The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Perennial Classics)

Book Description

The elegantly styled classic story of a young, unorthodox teacher and her special--and ultimately dangerous--relationship with six of her students.

Customer Reviews:

Superb.......2007-09-22

This is art. There is not one unnecessary word in this novel. Miss Brodie is a mystery throughout the story and you just go on pondering about the characters long after it is finished.

And, you: Watch the film starring Maggie Smith, too. It's absolutely a masterpiece.

Portrait of a fascist.......2007-07-02

The key events in THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE take place in Scotland in the unsettled time between the two World Wars. In a number of ways, the title character, a school mistress in an Edinburgh girls school, is a lot like two world figures she admits to admiring: Mussolini and Hitler. While being arbitrary and authoritarian herself, she exhibits contempt for all legitimate authority. While claiming to educate her students in the true sense of the word (i.e., to draw them out), she constantly labels and confines them by her preconceptions of what she believes their destinies to be. She also manipulates their trust, inappropriately shares adult information with them, and constantly tests their loyalty. Brodie's set, as the girls are referred to by the headmistress and other "outsiders", are a privileged elite, the creme de la creme. And privilege comes with both responsibilities and risks. Spark gives a subtle reading of what it means to bask in the not-always-healthy favor of an all-too-human leader. While the novel sometimes seems to be told from the point of view of one of Brodie's students (the second half seems to belong almost entirely to Sandy, the girl with piggish eyes who becomes a nun and author of a bestselling book of psychology called "The Transfiguration of the Commonplace"), it is really told by an omniscient narrator, one capable of bridging time and making judgments no individual character with a limited perspective could ever make. It leaves the reader feeling that there just might be a power greater than the most naive victim or the most desperate, self-serving bully. This is truly a deep and disturbing book, one that should not be approached lightly or taken at face value.

Great product for the price.......2007-06-25

After seeing the play "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" performed at my school, I decided to get the novel (or novella) and read the original. Needless to say I enjoyed the story greatly and find it to be one of the better stories in this collection.

The other stories, however, are good. Not great when compared to "Brodie" but they could stand well on their own. For the price of this collection you would be doing your collection justice since Sparks is one of the best Contemporary writers and "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" is a captivating and original story.

Also, the introduction by Frank Kermode is a nice preface to each of the stories which contextualizes them well in Spark's life and to the time in which the stories were written.

In a class all her own.......2007-04-10

This is a profound, but surprisingly amusing novel set in Edinburg, Scotland during the early twentieth century. The main character, Jean Brodie, is a spinster and something else which you do not figure out until later. She has an unorthodox teaching style that pits most of the staff of the Marcia Blane School for Girls against her. The Brodie Set are six girls who get her special attention and are molded to become prototypes of their role model. Each one of the girls is known for a special talent or quality: Monica for anger, Sandy for her eyes, Jenny for her beauty, Mary for her stupidity, Eunice for gymnastics and Rose for sex.

I thought this book was funny and very profound and as a short, but fascinating read I highly recommend it.

Spark's masterpiece among masterpieces.......2006-11-29

The spinster has long been a fixture in English literature and life, and the independent, intellectual spinster, Muriel Spark remarks part way through THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE, was not an uncommon sort between the wars in the UK. What makes Jean Brodie, her independent spinster protagonist, unusual is that she chooses to play out her personal pageant not as a teacher in a progressive school where her eccentric personality and educational strategies would have clicked but at a traditional girls' school in Scotland. Female teachers were expected to be models of morality and chastity and they were to groom their charges to fit a prescribed code of feminine behavior shaped more by Victorian standards than the 20th century.

Our Miss Brodie has a very strong sense of self and dramatically casts herself as a heroine in her life's stories that she routinely dispenses to her middle-school aged girls. They are a captive audience as she reminds them again and again that she is in her prime. And yet, they are learners and what they come away with is their own sense of selves, albeit stamped by the Brodie spirit, exhibited in the various ways they're able to position the Panama hat that is part of their uniforms; they also know more about culture and politics than their peers. As time moves on, they also become aware in other ways, and reveal Miss Brodie's mark on them in unexpected ways. The central tension is, can Miss Brodie keep doing what she's doing without being taken down by the fusty old system? Will she do herself in? She counts on her girls' loyalty to serve as a shield, but how much can she control them? Will she lose her prime?

Spark is a knock out writer, who precisely skewers her characters and the world in which they move. She moves effortlessly between the present and future moments in their lives, revealing the cause and effect of this education. This novel is wryly comic. It is also psychologically astute.

The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)

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Worth reading but not Cather's best
A Classic Dud
A most enjoyable reading experience
I really really really wanted to like this book
Memorable characters

The Professor's House (Vintage Classics)
Willa Cather
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679731806
Release Date: 1990-10-31

Book Description

A study in emotional dislocation and renewal--Professor Godfrey St. Peter, a man in his 50's, has achieved what would seem to be remarkable success. When called on to move to a more comfortable home, something in him rebels.

Download Description

The moving was over and done. Professor St. Peter was alone in the dismantled house where he had lived ever since his marriage, where he had worked out his career and brought up his two daughters. It was almost as ugly as it is possible for a house to be; square, three stories in height, painted the colour of ashes -- the front porch just too narrow for comfort, with a slanting floor and sagging steps.

Customer Reviews:

Worth reading but not Cather's best.......2007-05-19

I am a huge Willa Cather fan and have been reading her novels in the order she wrote them. I started "The Professor's House" in eager anticipation, because I just LOVED "A Lost Lady," the book that preceded it.

"The Professor's House" has many, many good elements, but ultimately I was disappointed. The last part of the book was unworthy of what had gone before. In the end, I felt as though I'd invested a lot in the Professor and that that investment had not paid off. I'm glad I read it, but think it's nowhere close to one of Cather's best.

I thought the first two section of the book were excellent. I believed almost everything about the Professor's life and his relationships. My only criticism of the beginning portion of the novel was Cather's superficial and, yes, bigoted attitude toward the Jewish son-in-law, Louie Marsellus. I didn't have a problem accepting Louie as a real person. But Cather could only see him and comment on him as "the other." One of Cather's great strengths is her understanding of how the world looks to the different characters in her novels. She may not agree with who they are and how they act, but she is usually deeply empathetic. Not so with Louie. The fact that he is a Jew is somehow taken as an explanation for everything. Even in 1925, I expect better of a writer of Cather's insight and talent. Interestingly, Louie is ultimately one of the most sympathetic and generous characters in the novel. But Cather writes as though she'd never had a close Jewish friend, or never applied her prodigious imagination to contemplate Louie's psychology and point of view.

Still, even with the problem with Louie, I thought the first book was very good. It was filled with the wonderful writing and the psychological, sociological and philosophical depth that I so admire in Cather.

I also enjoyed the second book, Tom Outland's story. I agree with an earlier reviewer that the section set in Washington, D.C. was particularly good. I was raised in Washington, and my mother's family has lived there since the 1840's. Cather just NAILED the town.

But it all came to a crashing halt in the final section, when we return to the Professor's story. Did Cather lose interest? Did she not know where to go with the Professor? This section was too short and undeveloped. The first two parts of the book deserved a more thorough and satisfying conclusion. I particularly objected to the section about how the Professor had gotten back in touch with the unthinking boy he'd been back in Kansas. Hogwash. Not credible. This guy's an intellectual. He might come to see the limits of what many academics pretentiously call "the life of the mind." But jettison it entirely for some romantic, unreal Tom Sawyer fantasy? I don't think so.

My advice: do read "The Professor's House," but don't make it your first Cather book.

A Classic Dud.......2007-03-23

Those expecting something as vivid and moving as "My Antonia" will be sorely disappointed by this book. Ms. Cather was at her worst when she wrote in imitation of earlier lady novelists such as Edith Wharton or Henry James, and the entire first half of this novel concerns the intrigues of a Midwest Brahmin family. During this part there is absolutely no plot, just tedious description and some of the most stilted dialogue ever written. The cardboard characters include the good-natured protagonist, Professor St. James, and his two daughters, one sweet (Cordelia?) and one rapacious (Goneril?). The bad daughter is lolling in luxury due to the avaricious machinations of her husband, who, naturally, is a Jew - a stereotypical Jew, the worst kind.

If that weren't bad enough, when a plot is finally introduced it concerns a preposterous device (or substance) called "the Outland vacuum" which is said to concern bulkheads and be a boon to aviation. It seems as though the novel will now hinge on the moral issue of who is entitled to the rewards for this great discovery (the Outland vacuum may also be a gas), but I suspect that at this point Ms. Cather realized that she had gone in over her head, and the novel comes to a sudden halt. The next page begins a second novel, about as bad as the first but which takes place among cowboys out West who discover a lost Indian city.

Alas, this likewise amounts to little, and we eventually return to the warmhearted professor who comes to the good-ol' American conclusion that being rich and famous is not all it's cracked up to be, and real happiness is found among the plain folk.

Y'know, people, just because something is old and ostensibly literature doesn't mean it's really great. My only worry is that schoolkids will be forced to read this - under the theory that classic fiction is "good" for them - and they will thus be alienated from reading books because they're so dull.

A most enjoyable reading experience.......2006-08-19

I've been reading some of the Cather books and have enjoyed all of them. The best part of this book is her story within a story technique. Her descriptions of the American southwest are outstanding. This book held my attention, especially as it progressed. It is not as good as "My Antonia", which to me is her all time best, but it is an excellent reading experience.

I really really really wanted to like this book.......2006-05-02

I read My Antonia and loved it so much that I consider it one of my favorite books. And, that's why I really really really wanted to like this book. But after giving it a chance for about 218 pages, I couldn't bear it any longer.

The problems I have with this book are as follows:

1) I understand the book's plot of the professor trying to find meaning in his life. That's the book I was looking for. The problem is that the Tom Outland character does not get you there and most of the text of the book is on this character.

2) Which brings me to my biggest gripe about this book, and Cather in particular. Cather cannot, to save her life, write a believable male character. Tom Outland is supposed to be an orphaned boy turned cowboy around the turn of the century, but Cather managed to make him out to be so unbelievably feminine that I found myself in wonder at how little she knows about men. She holds Outland out to be the hero of the story, the inspiration behind the Professor's motivation. That's fine, but if I'm supposed to conclude the Professor part of the story, then I have to buy Outland's character and it's just not possible. Here are some examples of Cather not being believable:

a) When she describes Tom Outland's hands through the professor's eyes, she describes them as beautiful and delicate. Worse still, she bothers to describe them in detail. Men don't do that.

b) Around page 218 when she begins Outland's tirade against Blake she makes Outland sound off like a nagging wife about how Blake shouldn't have sold the pottery etc. Men don't argue this way with friends; they don't have hissy fits - they stay quiet!

c) After the argument in (b) above, as Blake leaves the scene, she describes Outland wishing to run after him and hold him in his arms. Men just don't think like that.

d) When Outland is in Washington D.C. trying to get people to take interest in the pottery he discovered, he lets himself get ignored, disrespected, and he waits by tolerantly while being stepped on by people in positions of power. That's not a description of a turn of the century orphaned cowboy; that's a description of a turn of the century well-to-do woman of society - the only world Cather appears to know.

e) Whenever Tom Outland meets other men in his life as a cowboy, they are always really "nice and pleasant". Indeed they are overly accommodating. Huh? I could see cowboys being really respectful and accommodating to a beautiful woman of society (like Cather) but an orphaned cowboy? She just puts too much of herself in this character. I couldn't buy it.

3) Now before reviewers think my gripes are based on some sort of homophobia, let me just say that if it had been a story about men in love with each other, I would have accepted that as at least being believable. But that's not Cather's intention. Outland ends up marrying the professor's daughter. Is Cather trying to send out a bisexual message of some kind? Was the professor gay? The text just does not support any kind of homosexual message either explicitly or implicitly.

4) Cather plays out Outland to be this super human being. Indeed he is the inspiration to the Professor and all the other characters in the book. But if that's the case, why is he on the wrong side of the moral debate on the Dreyfus affair? Cather wrote this book in 1925; twenty five years after all the facts had already come out on that case and yet Cather has Outland take the side of bigots?

5) In Outland's tirade against Blake, Outland chews him out for selling ancient pottery belonging to native Indian tribes. Earlier in the book it's concluded that the tribe was decimated by outsiders. In chastising Blake, Outland declares that Blake was wrong to sell the pottery because it was not his. He says that the pottery belongs to his country, to the State etc. That's the best our hero can do? Wouldn't the right thing to do be to leave the ruins to themselves and not dig up the belongings of the decimated people - i.e. let them rest in peace?

Anyway, I was sorely disappointed. I gave The Professor's House one star more than it deserves only because My Antonia deserves six.

Memorable characters.......2006-04-22

This is the first book by Cather that I have read and I'm glad that I did. It is so beautifully written that one could feel as though they have been gently placed within the walls of the professor's house. Cather included so many characters, at times it was hard to keep up with the names and personalities. However, to take away any one of the characters would have taken away from this great read.

Camus: The Stranger (A Student Guide: Landmarks of World Literature)

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The Emperor Has No Clothes
I Got an A+ On My Paper - But I Hated It
Made me squirm...
SO overrated
He Dies For The Truth ?

Camus: The Stranger (A Student Guide: Landmarks of World Literature)
Patrick McCarthy
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521539773

Amazon.com

The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.

The plot is simple. A young Algerian, Meursault, afflicted with a sort of aimless inertia, becomes embroiled in the petty intrigues of a local pimp and, somewhat inexplicably, ends up killing a man. Once he's imprisoned and eventually brought to trial, his crime, it becomes apparent, is not so much the arguably defensible murder he has committed as it is his deficient character. The trial's proceedings are absurd, a parsing of incidental trivialities--that Meursault, for instance, seemed unmoved by his own mother's death and then attended a comic movie the evening after her funeral are two ostensibly damning facts--so that the eventual sentence the jury issues is both ridiculous and inevitable.

Meursault remains a cipher nearly to the story's end--dispassionate, clinical, disengaged from his own emotions. "She wanted to know if I loved her," he says of his girlfriend. "I answered the same way I had the last time, that it didn't mean anything but that I probably didn't." There's a latent ominousness in such observations, a sense that devotion is nothing more than self-delusion. It's undoubtedly true that Meursault exhibits an extreme of resignation; however, his confrontation with "the gentle indifference of the world" remains as compelling as it was when Camus first recounted it. --Ben Guterson

Book Description

Patrick McCarthy analyzes The Stranger, one of the vital texts of existentialism and twentieth-century literature, in the context of French and French-Algerian history and culture. McCarthy examines how the work undermines traditional concepts of fiction and explores parallels and contrasts between Camus's work and that of Jean-Paul Sartre. Providing students with a useful companion to The Stranger, this second edition features a revised guide to further reading and a new chapter on Camus and the Algerian War. First Edition Hb (1988): 0-521-32958-2 First Edition Pb (1988): 0-521-33851-4

Customer Reviews:

The Emperor Has No Clothes.......2007-10-07

In summary . . . this automaton-like self-absorbed jerk shoots a guy to death, and the jury correctly finds that it is not self-defense (you read me correctly fellow reviewers. It is NOT self defense to shoot someone laying on the ground that possibly possesses a knife with evil intent. You should simply step back. Society accepts use of deadly force as justified in order to "stop", not recreationally "kill". That is referred to as murder, not self-defense). So, the jury found Msr. Meursault guilty of taking another man's life, unjustifiably, and with intent. I agree. (Do you?)

So anyway, this thick jerk is sent to prison awaiting execution. He doesn't seem to mind very much. His long term future certainly looks bleak since he has decided that there is no God, and he is scoring near zero on the repentence meter. Yes, he is an existentialist and a nihilist.

So much for the renowned Albert Camus. Technically, this book is well written. However, I found it rather boring, only marginally believable, and generally depressing. For me, it was no more "thought-provoking" than observing someone in a cycle of picking and regrowing a scab (inexplicable, but not interesting). There is NO REASON for the acclaim that this novel has garnered (except perhaps that there are academics out there that wish us to believe that this philosophical tripe is truth).

This is an unlikable story about a small unlikable man. Not recommended, but I understand that your teacher may be forcing you to read it. Fear not, it is short. It's a little above average as literature, but written about a fool by a fool.

I Got an A+ On My Paper - But I Hated It.......2007-10-06

I read this book in High School and I hated it. Even to my young 17 year old brain, the concepts of philosophy seemed ludicrous. I guess I must have understood them on some basic level, because like I said, I got an A. But it was a shock to me as well! I understand why a book like this is in an Honors English class. It may be more interesting in the original French.

Made me squirm..........2007-10-01

Nihilism...existentialism...theory of the absurd...I don't which category this book technically falls into, all I can say is that it made me squirm. The protagonist of the novel was a very calm person, quite detached in fact, but ironically it is his calmness which unsettled me.

Is this what life really is all about? Does it have no meaning, no purpose? Are there no morals? No God? I don't know...I'll the philosophers and thinkers argue that. I can't alter my beliefs now, but the book provided me a window into all the things which I don't believe in.

I would certainly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

SO overrated.......2007-09-26

This is a top contender for the worst book ever written. I thought about giving it a tied position with Pamela Anderson's _Star_, but upon reflection I have decided that I would rather read _Star_ again than read _The Stranger_ again, although I would rather be eaten alive by rabid wolverines than do either. This book is so bad that it is painful for me to read it. If I had a time machine, I would pay to have Camus beaten to death on a deserted beach, ultimately preventing this disaster from ever coming into existence.

He Dies For The Truth ?.......2007-08-18

Camus claimed in an interview that the main character who is "the stranger" died for the truth. The reader can make their own judgement. I thought it was more complicated than that.

Albert Camus (1913 - 1960) was a French writer and philosopher. He is often associated with existentialism, but Camus rejected any ideological classification. Camus was a young recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature when he became the first African-born writer to receive the award in 1957. He died in a car crash only three years after receiving the award. He was a social activist and Communist, and fought with the French resistance in WWII. Later he rejected Communism.

I like his work because he combines realism with the rational versus the irrational. He creates an interesting combination of intense and compelling plot along with political and moral ideas. His trademark contribution was his idea of the absurd, "the result of our desire for clarity and meaning within a world and condition that offers neither, which he explained in The Myth of Sisyphus and incorporated into many of his other works, such as The Stranger and The Plague."

The Stranger is short, just over 100 pages. It is about a North African man probably in his late twenties or thirties, called Meursault, and his girl friend Marie, and a neighbor Raymond.

Without giving away the plot, the story follows the reactions of Meursault to the death and the funeral of his mother. He puts on no airs or false fronts, and acts in a way he thinks is honest. Others interpret his emotions as being deeply flawed.

The reader can judge if Meursault is honest or flawed.

I liked the short novel. It has a certain bite to it and it grabs the reader and holds the reader through the whole novel, right to the last page. The story is both unusual and plausible. Camus makes his philosophical point in the 120 pages.

It is an outstanding piece of writing, and it is far less complex and easier to understand than some of his other works.

Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher's Guide to Books That Can Change Teens' Lives

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Great Quick Reviews
Indispensable (and fun!) Tool for Parents and Educators

Great Books for High School Kids: A Teacher's Guide to Books That Can Change Teens' Lives

Manufacturer: Beacon Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0807032557

Book Description

Teachers Rick Ayers and Amy Crawford always wanted to find a guide to the vast world of great books for teenagers—one that didn't talk down or moralize. When they couldn't find one, they set out to create it. An early prototype offered at Cody's Bookstore in Berkeley, California, was an instant success. Great Books for High School Kids is the culmination of their efforts.

Collecting recommendations and essays from colleagues and advisers around the country, this is a rollicking, thoughtful, against-the-grain guide that challenges stodgy notions of what great books are and what kids are ready for.

The book starts with seven essays by high school teachers about exciting, exemplary experiences they have had reading books with students in the classroom—from Dorothy Allison's Bastard Out of Carolina to Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon to Aeschylus's Oresteia trilogy.

Augmented by an index of more than seventy subjects, the book also has an annotated list of hundreds of Recommended Great Books. The recommendations are playful and irreverent, ambitious and entertaining, and they go way beyond traditional reading lists. From classics to the unexpected, from literary novels to nonfiction, some drama, and even a little poetry, these are all books that teenagers have read with pleasure and can read on their own.

Great Books for High School Kids is an invitation and a sourcebook for inspiring passionate, lifelong readers—a book that could seriously change the lives of teachers, of families, and of kids.

Customer Reviews:

Great Quick Reviews.......2007-10-02

Excellent "Great Books" reference for High School Students. You can search alphabetically or by topic. Very useful book!!!

Indispensable (and fun!) Tool for Parents and Educators.......2004-05-24

When I wrote a book about Berkeley High School (Class Dismissed, October 2000), I was captivated and inspired by Rick Ayers' and Amy Crawford's dedicated, innovative and intelligent teaching methods--that's why they were two of the four teachers profiled in the book. This book is the text version of their dedication, innovation, and intelligence, and no high school teacher--or parent--should be without it. Brilliant and necessary!

Student Companion to Richard Wright: (Student Companions to Classic Writers)

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Student Companion to Richard Wright: (Student Companions to Classic Writers)
Robert Felgar
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313309094

Book Description

Born in rural Mississippi, the grandson of slaves, Richard Wright overcame every social obstacle, including poverty, racism, and limited education to achieve literary recognition as the creator of some of America's most powerful Black literature. Written with unprecendented candor, Wright's works changed the cultural landscape by challenging old stereotypes and myths about race. Wright scholar Robert Felgar has written a critical volume to help students appreciate the literary significance of such groundbreaking works as Native Son and the autobiographical Black Boy. This study serves students of both literature and social history as it explores the themes of racism and all types of insitutionalized oppression that Wright exposed in his provocative writing. Felgar approaches each of Wright's major works in chronological order, offering insightful literary analysis of Uncle Tom's Children, Native Son, Black Boy, and The Outsider, as well as Wright's two works published posthumously, Eight Men, a collection of stories, and Lawd Today! The original, censored works are discussed and compared with the more recently re-published unexpurgated versions. This Student Companion introduces readers to Richard Wright with a biographical chapter, recounting the writer's struggles and achievements. A literary heritage chapter examines the genres, themes, and stylistic traditions that figured in Wright's work. Each of Wright's major works of fiction is given careful literary interpretation, with analysis of plot, character development, thematic concerns and a close alternate reading. A selective bibliography of critical works and reviews, in addition to the listings of Wright's stories, essays and full-length works will help students derive the most from their study of this important American writer.

Information Literacy Instruction that Works: A Guide to Teaching By Discipline and Student Population

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Information Literacy Instruction that Works: A Guide to Teaching By Discipline and Student Population

Manufacturer: Neal-Schuman Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1555705731
Release Date: 2006-11-01

Product Description

Information literacy and library instruction are at the heart of the academic library s mission. But how do you bring that instruction to an increasingly diverse student body and an increasingly varied spectrum of majors? Here, over twenty library instructors share their best practices for reaching out to today s unique users. Readers will find strategies and techniques for teaching college and university freshmen, community college students, students with disabilities, and those in distance learning programs. You will also find proven approaches to teaching students in the most popular programs of study English Literature, Art and Art History, Film Studies, History, Psychology, Science, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Hospitality, and International Marketing. Three additional chapters guide instructors through teaching legal, government information, and patent searching. Each chapter covers instructional design, lesson planning, library/faculty collaborations, marketing programs, assessment, and more. The companion CD-ROM features several of the lesson plans, presentations, brochures, worksheets, handouts, and evaluation forms discussed in the book.

Understanding Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series)

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Understanding Jamaica Kincaid's Annie John: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents (The Greenwood Press "Literature in Context" Series)
Deborah Mistron
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Annie John: A Novel

ASIN: 0313302545

Book Description

Since its publication in 1985, Annie John has become one of the most widely taught novels in American high schools. Part of its appeal lies in its unique setting, the island of Antigua. This interdisciplinary collection of 30 primary documents and commentary will enrich the reader's understanding of the historical, social, and cultural contexts of the novel. Among the topics examined are slavery in the Caribbean, the various religions in the Caribbean islands, the controversy over Christopher Columbus, family life in Antigua, and emigrations from the West Indies to the United States. Sources include newspaper and magazine articles, editorials, first-person narratives and memoirs of life in the Caribbean, letters, and position papers. Most of the documents are not readily available in any other printed form. A literary analysis of Annie John examines the novel in light of its historical, social, and cultural contexts and as a coming-of-age novel. Each chapter concludes with study questions and topics for research papers and class discussion based on the documents in the chapter, and lists of further reading for examining the themes and issues raised by the novel. This casebook is valuable to students and teachers to help them understand the setting of the novel, its themes, and its young heroine.

Student Companion to Thomas Hardy (Student Companions to Classic Writers)

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Student Companion to Thomas Hardy (Student Companions to Classic Writers)
Rosemarie Morgan
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313333963

Book Description

In the mid- late 1800s and early 1900s, Thomas Hardy produced a plethora of eclectic works that were considered too "candid" and even sacrilegious for their time. Hardy's publishing of fiction,drama, poetry, and the short story ranks him with Shakespeare, one of few other authors in the English language to write major works in more than one literary genre. Growing up, Hardy apprenticed as an architect but soon realized his true calling was writing. He based much of his work on his homeland and local culture in England, creating the fictional county of "Wessex," the setting for most of his works. This companion explores the life of Hardy, examining his career and most important works. Ideal for high school and undergraduate students, as well as readers with a general interest in Hardy's life and works, this book takes a close look at Hardy's "unconventional " works and why he ultimately decided to abandon novel-writing in favor of his first love: poetry. Included works that are analyzed are: BLFar From the Madding Crowd BLThe Return of the Native BLTess of the D'Urbervilles BLJude the Obscure BLThe Dynasts BLand his poetry

Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period: A Guide for New Testament Students (Christian Classics Bible Studies)

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An excellent place to start

Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period: A Guide for New Testament Students (Christian Classics Bible Studies)
Larry R. Helyer
Manufacturer: InterVarsity Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0830826785

Book Description

From the crisis of the Babylonian exile to the rise of rabbinic Judaism--a span of over six hundred years--the Jewish people produced a wealth of literature that lies outside the Hebrew Bible. Today it goes under names such as apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, Josephus and Philo, apocalyptic literature and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Mishnah and targums. But line by line, scroll by scroll, it represents the history and theology, the hopes and prayers of a living and diverse Judaism. It is an engrossing subject in and of itself, but for students of the New Testament it offers an invaluable context for understanding the words and actions of Jesus as well as the conversion and thinking of Paul. Exploring Jewish Literature of the Second Temple Period is an introduction to this literature and places it within its historical context. Riding the explosive growth of knowledge of this period, Larry R. Helyer guides students to the heart of the matter. What were the pressures and realities, the questions and dreams that nurtured and provoked these written expressions? And how does this literature throw light on the text of the New Testament and origins of Christianity?

Customer Reviews:

An excellent place to start.......2003-04-15

Larry Helyer does an excellent job of introducing most of the relevent literature of the Second Temple period and its general influence on the writers of the New Testament and the Early Church. Excellent review or introduction depending on your background. I think this should be mandatory reading for every pastor and bible student. Well written with many chapter breaks to keep the organization of this large volume. This is the context of the New Testament that most Christians are not even aware exists. I have already recommended this texts to many people.

Student Companion to Willa Cather (Student Companions to Classic Writers)

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Student Companion to Willa Cather (Student Companions to Classic Writers)
Linda De Roche
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0313328420

Book Description

Willa Cather's elegiac tales of the pioneer experience on the American frontier continue to captivate new generations of readers. Written especially for students, this critical introduction offers insightful yet accessible criticism of Cather's most widely read novels. The volume covers such enduring works as Alexander's Bridge, O Pioneers!, The Song of the Lark, My Antonia, The Professor's House, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Shadows on the Rock. Each chapter is devoted to an individual novel and provides a full discussion of character development, thematic concerns, and plot structure. The introduction to each novel traces its genesis and its critical reception at the time of publication. The historical context sections place Cather's vision of the pioneer spirit and achievement within the context of a rapidly changing America that was in the process of abandoning its traditional values and thus risking its source of greatness. Students will find this book a valuable guide to Cather's works.

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