REAL LIT

Witches tell Macbeth he will become king; Macbeth murders Duncan and takes the throne; Lady Macbeth later sleepwalks while obsessively trying to wash imagined blood from her hands; Macduff kills Macbeth in battle.

William Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Macbeth; Lady Macbeth; Macduff

William Shakespeare (Macbeth)

Iago convinces Othello that Desdemona is sleeping with Cassio, using a stolen handkerchief as supposed proof; Othello smothers Desdemona; Emilia exposes Iago's deception before Othello kills himself.

William Shakespeare (Othello)

Othello; Iago; Desdemona

William Shakespeare (Othello)

Lear asks his daughters to publicly declare their love before dividing his kingdom; Cordelia refuses to flatter him; Gloucester is blinded; Cordelia is executed after the civil war and Lear dies holding her body.

William Shakespeare (King Lear)

King Lear; Cordelia; Edmund

William Shakespeare (King Lear)

Oliver shocks the workhouse by asking for more food; he is taken in by Fagin's gang of child thieves; Nancy tries to save him and is murdered by Bill Sikes; Oliver eventually learns the truth about his family.

Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)

Oliver Twist; Fagin; Nancy

Charles Dickens (Oliver Twist)

David is abused by the Murdstones and sent away to school and factory work; he later becomes a writer; Uriah Heep manipulates the Wickfield household until Mr. Micawber exposes his fraud.

Charles Dickens (David Copperfield)

David Copperfield; Uriah Heep; Mr. Micawber

Charles Dickens (David Copperfield)

Jacob Marley's chained ghost warns Scrooge that he is wasting his life; three Christmas spirits show him his past, the Cratchits and Tiny Tim, and his own lonely death; Scrooge wakes transformed and helps the family.

Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

Ebenezer Scrooge; Tiny Tim; Jacob Marley

Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol)

Ivan injures himself while arranging his new house and develops a worsening illness; his respectable friends treat his approaching death as an inconvenience; Gerasim comforts him by holding his legs; Ivan finally accepts death.

Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilyich)

Ivan Ilyich; Gerasim; Praskovya Fedorovna

Leo Tolstoy (The Death of Ivan Ilyich)

Pozdnyshev becomes obsessed with his wife's musical partnership with the violinist Trukhachevsky, especially after they perform Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata; he unexpectedly returns home, finds them together, and fatally stabs his wife.

Leo Tolstoy (The Kreutzer Sonata)

Pozdnyshev; Pozdnyshev's wife; Trukhachevsky

Leo Tolstoy (The Kreutzer Sonata)

Nekhlyudov recognizes Maslova, a prostitute on trial, as the woman he seduced and abandoned years earlier; a badly worded jury verdict helps condemn her; he follows her toward Siberia hoping to atone.

Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)

Dmitri Nekhlyudov; Katyusha Maslova; Simonson

Leo Tolstoy (Resurrection)

Emma tries to match Harriet with Mr. Elton only to discover Elton wants Emma herself; she cruelly insults Miss Bates at Box Hill and is rebuked by Knightley; she eventually realizes she loves Knightley.

Jane Austen (Emma)

Emma Woodhouse; George Knightley; Harriet Smith

Jane Austen (Emma)

Anne rejected Wentworth years earlier after being persuaded he was unsuitable; Louisa Musgrove falls from the Cobb at Lyme; Anne and Wentworth reconnect, culminating in his famous letter confessing that he still loves her.

Jane Austen (Persuasion)

Anne Elliot; Frederick Wentworth; William Elliot

Jane Austen (Persuasion)

The young residents of Mansfield stage Lovers' Vows despite Sir Thomas's absence; Fanny refuses Henry Crawford's proposal; Henry later elopes with the married Maria, validating Fanny's distrust of him.

Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)

Fanny Price; Edmund Bertram; Mary Crawford

Jane Austen (Mansfield Park)

Orwell joins a POUM militia in the Spanish Civil War and fights on the Aragon front; he is shot through the throat; during the Barcelona May Days, former allies turn on one another and he eventually flees Spain.

George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

George Orwell; POUM; Barcelona May Days

George Orwell (Homage to Catalonia)

Flory tries to help his Indian friend Dr. Veraswami gain membership in the whites-only European Club; U Po Kyin engineers scandals against them; Elizabeth rejects Flory, who kills his dog and then himself.

George Orwell (Burmese Days)

John Flory; Elizabeth Lackersteen; U Po Kyin

George Orwell (Burmese Days)

Orwell works exhausting shifts as a plongeur in Paris restaurants, repeatedly pawns possessions to survive, and later lives among tramps and shelters in England while describing the routines and humiliations of extreme poverty.

George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London)

George Orwell; Boris; Paddy

George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London)

K. arrives after supposedly being hired as a land surveyor, but castle officials deny or confuse his appointment; he repeatedly tries to meet Klamm; he and Frieda work at a school before their relationship collapses.

Franz Kafka (The Castle)

K.; Frieda; Klamm

Franz Kafka (The Castle)

Karl is sent to America after being seduced by a servant; a wealthy uncle takes him in but later casts him out; Karl works as a hotel elevator boy, falls under Delamarche's control, and eventually encounters the mysterious Nature Theater of Oklahoma.

Franz Kafka (Amerika)

Karl Rossmann; Delamarche; Brunelda

Franz Kafka (Amerika)

An officer demonstrates an execution machine whose needles carve a prisoner's sentence into his skin; when a visiting traveler refuses to approve the system, the officer straps himself into the machine, which malfunctions and kills him.

Franz Kafka (In the Penal Colony)

The Traveler; The Officer; The Condemned Man

Franz Kafka (In the Penal Colony)

Jake travels with Brett and their friends to Pamplona for the bullfights; Robert Cohn attacks several members of the group out of jealousy; Brett begins an affair with the young matador Pedro Romero before ultimately leaving him.

Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises)

Jake Barnes; Brett Ashley; Robert Cohn

Ernest Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises)

Robert Jordan joins a guerrilla band with orders to blow up a bridge during the Spanish Civil War; he falls in love with Maria; after being badly injured during the escape, he stays behind to ambush the pursuing enemy.

Ernest Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Robert Jordan; Maria; Pilar

Ernest Hemingway (For Whom the Bell Tolls)

Hemingway recalls living cheaply with Hadley in 1920s Paris, writing in cafés, interacting with writers including Gertrude Stein and Fitzgerald, and gradually damaging the first marriage that he remembers with regret.

Ernest Hemingway (A Moveable Feast)

Ernest Hemingway; Hadley Richardson; F. Scott Fitzgerald

Ernest Hemingway (A Moveable Feast)

Montresor tells Fortunato he has obtained rare Amontillado and lures him into underground catacombs; he chains the drunken man inside a niche and slowly bricks up the opening while Fortunato is still alive.

Edgar Allan Poe (The Cask of Amontillado)

Montresor; Fortunato; Luchesi

Edgar Allan Poe (The Cask of Amontillado)

Roderick Usher summons the narrator to his decaying mansion; Madeline appears to die and is sealed in a vault; she later bursts back into the house and collapses onto Roderick as the mansion splits apart.

Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Roderick Usher; Madeline Usher; The Narrator

Edgar Allan Poe (The Fall of the House of Usher)

A speaker remembers loving Annabel Lee in a seaside kingdom; he claims jealous angels caused a fatal wind to kill her; he continues lying beside her tomb and insists that death cannot separate their souls.

Edgar Allan Poe (Annabel Lee)

kingdom by the sea; jealous angels; tomb beside the sea

Edgar Allan Poe (Annabel Lee)

Hank Morgan is knocked unconscious and wakes in Arthurian Britain; he uses his knowledge of a solar eclipse and modern technology to gain power; his attempt to industrialize Camelot ends in a devastating battle against medieval society.

Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)

Hank Morgan; King Arthur; Sandy

Mark Twain (A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court)

Tom Canty and Prince Edward discover they look alike and exchange clothes; each becomes trapped in the other's life; Edward experiences poverty and punishment before proving his identity and reclaiming the throne.

Mark Twain (The Prince and the Pauper)

Tom Canty; Edward Tudor; Miles Hendon

Mark Twain (The Prince and the Pauper)

Twain trains under Horace Bixby to memorize the Mississippi's countless channels and landmarks; the Civil War ends his steamboat career; years later he returns to find the river transformed by modernization.

Mark Twain (Life on the Mississippi)

Mark Twain; Horace Bixby; Mississippi steamboats

Mark Twain (Life on the Mississippi)

The Vicario brothers openly announce their intention to murder Santiago Nasar after Angela names him as the man who supposedly took her virginity; almost the whole town hears of the plan, yet Santiago is still stabbed to death.

Gabriel García Márquez (Chronicle of a Death Foretold)

Santiago Nasar; Angela Vicario; Bayardo San Román

Gabriel García Márquez (Chronicle of a Death Foretold)

The colonel repeatedly visits the post office hoping for a pension letter that never arrives; he and his wife are nearly starving; despite pressure to sell their dead son's fighting cock, he stubbornly refuses.

Gabriel García Márquez (No One Writes to the Colonel)

The Colonel; The Colonel's Wife; Don Sabas

Gabriel García Márquez (No One Writes to the Colonel)

The Patriarch repeatedly appears to die yet survives through contradictory versions of events; he rules through executions, deception, and terror; even after achieving nearly unlimited power, he becomes isolated inside a decaying presidential palace.

Gabriel García Márquez (The Autumn of the Patriarch)

The Patriarch; Bendición Alvarado; Manuela Sánchez

Gabriel García Márquez (The Autumn of the Patriarch)

Stephen is punished at Clongowes, experiences intense religious terror after visiting prostitutes, and briefly considers the priesthood; he later rejects church and nationalist expectations and leaves Ireland to pursue art.

James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)

Stephen Dedalus; Simon Dedalus; Cranly

James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)

Rumors circulate about an obscure sexual incident involving HCE in Phoenix Park; ALP's letter attempts to defend him; Shem and Shaun repeatedly oppose one another as identities, myths, and history constantly merge inside the dream narrative.

James Joyce (Finnegans Wake)

HCE; ALP; Shem

James Joyce (Finnegans Wake)

Richard returns to Dublin with Bertha and refuses to demand conventional sexual fidelity from her; his friend Robert pursues Bertha; Richard deliberately allows the possible affair, then becomes tortured by never knowing exactly what happened.

James Joyce (Exiles)

Richard Rowan; Bertha; Robert Hand

James Joyce (Exiles)

Orlando begins as an Elizabethan nobleman, falls in love with the Russian princess Sasha, lives for centuries, and wakes during an embassy in Constantinople transformed into a woman; Orlando later marries Shelmerdine.

Virginia Woolf (Orlando)

Orlando; Sasha; Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine

Virginia Woolf (Orlando)

Bernard, Susan, Rhoda, Neville, Jinny, and Louis grow up together while each narrates private perceptions; they idealize the largely silent Percival; Percival's sudden death in India becomes a central trauma for the group.

Virginia Woolf (The Waves)

Bernard; Rhoda; Percival

Virginia Woolf (The Waves)

Woolf imagines Shakespeare having an equally talented sister named Judith who is denied education and opportunity; she argues that a woman writer needs financial independence and a private room in order to create freely.

Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own)

Judith Shakespeare; £500 a year; a private room

Virginia Woolf (A Room of One's Own)

Dante argues that the world should be politically unified under a universal emperor; he defends Rome's historical right to empire and insists that secular imperial authority comes directly from God rather than through the pope.

Dante Alighieri (De Monarchia)

universal emperor; Roman authority; church-state independence

Dante Alighieri (De Monarchia)

Dante frames philosophical commentary as a banquet offered to people excluded from formal learning; he interprets his own canzoni and defends writing serious intellectual material in the Italian vernacular rather than Latin.

Dante Alighieri (Convivio)

banquet of knowledge; Lady Philosophy; vernacular learning

Dante Alighieri (Convivio)

Dante surveys Italian dialects while searching for an elevated literary vernacular that belongs to no single city; he classifies poetic forms and argues that the canzone is appropriate for the highest subjects.

Dante Alighieri (De vulgari eloquentia)

illustrious vernacular; Italian dialects; canzone

Dante Alighieri (De vulgari eloquentia)

A talking eagle carries the dreaming narrator toward the House of Fame; Fame arbitrarily grants or denies reputations; the narrator then visits a whirling house of rumors before the unfinished poem abruptly introduces a mysterious man of authority.

Geoffrey Chaucer (The House of Fame)

talking eagle; House of Fame; house of rumors

Geoffrey Chaucer (The House of Fame)

Birds gather on Saint Valentine's Day to choose mates under the supervision of Nature; three male eagles argue over one female eagle; she postpones her choice for a year while the other birds pair off.

Geoffrey Chaucer (The Parliament of Fowls)

Saint Valentine's Day; three eagles; Nature

Geoffrey Chaucer (The Parliament of Fowls)

The sleepless narrator reads about Ceyx and Alcyone before falling into a dream; he encounters a Black Knight mourning a mysterious loss; after prolonged questioning, the knight finally states that his wife is dead.

Geoffrey Chaucer (The Book of the Duchess)

Black Knight; dream vision; death of the knight's wife

Geoffrey Chaucer (The Book of the Duchess)

Salomé becomes obsessed with the imprisoned Jokanaan, who rejects her; after dancing for Herod, she demands Jokanaan's severed head as her reward; Herod is horrified when she kisses the dead prophet's mouth and orders her killed.

Oscar Wilde (Salomé)

Salomé; Jokanaan; Herod

Oscar Wilde (Salomé)

Lady Windermere suspects her husband of supporting Mrs. Erlynne and nearly runs away with Lord Darlington; Mrs. Erlynne sacrifices her own reputation to save her; the audience learns she is secretly Lady Windermere's mother.

Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan)

Lady Windermere; Mrs. Erlynne; Lord Darlington

Oscar Wilde (Lady Windermere's Fan)

The jeweled Happy Prince orders a Swallow to remove his ruby, sapphires, and gold leaf and distribute them to suffering townspeople; the Swallow freezes to death beside him and the statue's lead heart breaks.

Oscar Wilde (The Happy Prince)

The Happy Prince; The Swallow; poverty in the city

Oscar Wilde (The Happy Prince)

The blinded Samson is visited in captivity by his father, Dalila, and the boastful Harapha; he is taken to a Philistine celebration and pulls down the temple, killing himself and the assembled enemies.

John Milton (Samson Agonistes)

Samson; Dalila; Harapha

John Milton (Samson Agonistes)

Milton attacks pre-publication licensing by comparing the destruction of books to the destruction of reason; he argues that truth should confront error openly instead of being protected by government censorship.

John Milton (Areopagitica)

licensing; freedom of publication; truth confronting error

John Milton (Areopagitica)

The speaker mourns the drowned Edward King through a pastoral world of shepherds and nature; Saint Peter attacks corrupt clergy; the ending imagines Lycidas transformed and the mourning shepherd rising to continue onward.

John Milton (Lycidas)

drowned shepherd; Saint Peter; corrupt clergy

John Milton (Lycidas)

Joan persuades French commanders and the Dauphin to accept her divine mission; she helps lift the siege of Orléans and crown Charles; she is captured, tried for heresy, and burned before a later epilogue revisits her rehabilitation.

George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan)

Joan; Charles VII; Bishop Cauchon

George Bernard Shaw (Saint Joan)

Barbara proudly serves the Salvation Army until it accepts large donations from a whisky producer and her arms-manufacturer father; Undershaft then shows her his prosperous factory town and challenges her ideas about poverty and morality.

George Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara)

Barbara Undershaft; Andrew Undershaft; Adolphus Cusins

George Bernard Shaw (Major Barbara)