Study guides: books, letter w

Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett is the father of the famous theatrical movement called Theatre of the Absurd. He managed to stage the elements of everyday life in a way that they became uncommon and brought revelation into people’s brains. The text couldn’t even provoke criticism upon its appearance and thus immediately established a new art niche. “Waiting for Godot” was written in 1949...

Walden by Henry David Thoreau

“Walden” was written by Henry Thoreau in 1954. It is a recollection and a kind of social experiment about a man living in simple conditions far away from civilization. The book opens with a story about author’s real experience living near Walden Pond for a couple of years. “Walden” can have many possible interpretations. For some, it’s a spiritual voyage down...

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy wrote the major work of the world’s literary heritage entitled “War and Peace” in 1869. It consists of 15 books topped with the philosophical discussions of the epilog that go hand in hand with the narration and plot and make it unique and non-conformant to any typical literature genre. The novel features the French-Russian war of the beginning of 19th century and...

Watership Down by Richard Adams

“Watership Down” is a 1972 fantasy novel by Richard Adams. It is positioned to be a children book, but it’s read and loved by adults all over the world. It’s common for literature works to use anthropomorphized animals as characters. They walk, talk, do human things, live in houses with large windows and wear brand clothes. But the “Watership Down” used a...

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

Wilson Rawls wrote “Where the Red Fern Grows” in 1961. Wilson wasn't a typical representative of the writing class: as a young boy he didn't receive a good education, started reading only in high school and had poor command of grammar. It was his wife who motivated him to keep expressing his ideas in the writing and she herself edited the books. “Where the Red Fern...

White Fang by Jack London

White Fang is one of the most famous novels by Jack London and definitely his most famous novel about the wildlife. It tells us the story of a wolf cub, who was raised in the wild but then tamed by the people. White Fang lived a harsh life of a service dog and then a fighting one, until a kind-hearted man bought him and tried to rehabilitate the stressed and injured wolf and adjust him to the...

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Jean Rhys wrote “Wide Sargasso Sea” in 1966. It demonstrates the inequality in the society on the grounds of ethical origins, as well as depicts the racial conflict from a standpoint of white slave owners. The novel is about Antoinette Cosway who lives in Jamaica, and who the reader might have heard about in the “Jane Eyre” book. Antoinette finds herself on the other side...

Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson

Winesburg, Ohio is quite a difficult work to read, because, at first glance, its short stories are connected to each other only through some random characters. But the broader picture shows that the story can become whole even without the single plotline going through every short story. They are the pieces of human lives, sad, funny, tragic or romantic. Any story is deliberately taken out of the...

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Sometimes just one book is enough to make history. That’s the case with Emily Bronte, whose one and only novel “Wuthering Heights” made it to the great classics of literary masterpieces. We are only left wondering how many more great novels would the author write if she didn’t die the year after the book had been published.  Any story that deals with mental aspects...