Literary Criticism
Sons and Lovers
Lawrence summarised the plot of Sons and Lovers in a letter to Edward Garnett in 1912:“It follows this idea: a woman of character and refine…
The Painted Veil
This Maugham classic is set in England and Hong Kong and in a cholera --ridden Chinese village in the 1920's. A committed, principled, epide…
Robert Falconer
Robert Falconer follows the journey of a young man whose life is shaped by the love of music and the struggles of faith. Set against the bac…
So Big
The story of Selina DeJong and her son Dirk, whom she affectionately calls So Big. After the death of her husband, Selina raises So Big on h…
The Red and the Black
It is a brave author indeed who gives his hero as many flaws as Stendhal bestows upon young Julien Sorel, an ambitious young carpenter's son…
Growth of the Soil
Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde) is the novel by Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun which won him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1920. …
The Fortune of the Rougons
The Fortune of the Rougons (French: La Fortune des Rougon), originally published in 1871, is the first novel in Émile Zola's monument…
The Metamorphosis
The Metamorphosis (in German, Die Verwandlung, "The Transformation") is a novella by Franz Kafka, first published in 1915, and arg…
To Let
‘The Forsyte Saga’ is the story of a wealthy London family stretching from the eighteen-eighties until the nineteen-twenties.To Let is the t…
The Great Gatsby
A novel set in the roaring 20's follows Nick Carroway, a young, single veteran turned bond salesman as he is thrust into the high society of…
His Masterpiece
“His Masterpiece" (“L’Oeuvre”) is a fictionalized account of the Parisian art world in the mid 19th century, and the emerging Realism, …
Elizabethan Demonology
Elizabethan Demonology: An Essay in Illustration of the Belief in the Existence of Devils, and the Powers Possessed By Them, as It Was Gene…
Dred, A Tale of the Great Dismal Swamp
This is Stowe's second book, another one depicting the horrors of southern slavery, published 4 years after Uncle Tom's Cabin and 5 years be…
The Fifth Queen
The Fifth Queen invites listeners into the tumultuous world of Tudor England, where ambition and desire intertwine in the court of King Henr…
Voltaire and the French Enlightenment
In this Little Blue Book Number 512, Will Durant describes François-Marie Arouet, the writer, historian, and philosopher known as Vol…
Confessions
“Thus I have acted; these were my thoughts; such was I.”Rousseau’s lengthy and sometimes anguished dossier on the Self is one of the most re…
Jennie Gerhardt
This is a story of an innocent, caring, beautiful young girl from and extremely poor family who throughout her life is drawn into affairs wi…
McTeague
McTeague is a simple dentist who becomes infatuated with Trina, the cousin of his friend Marcus. Trina then buys a winning lottery ticket wo…
Little Dorrit
Born in the Marshalsea Prison for Debtors, Amy—Little Dorrit—the daughter of the ruined, but self-respectful William Dorrit, has put her ent…
Don Quixote
It is a curious paradox that while the two volumes of Don Quixote have been described as the "best novel of all time" and the &quo…