Bloom's Guides – serie

Comprehensive reading and study guides provide concise critical excerpts that offer a scholarly overview of each work, "The Story Behind the Story" that details the conditions under which the work was written, a biographical sketch of the author, a descriptive list of characters, and more.

Written by Sophocles around 425 BCE, ""Oedipus Rex"" is a classic Greek tragedy that depicts the struggle between man and fate. Oedipus' story forms the foundation for the symbolic conflict between sons and fathers, a theme that has lost none of its dramatic punch in the ensuing centuries. The meticulous scholarship presented in this new ""Bloom's Guides"" title offers its readers fresh insight into this time-honored classic.

Perhaps the most written-about long poem of the 20th century, T.S. Eliot's ""The Waste Land"" is a cornerstone of the modernist movement and deals with what was then viewed as the decline of civilization. Because of its changes of speaker, location, and time, as well as its numerous literary and cultural references, ""The Waste Land"" is often used in the classroom to exemplify how to explicate a poem. This title offers students an indispensable resource meant to deepen their appreciation of this seminal work by investigating its innovative use of language and imagery.

Composed around 1000 CE, ""Beowulf"" is the longest-known poems written in Old English. Considered to be one of the great epics, the poem tells of the heroic deeds of the great warrior Beowulf, and contains both Christian and pagan symbolism. Students will eagerly explore the poem's influential themes in this new offering from the ""Bloom's Guides"" series. They'll also learn how ""Beowulf"" is the blueprint for many of the legends often associated with medieval and Renaissance literature, as well as the prototype for the modern fantasy genre.

Maya Angelou's unforgettable autobiography, nominated for the National Book Award in 1969, recounts her struggle as a young black woman to overcome obstacles and realize her dreams. The new full-length essays in this title provide a comprehensive critical overview of this modern classic. This study guide also features an introduction by master scholar Harold Bloom, notes on the contributing writers, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index for easy reference.

Night, a memoir by concentration camp survivor and Nobel Peace Prize - winner Elie Wiesel, is a key work of Holocaust literature. It bears witness to the horrors endured by a teenage boy whose freedom and family are forcibly wrested from him. This new study guide to Wiesel's moving story also features an annotated bibliography, a listing of other works by the author, and an introduction by literary scholar Harold Bloom.

In this classic coming-of-age novel set in post-World War II America, Esther Greenwood emerges as a double for author Sylvia Plath. A summer internship at a fashion magazine in New York City reveals only the lack of beauty in the young woman's inner life, as Esther succumbs to a pervasive depression that she likens to being trapped beneath the title object, a bell jar, struggling for her next breath. Noted literary scholar Harold Bloom introduces this new title in the ""Bloom's Guides"" series, which also features an annotated bibliography and a listing of other works by the author.

The Bluest Eye is one of Toni Morrison's most powerful novels. The Nobel laureate's debut is the story of Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl who prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she can resemble the children who live in a world that is barred to her. This guide to ""The Bluest Eye"" features excerpts of critical essays, an annotated bibliography, an index, and an introduction from esteemed professor Harold Bloom.

The Joy Luck Club explores the lives of the women in four Chinese-American families and the daughters who struggle to fulfill or reject the cultural and familial expectations placed on them. Residing in San Francisco's Chinatown, the characters reveal themselves through their stories to be incredibly strong women. This guide to ""The Joy Luck Club"" includes helpful critical excerpts for those studying the book, an annotated bibliography, an index for quick reference, and an introduction by critic Harold Bloom.

Things Fall Apart, set in Nigeria about a century ago, is widely regarded as Chinua Achebe's masterpiece. Considered one of the most broadly read African novels, Achebe's work responded to the two-dimensional caricatures of Africans that often dominated Western literature. This invaluable new edition of the study guide contains a selection of the finest contemporary criticism of this classic novel.

Tracing the rise of Napoleon as the leader of the barnyard animals and his ensuing dictatorship in the farmyard community, this classic satiric allegory serves as a warning to all societies as it depicts the slide from revolution to totalitarianism. Orwell transforms the seeming pastoral innocence of his setting into a pernicious political theater of repression and control. This new edition of critical essays examining Animal Farm provides 10 to 12 full-length critical essays for students of literature, plus a chronology of the author's life, a bibliography, an index, and notes on the contributing writers.

This series provides comprehensive reading and study guides for some of the world's most important literary masterpieces. Each title features: concise critical excerpts that provide a scholarly overview of each work; 'The Story Behind the Story', detailing the conditions under which the work was written; and, a biographical sketch of the author, a descriptive list of characters, an extensive summary and analysis, and an annotated bibliography.