A Raisin in the Sun
Lorraine Hansberry · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun — the Younger family's insurance payout, their clashing dreams, and their move to a white neighborhood.
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Read summarySummaries of journal articles, essays and books
A library of 267 free summaries covering peer-reviewed research, essays, scholarly books, poetry and dissertations. Each entry sets out the argument in plain English, points to the passages that carry it, and links to the original text so you can read further. Browse by type below, or use the summarizer on anything you have of your own.
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The Crucible
Arthur Miller · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Miller's The Crucible — the Salem witch trials, John Proctor's hidden sin, and the hysteria that destroys a community.
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A Doll's House
Henrik Ibsen · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Ibsen's A Doll's House — Nora's secret loan, her husband's reaction, and her shocking decision to leave her family.
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The Importance of Being Earnest
Oscar Wilde · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest — Jack and Algernon's double lives, the tangled engagements, and the farcical revelation of the truth.
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Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Beckett's Waiting for Godot — Vladimir and Estragon's endless wait, the visits of Pozzo and Lucky, and the play's meditation on meaning.
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The Glass Menagerie
Tennessee Williams · Poetry & fiction
Read a full summary of Williams's The Glass Menagerie — Tom's memory of his St. Louis family, his sister Laura's fragility, and the gentleman caller who shatters her hopes.
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The Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln · Essays & speeches
Read a full summary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address — what he said at the 1863 cemetery dedication, how the speech is structured, and why it endures.
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Common Sense
Thomas Paine · Essays & speeches
Read a full summary of Thomas Paine's Common Sense — his case against monarchy and for American independence, argued in plain language in 1776.
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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings — her childhood in Stamps, Arkansas, her silence after trauma, and her path to voice and self-respect.
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Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis — her childhood during the Iranian Revolution, her exile in Vienna, and her return home and final departure.
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Tuesdays with Morrie
Mitch Albom · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie — the weekly visits to his dying professor, and the lessons about life, death and love they shared.
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The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle — her unconventional, impoverished childhood with her gifted but troubled parents, and how she built a life of her own.
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Frederick Douglass's 1845 Narrative — his life in slavery, his fight to learn to read, and his escape to freedom.
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The Art of War
Sun Tzu · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Sun Tzu's The Art of War — its thirteen chapters on strategy, deception, preparation and winning without fighting.
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Maus
Art Spiegelman · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Art Spiegelman's Maus — his father Vladek's survival of the Holocaust, told in comic form with mice and cats, and the strained bond between father and son.
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A Little Life
Hanya Yanagihara · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life — four friends in New York, Jude's hidden past, and a story of friendship, trauma and endurance.
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The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist — Santiago's journey from Spain to the Egyptian pyramids in search of treasure and his Personal Legend.
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The Hobbit
J. R. R. Tolkien · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Tolkien's The Hobbit — Bilbo Baggins's unexpected journey with Gandalf and thirteen dwarves to reclaim treasure from the dragon Smaug.
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins — Karana's years of survival alone on a California island.
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The Fault in Our Stars
John Green · Books & reports
Read a full summary of John Green's The Fault in Our Stars — Hazel and Augustus's love story, their trip to Amsterdam, and the loss that follows.
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Treasure Island
Robert Louis Stevenson · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Stevenson's Treasure Island — Jim Hawkins, Long John Silver and the voyage to find buried pirate treasure.
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The Hate U Give
Angie Thomas · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give — Starr's decision to speak out after witnessing a police shooting, and the community and personal consequences.
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The House on Mango Street
Sandra Cisneros · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Cisneros's The House on Mango Street — Esperanza's Chicago neighborhood, her vignettes of girlhood, and her dream of a home of her own.
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The Color Purple
Alice Walker · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Walker's The Color Purple — Celie's letters, her abuse and survival, and her journey toward independence and love.
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The Brothers Karamazov
Fyodor Dostoevsky · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov — the murder of Fyodor Karamazov, his sons' rivalry, and the novel's debate over faith and doubt.
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Bud, Not Buddy
Christopher Paul Curtis · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Curtis's Bud, Not Buddy — Bud's escape from foster care, his search for his father, and the family he finds instead.
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Little Women
Louisa May Alcott · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Alcott's Little Women — the March sisters' coming of age, their ambitions and losses, and the paths each one chooses.
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Anna Karenina
Leo Tolstoy · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina — her affair with Vronsky, the social ruin it brings, and the parallel story of Levin's search for meaning.
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Number the Stars
Lois Lowry · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Lowry's Number the Stars — Annemarie's role hiding her Jewish friend, and her family's part in the Danish resistance.
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Bridge to Terabithia
Katherine Paterson · Books & reports
Read a full summary of Paterson's Bridge to Terabithia — Jess and Leslie's imaginary kingdom, and the tragedy that transforms Jess's understanding of grief.
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