1917-1967

Each volume provides discussions of the literary and historical background of novels from various cultures and time periods. Includes concise synopses of plot, characters and themes, a brief author biography, discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance, and excerpted criticism.

Provides critical overviews of the most-studied plays of all time periods, nations, and cultures. Includes discussions of themes, characters, critical reception, dramatic devices and traditions as well as cultural and historical context.

Presents vital information on the most-studied short stories at the high school and early-college levels. Each entry contains author biography, plot summary, characters, themes, style, historical context, critical overview, and criticism.

Features analysis of the plays most frequently studied in literature classes. Entries include: introduction providing overview of play; brief biography of playwright; plot summary; discussion of play's principal themes; essays on play's construction; and excerpted critical commentary.

Each volume provides discussions of the literary and historical background of novels from various cultures and time periods. Includes concise synopses of plot, characters and themes, a brief author biography, discussion of the story's cultural and historical significance, and excerpted criticism.

"A passionate hymn to the power of fiction to change people's lives, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Reading Lolita in Tehran. Ten years ago, Azar Nafisi electrified readers with her million-copy bestseller, Reading Lolita in Tehran, which told the story of how, against the backdrop of morality squads and executions, she taught The Great Gatsby and other classics to her eager students in Iran. In this exhilarating followup, Nafisi has written the book her fans have been waiting for: an impassioned, beguiling, and utterly original tribute to the vital importance of fiction in a democratic society. What Reading Lolita in Tehran was for Iran, The Republic of Imagination is for America. Taking her cue from a challenge thrown to her in Seattle, where a skeptical reader told her that Americans don't care about books the way they did back in Iran, she energetically responds to those who say fiction has nothing to teach us. Blending memoir and polemic with close readings of her favorite American novels-The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Babbitt, and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, among others-she invites us to join her as citizens of her 'Republic of Imagination,' a country where the villains are conformity and orthodoxy and the only passport to entry is a free mind and a willingness to dream"--.

Recreates the daily lives of Carson McCullers, W.H. Auden, Benjamin Briteen, Jane and Paul Bowles, and Gypsy Rose Lee during the year they spent living together in 1940s Brooklyn.

A biography of American novelist Carson McCullers, discussing her childhood in the South, her early success, her marriage, and her relationships with other celebrities.

Anthology of reviews, tributes, and essays discussing the work of Southern author Carson McCullers.