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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Kill with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Kill by Émile Zola, a daring novel about the excesses and follies of the upper classes of Parisian society during the mid-19th century. It follows the lives of Aristide Saccard, a property speculator who takes great delight in swindling everyone he meets, and his wife Renée, whose loneliness and...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of King Lear with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of King Lear by William Shakespeare, a tragic tale about the consequences of betrayal and ambition. The titular character, King Lear, makes the mistake of dividing his entire kingdom between his scheming elder daughters, Goneril and Regan, who are actively plotting against him, while disinheriting his...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Wuthering Heights with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, which centres on the passionate, destructive love of its two main characters, Catherine and Heathcliff. Despite the intensity of their feelings for one another, fate conspires to keep them apart, which ultimately destroys the lives of both the two lovers...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Replay with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Replay by Marc Levy, which follows the New York Times journalist Andrew Stilman, who is stabbed and left for dead by a mystery assailant while out jogging one morning. When he wakes up, he realizes that he has gone back in time to two months earlier, and resolves to use the second chance he has been granted...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Madame Bovary with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, which tells the story of Emma and her desperate attempts to find excitement and passion to fuel her miserable life. The novel is now considered to be the author's greatest masterpiece, perfectly showcasing his love for a free indirect style and the inner monologue....
6) As You Like It by William Shakespeare (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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Unlock the more straightforward side of As You Like It with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of As You Like It by William Shakespeare, a pastoral comedy which stands out for its sparkling wit and amusing subversion of many of the tropes of the pastoral genre. In the play, numerous characters find themselves in the idyllic Forest of Arden: Duke Senior, whose rightful position has been usurped...
7) Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Soldiers of Salamis with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas, an unusual novel which blurs the lines between autobiography and historical fiction. Its central character is a fictionalised version of Cercas himself who becomes obsessed with a little-known anecdote from the Spanish Civil War concerning a fascist leader...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Claude Gueux with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Claude Gueux by Victor Hugo, a moving novel in which a man is sentenced to death for having given in to the provocations of a prison Director and killing him. Victor Hugo examines the question of responsibility and guilt and presents a vibrant plea against the death sentence with this striking representation...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of De Profundis with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of De Profundis by Oscar Wilde, a letter addressed to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas, known as Bosie, and written during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol. Wilde had been sentenced to two years' hard labour for homosexual activity, and the letter is a poignant account of his spiritual journey while...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Plague with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Plague by Albert Camus, an existentialist classic in which he continues to question the absurdity of life and applies the notion of rebellion. It is the story of a plague epidemic in the city of Oran in the 1940's and tells of the individual destinies of some of its inhabitants, who all react...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Nun with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Nun by Denis Diderot, a novel which fiercely criticizes the cruelty and excesses of the Church. Through the main character, the innocent novitiate Suzanne Simenon, and the ordeals she undergoes at two convents, the author condemns the power that has been placed in the hands of the sadistic nuns...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of His Masterpiece with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of His Masterpiece by Émile Zola, which follows the painter Claude Lantier as he struggles to gain recognition for his work in the face of an uncomprehending public, leading to the breakdown of his relationships and driving him to despair. The novel, which was inspired in large part by its author's...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Famished Road with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Famished Road by Ben Okri, which follows the spirit child Azaro as he navigates a world rife with poverty, violence and political instability. Unlike most spirit children, Azaro has chosen to remain in the world of the living instead of dying as an infant and being reborn, but his experience...
14) An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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Unlock the more straightforward side of An Inspector Calls with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of An Inspector Calls by J. B. Priestley, in which the enigmatic Inspector Goole arrives at the Birling household to question each member of the family about their connections to Eva Smith, a young woman who has just committed suicide. After proving that all of them are in some way responsible...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Price of Salt with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, which traces the burgeoning love affair between the 19-year-old shop clerk Therese Belivet and Carol Aird, a glamourous, alluring older woman who is undergoing an acrimonious divorce. In spite of their apparent differences, the two women are soon unable...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Decline and Fall with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh, which begins with a young man named Paul Pennyfeather being humiliated by his fellow students at Oxford University, and subsequently expelled. As a result, he is forced to take a teaching job in Wales, where he comes into contact with a whole host of colourful...
17) The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, which follows a young woman named Offred (the Handmaid of the title), who lives in the repressive Republic of Gilead and whose sole role is to conceive children for the powerful Commander she has been assigned to. Thanks to her friend Ofglen, she is introduced to the underground resistance movement, but soon discovers that escaping her position will not be easy....
18) Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide
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Unlock the more straightforward side of Brodeck's Report with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of Brodeck's Report by Philippe Claudel, a deeply disturbing story about the depths humans will stoop to in order to erase difference. Brodeck, a concentration camp survivor, is tasked with writing a report to justify the murder of a strange man known as the Anderer. The man had only recently arrived...
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Unlock the more straightforward side of The Time of the Hero with this concise and insightful summary and analysis!
This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Time of the Hero by Mario Vargas Llosa, which follows a group of cadets at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy (which the author himself attended as a teenager) as they navigate racial and social differences and grapple with the pervasive violence that surrounds them. The book catapulted...
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This engaging summary presents an analysis of Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, a novel consisting of six interconnected stories from different periods of history. Starting with the journal of a 19th-century lawyer, half of each story is told, only to be interrupted at a crucial moment, at which point the next story begins. The reader is taken on a whirlwind journey through the past, present and future, meeting a lovelorn composer from the interwar period,...