The average reader is left wondering which details are true of the author's real life and which are the only figments of his creative genius. ... When Bret's father passes away, it holds a great impact on Bret because he never had a chance to rekindle their relationship. ... Psychological criticism uses Freudian psychology to study an author's work. ... Occasionally this meaning is unplanned by the author. ... Bret Easton Ellis's novel, Lunar Park, is a work of art that reveals the author's Oedipus complex. ...

• Word Count: 3723
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Tolstoy creates a contrast between two generals, two great leading men of two opposing armies. Napoleon is portrayed as a critical, sharp thinker who develops great plans and strategies. ... As opposed to war, and death, and destruction, the author introduces themes of rebirth, rejuvenation, and celebration of life. ... The greatness of the novel lies in its affirmation of life in all its bewildering variety." ... Religion was also a significant theme in the author's own life. ...

• Word Count: 2809
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

She does an excellent job of pairing the challenges her family has faced being African Americans growing up during the Great Depression with essential life-lessons that are important for every person to understand. ... She grew up during the Great Depression, which her father compensated for by working three jobs for seventeen years ("Toni Morrison Biography"). ... As soon as she learned how to read, it became one of her favorite things to do; she read the works of great authors such as Jane Austen, Leo Tolstoy, and Gustave Flaubert, who all impressed her in different ways. ... In an...

• Word Count: 2626
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Its author Jane Austen is able to create a type of gothic parody that through out the novel is integrated into the characterization and able to show the realities of a young girl growing up in a complicated and complex adult society. ... Coleridge thought that gothic novels provide unfathomable characters that the gothic romance authors have come up with very quickly and have not put much thought into. ... Radcliffe's works, and most of them with great pleasure-. ... We learn a great deal about Henry Tilney from John Thorpe. Jane Austen uses flaws in John to show the greatness of Henry...

• Word Count: 2803
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

The "Revolution" in Literature During the 19th/20th Centuries An influential English Modernist Virginia Woolf once said, "On or about December 1910, the world changed". This statement is regarding the drastic change in the culture of society with the beginning of exploration of the meaning of life and the patterns that society are prone to following. This brought about curiosity and the religious affiliated explanations were no longer sufficient. The dissatisfaction for many, and believing mindlessly in something with no real evidence was intolerable. Society's ...

• Word Count: 3767
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Cossette, according to Hugo, has endured great hardship in her life but has managed to survive.... Hugo goes into great detail about how "slavery still exists, but now applies only to women's and its name is prostitution" (180). ...

• Word Count: 2647
• Approx Pages: 11

For a debut novel, it brought the author rare attention, first as a winner of the Governor-General's Award of Canada and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, then as an entry on the shortlist for the Booker Prize. ...

• Word Count: 4675
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

For a debut novel, it brought the author rare attention, first as a winner of the Governor-General's Award of Canada and the Commonwealth Writers Prize, then as an entry on the shortlist for the Booker Prize. ...

• Word Count: 4673
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The author uses several themes in his novel in order to conclude his point. ... He interrupts the thought of Oedipa as achieving greatness with the sarcastic notion that she is completely wrong. ... The mental effect of the inability to understand it is just a pinch, but it is a pinch at the nerve centers, which causes great pain. ...

• Word Count: 3055
• Approx Pages: 12
• Grade Level: High School

Its author, the elderly monk Adso, divides his text into seven parts, spanning seven days; each part or day is further ordered into "periods corresponding to the liturgical hours" of the monastic day (7). ... The Name of the Rose is an early fourteenth-century historical narrative framed by the contemporary author's opening description of the manuscript and Adso's end-of-the-century epilogue. ...

• Word Count: 4697
• Approx Pages: 19
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate