Study guides: popular books - Page 3 | Just Great DataBase
“The Great Gatsby” is a novel by American writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald. The book depicts vividly the reality of social morals and economic standing in between the Roaring 20s and Great Depression times. In his early years, Fitzgerald was a smart child but couldn’t fight the boredom of school, which led to him dropping out and signing up for the army. Being a lieutenant in...
A legendary sequel written by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is now one of the most read and best sold books of all times. It’s hard to believe that such rich concepts were developed in 1937 and 1949 when Internet and cinematography wasn’t as much of an influence. It’s a mere product of imagination of a man who has always been fond of ancient history, philology, comparison studies...
“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...
The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann is a philosophical novel that features a surrealistic setting of a sanatorium far away in Swiss mountains that, considering that the pace of time there isn’t constant at all, can be called magical. The protagonist, a man in his twenties named Hans Castorp, goes there to visit his relative, who has tuberculosis, but falls ill himself during the visit and...
Joseph Conrad is a perfectly suitable candidate to write about heroism and government relations with its subjects. Born in Ukraine to a polish nobleman, he experienced all kinds of state influence on his destiny: his father was sent to Siberia by the Russian government for treason, under the influence of French and English novel he fell in love with the sailor profession and had to make it...
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...
“Henry V” is a play by a great English author devoted to the life and personality of a great King Henry the Fifth. It is a historical text of an author who has been close to royal families and made his career thanks to that fact. Normally historical books don’t begin with the characters. But this is a unique play both in terms of language and style. The book is devoted to life...
“Invisible Man” is a novel that requires an adult reader. Ralph Ellison wrote it in 1952 and put all social and intellectual issues surrounding racial issues into the text. He also employed all his creative skills making the novel a fusion of jazz sounds, surreal events, different writing styles and extraordinary characters. The evil doesn’t have a face. Who is this man...
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn is a painfully accurate depiction of the day of Soviet labor camp prisoner. Ivan Denisovich is an intelligent and strong-willed man, whose main task is not only survival but preserving his morals and identity intact. Unfortunately, the camp is specifically designed to strip the prisoners of their free will, any hopes and desires...
“Jane Eyre” is a British novel written by Charlotte Bronte, also known under the pen name Currer Bell. It was published in 1847 and has provoked a storm of feelings and thoughts among its readers ever since. The high intensity of the Christian religion in the morals of the text goes in line with the concepts of class subordination, feminism, and sexuality. The story follows the young...
A Passage to India is a fiction novel by E. M. Forster that shows us the relationships between English and Indian people during the time of the British colonization. The main hero of the story is an Indian Muslim Aziz, who tries to be as open to the English people as possible, as long as they respect him and his traditions. But in the end, he falls victim of the bigoted attitude that always sees...
The plot that is known to everybody, “Lolita” is more than just a book about perversion and child abuse. It is no Romeo and Juliette, but a touching classic about a controversial relationship of an English language professor Humbert with his neighbor’s daughter. The name of the girl is Dolores Haze, and soon she will even become his stepdaughter. Humbert undisguised obsession...
The Plague by Albert Camus may be called a great-grandparent of an “apocalyptic log” genre. The main storyline is simple and horrifying: there is a plague outbreak in the city, soon the city is put to quarantine and all the communication with the rest of the world stops. The narrative style is often called similar to Kafka’s: the characters are shown facing something...
John Green wrote “Looking for Alaska” in 2005. Some might say that this is another book about ordinary American teenagers, spoiled and vulgar. But the American Library Association and New York Times think otherwise ranking it high in their prize and bestseller lists. “Looking for Alaska” is a book about death and life, it teaches the readers that time heals...
”Lord Of The Flies” is the main reason why society should be grateful that William Golding didn’t pursue natural science career at Oxford. English literature acquired a great diamond and a Nobel Prize winner when he switched his major to follow the passion that had been brewing since he was 12 years old. What would you do if found yourself in a completely new environment? No...
The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells is a realistic sentimental novel that is considered the classic of realistic writing until the present day. Howells portrayal of the love triangle between young Tom and the two Lapham daughters, smart Penelope and beautiful Irene, was often criticized for being plain and too mundane for the romantic story, but the critics almost always agreed at...
Yet another Shakespeare’s masterpiece, “Macbeth” is one of the most famous works of the writer. It is easy to understand and is also one of the shortest books he has written, also known to be one with the most bloody events put into it. Its complexity lies in the emotional tensions that hold the reader tight until the very end of the story. The play is a tragedy written during...
The Road is a dystopian post-apocalyptic novel by Cormac McCarthy, the bleak setting of which served as the inspiration to the lots of the movie directors, writers and game designers. The story of The Road is the story without hope and even the happy ending is just a bright spot that seems to fade soon with the rest of the light on the dying Earth. The novel tells us the story of the father and...
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...
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...