Mortality & Death

“Tennessee’s Partner” is a short story by Bret Harte (1836-1902), an American writer and editor. Harte’s stories about rugged, romantic figures participating in the California Gold Rush have inspired many theatrical and film adaptations and make him an eminent figure in the local color style, a 19th-century American literary movement concentrating on local dialect and experience. “Tennessee’s Partner” was originally published in the Overland Monthly in 1869 and explores themes of The Transcendent Nature of... Read Tennessee's Partner Summary

Tenth of December: Stories (2013) is American author George Saunders’s fourth short story collection. Saunders is widely regarded as one of the modern masters of the short story form, and this collection features stories written between 1995 and 2012, some of which were previously published in various literary outlets. The book was a bestseller and was widely praised on release, winning both the Story Prize and the Folio Prize. This guide refers to the 2013... Read Tenth of December Summary

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Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1835 short story “The Ambitious Guest” was originally published in The New-England Magazine. Hawthorne based his story on the Willey family tragedy of August 1826. The Willeys owned a tavern and inn at Crawford Notch in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. That August, a severe rainstorm in the area led to a massive landslide. While the Willey House Inn and Tavern were left intact after the landslide, the family disappeared overnight and... Read The Ambitious Guest Summary

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Published in 2011, The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach is a work of literary fiction depicting the interwoven journeys of characters at Westish, a fictional small liberal arts college in Wisconsin. Henry Skrimshander is a talented baseball shortstop whose future is jeopardized by an errant throw. His development intersects with that of his teammate Schwartz; his roommate, Owen; college president Guert; and Pella, Guert’s daughter and a newly enrolled student of Westish. The novel... Read The Art of Fielding Summary

Published in 2008, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a New York Times bestselling novel by Garth Stein. It follows the life of race car driver Denny Swift and is told from the perspective of his dog, Enzo. Stein was inspired to write the book after watching the 1998 Mongolian documentary State of Dogs about a dog who is reincarnated as a human after death, and after seeing the poet Billy Collins read... Read The Art of Racing in the Rain Summary

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The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez debuted in Spain in 1975. The English translation published in 1976. Márquez’s most notable work, One Hundred Years of Solitude, earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 and reflects his distinct magical realist style, an artistic genre first recognized in literature in predominantly Latin American writing during the 1940s. The Autumn of the Patriarch, published seven years later, also features Márquez’s magical style and... Read The Autumn of the Patriarch Summary

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“The Battle of Maldon” is a heroic poem, also classified as an epic, dating from the 10th century. Originally written in Old English, the text details a violent battle between the Anglo-Saxon warriors and the raiding Vikings. The Anglo-Saxons are led by Earl Byrhtnoth, who held land in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Essex and fought for his ruler, King Æthelred the Unready. The poem depicts some of the central tenets of Anglo-Saxon culture, praising loyalty... Read The Battle of Maldon Summary

The Beach is an adventure fiction novel written by Alex Garland and originally published in 1996. Garland wrote the book during his time in the Philippines and was inspired by the landscape there, as well as historical events such as the Vietnam War. It was adapted into a successful major motion picture starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Danny Boyle in 2000, and the novel was included on a BBC list of most-read novels in... Read The Beach Summary

The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James, first published in 1903, centers on the relationship between John Marcher, a man haunted by the premonition that his life will be defined by some catastrophic event, and May Bartram. James’s narrative dissects the psychological effects of fear and anticipation by focusing on his characters’ inner lives and existential musings. The tale is an internalized ghost story wherein Marcher’s fears become self-fulfilling prophecies of loss. The third-person... Read The Beast in the Jungle Summary

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“The Bet” is one of over 500 short stories by Russian literary giant Anton Chekov. Published in 1889, the story addresses related and intertwined themes of life and death, theoretical versus empirical knowledge, and confinement versus freedom.Considered a master of short fiction and, along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, a founder of Modernist theater, Chekov is one of the late-19th-century writers who have reached 21st-century readers and audiences most powerfully and widely. “The Bet”... Read The Bet Summary