Study guides - Page 2 | Just Great DataBase

“A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Betty Smith. It tells us about the childhood and growing up of a girl from a troubled but loving family that lives in the poor district of New York City. It won the approval of the audience almost immediately for the realistic and vivid depiction of life of Brooklyn and the main heroine’s aspirations, hopes...

Madeleine L’Engle wrote “A Wrinkle in Time” in 1962. The book is most known for its spectacular illustrations by Leo and Diane Dillon that made the edition known and even more frequently read. The protagonist of the story is a young girl Meg Murry. Her father was taken hostage by the evil forces, so she decided to rescue him, which means to travel in time and to another planet...

“Absalom, Absalom” is a story of a single man, Thomas Sutpen, the local hero, told by several different people who knew him. The novel is quite difficult to read, because of the absence of any chronological order and the controversial memories of every person involved. While the young and curious protagonist starts to investigate the biography of Sutpen, the image of a flawless hero...

“Adam Bede” is a novel about rural life and the complicated and tangled relationships between the young people of the imaginary community of Hayslope. With the incredible brilliance the pastoral and heartwarming depiction of the life of countryside is connected with the harsh reality of it. George Eliot touches the almost tabooed themes of infanticide, unwanted pregnancy, social...

If you love to explore the creations of such authors as Sophocles or Euripides, then you surely must discover the works of Aeschylus. He was born in Greece and is often considered the father of Greek drama and tragic dramaturgy genre as it is today. It’s hard to believe, but he was the first to introduce more than one actor on the stage.  “Agamemnon” is the first play of...

“Alas, Babylon” was written by Pat Frank in 1959 and it became a bestseller almost immediately. As Tolkien for the fantasy genre or Orwell for the future dystopian books, Pat Frank became a “grandfather” of all postapocalyptic fiction. “Alas, Babylon” shows us the bleak future after the nuclear war that devastated the world. The small town in the middle of...

Lewis Carroll imagination has produced one of the most fascinating children fantasy stories of all times. Despite his impaired physical appearance, Carroll discovered a talent to animate children having been baby-sitting his younger sisters and brothers. Ever since that time Lewis loved being around children and entertaining them. While teaching at Oxford, the author met Henry George Liddell...

Novels about the war are never an easy reading. Combined with Erich Maria Remarque detailed style and objective perspective, “All Quiet On The Western Front” is a great piece of war narrative that will make your eyes open. It’s easy to romanticize war: our brains are wired to justify sacrifice and turn negative into positive. And many literary creations, despite depicting the...

Despite the name of the novel is taken from the nursery rhyme, the plotline is dramatic and full of tragic events. The name has a lot to deal with the narrative - the book tells us about the life of the cynical and liberal populist of American South in 1930s, Willie Stark. This is the story of his rising to power and turning from somewhat idealistic lawyer to the magnificent, overly charismatic...

“All the Pretty Horses” is the book that made its author, Cormac McCarthy, popular after its publishing in 1992. This book is about becoming independent – from your parents, from your own insecurities, from the society that entraps you. It has been nominated and won numerous book awards. Who didn’t try or at least dreamed of running away from parents in the childhood years...

The bitter and satirical play of Henrik Ibsen was, to the great extent, his answer to the reaction of the critics to his previous work, “Ghosts”. The play was named scandalous, because the author dared to discuss such problems as adultery and syphilis that was too much for the prudish a society of that time. As a result, Henrik Ibsen dedicated his play to the problem of a person...

Prepare to explore the depth of contemporary mystery writing with “And Then There Were None” written by the legendary Agatha Christie. It is the most known and the best-selling novel of the author. The book is also known under the title of “Ten Little Niggers” which was changed due to the technicalities of the publishing adaption.  A group of different people finds...

“Angela's Ashes” is memoirs by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt that depicts his poor childhood in Limerick. It is one of the greatest novels of the 20th century. The book, which brought the author Pulitzer Prize for 1997. Poverty drove the Irish across the ocean to America, and it drove them back during the Great Depression. The family of Frank McCourt was forced to leave...

George Orwell has always been a loud critic of the social wrongdoings and worrying tendencies around the globe. No wonder he took a strong position about the Soviet Union regime and openly criticized Stalin. In 1945 George wrote a dystopian novella about evolution of animals that expel their human master, Manor Farm owner Mister Jones. The fight for independence from cruel farmer ends up with...

There’s an eternal battle over which of the Leo Tolstoy creations is more of a masterpiece: “Anna Karenina” or “War and Peace”. And while the latter will never loose its historic and political interest, “Anna Karenina” in its turn will live forever thanks to the glorifying concepts of female roles and family relationships of the late 1870s. The book...

Ayn Rand has been a witness to the most tumultuous times of the Russian history at the dawn of the civil war and social revolution. Having watched her family business perish and their wellbeing reduced to misery, she saw right through the corrupt system being built in the Soviet Union. Ever since the times she escaped Russia, she has been set on breaking the Soviet regime by exposing its damage...

Antigone is an eternal work of art that transcends time, literary style, authorship, and taste. It’s one of the signature Sophocles plays tightly intermingled with Oedipus and Colonus. The events of the play happen in Ancient Greece. After the death of Thebes ruler Oedipus, his sons are faced with a tough task of dividing and conquering. Since it has never been an easy thing to do...

“Anthony and Cleopatra” is a famous tragedy by William Shakespeare, based on the amazing and dramatic story of fatal love between Roman commander Mark Antony and the Queen of Egypt Cleopatra. It is a kind-of-history play about two of the most glorious societies in the Ancient World. Written in 1607–1608, this play absorbed a number of different themes that were presented in...

“Arms and the Man” is a jovial comedy by George Bernard Shaw that portrays such serious issues as war, unrequited love and scandal so lightheartedly that we can’t help laughing. The clever usage of double entendre jokes only enhances this atmosphere. The real Serbo-Bulgarian war turns into a story told by the veterans to boast in the company of fellow soldiers: funny and with...