A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, winner of the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.   As a novel of the Civil Rights era, To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of a lawyer who represented an African American accused of rape. Moreover, Lee weaves the theme of honor throughout the book and explores human dignity through her debut novel. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Lee’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for JRR Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of one of the most well-known series in the world—Lord of the Rings Trilogy.   As an epic novel of the mid twentieth century, Tolkien used elements of Nordic folk, Christianity, and realism to create the Middle-earth world. Moreover, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy was written in long-hand, revised, and then the whole work was rewritten backwards due to the first-time authors lack of funds and showing the author’s skill as a writer and scholar. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Tokien’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which was the best selling book in 1939 and won the National Book Award.    As a 1939 American realist novel, The Grapes of Wrath follows a struggling family on their search for work, success, and safety during the Great Depression. Moreover, Steinbeck discusses social philosophy by weaving in themes such as family, betrayal, and change. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Steinbeck’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Benjamin Franklin "Frank" Norris Jr. (March 5, 1870 – October 25, 1902) was an American journalist and novelist during the Progressive Era, whose fiction was predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague: A Story of San Francisco (1899), The Octopus: A Story of California (1901) and The Pit (1903).

Frank Norris

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Frank Norris’s The Octopus, a novel based on the Mussel Slough Tragedy of 1880.   As a powerful work of fiction, The Octopus tells of the conflict between a railway company and ranchers in a fight for land rights. Moreover, Norris’s novel serves as a great example of romanticism, as he navigates the metaphor between an octopus and monopolization. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Norris’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Octopus by Frank Norris

Samuel Taylor Coleridge  (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.  He also shared volumes and collaborated with Charles Lamb, Robert Southey, and Charles Lloyd. He wrote the poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as the major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on William Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. Coleridge coined many familiar words and phrases, including suspension of disbelief. He had a major influence on Ralph Waldo Emerson and American transcendentalism.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, whose work has influenced many poets of the time. Titles in this study guide include Dejection an Ode, Kubla Khan, Christabel, and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
  
 As a poet, critic, and philosopher of the early-nineteenth-century, he founded the Romantic Movement in England. Moreover, his poetry was characterized by imagination, passion, and the supernatural. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

William Dean Howells (; March 1, 1837 – May 11, 1920) was an American realist novelist, literary critic, and playwright, nicknamed "The Dean of American Letters". He was particularly known for his tenure as editor of The Atlantic Monthly, as well as for his own prolific writings, including the Christmas story "Christmas Every Day" and the novels The Rise of Silas Lapham and A Traveler from Altruria.

William Dean Howells

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, one of the many in Howells’ movement into strong anti-romantic realism and social criticism.   As a novel of the realism movement, The Rise of Silas Lapham began Howells’ trend of incorporating Christian Socialism in his writing—a theory that the common welfare could be improved along guidelines of Christian ethical principles. Moreover, Howells is considered to be the father of American realism. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Howells’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Rise of Silas Lapham by William Dean Howells

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Arthur Koestler, one of the twentieth century's greatest political writers. Titles in this study guide include Darkness at Noon and The Age of Longing.
 
As an influential voice of anti-Soviet literature, Koestler demonstrates that ethical imperatives cannot be over-analyzed or rationalized by science. Moreover, Koestler’s work exhibits perversions of the mind and a classic view into the Communist ideology. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Koestler’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Darkness at Noon and The Age of Longing by Arthur Koestler

Saint Thomas Aquinas (; ; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. An immensely influential philosopher, theologian, and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism, he is also known within the latter as the Doctor Angelicus and the Doctor Communis. The name Aquinas identifies his ancestral origins in the county of Aquino in present-day Lazio, Italy. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology and the father of Thomism; of which he argued that reason is found in God. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy developed or opposed his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory.

Thomas Aquinas

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by St. Thomas, philosopher canonized by the Catholic Church. Titles in this study guide include On Kingship and Summa Theologica.
  
 As an influential philosopher of the thirteenth-century, his work greatly influenced Western thought and philosophy. Moreover, Summa Theologica was his most popular work and is used as a guide to theology students. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of St. Thomas’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Philosophy of St Thomas Aquinas

David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885– 2 March 1930) was an English writer and poet. His collected works represent, among other things, an extended reflection upon the dehumanising effects of modernity and industrialisation. Some of the issues Lawrence explores are sexuality, emotional health, vitality, spontaneity, and instinct.

D. H. Lawrence

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by D.H. Lawrence, distinguished British writer and poet. Titles in this study guide include Sons and Lovers, The Plumed Serpent, The Rainbow, and Women in Love.
  
 As a controversial writer of the twentieth-century, Lawrence unknowingly shaped early modernism. Moreover, his reflections of human behavior depict the effects that industrialism had on the British people and their communities. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of D.H. Lawrence’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Sons and Lovers and Other Works by D. H. Lawrence

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Isak Dinesen’s Out of Africa, one of the last books to come out of British Colonization in Africa.    As an autobiographical narrative of the mid-twentieth century, Out of Africa is a coming of age story with ideas of serenity in the wilderness, the courage and simplicity of primal peoples, and nature as a moral force. Moreover, Dinesen explores various literary techniques and blurs the lines between narrative, memoir, and prose pastoral. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Dinesen’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen

Thomas Hardy  (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, especially William Wordsworth. He was highly critical of much in Victorian society, especially on the declining status of rural people in Britain, such as those from his native South West England.

Thomas Hardy

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, the most controversial of Hardy’s works as it toes the line between Victorian and modernism literature.   As an author who lived to see both literary time settings, Hardy was often criticized during his lifetime for combining elements of realism and fantastic coincidences. Moreover, The Mayor of Casterbrige was Hardy’s attempt at using poetic techniques and psychology to create a more in-depth, psychological story. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Hardy’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy

Franz Kafka (3 July 1883– 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic.  It typically features isolated protagonists facing bizarre or surrealistic predicaments and incomprehensible socio-bureaucratic powers.  It has been interpreted as exploring themes of alienation, existential anxiety, guilt, and absurdity. His best known works include "" ("The Metamorphosis"),  (The Trial), and  (The Castle). The term Kafkaesque has entered the English language to describe situations like those found in his writing.

Franz Kafka

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Franz Kafka, a pioneer of modernist movement. Titles in this study guide include The Trial, Amerika, The Castle, In the Penal Colony, A Country Doctor, The Metamorphosis, The Judgement, and The Great Wall of China.
  
 As an author of the twentieth-century, Kafka’s work combined themes of supernatural nature and realism. Moreover, the word Kafkaesque was created to represent the bizarre themes found in Kafka’s works. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Franz Kafka’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Trial and Other Works by Franz Kafka

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Arthur Miller, two-time Tony Winner and 1949 Pulitzer Prize Winner for Drama. Titles in this study guide include All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, A Memory Of Two Mondays, A View From The Bridge, After The Fall, and Incident at Vichy. 
 
As an influential, yet controversial, figure of American theatre, Miller expertly combined social awareness with a searching concern for his characters' inner ambitions. Moreover, Miller offered his audiences great entertainment mixed with thought-provoking social criticism. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Miller’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Crucible and Other Works by Arthur Miller

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by John Updike, two-time Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction in 1982 and 1991. Titles in this study guide include Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux.
 
As a prominent voice of literary realism for 1970s American fiction, Updike’s Rabbit novels commented on the changing social and political hierarchies of late modernism in America’s Eisenhower era. Moreover, Updike has been called a “maker of fables and parables,” which can be seen through his use of symbolism and imagery. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Updike’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Rabbit Run and Rabbit Redux by John Updike

Aeschylus (, ;  Aiskhylos, ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy. Academics' knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them; characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.

Aeschylus

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Aeschylus,the ancient greek playwright. Titles in this study guide include The Suppliant Maids, The Persians, The Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, The Eumenides, and The Libation Bearers. 
  
 As the world's first great dramatist, Aeschylus became known as “the father of tragedy.” Aeschylus greatly influenced Greek tragedies by expanding the number of characters in theater. Moreover, Aeschylus’ plays focused on daily activities and studies of human behavior, ethical problems, and divine justice. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Aeschylus classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to the Plays of Aeschylus

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, regarded by The Oxford Companion to English Literature as one of the key texts of the women’s movement of the 1960s.   As a uniquely structured four-part novel published in 1962, The Golden Notebook focuses on the idea of fragmentation, both in the structure of the book and the content. Moreover, the novel discusses big picture topics such as mental health, communism, and women’s sexuality. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Lessing’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

John Griffith London (born John Griffith Chaney; January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916) was an American novelist, journalist, and social activist. A pioneer in the world of commercial magazine fiction, he was one of the first writers to become a worldwide celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing. He was also an innovator in the genre that would later become known as science fiction.

Jack London

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Jack London, an influential writer of the Industrial Revolution. Titles in this study guide include Call of the Wild and White Fang.
  
 As works of adventure fiction, London’s novels touched on important philosophical themes concerning the political climate in the author’s day. Moreover, his writing not only portrayed a belief in socialism, but also attempted to explain naturalism as a philosophical theory. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of London’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native, arguably the most popular of Hardy’s 14 Wessex novels.    As a novel first published in the magazine Belgravia, popular for its sensationalism, Hardy classified The Return of the Native as a “Novel of Character and Environment.” Moreover, themes from Hardy’s novels draw interesting conversations around the power of imagination. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Hardy’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (,  or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, cultural critic, composer, poet, philologist, and scholar of Latin and Greek whose work has exerted a profound influence on modern intellectual history. He began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy. He became the youngest ever to hold the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel in 1869 at the age of 24. Nietzsche resigned in 1879 due to health problems that plagued him most of his life; he completed much of his core writing in the following decade. In 1889, at age 44, he suffered a collapse and afterward a complete loss of his mental faculties. He lived his remaining years in the care of his mother until her death in 1897 and then with his sister Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. Nietzsche died in 1900.

Friedrich Nietzsche

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Friedrich Nietzsche, one of the most influential of all modern thinkers. Titles in this study guide include The Birth of Tragedy, The Genealogy of Morals, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Beyond Good and Evil. 
 
As a prominent influencer of modern intellectual history, Nietzsche’s writings on human nature, morality, and individuality have wielded an enormous impact on Western philosophy. His attempts to expose the motives that underlie traditional Western religion, morality, and philosophy can be seen through his continual use of value as a theme in his work. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Nietzsche’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.


Study Guide to the Birth of Tragedy and Other Works by Friedrich Nietzsche

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".

Jonathan Swift

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, an immediate popular success when it was published as Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World in 1726.    As a novel of eighteenth century Britain, Gulliver’s Travels was a satire on human nature and a parody of the "travellers' tales" literary subgenre that was popular at the time. Moreover, Swift has given us a book which helps us measure our achievements, our failures and our predicaments against those of another age and another set of values. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Swift’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by William Golding, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1983. Titles in this study guide include Lord of the Flies, The Inheritors, Pincher Martin, and Free Fall.
  
 As a collection of novels, Golding’s work offers commentary on modern society and the primitive behavior of people. Moreover, his stories are based in reality and include literary devices such as symbolism and irony. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Golding’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Lord of the Flies and Other Works by William Golding

Aristophanes (; , ; c. 446 – c. 386 BC), son of Philippus, of the deme Kydathenaion (), was a comic playwright of ancient Athens and a poet of Old Attic Comedy. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These provide the most valuable examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and are used to define it, along with fragments from dozens of lost plays by Aristophanes and his contemporaries.

Aristophanes

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Aristophanes, is popularly known as the Father of Comedy. Titles in this study guide include Plutus, The Ecclesiazusae, The Frogs, The Thesmophoriazusae, Lysistrata, The Birds, Peace, The Clouds, The Wasps, The Knights, and The Acharnians.
  
 As a playwright of Old Comedy, his work explores the limits of comedy. Moreover, his work was pivotal in the progression and popularity of comedy. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Aristophanes’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Plays of Aristophanes

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Miguel de Cervantes’s Don Quixote, one of the most widely read texts from Spanish literature.   As a novel of chivalry from Spain in the mid-sixteenth century, Don Quixote is a by-product of Renaissance idealism and the trend to narrate the extraordinary adventures of knights-errant. Moreover, critics have argued about the satirical nature of the book, wondering if its intent was to parody chivalrous novels from the years before. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Cervantes’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, the book that arguably stands as the stepping stone for all other feminists' work.   As a work of post-WWII, The Second Sex stirred up controversary as women in France and America had just earned their right to vote and men who fought on the front returned home to reclaim the jobs that had been filled by women. Moreover, the fight for liberation and equality for women continues to impact politics and philosophy even today. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of de Beauvoir’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

Joseph Conrad (born Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski, ; 3 December 1857– 3 August 1924) was a Polish-British writer regarded as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. Though he did not speak English fluently until his twenties, he was a master prose stylist who brought a non-English sensibility into English literature. Conrad wrote stories and novels, many with a nautical setting, that depict trials of the human spirit in the midst of what he saw as an impassive, inscrutable universe. 
 
Conrad is considered an early modernist, though his works contain elements of 19th-century realism. His narrative style and anti-heroic characters have influenced numerous authors, and many films have been adapted from, or inspired by, his works.  Numerous writers and critics have commented that Conrad's fictional works, written largely in the first two decades of the 20th century, seem to have anticipated later world events.

Joseph Conrad

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Joseph Conrad, Polish-British writer known as one of the greatest novelists to write in the English language. As a master prose stylist of nineteenth and twentieth-century modernism, Conrad’s works shaped and inspired English narrative fiction. Moreover, his novels’ anti-heroic characters inspired many other authors. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Joseph Conrad’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Lord Jim and Other Works by Joseph Conrad

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Thomas More’s Utopia, originally written in Latin in 1516 and considered a great political and philosophical satire.   As a rhetorical work from the early 16th century, there has been much debate amongst scholars on what More’s intentions were for writing. Moreover, Utopia makes a mirror so that readers may be able to see themselves more clearly and more realistically. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of More’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Utopia by Thomas More

Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was awarded "for his vigorous and graphic art of description and his ability to create, with wit and humor, new types of characters." His works are known for their critical views of American capitalism and materialism between the wars. He is also respected for his strong characterizations of modern working women. H. L. Mencken wrote of him, "[If] there was ever a novelist among us with an authentic call to the trade ... it is this red-haired tornado from the Minnesota wilds." He has been honored by the U.S. Postal Service with a postage stamp in the Great Americans series.

Sinclair Lewis

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Sinclair Lewis’s Babbitt, a novel that contributed to Lewis’ eventual Nobel Prize award.   As a satirical novel of the roaring twenties, Babbitt addresses the “American Dream” as was idolized by the middle class in early 20th century America. Moreover, this satirical work points to the attitudes, values, and beliefs of the American middle class living in such a prosperous time, with an emphasis on security and conformity. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Lewis’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis

William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564) was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "The Bard"). His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon. Scholars believe that he died on his fifty-second birthday, coinciding with St George’s Day. At the age of 18 he married Anne Hathaway, who bore him three children: Susanna, and twins Hamnet and Judith. Between 1585 and 1592 he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the playing company the Lord Chamberlain's Men, later known as the King's Men. He appears to have retired to Stratford around 1613, where he died three years later. Few records of Shakespeare's private life survive, and there has been considerable speculation about such matters as his sexuality, religious beliefs, and whether the works attributed to him were written by others. Shakespeare produced most of his known work between 1590 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories, genres he raised to the peak of sophistication and artistry by the end of the sixteenth century. Next he wrote mainly tragedies until about 1608, including Hamlet, King Lear, and Macbeth, considered some of the finest examples in the English language. In his last phase, he wrote tragicomedies, also known as romances, and collaborated with other playwrights. Many of his plays were published in editions of varying quality and accuracy during his lifetime, and in 1623, two of his former theatrical colleagues published the First Folio, a collected edition of his dramatic works that included all but two of the plays now recognised as Shakespeare's. Shakespeare was a respected poet and playwright in his own day, but his reputation did not rise to its present heights until the nineteenth century. The Romantics, in particular, acclaimed Shakespeare's genius, and the Victorians hero-worshipped Shakespeare with a reverence that George Bernard Shaw called "bardolatry". In the twentieth century, his work was repeatedly adopted and rediscovered by new movements in scholarship and performance. His plays remain highly popular today and are consistently performed and reinterpreted in diverse cultural and political contexts throughout the world. According to historians, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets throughout the span of his life. Shakespeare's writing average was 1.5 plays a year since he first started writing in 1589. There have been plays and sonnets attributed to Shakespeare that were not authentically written by the great master of language and literature. Source: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/947.William_Shakespeare">GoodReads.com</a>

William Shakespeare

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of Shakespeare’s most famous and widely performed plays for the stage. 
 
As a comedy of the sixteenth-century, Shakespeare expertly examines the unpredictability and impact of romantic love. Moreover, love is the most prominent theme, expressed through Shakespeare’s portrayal of love as irrational, blind, and often cruel and forgiving. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

Euripides (;  Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom a significant number of plays have survived. Some ancient scholars attributed 95 plays to him but, according to the Suda, it was 92 at most. Of these, 18 or 19 have survived more or less complete (there has been debate about his authorship of Rhesus, largely on stylistic grounds) and there are also fragments, some substantial, of most of the other plays. More of his plays have survived intact than those of Aeschylus and Sophocles together, partly because his popularity grew as theirs declinedhe became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education, along with Homer, Demosthenes, and Menander.

Euripides

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Euripides, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. Titles in this study guide include Rhesus, Iphigenia In Aulis, Bacchae, Phoenissae, Orestes, Electra, Trojan Women, Helen, Iphigenia In Tauris, Ion, Suppliants, Hecuba, Heracles, Cyclops, A Satyr-Play, Andromache, Heracleidae, Hippolytus, Medea, and Alcestis.
  
 As a Greek playwright of fifth-century BCE his tragedies influenced modern dramas and even comedy. Moreover, many of his plays questioned politics of the time, setting him apart as a progressive writer. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Euripides’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Plays of Euripides

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Edmund Spenser, who earned a wide reputation as a poet among English and Irish nobility. Titles in this study guide include The Faerie Queene, The Shepheardes Calender, The Daphnaida, the Amoretti and Epithalamion, The Prothalamion, and Fowre Hymnes. 
  
 As a collection of Renaissance literature, Spenser’s work contained characters based on historical figures and served to give representations of ethical and political virtues. Moreover, Spenser achieved his philosophical purpose in The Faerie Queene by using allegorical writing and strong recurring themes. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Spenser’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Faerie Queene and Other Works by Edmund Spenser

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, one of Shakespeare’s most moving and richest works. 
 
As a tragedy of Roman and Egyptian history, Shakespeare reaches the pinnacle point of his poetic evolution as he transitions in works. Moreover, Shakespeare's use of rhythm, images, figures, and verse, he makes every experience personally felt by the reader. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Thomas Wolfe, skilled writer of impressionistic prose. Titles in this study guide include Look Homeward, Angel, and Of Time and the River.
  
 As a collection of mid 20th century novels, Wolfe’s work displayed his quest for authority, fellowship, literary success, and identity. Moreover, Wolfe used his imagination to heighten and adapt every detail from his memories. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Wolfe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Look Homeward, Angel, and Of Time and the River by Thomas Wolfe

Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (; ; 11 November 18219 February 1881), sometimes transliterated Dostoyevsky, was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher. Dostoevsky's literary works explore human psychology in the troubled political, social, and spiritual atmospheres of 19th-century Russia, and engage with a variety of philosophical and religious themes. His most acclaimed works include Crime and Punishment (1866), The Idiot (1869), Demons (1872), and The Brothers Karamazov (1880). Dostoevsky's body of works consists of 11 novels, three novellas, 17 short stories, and numerous other works. Many literary critics rate him as one of the greatest psychologists in world literature. His 1864 novella Notes from Underground is considered to be one of the first works of existentialist literature.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, a literary classic due to Dostoyevsky’s unique shifting writing styles and characterizations.   As a mid-nineteenth century European work, The Idiot aims to highlight perfection in an imperfect world as a major theme. Moreover, this classic will encourage students to think in a more philosophical manner and look for a deeper theme in other works and real world situations. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Dostoyevsky’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle  (22 May 1859– 7 July 1930) was a British writer and medical doctor. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 when he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and more than fifty short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. The Sherlock Holmes stories are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction.

Arthur Conan Doyle

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, pioneer of the crime fiction genre.Titles in this study guide include Sherlock Holmes.
  
 As an author of the late- nineteenth and early- twentieth-century, Doyle’s novels impacted English fiction with vivid characters and thought provoking plot lines. Moreover, his compilation of Holmes books continue to fascinate readers today with it’s integration of humor and mystery. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Nathanael West’s The Day of the Locust, one of West’s great novels that comments on the social and cultural properties of American life.   As a novel of the post-Great Depression era, The Day of the Locust depicts the failure of one popular conception of the “American Dream.” Moreover, West’s novels highlight and intensify aspects of American life to show what it is, as opposed to what it ought to be, or even what it could be.  This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Nathanael West’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, one of Shakespeare’s “great” or “middle” comedies. 
 
As a satirical tale of pastoral romance, As You Like It examines the cruelties and corruption of court life and love. Moreover, Shakespeare amusingly weaves a tale of love manifested in varied forms but targets the main theme of “love at first sight” through his playful imagery and characters. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to As You Like It by William Shakespeare

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Molière, one of the greatest French writers. Titles in this study guide include The School for Wives, Tartuffe, The Misanthrope, The Miser, The Would-Be Gentleman, The
 Learned Ladies, The Physician in Spite of Himself, The Precious Damsels, and The Imaginary Invalid.
  
 As a French poet, playwright, and actor of the seventeenth-century, he transformed comedy. Moreover, he was considered the official playwright for the royal court’s entertainment. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Molière's classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The School for Wives and Other Works by Molière

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for by Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, considered a classic due to its effective use of magical realism and winner of The Rómulo Gallegos International Novel Prize.    As a novel of the mid-twentieth century, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a work of magical realism, which proved to be a bold statement during that time period, as it allowed for Marquez to bend time and reality. Moreover, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a fine example to show the birth of creative writing without limits. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Márquez’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Kate Chopin (, also ; born Katherine O'Flaherty; February 8, 1850 – August 22, 1904) was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is now considered by some scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminist authors of Southern or Catholic background, such as Zelda Fitzgerald, and is one of the most frequently read and recognized writers of Louisiana Creole heritage.

Kate Chopin

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, one of the earliest American novels that focuses on women's issues without condescension.   As a feminist novel of the American South at the end of the nineteenth century, The Awakening  highlights individual expression and freedom and what the desire for it can cost the person who wants it. Moreover, Chopin was reviled and ostracized by polite society in St. Louis because of the actions of The Awakening’s main character. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Chopin’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Awakening by Kate Chopin

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Thomas Wolfe, three time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Titles in this study guide include The Web and the Rock and You Can’t Go Home Again.
  
 As an American-British author of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century, his writings played a pivotal role in the shift from literary realism to literary modernism. Moreover, his novels altered the narrative style of fiction writing, and paved the way for many 20th century writers. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Thomas Wolfe’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by an unknown poet, whose identity has been highly debated since the Middle Ages. Titles in this study guide include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Purity, Pearl, and Patience.
  
 As a collection of Medieval English literature, the alliterative poems each represented a high level of poetic achievement and are ranked alongside the works of Chaucer. Moreover, they contained many examples of symbolism and poetic technique and explored themes like the virtue of patience. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of the poet’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Other Works

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by William Shakespeare, considered one of the greatest playwrights in history. Titles in this study guide include Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, Two Gentlemen of Verona, Love's Labour's Lost, The Merry Wives of Windsor, All's Well that Ends Well, The Winter's Tale, and Measure for Measure.
 
As a collection of humor-filled tales of Elizabethian life, the comedies depict fun, mischief, irony, mistaken identities, and intriguing wordplay. Moreover, his work draws audiences to sadness, joy, tragedy, comedy, darkness, and the depths of human experience. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Comedies by William Shakespeare

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, the early 1890s saw him become one of the most popular playwrights in London. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the circumstances of his criminal conviction for "gross indecency", imprisonment, and early death at age 46.

Oscar Wilde

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Oscar Wilde, who aside from drama also published short stories, essays, and poems in various magazines. Titles in this study guide include Lady Windermere's Fan, A Woman of No Importance, An Ideal Husband, The Importance of Being Earnest.
  
 As a collection of the late- nineteenth-century, Wilde’s work rebelled against many Victorian conventions and turned to aestheticism. Moreover, other influences of his included French literature of his time and the free enjoyment of pleasure in pagan Greek culture. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Wilde’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research

Study Guide to The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Works by Oscar Wilde

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Thor Heyerdahl, whose career as a zoologist was influenced by the interests of his parents. Titles in this study guide include Kon Tiki and Aku Aku.
  
 As an author of twentieth-century travel literature, Heyerdahl had a profound fascination with outdoor life and traveling. His devotion and pursuit of knowledge won him countless medals, memberships, and other honors. Moreover, his stories contained descriptions of places like Easter Island and the Marquesas Islands. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Heyerdahl’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Kon-Tiki and Aku-Aku by Thor Heyerdahl

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet   (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832) was a Scottish historical novelist, poet, playwright, and historian. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature. Famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian, and The Bride of Lammermoor.

Walter Scott

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Sir Walter Scott, the inventor and greatest practitioner of the historical novel. Titles in this study guide include Ivanhoe, The Heart of Midlothian, and Quentin Durward. 
 
As a noteworthy voice of nineteenth century literature, Scott’s writings gave way to a new and vivid telling of history into a recreation of the spirit of the time and events. Moreover, Scott captured the imagination and national pride of a generation of Europe’s politicians. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Scott’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Ivanhoe and Other Works by Sir Walter Scott

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by James Hilton, who wrote his first novel at seventeen. Titles in this study guide include Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
  
 As works of 1930s fiction, Hilton’s novels achieved wide popularity and use in high school classrooms and yet have not received a large amount of critical commentary. Moreover, the books received mixed reactions from early readers, some of which praised Hiltons work while others deemed it unworthy of being called literature. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Hilton’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Lost Horizon and Goodbye, Mr Chips by James Hilton

Kenneth Elton Kesey (; September 17, 1935– November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.

Ken Kesey

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was an immediate critical success upon its release in 1964.   As a novel of the late 1900s, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was a product of Kesey's drug stimulated imagination, and much of the original material was written under the influence of LSD and peyote which Kesey took to induce in himself a state of mind similar to that of his narrator, the schizophrenic Indian Chief Broom. Moreover, Time magazine called it "a roar of protest against middlebrow society's Rules and the invisible Rulers who enforce them." This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Kesey’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, the last of Shakespeare's political tradegies. 
 
As an unusual and intense, intellectual drama, Shakespeare employs single narrative line and striking images, but the most effective moments in the play are developed through understated silence. Moreover, he implements late, lean, and compact style in which images are used for their intellectual and thematic importance, rather than their emotional content. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Coriolanus by William Shakespeare

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Burdick and Lederer’s The Ugly American, with commentary on Nationalism, Communism, foreign policy, and diplomacy across America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.   As a classic account and document of America’s role in French Colonialism, The Ugly American was frequently referenced by Presidents John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon in their conversations on foreign policy, and hit bestseller lists when it was nearly banned overseas. Moreover, the political novel shows how time and war impact cross-cultural relationships. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Burdick and Lederer’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Ugly American by Burdick and Lederer

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Sophocles, one of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived. Titles in this study guide include Oedipus, Philoctetes, Trachiniae, Electra, Oedipus the King, Antigone, and Ajax.
  
 As a playwright of fifth- century BCE, he is one of the most famous Greek Tragedians. Moreover, his surviving plays are proof of his perfection of the genre of Greek tragedy. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Sophocles’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Plays of Sophocles

Henry James  ( – ) was an American-British author regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the son of Henry James Sr. and the brother of renowned philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

Henry James

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Henry James, a renowned American-British author. Titles in this study guide include The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller.
  
 As an author of the nineteenth-century, James’s writing bridged the gap between literary realism and literary modernism. Moreover, James is considered a master of ghost stories, and the Turn of the Screw remains one of the most popular of the genre. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Henry James’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Turn of the Screw and Daisy Miller by Henry James

Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822– June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as "The Man Without a Country", published in Atlantic Monthly, in support of the Union during the Civil War. He was the grand-nephew of Nathan Hale, the American spy during the Revolutionary War.

Edward Everett Hale

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Edward Everett Hale’s The Man Without a Country, a short story written during the Civil War.   As a work of patriotic literature, The Man Without a Country bolstered support across the U.S. for the Union in the North. Moreover, Hale uses irony, mystery, and realism to tell the gripping story of a man who feels seemingly no patriotism or connection to his country during a war in which he must take part. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Hale’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale

Nathaniel Hawthorne (; né Hathorne; July 4, 1804 – May 19, 1864) was an American novelist, dark romantic, and short story writer. His works often focus on history, morality, and religion.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Nathaniel Hawthorne, renowned American novelist. Titles in this study guide include The Marble Faun, The House of the Seven Gables, and The Scarlet Letter.
  
 As an author of the nineteenth-century, his novels and short stories primarily contained themes of mortality, religion, and history. Moreover, his writing influenced and followed the literary subgenre of dark romanticism, which reflected a fascination of the irrational and strange. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Scarlet Letter and Other Works by Nathaniel Hawthorne

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Thornton Wilder, recognized as one of America’s most respected contemporary writers. Titles in this study guide include The Cabala, The Bridge Of San Luis Rey, Heaven’s My Destination, Our Town, and The Skin of Our Teeth. 
  
 As a collection of twentieth-century literature, Wilder’s work was influenced by his religious background, his love of classicism, and his worldwide travels. Moreover, many of his stories explored humanist themes and biblical motifs and allusions. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Wilder’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Our Town and Other Works by Thornton Wilder

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one the most powerful and influential works of world literature. 

As a tragedy of revenge from the seventeenth-century, Shakespeare mirrors the most fundamental themes and problems common of the Renaissance. Moreover, the play essentially demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other people and the power that knowledge can have. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (, ; ; 3 May 1469 – 21 June 1527) was an Italian Renaissance diplomat, philosopher and writer, best known for The Prince (Il Principe), written in 1513. He has often been called the father of modern political philosophy and political science. 

Niccolò Machiavelli

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by notable Italian poet Niccolò Machiavelli. Titles in this study guide include The Prince, Discourses on the First Ten Books of Titus Livius, Mandragola, The History of Florence, and The Art of War.
  
 As a poet of the Renaissance, Machiavelli is known for critiquing and discussing philosophy and human behavior. Moreover, his controversial political philosophy influenced what would become twentieth-century communism. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Machiavelli’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Prince and Other Works by Niccolò Machiavelli

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a romance characterized by love sonnets, rhyme, and imagery of light and dark. 
 
As a tragedy of the late-sixteenth-century, Romeo and Juliet displays Elizabethan belief in astrology and fate as it applies to the two star-crossed lovers. Moreover, the story explores themes of romantic and courtly love, especially the expectations of young lovers and the conventions to which they are confined. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Charles John Huffam Dickens  (; 7 February 1812– 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime, and by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are still widely read today.

Charles Dickens

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities, a unique storytelling that expands the understanding of the French Revolution.  As a novel written in 1859 but set in the years leading up to the French Revolution, the major theme of social injustice that is portrayed in this famous work allows readers to relate to the current political unrest. Moreover, this historic novel uses unique storytelling through scene-changing syntax to broaden the perspective of time. to broaden the perspective of the time. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Dickens’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work  - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper into their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage, the supreme example of Crane’s war stories.   As a novel set during the American Civil War, The Red Badge of Courage is known for realism and naturalism. Moreover, the novel sets itself apart from other war novels as it focuses on the thoughts and experiences of the protagonist, instead of the outside world. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Crane’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, the second play in Shakespeare's tetralogy portraying the succeeding reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, and Henry V.
 
As a historical drama of the sixteenth-century, Shakespeare combines history and comedy to illustrate the rise of the English Royal House of Lancaster. Moreover, he remarkably devises a variety of rich texture, an enthralling view on historical politics, and a new take on characterization with his dynamic and unpredencent roles. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare's classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Henry IV, Part 1 by William Shakespeare

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Dylan Thomas, popular Welsh poet in the twentieth- century. Titles in this study guide include The Map of Love, Once Below A Time, In Country Sleep, and Death and Entrances. 
  
 As a poet of the modernist movement, Thomas’ work included themes of religion, innocence, and the human awareness of experience. Moreover, he utilized literary devices to captivate his audience, such as alliteration, internal rhyme, sprung rhythm, and was even noted as a skilled writer of prose poetry. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Thomas’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to the Major Poems by Dylan Thomas

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Beowulf, considered by some to be representative of the earliest stage in the development of oral poetry.   As one of the most well-known works of early Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is one of the earliest records of standard Old English. Moreover, this epic is studied for its use of fusing pagan and Christian elements through the lens of a hero’s struggles. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Beowulf as a classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Beowulf

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for E. L. Doctorow’s Ragtime, published the year the Vietnam War came to a close in 1975.   As a work of historical fiction, Ragtime uses a turn-of-the-century America as a pedestal to showcase issues such as freedom, identity, and justice. Moreover, Doctorow was one of the first to use magic realism to discuss and dissect the nature of change. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Doctorow’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Ragtime by E. L. Doctorow

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Nikos Kazantzakis’ Zorba the Greek, the internationally acclaimed novel of opposing forces.     As a tale of Greek’s Great Famine during WWII, Zorba the Greek gives a fresh perspective on the duality between body and mind, beauty and pain, feeling and thinking. Moreover, Kazantzakis empowers readers to pursue life like Zorba. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Kazantzakis’ classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye, regarded by The New York Times as one of the 100 best English-language novels since 1923.   As a 1951 coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye tells of the crises of a youthful teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Moreover, Salinger’s work is filled with rebellion and angst, which can be seen through themes such as the protection of innocence, death, and insincerity. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Salinger’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Irish novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He wrote the novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman and A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy, and also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting tuberculosis.

Laurence Sterne

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy, thought to be a trailblazer for other books of its time and inspired by the great novelists: Francois Rabelais, Miguel de Cervantes, Michel de Montaigne, and Robert Burton.   As a nine-volume novel of the 18th century, Tristram Shandy was ahead of its time for its use of humor and satire and stories about scandalous and taboo topics. Moreover, the stories included make us consider the limitations of the logic in which we put such trust, the value of theories which remain purely theoretical, and the absurdity of our ideas of time in a world where everything is relative. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Sterne’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (; Russian: , tr. ; ;  ), usually referred to in English as Leo Tolstoy, was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. He received multiple nominations for the Nobel Prize in Literature every year from 1902 to 1906, and nominations for Nobel Peace Prize in 1901, 1902 and 1910, and the fact that he never won is a major Nobel prize controversy.

Leo Tolstoy

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, which he claimed as his first true novel despite having written several before it.   As an 1877 realist novel, Anna Karenina follows a Russian wife in the midst of a love affair, who risks all she has for a lover. Moreover, Tolstoy discusses the betrayal by weaving in themes such as forgiveness, social class, and jealousy. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Tolstoy’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:   - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As   The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Toni Morrison’s Beloved, a Pulitzer Prize winner and regarded as one of the greatest works of American Literature.   As a novel set after the American Civil War, Beloved acknowledges the millions of lives taken on the Atlantic slave trade and recognizes the hardships that faced freed slaves. Moreover, Morrison encompasses the supernatural, community, self and women-empowerment, and overall culture of both post-Civil War and post-Civil Rights America. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Morrison’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including  essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Beloved by Toni Morrison

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for Charles Dickens’s Bleak House, said to be one of Dickens’s most powerful novels due to the way it challenged Britain's court system and caused legal reform in the 1870s.  As an 1830 novel set in London, Bleak House unveils a different way of life where the court system is corrupt and ruled by the affluent. Moreover, the struggles throughout the story highlight the love between the characters and the push for a change in the legal system. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Dickens’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:  - Introductions to the Author and the Work - Character Summaries - Plot Guides - Section and Chapter Overviews - Test Essay and Study Q&As  The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to Bleak House by Charles Dickens

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Herbert Marcuse, a famous western philosopher. Titles in this study guide include A Critique of Pure Tolerance, An Essay on Liberation, Counterrevolution and Revolt, Eros and Civilization, and One Dimensional Man.
  
 As a sociologist, philosopher, and political theorist of the twentieth-century, his theories launched the New Left movement in the Western world. Moreover, he addressed forms of social control and theorized liberation techniques. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Herbert Marcuse’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to the Theories of Herbert Marcuse

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for selected works by Emily Dickinson, famous American poet. Titles in this study guide include Safe In Their Alabaster Chambers, A Bird Came Down The Walk, 'Twas Like A Maelstrom, With A Notch, The Last Night That She Lived, I Cannot Live With You, Pain Has An Element Of Blank, My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close, and Remorse Is Memory Awake.
  
 As a poet of the nineteenth-century, her poems were unique, unconventional, and arguably before their time. Moreover, she is considered a central literary figure of Western Civilization. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Emily Dickinson’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons they have stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:
 
 - Introductions to the Author and the Work
 - Character Summaries
 - Plot Guides
 - Section and Chapter Overviews
 - Test Essay and Study Q&As
 
 The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.

Study Guide to The Major Poetry of Emily Dickinson

A comprehensive study guide offering in-depth explanation, essay, and test prep for William Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2, the gripping third installment of kingship and rebellion. 
 
As a detail-rich history of the sixteenth century, Shakespeare skillfully combines history and comedy, moving from intense battle scenes of kings to simple scenes of country life. Moreover, his compelling themes of power struggle and burdensome royal life are demonstrated through his imagery and characterization. This Bright Notes Study Guide explores the context and history of Shakespeare’s classic work, helping students to thoroughly explore the reasons it has stood the literary test of time. Each Bright Notes Study Guide contains:

- Introductions to the Author and the Work
- Character Summaries
- Plot Guides
- Section and Chapter Overviews
- Test Essay and Study Q&As

The Bright Notes Study Guide series offers an in-depth tour of more than 275 classic works of literature, exploring characters, critical commentary, historical background, plots, and themes. This set of study guides encourages readers to dig deeper in their understanding by including essay questions and answers as well as topics for further research.