About Literature
A Brief List of Some Key Terms in Literature
As knowledge of these terms is expected on the college SATs, I thought it advisable to link this list here.
Cliffs Notes
Handy guides for helping you analyze high school english literature. Some free stuff, but you can also download inexpensive copies of their manuals.
Cummings Study Guides
For the great works of world literature. Includes the Complete Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare. Tutorials With plot summaries, themes, imagery, anaylsis, and background information.
Propaganda Critic
In a functioning democracy, all thinking citizens are entitled to consider themselves critics of propaganda. Although the author holds clearly defined political views, the site is intended to be as objective as possible, holding all sides of the spectrum up to equal scrutiny.
Books Online
Bartleby’s Great Books Online
Great fiction, non-fiction, verse and reference books. All searchable. Includes The King’s James Bible, dictionaries, presidential inaugural addresses, and much, much more.
Classics at the Online Literature Library
Collection of the world’s greatest literature, by author: Aesop, Brontes, Darwin, Dickens, London, Poe, Shelley, Twain, Verne, HG Wells, and more. Free to read online or download and print out.
Classes in English Literature
Excellence in Literature
AN A TO Z AFFILIATE
English I and II provide foundational skills; English III and IV offer a chronological survey of American and British Literature, and English V focuses on World Literature. Nine 4-week, literature-based units at each level. Downloadable ebooks.
Unique Reader Secondary
AN A to Z AFFILIATE
Let’s Go Learn’s Unique Reader Secondary is a web-based learning system that combines powerful diagnostic reading assessment with comprehensive, supplemental reading instruction for secondary students.
AP Literature
The AP English Literature and Composition course is designed to engage students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. From the College Board.
Approaches to High School Literature
There’s chronological – by date written. Then there’s by author. Care to study many books by the same or just a few authors. Then there’s by theme, if you’d prefer to read by a social topic of importance. Some prefer to read by genre, say, by reading science fiction or adventure stories.
Guidelines for Reading and Analyzing Literature
By Dr. Tina L. Hanlon, Associate Professor of English, Ferrum College. First Impression, Types of Literature, Literary Techniques, Themes, Evaluation and Review.
Classic Authors – by Last Name
Lewis Carroll
We hope to provide useful information for the Carroll enthusiast as well as the novice and all those in between. I was told to mention that he wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Willa Cather
Willa Cather is one of the most interesting women writers in American literary history. Both a teacher, a journalist and a critic as well as a writer, Cather plays an important part in the shaping of American modernist thought and writings.
David Perdue’s Charles Dickens Page
Childhood poverty and adversity contributed greatly to Dickens’ later views on social reform in a country in the throes of the Industrial Revolution and his compassion for the lower class, especially the children.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Detailed pages about some of Conan Doyle’s famous characters such as Sherlock Holmes, Brigadier Gerard and Professor Challenger which are linked to the full Bibliography. For those of you looking for extra information on Sherlock Holmes, visit the Sherlock Holmes pages.
Anne Frank Center, USA
Information and educational materials for students about Anne Frank, the history of the Holocaust, and discrimination today.
Doris Lessing: A Retrospective
As a youth, I enjoyed Doris Lessing’s stories about her cats and her tales of Africa especially. Long reviews here of all her writings. Select a few. I’m sure you’ll like them.
Jack London Studies
Jack London wrote great dog stories, sci fi, sailing, sports, and South Seas stories, and was an accomplished journalist and war correspondent. His writing generates the kind of excitement necessary to keep reluctant readers turning the pages.
Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore
From eTexts to research, you’ll find everything you need to know about the inventor of the horror story.
Mark Twain Interactive Scrapbook
Discover the true Mark Twain through his writing and his collection of artifacts found in his scrapbook.
Multicultural Literature
Literature and Life: The Givens Collection
Explore this unique collection of African-American literature and the people, ideas, and eras that the work represents.
Native American Literature
Indigenous People’s Literature from the American Indian Resource Directory.
Storytellers: Native American Authors Online
The original web site was conceived with a very particular aim: to make the writing of modern Native American authors, particularly the poets, both more visible and more widely available. Organized by tribe.
Reading Lists
College Bound Reading List
American literature, world literature, biographies and histories to read for that college-bound teen.
Countdown 100-25 Top Teen Titles
Diane Chen lists and reviews the best books for teens, and adds new ones every few weeks to her blog.
English 3 – College Prep Reading List for Junior
Compiled from a number of good source. Choose books that are meaningful for you.
Recommended Reading for Teens
Books listed by type and grade level. From the Weber County Library.
Science Fiction
Balticon Young Writers’ Contest
Sci-Fi and Fantasy writing contest for teens living in Maryland. Deadline is March 1 every year.
The Physics Of Science Fiction
In reading all of these science fiction books, Michelle had always wondered if the things that they describe could ever really happen. The simple answer to that would be: of course not, you idiot, that is why it is called science fiction.
Ray Bradbury
I had a chance to meet Ray Bradbury, a most charming and delightful man. He is best known for The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Illustrated Man. Be sure to check out the video clip interview.
Science Fiction 101
A long list of great science fiction reading available at the Multnomah County Library. They explain how the titles might be found in your library, too.
Shakespeare
Shakespeare Bookshelf
You could layout the plays in the style you like best, illustrate, have scripts for everyone. From the Internet Public Library.
Shakespeare’s England
This is the final boarding call for your trip across the Atlantic Ocean! Your tour guide Jackie Clifford will take you back in time to experience Elizabethan England as Shakespeare would have, and will show you how much England has changed since then.
Shakespeare’s Life and Times
How did Shakespeare come to be “The Bard?” Site includes links to plays in their original English.
Tales from Shakespeare
A treasure of a site! The stories of the plays. A wonderful way to prepare before actually going to see one of Shakespeare’s plays. By Charles and Mary Lamb, 1807, Illustrated by Arthur Rackham, 1899, 1909.
