The Biography Book

The Literary 100

A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time

Daniel S. Burt

Compiled through consultation with literary scholars, provides a survey of writers who have had a profound impact on literature and the world, examining each writer's life, career, and lasting legacy.

The Novel 100

A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time

Daniel S. Burt

This revised edition includes 25 additional titles (125 total). The author uses "a self-imposed selection criteria to try to identify the novels that have exerted the strongest impact, that have changed or altered the form in significant ways, and, based on critical consensus and the test of time, that continue to deliver importance, relevance, and enjoyment years, decades, or centuries after publication."--The Preface to Revised Edition, p. ix.

The Literature 100

A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time

Daniel S. Burt

Here is the revised and expanded edition of Daniel S. Burt's fascinating assessment of the 100 most influential novelists, playwrights, and poets of all times and cultures now with 25 additional entries and some reassessments as well as 25 new black-and-white photographs and illustrations. From Doris Lessing and Gabriel Garc a M rquez to Homer and Marcel Proust, the entries provide a compelling, accessible introduction to significant writers of world literature. All of the writers selected have helped to redefine literature, establishing a standard with which succeeding generations of writers and readers have had to contend. The ranking attempts to discern, from the broadest possible perspective, what makes a literary artist great and how that greatness can be measured and compared. Each profile distills the essence of the writer's career and character to help prompt consideration of literary merit and relationships by the reader.

The Drama 100

A Ranking of the Greatest Plays of All Time

Daniel S. Burt

Presents literary criticism of one hundred plays of world literature, providing plot summaries for each play, a profile of the author, and an assessment of the play's characters and major themes.

The Handy Literature Answer Book

An Engaging Guide to Unraveling Symbols, Signs and Meanings in Great Works

Daniel S. Burt, Deborah G. Felder

Get the most out of reading with this an engaging and fun guide to the deeper meanings in great works of literature! From the epic of Gilgamesh to Aristotle and Cicero, and from Shakespeare and the King James Bible to Wuthering Heights, War and Peace, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the Nobel-winning lyrics of Bob Dylan, the world of literature is an integral part of our lives. Great literature can shape and form thoughts and opinions as well as influence politics and predict the future. Reading can truly enrich our lives, but it can sometimes be daunting to get the most out of a great work of literature. The Handy Literature Answer Book: Understand and Enjoy Meanings, Symbolism, and Signs in Great Works is an engaging, easy-to-read look at literature basics such as themes, symbols, context, and other literary devices. Different literary forms, including novels, poems, plays, short stories, memoirs, and literary nonfiction are analyzed. Hundreds of important stories and great works are used as illustrative examples. Learn about the five basic questions for any work of literature, including “What is the significance of a title?” “What is conflict?” “What is character development?” “What is point of view?” “How does a setting affect a story?” “What are the different schools of literary criticism?” and many more. Bringing the most out of the reading experience, The Handy Literature Answer Book deciphers and analyzes stories, novels, and verses through insightful in-depth answers to nearly 400 common questions. You will also read about such fascinating tidbits as ... What are the key components of literature? How is reading literature different from other kinds of reading? Why is artful reading so hard? What do poems do? How should a poem be read for its comparisons—metaphors and similes? What, according to Poe, should be the method of the short story writer? How do you recognize the difference between story and plot in a short story? How can you recognize a symbol? What are the defining characteristics of the novel? How did the novel evolve from a popular literary entertainment to the modern novel? What is the difference between drama and theater? What is the best way to understand and appreciate Shakespearean drama? What approaches should you take in reading an essay? What are characteristics of a memoir? This handy primer from two highly regarded experts also includes a glossary of essential literary terms, a timeline, a helpful bibliography, and an extensive index, adding to its usefulness. Making reading more enriching, rewarding, and enjoyable, The Handy Literature Answer Book is a wonderful, eye-opening read!

The Literary 100

A Ranking of the Most Influential Novelists, Playwrights, and Poets of All Time

Daniel S. Burt

Ranks, according to influence, history's one hundred greatest literary figures, East and West, from Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde, and discusses each writer's life, works, cultural context, and personal and artistic development. 25,000 first printing. $25,000 ad/promo.

The Rise of the Novel

Ian Watt

A classic description of the interworkings of social conditions changing attitudes, and literary practices during the period when the novel emerged as the dominant literary form of the individualist era.

Testaments Betrayed

An Essay in Nine Parts

Milan Kundera

He notes the novel's mysterious kinship with music and the parallel (but not simultaneous) evolution of the two arts in the West, as well as the particular wisdom the novel offers about human existence.

The Door

A Novel

Magda Szabó

The Door (Az Ajto, 1987) by Magda Szabo is a strong novel about the growing relationship between two women - Magda, a writer, and Emerence, her housekeeper - in the panorama of twentieth century Hungary. Emerence chooses to work for Magda, and a force of literature encounters a force of nature. Emerence truly has the strength of ten because her heart is pure. But Emerence has secrets - many secrets. Gradually Magda pries open the doors of Emerence's past. What she finds there is horrifying and astounding. Yet there is genuine humor, too, as the very different women interact with each other and with the dog they adopt.

Ray Bradbury

The Life of Fiction

Jonathan R. Eller, William F. Touponce

This is a textual, bibliographical and cultural study of 60 years of Bradbury's fiction. The authors draw upon correspondence with his publishers, agents and friends, as well as archival manuscripts, to examine the story of Bradbury's authorship over more than half a century.

David Copperfield

Charles Dickens

In 1850, an English orphan boy's life is chronicled from birth to fatherhood through his lessons in love, betrayal, loyalty, and forgiveness.

The Secret Agent

A Simple Tale

Joseph Conrad

The Secret Agent (1907) is a compelling tale of espionage and terrorism set in Edwardian London. Ironically subtitled 'A Simple Tale', it paints a terrifying portrait of revolutionaries and anarchists whose personal lives are as barren and futile as their public acts of violence. It concludes with the unwitting accomplice of a would-be terrorist blowing himself to bits with his own bomb, the terrorist's subsequent murder by his own wife, and the wife's own suicide. This new edition is based on a painstaking comparison of the original manuscript of the work with its first, truncated appearance in the American magazine Ridgeway's: A Militant Weekly for God and Country, and with all subsequent book-form publications overseen by Conrad himself. The result is a new text, purged of the printers' errors and editorial interventions that have been reproduced in all previous printings. There is also a critical introduction, an essay on the text, a textual apparatus, and helpful explanatory notes.

Biography

A Reader's Guide

George Macaulay Trevelyan

Description unavailable for this volume in the current provider response.

Biography

A Study Guide

Garrett Christopher

Description unavailable for this volume in the current provider response.

Reader's Guide to American History

Peter J. Parish

There are so many books on so many aspects of the history of the United States, offering such a wide variety of interpretations, that students, teachers, scholars, and librarians often need help and advice on how to find what they want. The Reader's Guide to American History is designed to meet that need by adopting a new and constructive approach to the appreciation of this rich historiography. Each of the 600 entries on topics in political, social and economic history describes and evaluates some 6 to 12 books on the topic, providing guidance to the reader on everything from broad surveys and interpretive works to specialized monographs. The entries are devoted to events and individuals, as well as broader themes, and are written by a team of well over 200 contributors, all scholars of American history.

Reader's Guide to Literature in English

Mark Hawkins-Dady

Reader's Guide Literature in English provides expert guidance to, and critical analysis of, the vast number of books available within the subject of English literature, from Anglo-Saxon times to the current American, British and Commonwealth scene. It is designed to help students, teachers and librarians choose the most appropriate books for research and study.

Guide to the Study and Use of Reference Books

Unknown author

Description unavailable for this volume in the current provider response.

Reader's Guide to Women's Studies

Eleanor Amico

The Reader's Guide to Women's Studies is a searching and analytical description of the most prominent and influential works written in the now universal field of women's studies. Some 200 scholars have contributed to the project which adopts a multi-layered approach allowing for comprehensive treatment of its subject matter. Entries range from very broad themes such as "Health: General Works" to entries on specific individuals or more focused topics such as "Doctors."