Study guides - Page 5 | Just Great DataBase
It might seem that our world is overwhelmed with misshapen romance examples: from movies, theaters to bookshops and Broadway shows, it’s all about broken hearts and misinterpreted feelings. Yet Jane Austen managed to write a novel that is different from any others. The book “Emma” is famous for many things, but one detail that stands out is the protagonist of the story. Emma...
“Ethan Frome” is a work of Edith Wharton published in 1911. Those of you who know the author by her novel “The Age of Innocence” will be greatly surprised by the difference in style between these two works of art. The text is about small American town with its trivial life, people lost under piles of snow, and dust, and heavy sky. A simple and silent farmer lives here...
Ray Bradbury was born in the USA in the 1920s. Together with his family he had to move around quite a lot in his life and mostly taught himself through visiting the libraries. Before becoming a popular science fiction writer, he made a career of writing TV scripts and articles for science magazines. His dystopia “Fahrenheit 451” is centered around censorship of mass media and books...
The painful theme of Vietnam War still is acute for the American society, even after all these years. But only a few authors depicted it with such degree of truth as Walter Dean Myers. The war here is shown through the eyes of a very young adult, who enlists the army to support his family, not knowing about the hell that waits for him and his fellow soldiers ahead. The war described by Myers...
Thomas Hardy is most known for his novel “ Far From the Madding Crowd”. It was published in 1874 and transformed to multiple awards winning film in the end of 1960s. Today it still continues to be in the top 100 reading lists of different publications, such as BBC and The Guardian. The story takes place in an imaginary country called Wessex. The style, descriptions, and behavior of...
This non-fiction novel is the memories of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston about her family, imprisoned and sent to the concentration camp of Manzanar. The story starts from her parents, who had their own issues even before the bombing of Pearl Harbor that caused the repressions against American Japanese people. The family of Jeanne are the immigrants of first generation, who fled from war. They are...
The novel that became a jewel of Russian literature tells us about the generation gap and the misunderstanding with older people and the revolutionary and sometimes harmful views of youth. The main characters are the middle-aged landlord Nikolai, his brother Paul and Nikolai’s son Arkady with his friend Bazarov. Nikolai tried his best to have a good parental relationship with Arkady and...
Science fiction isn’t the most frequent genre of the literary creations and it can be hard to find good reads on that isle. Luckily, Daniel Keyes wrote a great representative of this genre that is admired by millions of readers since 1958. “Flowers of Algernon” is a book about a mentally disturbed patient whose name is Charlie Gordon. The protagonist works at a bakery. He...
Ernest Hemingway’s best work, “For Whom the Bell Tolls” was written in 1940 and continues to be translated, adapted, filmed and admired by the new generation today. Robert Jordan arrives in Spain in 1937. He is a young American teacher who decided to help those he felt related to. Almost immediately he is tasked with damaging the bridge to undermine the enemy’s...
Many authors have pondered upon the future industrial revolution was going to bring to Europe and whole world. Mary Shelley was one of them. Even though she wrote her signature novel, “Frankenstein”, as a part of an informal writing competition, it later became a best-seller and a classic of all times. Some might say that the book teaches people not to be selfish about our own...
Ghosts was a very controversial play for its time, touching such delicate topics as venereal diseases, marital infidelity, incest and euthanasia. The audience of Ibsen’s time was shocked by the openly shown sins of the society, but still, despite being so morally dubious, the play was a great success. It touched the problems of the society everyone was aware of, but no one dared to speak...
The story, despite taking place in the mundane and bleak Harlem district, is very Biblical by its nature. The tale of John Grimes and his search for himself, establishing his relationship with God and desperate attempts to fix at least some relationships with his family is very close to Earth. But if we look closely, we see a lot of allusions to the Biblical story of Ham, the unfortunate son of...
“Great Expectations” is not the first novel written by Charles Dickens and many critics wouldn’t agree to call it his best. But it is definitely a magnificent work of literary art to discover. It encompasses the author’s great style, scenes from his previous works, and themes that touch so deeply into reader’s soul. An orphan named Pip lives together with his sister...
Fierce travel lovers and curious minds, get ready to feed your imagination with some unique and exotic thoughts. Jonathan Swift created a satirical book that both makes fun and glorifies the art of traveling. Lemuel Gulliver is a part of a ship crew who due to a series of misshapen events ends up visiting different islands and their inhabitants of various sizes and customs. From Lilliput...
“To be or not to be?” Who hasn’t used this iconic phrase at least once in their lifetime? Not many of us have actually read the whole book. Which is a pity – the language of the greatest poet on Earth, William Shakespeare, is a must to experience. He was greatly acknowledged as well as staged already during his lifetime and even managed to please two monarchs of the...
“Hard Times” is the shortest novel that Charles Dickens has written. It was composed in 1854 in an attempt to boost the declining sales the author was experiencing at that time. The book is also often called the most “Victorian” of all his other creations. The original book didn’t have any illustrations, but the language of the story is full of detailed...
“Hatchet” is an amazing adventure novel written by American writer Gary Paulsen. This novel tells the story about Brian, a young 13-year-old boy whose parents are divorced. Brian survived a plane crash that left him alone in a desert in Canada. Through internal conflict, external forces acting against him, and with the help of his ax (a recent gift from his mother), Brian learns to...