Study guides: books, letter t

Tartuffe by Molière

Tartuffe is a classical satire written by Moliere that shows us the story of the aforementioned Tartuffe - a con artist pretending to be a saint and entering the happy and jovial family to parasite on it. We see the characters, complicated enough to fit not only the satirical novel, that is unusual - mostly the writers use sketchy, flat characters to present the virtues and vices they want to...

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald is considered his best work. The novel was awarded many times and still is considered an example of classical modern literature. The story isn’t autobiographical, but the course of the plot certainly reveals the emotions that Fitzgerald himself experienced when writing it. His life was rather harsh at the times of working on Tender is the Night...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

“Tess of the d’Ubervilles” is a novel by Thomas Hardy also entitled “A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented”. The author was born in a rural family of a builder and he couldn’t resist writing about peasant life, outlook, and psychology of the working class. The novel consists of a couple of parts, they represent the stages in the life of a protagonist Tess. She is...

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

Thanks to Mark Twain there exist very few people who say that they don’t know American literature. Published in 1884, his novel “Huckleberry Finn” became one of the most notable representatives of American books with its dominating notions of color, religion, manners, and tolerance.  In his early years, Mark Twain had a direct exposure to slavery: his family moved to...

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

Today is a good time to remember the childhood with this amazing Mark Twain book. Published in 1876, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” managed to make the author famous for the decade and centuries to come. Its plot and characters have become universal for all ages and continents. The book is about Tom Sawyer – antisocial and difficult teenager who lives with his aunt. Aunt Polly...

The Aeneid by Virgil

Together with comedies of Aristophanes and tragedies written by Sophocles, “The Aeneid” by Virgil is a pearl of Antique literature worth discovering. The poem was written during a period of Virgil being in the inner circle of Augustus and thus serves as a mirror into the morals and political climate of his reign. The novel is about a glorious travel of Aeneas, the hero of Troy battle...

The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton

“The Age of Innocence” is a romantic novel about duty, independence and unrequited love, that brought to its author fame and the unofficial title of “The First Lady of the Letters”. It is a beautiful story that lets us immerse into the radiance of Gilded Age and face the conflict between rigid morals and social expectations and the human desire to be happy no matter what...

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

It’s worth reading “The Alchemist” just to see what Paulo Coelho is capable of writing in just two weeks of time. It didn’t happen immediately after publishing, but like many of the other author’s creations, the book became a bestseller and is now available to read in over 70 languages. It has even found its place among the self-help book sections due to its content...

The Ambassadors by Henry James

No matter how rigid and defined the setting is, “The Ambassadors” is a book about emotions and emotional freedom. We meet the main character, Lambert Strether, a middle-aged and very ordinary man, who decides to marry a very proper woman. But his fiancée-to-be sets a condition: he shall find her delinquent son in Paris and return him home, preventing him from a scandalous...

The Awakening by Kate Chopin

“The Awakening” by Kate Chopin is an American novel that focuses on the confrontation of developing women’s views and outdated society attitudes towards it. The fact that even today in some communities the book still provokes confrontation means that the feminism still has a long way to go.  The protagonist of the story is Edna Pontellier. And while her husband thought too...

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

Barbara Kingsolver is an American writer and poet. Her first novel “The Bean Trees” was published in 1988. The book denotes multiple symbolic meanings about shared motherhood, life and death, and beauty. The narrator Taylor Greer, who is also the main character of the novel grew up among the tobacco fields of Kentucky and suddenly realized that she had no choice, no future. It is not...

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath wrote only one novel and it was enough for her to make a name for herself as a great writer. “The Bell Jar” is in part an autobiographical book that talks about the mental state of the protagonist who tried to take her own life. The novel concerns the life of Esther Greenwood, who is a student living in Massachusetts. At the beginning of the plot, she is in New York...

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

“The Bluest Eye” by Tony Morrison is a novel that is set in 1941. Is it a book written in an easy and airy narrative that dwells upon topics that leave everyone uneasy. The eyes of a person. They can tell so much. They are the history, they are the character, they are the ocean and the universe. And for some people like Pecola, they are the sign of being a chosen one. Pecola, an...

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

It’s high time to get a taste of Australian literary creations with the best novel of Markus Zusak. Since 2005 “The Books Thief” sold millions of copies and became a world-renowned bestseller.  The events of the book are happening around the times of the World War II. Thus the unusual choice of the narrator of the story doesn’t strike as weird as it could have &ndash...

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“The Brothers Karamazov” is the last book written by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1880. It is a rare case where the philosophy of the content is successfully mixed with the excitement of the plot. One of the protagonists of the novel, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov is a cold and rough man. He gets the joy in life while making money and sleeping with women, two of which he married. His children...

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

“Call of the Wild” is a short adventure novel by American writer Jack London published in 1903. The novel relates to Jack London's early work. Often it is classified as children's literature since the main here is a dog. However, the maturity and depth of the ideas of the novel make it relevant to adult readers. This animated story reveals such problems as survival of the...

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Prepare to explore the culture, life, and people of Middle Ages in these 24 stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer. The author was close to the King and wrote the text while being at the height of his career in the justice of the state. His experiences are reflected in the stories. If you think that this is a boring book to be used for bedtime reading – you couldn’t be more wrong. So...

The Cask of Amontillado by Edgar Allan Poe

The father of detective genre, Edgar Allan Poe, is known and loved for his short stories that keep the reader in suspense till the every last page. “The Cask of Amontillado” is surely one of the most popular among one of them. In 1846 it was published in a lady’s magazine but was highly acclaimed by the audience of all genders, ages, and ethical origins.  The master of...

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

For an offspring of a wealthy Family, Jerome David Salinger didn’t go through a very typical career path. He went to many colleges, but didn’t finish any of them. After that he chose for a military career and combined it with his writing talent. He managed to stir the trouble with his works that are still being mentioned in the context of literature censorship and ethics. “The...