Romance

"The course of true love never did run smooth," wrote William Shakespeare in A Midsummer Night's Dream—and he knew what he was talking about. A text from this study guide collection might be just the thing to remind you of the bliss and pain of love.

More Happy Than Not

by Adam Silvera

Publication year 2015

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Sexual Identity, Memory

Tags LGBTQ+, Romance, Science Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction, Mental Illness

More Happy Than Not (2015) is Adam Silvera’s debut novel. It was well received and marked Silvera’s entrance into the growing field of queer young adult fiction. In the Author’s Note, Silvera speaks about his own sexuality and the difficulty of feeling “wrong” when surrounded by his straight friends. This insight and a deft writing hand have allowed him to produce several books featuring young queer protagonists, such as the acclaimed They Both Die at... Read More Happy Than Not Summary

Mothering Sunday

by Graham Swift

Publication year 2016

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Social Class, Literature, Memory

Tags Romance, Historical Fiction, British Literature, World History

Mothering Sunday is a 2016 novella written by British author Graham Swift. Like much of Swift’s writing, it has a psychological bent, exploring the relationship between history and memory. Swift won the Booker Prize for his 2006 novel Last Orders and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. This guide uses the 2016 Scribner edition of the text.Plot SummaryIt is March 30, 1924 in the upper-middle-class house of Beechwood in Berkshire, Southern England... Read Mothering Sunday Summary

Moxie

by Jennifer Mathieu

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Coming of Age, Self Discovery, Equality

Tags Gender & Feminism, Bullying, Realistic Fiction, Romance, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read Moxie Summary

Mrs. Fletcher

by Tom Perrotta

Publication year 2017

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mothers

Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Romance, Humor

Mrs. Fletcher is a 2017 comic novel by American author Tom Perrotta. It follows the sexual reawakening of middle-aged divorcée Eve Fletcher after her son, Brendan Fletcher, departs for college. Meanwhile, Brendan finds the campus environment inhospitable to his unthinking “lacrosse bro” misogyny. Mrs. Fletcher is the seventh novel by Perrotta, best known for 1998’s Election (adapted into a movie of the same name, starring Reese Witherspoon) and 2011’s The Leftovers, which was adapted into... Read Mrs. Fletcher Summary

Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

Publication year 1598

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Love, Marriage, Loyalty & Betrayal

Tags Classic Fiction, Elizabethan Era, Comedy & Satire, Modern Classic Fiction, Love & Sexuality, Relationships, Social Class, Gender & Feminism, Renaissance, Education, Education, Romance, Humor

Much Ado About Nothing, a comedy dating from the mid-career period of William Shakespeare was probably written just prior to 1600. The play has the trappings of a theatrical farce with its use of assumptions and misunderstandings. Main characters Benedick and Beatrice are duped into announcing their love for each other while Claudio is fooled into spurning Hero at the altar when he mistakenly believes that she has not been faithful to him. The theme of lovers being tricked... Read Much Ado About Nothing Summary

My Cousin Rachel

by Daphne du Maurier

Publication year 1951

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Love, Appearance & Reality, Loyalty & Betrayal, Fear, Mental Health

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Gothic Literature, Historical Fiction, Romance

Published in 1951, My Cousin Rachel is a Gothic psychological novel by British author Daphne du Maurier, who is best known for her novel Rebecca (1938). The story takes place on an isolated Cornish country estate, a setting that du Maurier frequently used. The narrator, a naïve young man named Philip Ashley, gradually becomes convinced that his beloved guardian, Ambrose, may have been murdered in Italy by the mysterious Rachel, the woman he spontaneously married... Read My Cousin Rachel Summary

My Fair Lady

by Alan Jay Lerner, Frederick Loewe

Publication year 1956

Genre Play, Fiction

Themes Social Class, Femininity, Economics, Education, Shame & Pride

Tags Humor, Dramatic Literature, Historical Fiction, Music, Romance, Classic Fiction, Comedy & Satire

My Fair Lady, a musical by Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music), opened on Broadway to tremendous critical and popular success in 1956, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews as Henry Higgins and Eliza Doolittle. Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s popular play Pygmalion (1914) and inspired by the Greek myth of “Pygmalion and Galatea,” the musical takes place in early-20th-century London, satirizing issues of class hierarchies, gender disparity, and how language... Read My Fair Lady Summary