Examines the plot, characters, themes, style, and viewpoint of The Great Gatsby and offers tips on preparing for tests and writing term papers on the novel (view table of contents)

Product Description: David Lear, 10 years old, has never known anybody quite like his mother. She can be so caring, so warm and funny, but there are times when her drinking sweeps her away and her affection gives way to verbal abuse and sometimes even violence...read more

Product Description: Book by Abbott, Anthony S.

Product Description: It is a special pleasure to have this gathering of poems from more than three decades, where the range and depth of Tony Abbott's work are now clear. He is a dramatic poet, a narrative poet, a poet of love and meditations on kinship, mortality change and memory, But rare among contemporary poetry, there is a vein of relish, human connection and joy, coursing through Abbott's poems...read more

A guide to reading 'Invisible Man' with a critical and appreciative mind encourages analysis of plot, style, form, and structure, and includes background on the author's life and times, sample tests, term paper suggestions, and a reading list

 The Vital Lie is the first book to examine the reality-illusion conflict in modern drama from Ibsen to present-day playwrights. The book questions why vital lies, lies necessary for life itself, are such an obsessive concern for playwrights of the last hundred years. Using the work of fifteen playwrights, Abbott seeks to discover if modern playwrights treat illusions as helpful or necessary to life, or as signals of sicknesses from which human beings need to be cured. What happens to characters when they are forced to face the truth about themselves and their worlds without the protection of their illusions? The author develops a three-part historical analysis of the use of the reality-illusion theme, from its origins as a metaphysical search to its current elaborations as a theatrical game. 

Product Description: What Writers Do, with its behind the scenes look at the craft of writing, celebrates the series that continues to connect great writers with delighted readers. For more than 20 years the Visiting Writers Series at Lenoir-Rhyne University has championed great writers -- both established and emerging...read more