Editorial study guides for novels, plays, and short stories.

What every guide covers

• Chapter summaries

  Scene by scene

• Character maps

  Who wants what

• Theme evidence

  With textual proof

• Symbol tracking

  Motifs that recur

• Key quotes

  Worth pulling for an essay

• Study tools

  Discussion, essay, quiz

The library

Browse every guide.

Showing all 121 guides

• Novel · 1936

  AP Literature

  Absalom, Absalom!

  by William Faulkner

  9 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1843

  Eduqas

  A Christmas Carol

  by Charles Dickens

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1879

  AP Literature

  A Doll's House

  by Henrik Ibsen

  3 chapters · 8 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1929

  AP Literature

  A Farewell to Arms

  by Ernest Hemingway

  22 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1993

  AP Literature

  A Lesson Before Dying

  by Ernest J. Gaines

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1992

  AP Literature

  All the Pretty Horses

  by Cormac McCarthy

  4 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 2013

  AP Literature

  Americanah

  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  8 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1600

  General

  A Midsummer Night's Dream

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1945

  OCR

  Animal Farm

  by George Orwell

  9 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1945

  Eduqas

  An Inspector Calls

  by J. B. Priestley

  3 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1996

  Eduqas

  Anita and Me

  by Meera Syal

  12 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1878

  Common Core

  Anna Karenina

  by Leo Tolstoy

  8 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 441

  IB Literature

  Antigone

  by Sophocles

  7 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1623

  General

  Antony and Cleopatra

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1924

  AP Literature

  A Passage to India

  by E. M. Forster

  12 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1916

  AP Literature

  A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

  by James Joyce

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1930

  AP Literature

  As I Lay Dying

  by William Faulkner

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1987

  AP Literature

  Beloved

  by Toni Morrison

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1924

  AP Literature

  Billy Budd, Sailor

  by Herman Melville

  3 chapters · 7 characters · 6 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1853

  AP Literature

  Bleak House

  by Charles Dickens

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1972

  AP Literature

  Bless Me, Ultima

  by Rudolfo Anaya

  21 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1983

  OCR

  Blood Brothers

  by Willy Russell

  2 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1985

  AP Literature

  Blood Meridian

  by Cormac McCarthy

  17 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1977

  AP Literature

  Ceremony

  by Leslie Marmon Silko

  15 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1981

  IB Literature

  Chronicle of a Death Foretold

  by Gabriel García Márquez

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1997

  AP Literature

  Cold Mountain

  by Charles Frazier

  17 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1866

  Common Core

  Crime and Punishment

  by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  7 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1948

  AP Literature

  Cry, the Beloved Country

  by Alan Paton

  20 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1991

  IB Literature

  Death and the Maiden

  by Ariel Dorfman

  3 chapters · 3 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1999

  AP Literature

  Disgrace

  by J. M. Coetzee

  24 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 2008

  OCR

  DNA

  by Dennis Kelly

  4 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1605

  Common Core

  Don Quixote

  by Miguel de Cervantes

  21 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1952

  Common Core

  East of Eden

  by John Steinbeck

  15 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1815

  AP Literature

  Emma

  by Jane Austen

  12 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1940

  AP Literature

  For Whom the Bell Tolls

  by Ernest Hemingway

  16 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1818

  OCR

  Frankenstein

  by Mary Shelley

  23 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1953

  AP Literature

  Go Tell It on the Mountain

  by James Baldwin

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1861

  AP Literature

  Great Expectations

  by Charles Dickens

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1726

  Common Core

  Gulliver's Travels

  by Jonathan Swift

  9 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 2006

  AP Literature

  Half of a Yellow Sun

  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  18 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1603

  General

  Hamlet

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1854

  AP Literature

  Hard Times

  by Charles Dickens

  23 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1899

  AP Literature

  Heart of Darkness

  by Joseph Conrad

  3 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1598

  General

  Henry IV, Part 1

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1969

  AP Literature

  House Made of Dawn

  by N. Scott Momaday

  14 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1910

  AP Literature

  Howards End

  by E. M. Forster

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1974

  Leaving Cert

  How Many Miles to Babylon?

  by Jennifer Johnston

  9 chapters · 7 characters · 8 themes · 9 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1994

  IB Literature

  In the Time of the Butterflies

  by Julia Alvarez

  14 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1952

  AP Literature

  Invisible Man

  by Ralph Ellison

  18 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1847

  AP Literature

  Jane Eyre

  by Charlotte Brontë

  11 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1895

  AP Literature

  Jude the Obscure

  by Thomas Hardy

  6 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1606

  General

  King Lear

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1988

  IB Literature

  Kitchen

  by Banana Yoshimoto

  3 chapters · 6 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1932

  AP Literature

  Light in August

  by William Faulkner

  21 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1989

  IB Literature

  Like Water for Chocolate

  by Laura Esquivel

  12 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1900

  AP Literature

  Lord Jim

  by Joseph Conrad

  20 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1954

  Eduqas

  Lord of the Flies

  by William Golding

  12 chapters · 7 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1985

  IB Literature

  Love in the Time of Cholera

  by Gabriel García Márquez

  6 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1623

  General

  Macbeth

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Non-fiction · 1991

  IB Literature

  Maus

  by Art Spiegelman

  11 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 431

  IB Literature

  Medea

  by Euripides

  12 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1871

  AP Literature

  Middlemarch

  by George Eliot

  8 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1851

  AP Literature

  Moby-Dick

  by Herman Melville

  15 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1925

  AP Literature

  Mrs. Dalloway

  by Virginia Woolf

  16 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1623

  OCR

  Much Ado About Nothing

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1940

  AP Literature

  Native Son

  by Richard Wright

  3 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 2005

  OCR

  Never Let Me Go

  by Kazuo Ishiguro

  23 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1949

  OCR

  Nineteen Eighty-Four

  by George Orwell

  21 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1960

  AP Literature

  No Longer at Ease

  by Chinua Achebe

  19 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1987

  IB Literature

  Norwegian Wood

  by Haruki Murakami

  12 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 429

  IB Literature

  Oedipus Rex

  by Sophocles

  4 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1937

  Edexcel

  Of Mice and Men

  by John Steinbeck

  3 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1967

  IB Literature

  One Hundred Years of Solitude

  by Gabriel García Márquez

  11 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1928

  AP Literature

  Orlando

  by Virginia Woolf

  6 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1603

  General

  Othello

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Non-fiction · 2000

  IB Literature

  Persepolis

  by Marjane Satrapi

  20 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1817

  AP Literature

  Persuasion

  by Jane Austen

  15 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1964

  Leaving Cert

  Philadelphia, Here I Come!

  by Brian Friel

  3 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1813

  AP Literature

  Pride and Prejudice

  by Jane Austen

  23 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 2003

  AP Literature

  Purple Hibiscus

  by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  13 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1597

  OCR

  Romeo and Juliet

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1811

  AP Literature

  Sense and Sensibility

  by Jane Austen

  17 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1977

  AP Literature

  Song of Solomon

  by Toni Morrison

  17 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1973

  AP Literature

  Sula

  by Toni Morrison

  11 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1891

  AP Literature

  Tess of the d'Urbervilles

  by Thomas Hardy

  7 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1884

  Common Core

  The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

  by Mark Twain

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1899

  AP Literature

  The Awakening

  by Kate Chopin

  24 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1970

  AP Literature

  The Bluest Eye

  by Toni Morrison

  16 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1880

  Common Core

  The Brothers Karamazov

  by Fyodor Dostoevsky

  13 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1982

  AP Literature

  The Color Purple

  by Alice Walker

  10 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 2013

  Edexcel

  The Empress

  by Tanika Gupta

  2 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1997

  AP Literature

  The God of Small Things

  by Arundhati Roy

  21 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1939

  Common Core

  The Grapes of Wrath

  by John Steinbeck

  29 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1925

  AP Literature

  The Great Gatsby

  by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  8 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 2004

  OCR

  The History Boys

  by Alan Bennett

  2 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1945

  IB Literature

  The House of Bernarda Alba

  by Federico García Lorca

  3 chapters · 9 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1982

  IB Literature

  The House of the Spirits

  by Isabel Allende

  14 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1984

  AP Literature

  The House on Mango Street

  by Sandra Cisneros

  3 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1937

  AP Literature

  Their Eyes Were Watching God

  by Zora Neale Hurston

  20 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1886

  AP Literature

  The Mayor of Casterbridge

  by Thomas Hardy

  16 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1600

  OCR

  The Merchant of Venice

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1915

  IB Literature

  The Metamorphosis

  by Franz Kafka

  3 chapters · 7 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1926

  Leaving Cert

  The Plough and the Stars

  by Seán O'Casey

  4 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 2006

  AP Literature

  The Road

  by Cormac McCarthy

  11 chapters · 7 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1850

  AP Literature

  The Scarlet Letter

  by Nathaniel Hawthorne

  23 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1929

  AP Literature

  The Sound and the Fury

  by William Faulkner

  4 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1886

  Edexcel

  The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  by Robert Louis Stevenson

  3 chapters · 8 characters · 8 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1942

  IB Literature

  The Stranger

  by Albert Camus

  11 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1926

  AP Literature

  The Sun Also Rises

  by Ernest Hemingway

  19 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1611

  General

  The Tempest

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1959

  IB Literature

  The Tin Drum

  by Günter Grass

  20 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1925

  IB Literature

  The Trial

  by Franz Kafka

  9 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novella · 1983

  OCR

  The Woman in Black

  by Susan Hill

  14 chapters · 9 characters · 7 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1958

  IB Literature

  Things Fall Apart

  by Chinua Achebe

  23 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1960

  OCR

  To Kill a Mockingbird

  by Harper Lee

  30 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1927

  AP Literature

  To the Lighthouse

  by Virginia Woolf

  9 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1980

  Leaving Cert

  Translations

  by Brian Friel

  3 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 10 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Play · 1623

  General

  Twelfth Night

  by William Shakespeare

  5 chapters · 10 characters · 7 themes · 11 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1869

  Common Core

  War and Peace

  by Leo Tolstoy

  17 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1966

  AP Literature

  Wide Sargasso Sea

  by Jean Rhys

  12 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→

• Novel · 1847

  AP Literature

  Wuthering Heights

  by Emily Brontë

  25 chapters · 10 characters · 8 themes · 12 quotes

  Read the guide→