Literary Criticism
Cliffs Notes: Congreve's The Way of the World
This concise supplement to William Congreve's The Way of the World helps students understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.
Cliffs Notes: Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks
Black Elk Speaks is the story of Nicholas Black Elk, Lakota visionary and healer, and his people at the close of the nineteenth century.
Cliffs Notes: Paton's Cry, The Beloved Country
Cry, the Beloved Country is a beautifully told and profoundly compassionate story of the Zulu pastor Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom, set in the troubled and changing South Africa of the 1940s.
Cliffs Notes: Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying
In this novel, a young man who returns to 1940s Cajun country to teach visits a black youth on death row for a crime he didn't commit. Together they come to understand the heroism of resisting. This concise supplement to Ernest J.
Cliffs Notes: Richter's The Light in the Forest
Conrad Richter, one of American literature's preeminent authors on the American frontier, highlights family hardship, individual suffering, and societal breakup in The Light in the Forest.
Cliffs Notes: Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
One of Shakespeare's romantic comedies, this play is set in the seaport town of Messina, in Sicily. The drama concerns the "battle of the sexes" and focuses on the barbed wits and intrigues that two sets of lovers and their friends and family create.
Cliffs Notes: Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde's classic tale of narcissism is rife with symbolism and classic themes. Beyond the critical approach, the story can simply be enjoyed on its own as a well-written tale of suspense and surprise.
Cliffs Notes: Dickens' David Copperfield
As a disguised autobiography, Dickens creates in David the story of a "favorite child", who later encounters suffering and travails, but winds up with a sanguine life all the same.
Cliffs Notes: Morrison's Song of Solomon
Song of Solomon explores the quest for cultural identity through an African American folktale about enslaved Africans who escape slavery by fleeing back to Africa.
Cliffs Notes: Kingsolver's The Bean Trees
This concise supplement to Barbara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees helps students understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.