Study guides - Page 8 | Just Great DataBase
Measure for Measure is an interesting play by William Shakespeare, where the principles of his comedies and tragedies mix together. Like in a classic tragedy, there is a hero - a strict judge Angelo - whose desire to obey the law becomes his fatal flaw and almost leads to his downfall. But, as in the comedies, everything ends good and no one suffers too much. The interesting plot turn is...
“Medea” belongs to the authorship of a great Ancient writer Euripides. It is based on a story of a woman whose husband leaves her for another princess. In despair, she kills his new wife and her own children. There are cultures that consider ungratefulness to be the worst sin. In such cultures, Medea would have been acquitted of crime and understood very well. However, in the modern...
Miss Lonelyhearts is a story about burnout, the tragedy of a human who sees the darkest sides of life for too long. Miss Lonelyhearts is a pseudonym of a male columnist who answers the letters of the lonely and broken people, giving them some advice and emotional support. This job is considered shameful in the newspaper and Miss Lonelyhearts (whose real name we never learn) is constantly mocked...
Herman Melville was born into a wealthy importer family. But all of the sudden the business failed and his life changed drastically. Trying to make a living, he signed up for his first sea journey when he was nineteen. His experience as a part of a whaling expedition and then living on an exotic island among the tribe of cannibals gave the author an immense material for writing topics. His most...
Until now there are doubts if Daniel Defoe is a real author of Moll Flanders. It was attributed to him by the first editor and bookseller, as a fiction novel, though the story’s narrator is Moll herself and she states that it is a sincere autobiography. It is hard to believe that a person could have such an intense life, but, if it is so, Moll is one of the most extraordinary con artists...
Virginia Woolf is known as a great writer in part because of her novel “Mrs. Dalloway”. It is included in different lists of the best English-language novels of all times. It talks about the generation that lived during a post-war time and the generation that will follow, making the same mistakes. The timeframe of the book is one day. It talks about the life of a well-respected woman...
Even great literature lovers don’t start their Shakespeare experience with “Much Ado About Nothing”. His other plays, such as “Romeo and Juliette” or “ Othello” are much more typical for the first encounter with the greatest poet of all times. But sooner or later readers come to experience “Much Ado About Nothing” and it instantly becomes...
“My Antonia” is a prominent novel by American writer Willa Cather. It is the last and the best work of her Prairie Trilogy, which begins with “O Pioneers!”, and is followed by “The Song of the Lark.” This novel is a real story about the fate of immigrant settlers who mastered the lands of the American West at the turn of the century. The turn of the 19th and...
The brilliant piece of historical fiction, this is the story about the Revolutionary War and the rite of passage for the young Tim. The families are torn apart by the conflict of political interests and his own one isn’t spared. Tim’s older brother, who is only sixteen years old, joins the resistance to fight the British government, while his father stays loyal to the crown. Tim has...
Out of many books the legendary Umberto Eco has written, “The Name of the Rose” remains one of the most symbolic and fascinating. With just a couple of hundred pages and a weeklong plot, it will take the reader on a long investigative journey of solving a suicide (or possible murder?) under the circumstances of an important political disputation being prepared. Inspired by medieval...
Out of all the voices talking about slavery, Frederick Douglass is one of the most vivid ones. Having lived through it himself, he knows the exact price of freedom. Luckily for him, Frederick was born in the North of the States and “enjoyed” a milder form of slavery where he had access to means of self-education. Having taught himself to read and write, after fleeing to New York he...
Richard Wright wrote “Native Son” in 1940. It is a very strong, tragic and emotional novel about the position of African Americans in the society. It talks about the existential gap between the nation, it describes the wish for warmth and understanding, and it also deals with the inner monsters inside all of us. How many times do we try to find excuses for somebody’s...
“Night” is a written testimony of the Nazi German camps composed by Elie Wiesel in 1960. It’s a short read of hundred pages that will leave you thinking about the values of life for months and years after finishing the book. It’s hard to call it a memoir or a deposition of the Second World War victim, but there’s no doubt that it’s a work of art. There are...
One of the most famous existential works, “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre is a source of inspiration for lots of modern writers and playwrights. The depiction of Hell as a very comfortable and hospitable place was something new for the audience of that time. But when the plot of the story starts to unwind, we understand the main idea that the author tries to tell us: the hell is inside...
Jane Austen is one of the most famous figures in English romanticism of the first half of the 19th century. She is still considered to be the “first lady” of English literature. Her “novels of customs” are conquered for the third century by sincerity, subtle psychology and true English humor. “Northanger Abbey” is a literary parody on a gothic style and at the...
“Notes from Underground” is the creation of Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. It is a memoir of an undefined man who goes through dark times. It’s not just a literary piece, it’s a chemical substance. It is a kind of book that changes the reader after the last page is over. The first part of the story is a monologue of a retired man. By reading through his confession the...
Lois Lowry wrote “Number the Stars” in 1989. The book talks about a Jewish family who, just like many other Jews, found themselves entrapped in Copenhagen during the Second World War. The story is based on real events as the author undertook a couple of trips to Denmark for conducting research. The text is written as a child’s book that talks about sad events from the...
The story of Oedipus is one of the most famous in the European literature. There are few people who haven’t heard of it or of a well-known Oedipus complex. Sometimes it seems that the plot of the story is so preeminent that it’s not worth spending the time to read it. But a very familiar story opens up with fascinating details, additional plot lines, rich characters and many more...
If there’s a book that has managed to portray the reality of American Great depression times, that is for sure “Of Mice And Men”. When making through another day is a victory, when a friendship is broken and a man’s life is lost, when the superior’s family is causing trouble but there’s no way to stop it without putting yourself in danger... The life...