Study guides - Page 10 | Just Great DataBase

Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw is a play telling the audience about the life of a half-historical half-mythical character of Joan of Arc, a heroine and saint of France. The author follows her story from the moment of her revelation to her execution, canonization and afterlife. Despite Shaw shows Joan as an actual saint, able to create miracles or involuntarily curse people who don’t...

Jane Austen published her first novel “Sense and Sensibility” anonymously. She even undertook all the costs associated with the publishing of 750 copies. It tells a lot about the morals of the time when the text saw the world (1811) and, particularly, how the society didn’t treat women seriously. Nevertheless, the novel was considered to be a success, sold all copies and...

Discover yourself and look at the world around you differently with this spiritual book by Herman Hesse. Published in 1922 it still preserves its relevance for those who are looking for something beyond everyday routine life. The novel is about Siddhartha, son of Brahmin, that has all the components for a happy life: he is handsome, he is from a well-respected family, he has means for living a...

The story of Silas Marner by George Eliot goes all the way through from heartbreaking to heartwarming. The story is full of both realistically depicted issues of the rural society of that time and humor and hope that gradually help Silas (and us) find consolation and rebuild life anew. The story starts at its lowest: Silas Marner is falsely accused of theft and the society ostracizes him...

We all know Don Quixote as the most famous representative of the chivalric irony genre. On the contrary, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” is a real chivalry poem written it the 14th century. It is a beautiful and symbolic adventure into the life and morals of the 14th century written by an unknown author. The language of the medieval times might be difficult to read but that only...

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser is considered one of the best urban novels ever written. It tells us the story of a countryside girl who desires to earn fame and fortune in a big city. It isn’t the story of Cinderella: Carrie has to struggle searching for any job and realize that even her relatives see her as an additional source of income, not saying about stranger people, her employers...

It’s hard to be satirical about such tragic events as war, especially if it’s the World War II that took lives of millions of people. But Kurt Vonnegut managed to write a marvelous satirical novel that also has elements of fantasy and science fiction.  “Slaughterhouse-Five” is a book about an American soldier named Billy Pilgrim. It is the last years of the WW II and...

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson is primarily a detective story that features the case of a fisherman possibly murdered by his colleague and former friend amidst the storm. Almost everyone is convinced that the suspect, an American Japanese named Kabuo Miyamoto is guilty of it. But as the story unwinds, we understand that there is much more behind the ordinary investigation. We learn the...

A dark fantasy novel from the one of the most renowned authors of modern literature - Ray Bradbury. Despite the author is mostly known for his science fiction novels, “Something Wicked This Way Comes” is a real masterpiece that will send chills down your spine. The main characters of the story are thirteen-year-old teenagers living in a small town. Jim Nightshade and William Halloway...

“Song of Solomon” is a book by Toni Morrison that talks about the life of Macon “Milkman”. Some might say that it is a story of a privileged child, and others say it’s a story about the symbolic life of a generation of people who have been oppressed for centuries and deserve to have a good life now. Macon “Milkman” Dead III is a son of a rich African...

Hermann Hesse wrote his novel “Steppenwolf” in his typical style: introducing a separate book in a book and combining the literary language with psychoanalytic tricks and real facts. Published in 1927, the text still preserves the signs of the Hesse’s spiritual crisis that he went through in the 1920s. The author begins the story saying that he received Harry Haller’s...

“Sula” is a novel written by Toni Morrison in 1973. Toni came to the literary path from a creative family and her career is a work of art in itself. In "Sula" she created a story about two girls who became women. It is a story about two friends, who turned into fierce enemies over something that wasn’t of their fault. It is also a story about roots and cultural origins...

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 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’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...

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...

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...

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” 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...