Authors
Often regarded as the greatest playwright in history, this Englishman authored works that continue to be studied worldwide, including Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet.
William Shakespeare
This mischievous feline in Dr. Seuss’s world wears a red-and-white striped hat and causes chaos.
The Cat in the Hat
This classic novel by Louisa May Alcott follows the lives of four sisters—Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.
Little Women
This literary device describes an exaggerated statement not meant to be taken literally, like “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.”
Hyperbole
This literary movement, popular in the early 19th century, emphasized individualism, emotion, and the beauty of nature.
Romanticism
This American writer, known for his minimalist style (and alcoholic tendencies), penned For Whom the Bell Tolls and The Sun Also Rises.
Ernest Hemmingway
This famous detective resides at 221B Baker Street.
Sherlock Holmes
Stephen King’s horror novel about a telekinetic teen at her high school prom shares its title with her name.
Carrie
This rhetorical device presents a statement that appears self-contradictory or logically impossible but reveals a deeper truth—such as the famous phrase: "Less is more."
Paradox
This philosophical and literary movement, led by figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, emphasized self-reliance and nature.
Transcendentalism
This author of Beloved and The Bluest Eye became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Toni Morrison
This tormented protagonist of Wuthering Heights is known for his intense, brooding love for Catherine Earnshaw.
Heathcliff
This viral romance novel by Emily Henry follows two rival authors who challenge each other to swap genres for the summer.
Beach Read
This figure of speech softens a harsh or unpleasant reality—such as saying "passed away" instead of "died" to make the phrase sound gentler.
Euphemism
This invention, developed in the 15th century, revolutionized book production and literacy, making literature more widely accessible to the public.
Printing Press
This Pulitzer Prize-winning author is known for The Secret History and The Goldfinch, both of which explore themes of beauty, obsession, and morality.
Donna Tartt
This chaotic, nihilistic character in American Psycho lives a double life as a Wall Street businessman and serial killer.
Patrick Bateman
This novel by Sylvia Plath takes its title from a suffocating metaphor for mental illness and isolation.
The Bell Jar
This literary technique attributes human characteristics, emotions, or behaviors to non-human entities—such as the sly fox, Nick Wilde, in Zootopia.
Anthropomorphism
The “Lost Generation” refers to writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, who wrote during and after this global conflict.
World War I
This American author, known for his Southern Gothic style, wrote As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury.
William Faulkner
This cynical and disillusioned teenager of The Catcher in the Rye struggles with alienation and views most adults as "phony."
Holden Caufield
This dark academia novel by R.F. Kuang explores themes of colonialism and language through a secret society at Oxford.
Babel
This rhetorical device features a reversal of word order in two parallel phrases—such as John F. Kennedy’s famous line: "Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."
Chiasmus
This novel, written in French by Marcel Proust, holds the record as the longest novel ever written, with over 4,000 pages in its complete edition.
"À la recherche du temps perdu" ("In Search of Lost Time")?