“I am—or I was—one of those people who pride themselves on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision and stick to it.” Part One The novel […]
American literature
Go Tell It on the Mountain
“And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take […]
American literature
As I Lay Dying
“My mother is a fish.” — Vardaman Bundren As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family’s arduous journey to bury their matriarch, Addie Bundren, in her hometown of […]
American literature
The Sound and the Fury
“I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire… I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now […]
American literature
Tender is the Night
“In the dead white hours of Zurich, looking out at the night where the broken moon was tossing on the wind-whipped lake…” Book One The novel opens on […]
American literature
The Old Man and the Sea
“But man is not made for defeat,” he said. “A man can be destroyed but not defeated.” Chapter 1 Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman, has gone eighty-four days […]
American literature
A Farewell to Arms
“The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places.” Book One The novel opens during World War I, where Frederic Henry, an American ambulance […]
American literature
For Whom the Bell Tolls
“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” — John Donne (Epigraph to For Whom […]
American literature
The Sun Also Rises
“You are all a lost generation.”— Gertrude Stein (epigraph) Chapter 1: Paris and Jake Barnes The novel opens with Jake Barnes, an American expatriate and journalist living in […]
American literature
On the Road
“The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the […]