American Literature

Eudora Welty’s novel The Optimist’s Daughter was published in 1972 and won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction the following year. Welty, who was born in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1906, originally wrote the The Optimist’s Daughter as a short story for The New Yorker, in which it was published in 1969. Welty is widely known as a Southern writer because her fiction is derived from the politics, people, and culture of the American South. Before becoming... Read The Optimist's Daughter Summary

The Orchard Keeper is the 1965 debut novel of American author Cormac McCarthy. The story explores the relationship between a young boy and the man who killed the boy’s father; it explores themes of The Chaos of the Wilderness, Cyclical Violence, and The Encroachment of Modernity. The Orchard Keeper won a number of awards, while McCarthy’s later works would earn him a Pulitzer Prize. Other works by this author include No Country for Old Men... Read The Orchard Keeper Summary

“The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” a short story by American author Bret Harte, showcases the customs and dialect of American Western Regionalism. As one of the first American writers to popularize Regionalism, Harte paved the way for other writers in this movement. Originally written in 1869 and published in The Overland Monthly, the literary magazine of which Harte was the pioneering editor, the story thematically employs gambling terminology to depict the choices humans face when... Read The Outcasts of Poker Flat Summary

Edgar Allan Poe’s Gothic horror story “The Oval Portrait” is among his shortest narratives. As it recounts the story of the death of a painter’s young wife, it addresses the themes The Relationship Between Art and Life, The Dangers of Obsession, and The Nature of Romantic Relationships. “The Oval Portrait” is actually the 1845 revision of a longer story, “Life in Death,” which Poe wrote in 1842, shortly after his beloved young wife, Virginia, first... Read The Oval Portrait Summary

Ethan Canin is an American novelist and short story writer, born in 1960. He currently holds the F. Wendell Miller Professorship of English at his alma mater, the University of Iowa, as a member of its Writers’ Workshop faculty. Canin’s third book, The Palace Thief (1994), is a collection of short stories, which won the California Book Award in the year of its publication. Some of the stories were also published in illustrious literary journals;... Read The Palace Thief Summary

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“The Passing of Grandison” is a short story by Charles W. Chesnutt published in his 1899 collection The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line. This study guide refers to the free, open-access ebook published by Full Text Archive.Content Warning: The source text depicts slavery in the pre-Civil War South and contains outdated and offensive terms for Black Americans. This guide will obscure the author’s use of the n-word.The story takes... Read The Passing of Grandison Summary

The Pearl is a 1947 historical fiction novella by John Steinbeck. It is an expansion of his earlier short story, “The Pearl of the World,” published in the Woman’s Home Companion in 1945. Steinbeck also co-wrote the screenplay for a 1947 film adaption of the novella titled La perla, directed by Emilio Fernández. Citations in this guide correspond to the 1994 Penguin Books edition. The story, which is presented as a parable, follows a poor... Read The Pearl Summary

The Pelican Brief is a 1992 novel by the American writer John Grisham. The legal thriller tells the story of Darby Shaw, a young law student who uncovers a vast conspiracy. The book was adapted into a film in 1993 starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington.Plot SummaryAn assassin named Khamel kills two Supreme Court Justices. Though the Justices were seemingly at different ends of the political spectrum, the same mysterious figure pays Khamel to kill... Read The Pelican Brief Summary

Edgar Allan Poe’s essay “The Philosophy of Composition” first appeared in Graham’s Magazine in 1846. A year earlier, his poem “The Raven” made him a celebrity. In the essay, Poe describes the process he claims to have followed in writing that poem. The essay illustrates Poe’s aesthetic principles according to which a poem must have a certain length, “unity of effect,” and connection among its elements. It also presents his ideas concerning beauty in poetry... Read The Philosophy of Composition Summary

The Pioneers, written by James Fenimore Cooper and published in 1823, tells the interlocking story of three characters in the fictional frontier town of Templeton, New York (based on the real Cooperstown, New York) between Christmas Eve 1793 and October 1794. The Pioneers is the fourth chronological story of five novels Cooper wrote about the region, henceforth known as the Leatherstocking Tales series. The protagonist is Nathaniel “Natty” Bumpo (or Leatherstocking), an elderly but extremely... Read The Pioneers Summary

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Philip Roth’s 2004 alternative history novel, The Plot Against America, is a reimagining of the years immediately preceding America’s entry into World War II. In 1940, in Roth’s version of events, Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh wins the presidency and quickly begins instituting policies and attitudes that will shape the lives of all American Jews. Philip Roth is a child during the events of the book, and recounts the events that overtook his family during the... Read The Plot Against America Summary

The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James, is considered one of the most important novels written in English. It was published first in serial form between 1880 and 1881, and later revised for another edition in 1908. The novel details the experience of a young American woman, Isabel Archer, who travels to Europe. She is committed to her freedom, rejecting two marriage proposals. After she inherits an unexpected fortune, she falls victim to the... Read The Portrait of a Lady Summary

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain, published in 1934, tells the story of a drifter named Frank Chambers. In the first chapter, Frank arrives at a diner called the Twin Oaks Tavern near Glendale, California. There, he meets Nick “the Greek” Papadakis, the diner’s proprietor, and Nick’s wife, Cora. After Frank agrees to work in the diner, Cora tells Frank that she hates Nick. Frank soon makes a pass at Cora, and... Read The Postman Always Rings Twice Summary

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“The Premature Burial” is a short horror story published in 1844 by American writer Edgar Allan Poe that explores the fear of being buried alive, otherwise known as taphephobia. This condition is considered rare in contemporary times but was a common fear during the 19th century because, due to a lack of sufficient medical techniques and technologies, people were sometimes mistakenly declared deceased and accidentally buried alive.Other short stories written by this author include The... Read The Premature Burial Summary

The Prince and the Pauper: A Tale for Young People of All Ages is Mark Twain’s first historical fiction novel, published in 1881 in Canda and in America the following year. Set in 16th-century England during the reigns of King Henry VIII and Edward VI, the novel revolves around two identical boys: Henry’s heir, Prince Edward, and Tom Canty, a London beggar. After a chance meeting, the two decide to exchange roles, leading to a... Read The Prince and the Pauper Summary

The Professor’s House by Willa Cather depicts the inner struggles of Godfrey St. Peter, a history professor struggling to understand his identity in middle age. Published in 1925, the novel moves from the fictional college town of Hamilton, Michigan, to the deserts of the American Southwest, where St. Peter’s most brilliant student, the late Tom Outland, had discovered the ruins of an ancient pueblo village. Haunted by the missed opportunities of the past, St. Peter... Read The Professor's House Summary