Showing results by narrator "Emily Allen"

Join three literary scholars and award-winning professors as they introduce you to dozens of short masterpieces that you can finish - and engage with - in a day or less. Perfect for people with busy lives who still want to discover-or rediscover-just how transformative an act of reading can be, these 36 lectures range from short stories of fewer than 10 pages to novellas and novels of around 200 pages. Despite their short length, these works are powerful examinations of the same subjects and themes that longer "great books" discuss.

Jane Austen writing an “improper” novel? Find out why her overlooked Lady Susan, which depicts the exploits of England’s worst coquette, is worth experiencing; how its presence fits in the larger context of the 18th-century novel’s development; and why it can be considered Austen’s literary “road not taken.”

A merciless critique of the Parisian upper crust in the mid-18th century, The Girl with the Golden Eyes is Balzac at his finest. After gaining background on the author’s style and subject matter, delve into reasons this particular work - more than any of his others - makes for a masterful day’s read.