Loyalty & Betrayal

The School for Scandal is a comedy of manners written by Richard Sheridan. The play was initially performed at the Drury Lane Theater in 1777. Though the play premiered well into the 18th century, it is often included in collections of Restoration comedies (1660-1710), as it shares many common elements with the comedies of manners from that period and the period immediately following it. Like many comedies of manners, The School for Scandal relies on... Read The School for Scandal Summary

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The Septembers of Shiraz (2007), a novel by Iranian writer Dalia Sofer, recounts the experiences of the Amins, an Iranian Jewish family, during the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s. The book is closely based on Sofer’s family history: When Sofer was 10, her family fled Iran, crossing the border to Turkey with the help of smugglers. The Septembers of Shiraz depicts the changing atmosphere and events that characterize the treatment of the wealthy class... Read The Septembers Of Shiraz Summary

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“The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” is a short story by American author Ernest Hemingway that was first published in Cosmopolitan in 1936. It explores themes of power and dominance, courage and cowardice, and the nature of masculinity. The story details a hunting party and love triangle in which a husband, a wife, and their hired huntsman struggle for dominance and power over one another. This guide references the collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro... Read The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber Summary

The Silent Patient (2019) is a contemporary psychological thriller from author Alex Michaelides. It tells the story of Alicia, who killed her husband, Gabriel, six years earlier—and hasn’t spoken since. The bulk of the novel takes place in the present-day, narrated by Theo Faber, a forensic psychoanalyst who recently began working with Alicia at The Grove, the psychiatric hospital where she resides following Gabriel’s murder. The novel uses the epistolary technique, interspersing Theo’s narrative with... Read The Silent Patient Summary

Steve Lopez’s 2008 book, The Soloist: A Lost Dream, an Unlikely Friendship, and the Redemptive Power of Music, is a work of nonfiction that charts the experience of the musician Nathaniel Ayers. Lopez is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and encounters Ayers playing a two-string violin on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Lopez questions why so talented a musician is clearly homeless and reduced to his present circumstances. Lopez strikes up a... Read The Soloist Summary

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Composed at the turn of the 12th century, La Chanson de Roland (translated as The Song of Roland) recounts the events surrounding the Battle of Roncevaux Pass in 778 CE. The Song of Roland is likely the oldest surviving poem in French and was immensely popular across Europe during the Middle Ages. The poem establishes many tropes and themes that have come to characterize medieval chivalric romances, but Roland is also an epic poem in... Read The Song of Roland Summary

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The Sound of Gravel is a memoir by Ruth Wariner about her experiences growing up in a polygamist colony in Mexico. Originally published in 2015, the memoir is a rare, detailed examination of the life of children in polygamist colonies, and it examines several themes, including The Consequence of Childhood Neglect, The Flaws and Dangers of Fundamentalism, Courage and Resilience in the Face of Adversity, and The Joys, Pains, and Sacrifices of Familial Love. Ruth... Read The Sound of Gravel Summary

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The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (2008), American author David Wroblewski’s family epic set in 1970s rural Wisconsin, fuses elements of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet with the story of a gifted boy named Edgar who is mute. Initial critical reaction celebrated the reach of its intricate plot, its massive cast of characters, the audacity of its retelling of Hamlet, and its investigation into the dark dynamics of a dysfunctional family, particularly the complex relationship between feuding brothers... Read The Story of Edgar Sawtelle Summary

The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, written and illustrated by Howard Pyle, was originally published in 1903. Pyle’s Book 1s part of the Arthurian romance genre, which begins with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s introduction of the Arthur character in The History of the Kings of Britain, written in the twelfth century. The Arthurian, or chivalric, romance genre includes texts from many different eras and in many different languages. Pyle’s novel offers an American perspective... Read The Story of King Arthur and His Knights Summary

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