Art

From Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita to Raven Leilani's Luster, the texts in this collection investigate themes related to the power and promise of many types of art — from the written word to visual arts such as painting and cinema.

Picture Us in the Light

by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Publication year 2018

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Grief, Guilt, Hope, Self Discovery, Community, Art, Truth & Lies, Friendship

Tags Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ+, Coming of Age, Arts & Culture, Depression & Suicide, Grief & Death, Mental Illness, Modern Classic Fiction

Picture Us in the Light is a young adult novel written by Kelly Loy Gilbert and published in 2018 by Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Gilbert is the author of three young adult novels, all of which focus on the young Asian American experience. Picture Us in the Light is written in the first-person perspective of protagonist Danny Cheng, but Gilbert includes flashbacks to China to connect Danny to a past his parents have... Read Picture Us in the Light Summary

Poetics

by Aristotle

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Art, Literature, Language

Tags Philosophy, Narrative Poem, Arts & Culture, Creative Nonfiction, Ancient Greece, Philosophy, Literary Criticism, Classical Period, Classic Fiction

Poetics, written around 335 BCE, is one of the most important works of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. This guide refers to the 2013 Oxford World’s Classics edition, translated and edited by Anthony Kenny.Poetics sets out to analyze the nature and uses of poetry. To Aristotle, poetry doesn’t just mean verse but theater; the works he examines are mostly plays. While Poetics is one of the most influential works of world philosophy, it’s also incomplete:... Read Poetics Summary

Powers of Horror

by Julia Kristeva

Publication year 1980

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Literature, Fear, Hate & Anger, Art, Good & Evil

Tags Horror & Suspense, Literary Criticism, Psychology, Philosophy, Arts & Culture, Philosophy, Psychology, Gender & Feminism, French Literature

... Read Powers of Horror Summary

Preface to Lyrical Ballads

by William Wordsworth

Publication year 1800

Genre Essay / Speech, Nonfiction

Themes Environment, Art, Literature

Tags Arts & Culture, Romanticism, Education, Education, British Literature, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction

“Preface to Lyrical Ballads” is an essay by the English Romantic poet William Wordsworth. In 1798 Wordsworth wrote, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the poetry collection Lyrical Ballads. Believing that the poems were so novel in theme and style that they required some explanation, Wordsworth wrote a prefatory essay to accompany the second edition of the poems in 1800; he then expanded the essay for the third edition of 1802.The “Preface” is often considered a manifesto... Read Preface to Lyrical Ballads Summary

Prometheus Unbound

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Publication year 1820

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Conflict, Perseverance, Hope, Love, Future, Environment, Objects & Materials, Space, Art, Equality, Literature, Power & Greed, Religion & Spirituality, Politics & Government

Tags Poetry: Dramatic Poem, Drama, Mythology, Romanticism, British Literature

Prometheus Unbound (1820) is a four-act lyrical drama by Percy Bysshe Shelley, a celebrated English Romantic poet best known for his poems like “Ozymandias” (1818) and “Ode to the West Wind” (1819). The work is adapted from the play cycle Prometheus Bound (456 BCE), Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bearer, traditionally attributed to the ancient Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Shelley rewrites the myth of Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods for humans and was severely... Read Prometheus Unbound Summary

Range

by David Epstein

Publication year 2019

Genre Book, Nonfiction

Themes Fame, Art, Music, Science & Technology, Wins & Losses, Perseverance

Tags Business & Economics, Psychology, Self-Improvement, Science & Nature, Education, Sports, Music, Arts & Culture, Education, Leadership, Psychology

... Read Range Summary

Reel

by Kennedy Ryan

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Love, Race, Art

Tags Romance, Historical Fiction, African American Literature, Disability

... Read Reel Summary

Sarrasine

by Honoré de Balzac

Publication year 1830

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Love, Gender Identity, Art

Sarrasine is a novella written by one of the most celebrated French writers of the 19th century, Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850). It was first published in 1831 and is part of Balzac’s magnum opus series, La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy). This series consists of 91 completed works and 41 partial texts; its interconnected narratives present a fictionalized version of post-Napoleonic French society that is simultaneously intimate and sweeping. In the definitive posthumous organization of... Read Sarrasine Summary

Saturday

by Ian McEwan

Publication year 2005

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Apathy, Family, Community, Art, Science & Technology, Order & Chaos, Death, War

Tags Historical Fiction, British Literature, Iraq War, Modern Classic Fiction, World History

Saturday is a novel by Ian McEwan, first published in 2005 by Jonathan Cape. Ian McEwan is an acclaimed British author who has been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize numerous times, winning the award for Amsterdam in 1998. In Saturday, McEwan delves into the inner life of a single individual, Henry Perowne, a successful neurosurgeon living in London. The novel takes place over the course of a single day, February 15, 2003, against the... Read Saturday Summary