LET English Literature Master Reviewer Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards generated from the English Literature reviewer, containing definitions and key details for major works, authors, protagonists, plot elements, and themes.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

A Puritan sermon by Jonathan Edwards that warns sinners about divine judgment and urges repentance while emphasizing human dependence on God.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

A Puritan poem by Anne Bradstreet in which the speaker expresses profound devotion to her husband and connects earthly love with eternal faith.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

An Enlightenment work in which Benjamin Franklin recounts his upbringing, work, self-improvement, virtues, and rise from printer to influential public figure.

Rip Van Winkle

A Romantic story by Washington Irving about a man who escapes his demanding wife Dame Van Winkle, falls into a long sleep in the mountains, and wakes up to find his village transformed after the American Revolution.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

A Romantic story by Washington Irving involving superstitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, his rival Brom Bones, Katrina Van Tassel, and the Headless Horseman.

The Raven

A Gothic poem by Edgar Allan Poe in which a grieving narrator is visited at midnight by a mysterious bird repeating 'Nevermore', deepening his obsession over Lenore.

The Tell-Tale Heart

A Gothic short story by Edgar Allan Poe where an unreliable narrator murders an old man because of his eye, but confesses after hearing what he believes is the victim's beating heart.

The Scarlet Letter

A novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne set in Puritan Boston, following Hester Prynne, who is forced to wear a scarlet 'A' for adultery while Arthur Dimmesdale hides his guilt and Roger Chillingworth seeks revenge.

Moby-Dick

A novel by Herman Melville following Ishmael on the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who is obsessed with hunting the white whale Moby Dick.

Self-Reliance

A Transcendentalist essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson urging individuals to trust their intuition and resist the conforming force of society.

Walden

A Transcendentalist work by Henry David Thoreau describing his simple life at Walden Pond and reflecting on nature, work, and meaningful living.

Because I could not stop for Death

A poem by Emily Dickinson in which Death is personified as a courteous carriage companion taking the speaker from life toward eternity.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

A realistic satire by Mark Twain following Huck Finn and the enslaved Jim as they travel down the Mississippi River, challenging moral and societal views on slavery.

The Red Badge of Courage

A Naturalist Civil War novel by Stephen Crane depicting young soldier Henry Fleming's psychological struggle with fear, courage, and heroism on the battlefield.

The Great Gatsby

A Modernist novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald narrated by Nick Carraway, detailing Jay Gatsby's tragic pursuit of Daisy Buchanan and the collapse of the American Dream.

The Old Man and the Sea

A Modernist novella by Ernest Hemingway focusing on Santiago, an old Cuban fisherman who engages in an exhausting struggle to catch a giant marlin.

The Grapes of Wrath

A social realism novel by John Steinbeck about Tom Joad and his family migrating from Oklahoma to California during the Great Depression.

Harlem

A Harlem Renaissance poem by Langston Hughes exploring the consequences and potential explosion of a postponed or deferred Black dream.

The Crucible

A drama by Arthur Miller set during the Salem witch trials, where mass hysteria spreads and John Proctor struggles to maintain his moral integrity.

To Kill a Mockingbird

A coming-of-age novel by Harper Lee where Scout Finch grows up in Alabama while her father Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, a falsely accused Black man.

Beowulf

An Old English epic poem about a heroic warrior who fights Grendel, Grendel's mother, and later a dragon as an aging king.

The Canterbury Tales

A Middle English frame narrative by Geoffrey Chaucer featuring a group of pilgrims telling stories on their journey to Canterbury.

Doctor Faustus

A Renaissance tragedy by Christopher Marlowe about a scholar who sells his soul to Mephistopheles for supernatural knowledge and power.

Hamlet

A Shakespearean tragedy following the Prince of Denmark as he seeks revenge against his uncle Claudius, who murdered Hamlet's father.

Macbeth

A Shakespearean tragedy detailing a Scottish nobleman's ambition-driven rise to kingship through murder and his eventual downfall.

Othello

A Shakespearean tragedy centered on Othello, whose jealousy is manipulated by Iago, leading to the destruction of his innocent wife Desdemona.

King Lear

A Shakespearean tragedy about an aging king who divides his kingdom based on flatteries from his deceitful daughters Goneril and Regan while rejecting loyal Cordelia.

The Merchant of Venice

A Shakespearean comedy in which Antonio borrows money from Shylock under a bond requiring a pound of flesh, and Portia disguises herself as a lawyer to save him.

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

A metaphysical poem by John Donne using a stiff twin compass conceit to demonstrate that spiritual love transcends physical separation.

Paradise Lost

An epic poem by John Milton describing Satan's rebellion against God and the Fall of Man through Adam and Eve's exile from Eden.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

A Romantic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge about a mariner who shoots an albatross and undergoes supernatural punishment and penance.

Ozymandias

A Romantic poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley describing a ruined desert statue of a king to illustrate that human power and pride cannot defeat time.

Ode on a Grecian Urn

A Romantic poem by John Keats contemplating scenes on an ancient urn and concluding that beauty and truth are interconnected.

Oliver Twist

A Victorian novel by Charles Dickens about an orphan who escapes a workhouse and gets drawn into a London criminal group led by Fagin.

A Christmas Carol

A Victorian story by Charles Dickens in which Ebenezer Scrooge is transformed from a miser into a compassionate man by spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come.

Jane Eyre

A Victorian novel by Charlotte Brontë depicting an independent orphan who becomes governess at Thornfield, falls in love with Mr. Rochester, and discovers his hidden wife Bertha Mason.

Wuthering Heights

A Gothic Victorian novel by Emily Brontë exploring the intense and destructive relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw across two generations.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

An Aesthetic novel by Oscar Wilde where Dorian Gray remains eternally young while his portrait ages and reflects his moral decay.

1984

A dystopian novel by George Orwell depicting Winston Smith's rebellion against totalitarian control, surveillance, and Big Brother.

Animal Farm

A political allegory by George Orwell in which farm animals overthrow humans, only for the pig Napoleon to establish a tyrannical dictatorship.

Brave New World

A dystopian novel by Aldous Huxley depicting a futuristic society that uses genetic conditioning and mandatory pleasure to enforce conformity.

Dead Stars

A Philippine short story by Paz Márquez-Benítez where Alfredo Salazar realizes years later that his romantic passion for Julia Salas was merely an illusion.

How My Brother Leon Brought Home a Wife

A Philippine short story by Manuel Arguilla narrated by Baldo, describing how Maria adapts to rural life when arriving with Leon.

The Woman Who Had Two Navels

A Philippine novel by Nick Joaquin following Connie Escobar, whose personal delusions and search for identity connect to colonial history.

The Mats

A short story by Francisco Arcellana in which Mr. Angeles brings home personalized sleeping mats for his family, including those for deceased daughters.

Things Fall Apart

A novel by Chinua Achebe depicting Okonkwo, an Igbo warrior whose world collapses under the pressure of British colonialism and Christian missionaries.

Death and the King's Horseman

A play by Wole Soyinka where British intervention prevents Elesin Oba from performing his required ritual suicide after the king's death.

The Kite Runner

A novel by Khaled Hosseini following Amir's lifelong guilt after betraying his childhood friend Hassan in Afghanistan and his path toward redemption.

The Iliad

An ancient Greek epic tradition attributed to Homer that centers on Achilles' rage and major events during the Trojan War.

The Odyssey

An ancient Greek epic attributed to Homer describing Odysseus' ten-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War.

Oedipus Rex

A Greek tragedy by Sophocles in which King Oedipus unknowingly fulfills a prophecy by killing his father Laius and marrying his mother Jocasta.