Each volume of Drama for Students features coverage of 14 to 15 plays frequently studied in literature classes. Each detailed entry includes an overview of the play; a brief biography of the playwright; a plot summary; a discussion of the play's principal themes; essays on the play's construction; excerpted critical commentary; historical and cultural context sections, and much more. Each volume (beginning with vol. 27) includes two "Literature to Film" entries. Entries profiling film versions of plays/novels not only diversify the study of plays/novels but support alternate learning styles, media literacy, and film studies curricula as well.
Through the perspectives of selected best-selling novels from the end of World War II to the end of the 20th century--including The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Godfather, Jaws, Beloved, The Silence of the Lambs, and Jurassic Park--this book examines the crucial issues the U.S. was experiencing during those decades. These novels represent the voices of popular conversations, as Americans considered issues of family, class, racism and sexism, feminism, economic ambition, sexual violence, war, law, religion and science.
Writers flock to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) each November because it provides a procrastination-busting deadline. But only a fraction of the participants meet their goal. Denise Jaden was part of that fraction, writing first drafts of her two published young adult novels during NaNoWriMo. In Fast Fiction, she shows other writers how to do what she did, step-by-step, writer to writer. Her process starts with a prep period for thinking through plot, theme, characters, and setting. Then Jaden provides day-by-day coaching for the thirty-day drafting period. Finally, her revision tips help writers turn merely workable drafts into compelling and publishable novels.
Beginning its life as the sensational entertainment of the eighteenth century, the novel has become the major literary genre of modern times. Drawing on hundreds of examples of famous novels from all over the world, Marina MacKay explores the essential aspects of the novel and its history: where novels came from and why we read them; how we think about their styles and techniques, their people, plots, places, and politics. Between the main chapters are longer readings of individual works, from Don Quixote to Midnight's Children. A glossary of key terms and a guide to further reading are included, making this an ideal accompaniment to introductory courses on the novel.
I really like Tom Sharpe. But after reading the South African novels and then jumping ahead to Blott on the Landscape (a classic), I was disappointed in this one. I have a difficult time with novels wherein the protagonist an unlikeable jerk. I had no empathy for him whatsoever. The book had a contrived setup for the main plot device (the hostage situation), which took up half the book. The foreign student was poorly developed and her mid-narrative personality shift was quite hard to swallow. The only saving grace in the book was Wilt's wife, who has a force of character that stole the show. She should have been the protagonist.
