Though I was disappointed to find that some of my interpretations of her poems had not been quite on the mark, I still enjoyed this book quite a bit. It helps the reader understand Dickinson's background, her unusual usage of words, and her poems themselves. I think that any lover of Dickinson's poems will find something interesting in this book.

Mourning becomes electra is well known as a modernization of the Greek myth of the Oresteria. Perhaps the difference between Aeschylus and O'neill is to some degree a measure of the extent to which the weakening of the sanctions has weakend the emotions with they supported.

i'v used this book for direction in taking the clep in english lit and the gre in lit in english. obviously it isn't comprehensive, just skims, but covers the pertinent dates, figures, and works to get you going. i recommend the Masterplots series for in-depth essays on these topics -- much better than those cliff notes which bore me.

By far the best English AP preparation book - even better than the first edition. It brings everything up to date and adds good new practice exams. Unfortunately, it costs more.

1.The education and enlistment of young German soldiers. 2.The soldiers' arrival at the front of World War I. 3.The experiences of the horrors of war in trench warfare. 4.The hero's homecoming, return to the front, and ultimate death.

The Old Man and The Sea is a wonderful novel that opens our eyes to nature. The underlying theme of this book is that man and nature are equal, and should be treated as an equal. This novel is about an old fisherman who struggles with a gigantic fish; not to be sucessful, but for pride. He clearly represents a Hemingway Hero in all senses of the word, including that he is flawed. Ernest Hemingway has once again made his point through wonderful literature and I would congratulate him on this work of art should he be living

Hixon's book provides a brief and well organized source for both the astute grammarian and the accidental writer. While not as comprehensive as some sources, this source is all substance without the frills--which can be confusing to the budding writer--and gives clear, excellent examples. A must-have for composition students!

In approaching world history there's nothing wrong with starting (or refreshing your memory) with a book like this. This book provides a quick outline of world history by devoting ten sections to the main regions of the world and then going through the history of each region by outlining its history in sections of Ancient, Classical, Medieval, and, Modern Civilization. (Discussions and disputes over 'theories of history' and how history should be seen and etc. are out of place because this book only has a simple goal of presenting basic historical knowledge through time in every part of the globe in order to give a reader a basic perspective of the entire picture before the reader may choose to move on to more extensive works or particular studies...) The ten regions of the world it covers are: the Middle East; European Civilization; Russian Civilization; North America; Latin America; India and Southwest Asia; China; Japan; Southeast Asia; and Sub-Sahara Africa. This book together with a good, basic book on geography will give a reader a beginning overall perspective of his or her world in time and space...

In this little yellow book with the black stripes Robert J. Milch looks at what are arguably the two most widely read plays by Euripides, "Medea" and "Electra." However, one of the things that makes this volume useful for teaching/reading any Greek tragedy is the excellent "Background of Greek Tragedy" section. Milch looks at the origins of these plays, their plots, the theaters and theatrical equipment, the function of the chorus, and the peculiar structure of the Greek plays. There is also a nice section that covers Aristotle on Tragedy from his "Poetics." I especially appreciate that Milch uses the original Greek terms such as "orchestra," "stasimon" and "mimesis," along with a dozen more key concepts. Following a section on the life of Euripides and a listing of the playwright's extant works, Milch provides Summary/Commentary for "Electra" and "Medea" in term, making explicit use of the specific dramatic structure he established in the first part of the book. Each play is introduced by looking at the legendary background of the play, which is important because each Greek playwright put his own particular twist on the particular myth; this is most clearly scene with "Electra," where we also have versions of the same story from Sophocles and Aeschylus. Brief notes on the main characters are collected at the end of the book. I want to emphasize that the introductory material in this book is useful for studying ANY Greek tragedy. As always, the best way to use Cliffs Notes is to read the commentary after you have read the corresponding part of the play. The character analysis provided at the end is rather brief, because the best analysis comes in the commentary sections. For this reason, understanding the peculiar structure of Greek plays in terms of episodes and stasimons is important.

This read gave me a feeling for what it was really like in Northern Virginia during the Civil War. Lots of first hand diary entries and interesting 'real life' stories. A great little book.