stories, plots, etc

On Christmas Eve, a little girl helps break the spell on her wooden nutcracker and watches him turn into a handsome prince, who takes her to his kingdom where they are entertained by dances from many lands.

Presents the stories behind three ballets, including Swan Lake, Giselle, and La Bayad?re.

This reference includes a brief biography of each author; a plot summary; a descriptive list of characters; a discussion of the themes of each novel; criticism; and exploration of the external influences that shaped each book.

An alphabetically-arranged series that examines the theme, characters, plot, and style of twentieth-century nonfiction works and authors from Ezra Pound's "ABC of Reading" to Emile Durkheim's "Elementary Forms of the Religious Life.".

Profiles more than seventy twentieth-century novels and novellas from Great Britain and regions formerly in the British Empire, including Ireland, India, Africa, Australia, and Canada, alphabetized by title, covering their plots, characters, themes, meanings, critical reception, and significance. This volume covers A-Fem.

Collects 367 alphabetically arranged essays, from A-Dre, that discuss the works of over one hundred African-American authors from the eighteenth through the early twenty-first century, covering genres and individual works by poets, novelists, playwrights, historians, critics, essayists, and orators.

Uses examples from ancient times to the present to explore the even archetypal themes that recur throughout every type of storytelling, and discusses how those themes are related to basic human psychology.