Study guides: popular books - Page 9 | Just Great DataBase

In late 1590s William Shakespeare wrote this eternal love story that every one of us grew up admiring. It was one of his most popular works, having been played numerous times and then translated into thousands of languages and interpretations. If there still exist unproved speculations that Shakespeare didn’t write his books, it is actually no secret this particular the story of two lovers...

Every piece William Shakespeare created is doomed to be a success. “Othello” is one of his later works and this is a culmination of all the mastery and creativity the writer possessed. This particular piece is a mix of an Italian prose written by Cinthio and Knolles narrative on the history of the Turks. Shakespeare borrowed the events and added his style and magnificent literary...

The tragedy by William Shakespeare isn’t his most famous work, but definitely worth discovering. Only after having read “Julius Caesar” can the reader truly ponder upon author’s words of wisdom. This work had given source to many quotes and notions that live till our days. The plot begins with a pompous celebration of another one of Caesar’s victory. The great...

Those of us who are madly in love with poems find “Paradise Lost” written by John Milton in 1667 the quintessence of literary mastery. You might not like the Bible, but you will for sure like the Biblical interpretation of contemporary reality executed in the book. Prepare to get carried away with this dozen of books written as a blank verse story. It evokes lots of feelings and...

“The Twelfth Night” was written by William Shakespeare and is one of the few comical plays of his authorship. It is light and musical, beautiful and ambitious, funny and very worldly. The play is one of the most popular both for reading and staging.   Sometimes it seems that all comedy shows use “The Twelfth Night” as something to strive towards. It has a rich...

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...

In writing his novel “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, James Joyce, one of the greatest masters of the thread of consciousness style in literature, managed to combine a political discourse with a fascinating plot. Together with the moments of epiphany, the book takes unexpected turns and will make for a very exciting reading. The events of the book are intermingled with...

“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...

Those of you who think that reading James Joyce is a challenging endeavor should start with his early works, like “The Dubliners”. This collection of short stories was published at the beginning of the 19th century when the nationalist movement was intense in Dublin.   The fifteen stories are narrated by different characters and have different themes. The first ones are told by...

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...

“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...

“A Farewell to Arms” is a book written by Ernest Hemingway about the events of the World War I. This is the book that presented Hemingway to the world as a writer. It is a high-quality text about war, love, cynic actions and “lost generation”. Prepare to dive into a world that is ripped apart, makes no sense and smells like cognac. The protagonist of the story is...

“Atlas Shrugged” is a multidimensional novel written by Ayn Rand in 1957. Even though it wasn’t an immediate success, the author considered it her greatest work. She has invested a great deal of mystery, scientific facts, romance and philosophic thoughts into the novel. The plot of the book is a dystopian imagination of the author. It is set in the United States under the...

Another satirical piece that exposes the flaws of American society by Sinclair Lewis was a huge success, and we can completely understand why it brought to its author the Nobel Prize in literature and why the word “babbitt” became a definition for the people who desperately try to fit themselves into the standards of the average middle-class by all costs. After the World War I and...

“The Remains of the Day” is a novel of the British writer of Japanese origin, Kazuo Ishiguro, published in 1989. “The Remains of the Day” is called the most English novel of the end of the 20th century. This novel is about the butler Stevens who has dedicated his life to the loyal service of Lord Darlington. But now the house in which he has been serving for many years...

One of the earliest comedies of William Shakespeare, “The Comedy of Errors” lacks the depth of the plotline that defines his later works, but it is still incredibly funny. The author makes use of the slapstick humour and mistaken identities, but also adds his trademark wordplay and the comedy of puns, generously provided by the servants and other people of low origin that serve as...

Dante Alighieri is a fascinating medieval figure. He has experienced the tragedy of loosing a loved one who he didn’t even have a chance to marry because his family chose another woman to be his wife. This life’s tragedy among many others greatly intensified his interest in philosophy and country’s political life. The “Divine Comedy” consists of three separate books...

The story of a neglected boy written by Charles Dickens breaks the hearts and glues them together for generations. The novel covers the life of David from early childhood to the middle age, when he reflects on his life, thinking about his biggest gains and losses and the dearest people life gave to him. The total unfairness of life and the complete recklessness of the adults who just throw David...

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...