Items13The creator’s order
  1. 1A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021)A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021) 10.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2021Saunders gives you the first page of Chekhov’s “In the Cart” and asks what you now expect the story to do. The pauses give you time to compare your guesses with what turns up on the next page. The seven stories are included, so you can read each one before its discussion if you prefer to meet it on…0
  2. 2How fiction works (2008)How fiction works (2008) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2008Wood uses Henry James’s What Maisie Knew to show how a story told in the third person can still sound like the child whose world it follows. Watch for words that make sense to Maisie while carrying a darker meaning for an adult reader. The excerpt is enough to try the idea without finishing the…0
  3. 3What matters in Jane Austen? (2013)What matters in Jane Austen? (2013)Published Jan 1, 2013In Emma, Mrs. Elton drops the “Mr.” when she speaks of Knightley. Mullan’s chapter about how characters address each other gives you a way to hear why that small choice irritates Emma and what Mrs. Elton wants the name to imply. Finish the novel first if you want to keep the later couples a…0
  4. 4Playing in the dark (1938)Playing in the dark (1938) 8.8/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 1938Read Willa Cather’s Sapphira and the Slave Girl first if you want to follow every turn of Morrison’s argument. Morrison asks how much room Cather’s novel allows Nancy, the enslaved girl at its center, to speak and be understood on her own terms. Return to the novel looking for whose feelings take…0
  5. 5On Morrison (2026)On Morrison (2026)Published Jan 1, 2026The first time Serpell read Sula, she decided she would never teach it or write about it. Two decades later she jumped at the chance to introduce a new edition. Read Sula before her discussion if you want the friendship between Sula and Nel to unfold without interference. Then go back to see which…0
  6. 6The art of fiction (1992)The art of fiction (1992)Published Jan 1, 1992Read the two openings in Lodge’s first chapter before you look at his explanation. Emma starts by telling you how comfortable its heroine’s life has been, and The Good Soldier starts with a narrator announcing how sad his story is. The excerpts let you compare what each novel offers you on its…0
  7. 7Read Until You Understand (2021)Read Until You Understand (2021) 8.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2021Griffin’s father left her an instruction to read until she understood. Look at how she puts that idea into practice when she brings Frederick Douglass’s Fourth of July speech into a book about her own family and American democracy. You can start with the speech and listen for whose freedom Douglass…0
  8. 8Changing my mind (2009)Changing my mind (2009) 6.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2009Smith begins with her reluctance to read Their Eyes Were Watching God and gets interested in how quickly Hurston’s conversations reveal people. Read Hurston’s novel first if you want Janie’s story to unfold at its own pace. Then pick a conversation and notice which speaker can get away with a joke…0
  9. 9The naive and the sentimental novelist (2010)The naive and the sentimental novelist (2010)Published Jan 1, 2010Pamuk returns to Anna Karenina’s train ride and the novel she takes out to read. It’s a way to think about how you picture Anna while she’s busy picturing the people in her own book. You can begin with that scene in Tolstoy instead of committing to the whole novel. Nazım Dikbaş translated Pamuk’s…0
  10. 10Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003)Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003) 7.0/10 on Open LibraryPublished Jan 1, 2003In the Gatsby section, Nafisi describes a classroom trial in which students debate what Fitzgerald’s novel asks a reader to admire. Try it after reading The Great Gatsby. You can decide which details to use as evidence and ask whether a character’s choices amount to the book’s own position.0