The defining structures and conventions of literary forms. Named canonical works remain in Classics; historical influence belongs in Influential Literature; poetry retains Poetry.
Test your knowledge with these top questions!
Who wrote the novel The Outsiders?
Hinton wrote the novel while still in high school, drawing on the social divisions she saw among teenagers.
Which teenager narrates the novel The Outsiders?
Ponyboy lives with his older brothers, Darry and Sodapop, after their parents die.
In The Outsiders, Ponyboy recites "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by which poet?
Johnny's dying advice to "stay gold" asks Ponyboy to hold on to the innocence celebrated in Frost's poem.
In The Outsiders, what are the wealthy rivals of the Greasers called?
Cherry Valance, a Soc, bonds with Ponyboy over sunsets, helping him see that rival groups can share the same pleasures.
In "The Lion and the Mouse", how does the mouse later rescue the lion?
The lion's earlier mercy is repaid by a creature he had considered too small to be useful.
Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks investigates cells known by what name?
HeLa cells could keep multiplying in laboratories, making them valuable for medical research long after Lacks's death.
Which Faulkner novel tells the Bundren family's journey through many characters' thoughts?
Its shifting voices make one family journey look different according to each speaker's fears, loyalties, and desires.
Who writes the progress reports that tell Flowers for Algernon?
Changes in Charlie's spelling and sentence structure let readers follow his changing intelligence directly.
In flash fiction, what does leaving events unstated invite readers to do?
A small clue can suggest an entire past, allowing a very short story to imply more than it spells out.
What makes a novel's narrator unreliable?
Readers may spot contradictions or gaps that reveal more than the narrator understands or admits.