The Complete Idiot's Guide to American Literature (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

Annotation Yoursquo;re no idiot, of course.nbsp; You know that Samuel Clemens had a better-known pen name, Moby Dick is a famous whale, and the Raven only said, ldquo;Nevermore.rdquo; But when it comes to understanding the great works of Mark Twain, Herman Melville, and Edgar Allan Poe, yoursquo;d rather rent the videos than head to your local library.nbsp;nbsp; Donrsquo;t tear up your library card yet! The Complete Idiotrsquo;s Guidereg; to American Literature teaches you all about the rich tradition of American prose and poetry, so you can fully appreciate its magnificent diversity.nbsp; In this Complete Idiotrsquo;s Guidereg;, you get: --Breezy biographical sketches on Americarsquo;s foremost literary figures. --Easy-to-follow excerpts and summaries of major works. --Helpful hints on important themes and symbols. --Simple explanations of literary movements. --Broad coverage of genre and ethnic writing, nbsp; including Latin-American, African-American, nbsp; and Jewish-American. nbsp A guide to American literature including a selection of the great American novels and poetry. The book features the contributions of Native, African, Jewish, Irish, Latin and other Americans, and comes with a glossary, timeline, who's who, reading lists, critical bibliographies and more. Annotation What book begins "Call me Ishmael?" What's the name of Toni Morrison's first novel? Why is "The Catcher in the Rye" so named? Answers to these questions and thousands more can be found inside this one comprehensive but high-spirited book Looks at American authors from Washington Irving to John Updike and provides brief biographical sketches, excerpts and summaries of major works, and explanations of major literary movements