Literary Criticism
Famous Potatoes
"An engaging picaresque novel of a young man on the run. A warm, well-told story of a likable character with a knack for being in the w…
Confidence
This light and somewhat awkward comedy centers on artist Bernard Longueville, scientist Gordon Wright, and the sometimes inscrutable heroine…
Clayhanger
This first of a trilogy of novels is a coming-of-age story set in the Midlands of Victorian England, following Edwin Clayhanger as he leaves…
Brazilian Tales
"Brazilian Tales" is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literatu…
The Naturewoman
The Mastersons, a wealthy Bostonian family, await the arrival of their cousin Anna in the wake of her grandfather's death. Though born in Bo…
I Am A Cat
These are the first two chapters of Natsume Sōseki's masterpiece, "I Am A Cat" (Wagahai wa Neko de Aru). It is recognized as a lan…
Lady Susan
Jane Austen demonstrated her mastery of the epistolary novel genre in Lady Susan, which she wrote in 1795 but never published. Although the …
The House of Dust
The House of Dust is a poem written in the four-movement format of a classical symphony. Hauntingly beautiful despite its bleak post-World …
Under the Shadow of Etna
The short stories of Giovanni Verga, one of the leading authors of Italian verismo, or realism, tell mostly of working-class characters in r…
The Growth of Love
Robert Bridges, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1913, published three versions of his sonnet sequence, The Growth of Love:1876 - 24 sonn…
Mademoiselle Ixe
This is a story by the English writer Mary Elizabeth Hawker (1848-1908) entitled Mademoiselle Ixe, by[pseudonym] Lanoe Falconer. The manuscr…
Poor Folk
Known as Fyodor Dostoyevski's first novel, Poor Folk portrays the life of poor people and poverty in a general sense. This novel is short i…
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
Harriett Frean is a well-to-do, unmarried woman living a life of meaningless dependency, boredom, and unproductivity as she patiently cares …
The Flaw in the Crystal
One of May Sinclair’s “uncanny” stories, this novella explores many of Sinclair’s most treasured themes: the bounds of marriage, the conflic…
John Sherman and Dhoya
John Sherman and Dhoya brings together two distinct yet thematically intertwined works by William Butler Yeats. In the novella John Sherman,…
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman is a groundbreaking novel that defies conventional storytelling. Through the eyes of its…
The Rainbow
The Rainbow explores the intricate lives of the Brangwen family over three generations, set against the backdrop of the English countryside.…
Camilla
Camilla is Frances Burney's third novel. It became very popular upon its publication in 1796. Jane Austen referred to it, among other novels…
Germinal
This epic about French coal miners and the burgeoning labor movement is considered one of Zola's finest novels. - Summary by Matt Pierard
Middlemarch
The book examines the role of education in the lives of the characters and how such education and study has affected the characters. Rosamon…