Looks at American authors from Washington Irving to John Updike and provides brief biographical sketches, excerpts and summaries of major works, and explanations of major literary movements

From Plato to Freud to ecocriticism, the book illustrates dozens of stimulating-and sometimes notoriously complex-perspectives for approaching literature and film. The book offers authoritative, clear, and easy-to-follow explanations of theories that range from established classics to the controversies of current theory. Each chapter offers a conversational, step-by-step explanation of a single theory, critic, or issue, accompanied by concrete examples for applying the concepts and engaging suggestions for related literary readings. Following a section on the foundations of literary theory, the book is organized thematically, with an eye to the best way to develop a real, working understanding of the various theories. Cross-references are particularly important, since it's through the interaction of examples that readers most effectively advance from basic topics and arguments to some of the more specialized and complicated issues. Each chapter is designed to tell a complete story, yet also to reach out to other chapters for development and debate. Literary theorists are hardly unified in their views, and this book reflects the various traditions, agreements, influences, and squabbles that are a part of the field. Special features include hundreds of references to and quotations from novels, stories, plays, poems, movies, and other media. Online resources could also include video and music clips, as well as high-quality examples of visual art mentioned in the book. The book also includes periodic "running" references to selected key titles (such as Frankenstein) in order to illustrate the effect of different theories on a single work.

Presents the principles of Spanish vocabulary, grammar, and usage for immediate use, along with a Spanish/English-English/Spanish dictionary, a guide to pronunciation, cultural information, useful phrases, and exercises.

The essential guide to looking at literature with your own two eyes. What students know about Shakespeare, Orwell, Dickens, and Twain is primarily what their instructors tell them. Here’s a book that teaches the students how to move on to the next level—evaluate and read critically on their own, trust their own opinions, develop original ideas, analyze characters, and find a deeper appreciation for fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more. • Ideal companion for college students and accessible for the casual reader as well. • Covers fiction, poetry, narrative nonfiction, biographies and memoirs, essays and editorials, and newspapers, magazines, and journals. • Features examples from published writing. • Includes a reading list and a glossary of literary terms.

This guide gives new and experienced authors tips, advice and practical step-by-step instructions for writing book proposals and query letters, pitching ideas to agents and editors and writing outlines and sample chapters.

You’re no idiot, of course. You’re familiar with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and Judgment Day—especially in the wake of the new millennium. However, the Book of Revelation has existed for almost 2,000 years and is open to countless interpretations. Don’t get confused by scholarly analysis and religious dogma! The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to the Book of Revelation shows you how so many meanings are derived from the book’s text. In this Complete Idiot’s Guide®, you get: • Various ways to interpret Revelation and its symbols • A detailed examination of the key elements, including the Seven Seals and the Antichrist • A look at how the Jewish Old Testament and prophecies relate to Revelation