the English judicial system. The main plot drive is the two contradictory wills and the following Jarndyce and Jarndyce court case. The tangled family story with unexpected turns and suddenly revealed relationships, marriages, lost children and enamored cousins makes this...
“Bless Me, Ultima” is a book written in 1972 by Rudolfo Anaya. It is a leading piece of literature in the Chicano literary genre. The story might not be the reader’s first choice among the coming-of-age books selection, but it is definitely the best fit for discovering the multicultural aspect of the globalized world. It is rich in special language mix, vivid descriptions of...
Since his childhood years, Aldous Huxley was surrounded by good examples of scientists, teachers and writers. This kind of exposure put him in a perfect position to integrate scientific findings into literature and deliver the story the way a teacher would lead his students through a complicated material. He started with satire, making English privileged society a target for his works. Then was...
Bridge to Terabithia isn’t an average story for kids. Deeply inspired by “The Chronicles of Narnia” (this book is even directly mentioned in the story), it is more like “The Neverending Story”, because the troubles and worries of the real life are tightly interwoven with the events in the imaginary kingdom of Terabithia. The story starts from the odd friendship of...