Literary Criticism
The Passionate Friends
H. G. Wells is best known for his science fiction, but some of his greatest works were in other genres. The Passionate Friends is a love sto…
Mardi
Mardi is Melville's first purely fictional work. In it he contemplates man's beliefs, and questions whether or not one faith has value over …
Brazilian Tales
"Brazilian Tales" is a collection of six short stories selected by Isaac Goldberg as best representative of the Brazilian Literatu…
Elective Affinities
Elective Affinities (Die Wahlverwandtschaften) was Goethe's third novel. It depicts human relationships in a Romantic crucible, and is the s…
David Copperfield
David Copperfield is a rich and intricate tale that chronicles the life of its titular character from childhood to adulthood. Through a seri…
The Lost Art of Reading
Gerald Stanley Lee speaks here-in of books and self in the time of factories, tall buildings and industry and big city making, the effects o…
A Weaver of Dreams
Delightful and charmingly predictable, this sweet romance will make you reflect one minute and laugh out loud the next. It's the kind of coz…
Confidence
This light and somewhat awkward comedy centers on artist Bernard Longueville, scientist Gordon Wright, and the sometimes inscrutable heroine…
Nana
Excerpt from Introduction:"Nana" stands third in popularity among the Zola novels. It is a study of the prostitute type and it giv…
Jacob's Room
The novel centres, in a very ambiguous way, around the life story of the protagonist Jacob Flanders, and is presented entirely by the impres…
Germinal
This epic about French coal miners and the burgeoning labor movement is considered one of Zola's finest novels. - Summary by Matt Pierard
Pushing Leaves Towards the Sun
When Oso gets yanked off his motorcycle and killed by a closed parking lot chain, Billy feels guilty for having taught him to hop curbs and …
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…
Lodore
The author of Frankenstein returns with her take on an Austen novel. The mother is proud, the father has many vices, yet the aristocratic na…
The Innerglow Effect
Drug companies continue to come out with powerful new medicines. Some produce wondrous responses while others have unforeseen side effects.…
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…
Two Sides To Every Question
'Two Sides to Every Question’: From a South Australian Standpoint is a meditation on poverty, wealth, and social aspiration set in the free …
A Long Way from Disney
It's the 1980s in Boston: the Celtics are rolling, the Patriots got crushed by the Bears, and the Sox are the Sox. Adam Berkman is learning …
The Trembling of a Leaf
A collection of short stories on the South Sea Islands, among which are the famous "Red," "Rain," and "The Fall of …
The Light That Failed
This novel, first published in 1890, follows the life of Dick Heldar, a painter. Most of the novel is set in London, but many important even…