Literary Education

Beginning Theory has been helping students navigate through the thickets of literary and cultural theory for over two decades. This new and expanded fourth edition continues to offer listeners the best single-volume introduction to the field. The bewildering variety of approaches, theorists and technical language is lucidly and expertly unravelled.

Paris, 1840. A young man from the provinces boards a riverboat heading home, and in a single moment, his life changes — though not in any way he could predict, or that anyone around him would notice. Frédéric Moreau is nineteen, ambitious, and full of feeling that has nowhere to go. In the years that follow, he will pursue a career in law, then abandon it. He will move in the glittering circles of Parisian society — artists, journalists, financiers, revolutionaries — and fail to become any of them. He will fall in love, repeatedly and inconclusively. And he will carry, through all ...

One of the most beloved and bestselling novels of spiritual adventure ever published, Ishmael has earned a passionate following. This special twenty-fifth anniversary edition features a new foreword and afterword by the author. “A thoughtful, fearlessly low-key novel about the role of our...

In this practical, immediately actionable guide, Lucinda Halpern, who has represented New York Times bestsellers and brokered numerous deals with major publishers for over a decade, divulges what agents look for in authors and the shortcuts they use to get book deals but have never...

A captivating journey of love, sacrifice, and destiny playing out in the world of music. In 2003, at the prestigious Brookfield Conservatory in Boston, a chance encounter sparks an inimitable friendship between driven pianist and singer Anna Buckley and composer wunderkind Will Pendleton. As...

Distinguished author Phillip Lopate, editor of the celebrated anthology The Art of the Personal Essay, is universally acclaimed as “one of our best personal essayists” ( Dallas Morning News). Here, combining more than 40 years of lessons from his storied career as a writer and professor, he brings us this highly anticipated nuts-and-bolts guide to writing literary nonfiction. A phenomenal master class shaped by Lopate’s informative, accessible tone, and immense gift for storytelling.

Ethan and Emily Tuttle have spent several years in school being graded on the quality of their work. But after hearing an award-winning teacher discuss some problems with schooling and share a vision for how children are best educated, the Tuttle family decides to embark on a new learning adventure.

From the author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning bestseller Ishmael and its sequel, My Ishmael, comes a powerful novel with one of the most profound spiritual testaments of our time “A compelling ‘humantale’ that will unglue, stun, shock, and rearrange everything you’ve...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER REESE’S BOOK CLUB PICK A “tender, beautiful and radiantly outraged” (The New York Times Book Review) novel that follows a year of seismic romantic, political, and familial shifts for a teacher and her students at a boarding school for the deaf, from the...

When ambition becomes delusion, and dreams turn to ruin. Don Faustino López de Mendoza possesses everything but fortune—an ancient noble name, brilliant literary aspirations, and unshakeable confidence in his poetic genius. Trapped in a provincial Andalusian town while dreaming of conquering Madrid's artistic circles, this impoverished aristocrat spins grand illusions about the glorious destiny that awaits him. But reality has other plans. As Faustino pursues three women—the unattainable Costanza, the elusive María, and the passionate Rosita—his romantic ambitions collide with his ...

From the literary agent behind some of today’s most successful authors comes a narrative guide geared specifically to the needs of aspiring and working nonfiction writers, demystifying the world of publishing and offering a practical roadmap to getting your book published. “An invaluable...

An extraordinary and startlingly original sequel to Ishmael “Enthralling, shocking, hope-filled, and utterly fearless, Daniel Quinn leads us deeper and deeper into the human heart, history, and spirit. In My Ishmael, Quinn strikes out into entirely new territory, posing questions that...

The Matrix conveys the horror of a false world made of nothing but perceptions. Based on the premise that reality is a dream controlled by malevolent forces, it is one of the most overtly philosophical movies ever to come out of Hollywood. These thought-provoking essays by the same team of young...

A hilarious and incisive exploration of the joys of reading from a teacher, bibliophile, and Thurber Prize Semifinalist We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a...

A thrilling tale of post–World War II London, where the peace proves as tricky to navigate as the past, from the #1 international bestselling author of Life After Life. When crime correspondent turned war reporter Harry Flynn returns to Britain from Singapore in 1945, he takes a quiet job with...

A beloved schoolteacher chronicles the meteoric rise of his most dazzling student in this ambitious, big-hearted work of literary fiction, perfect for fans of Nathan Hill, Susan Choi, and Tess Gunty. Mr. Keating is an extraordinary teacher: brilliant, dedicated, and possibly a few pages ahead in...

Now Filmed as 1947, a motion picture by Deepa Mehta Few novels have caught the turmoil of the Indian subcontinent during Partition with such immediacy, such wit and tragic power...

An extraordinary crime novel from a rising star, that follows the ripple effects of a tragic shooting throughout a Chicago community from the view of the teachers, police officers, and students impacted “A deeply satisfying story with as much, heart, grit and history as the city that it’s...

O curso traz seis clássicos ocidentais que mostram como a literatura é um caminho de investigação sobre o humano. Boas histórias ou poemas são capazes de nos conquistar pelo coração ao nos revelarem aspectos de nós mesmos que, não obstante sua centralidade—ou talvez, por causa dela—resistem à sua tradução em palavras. Ao transportarem o ouvinte para os dramas e dilemas das personagens, a literatura é capaz de tratar dos principais desejos (e angústias), como a busca pela felicidade e por um sentido para a vida.

Sparky Sweets, PhD, and Wisecrack proudly present this outrageously funny, ultra-sharp guide to literature based on the hit online series, Thug Notes. Inside, you'll find hilarious plot breakdowns and masterful analyses of sixteen of literature's most beloved classics, including: Things Fall...