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We were so moved by Angelina Jolie's overseas adoptions that we created a proposal to bring foreign-born children over by the thousands! Think abou...
It may be the best of times for Chuck Darnay, but it's pretty much constantly the worst of times for Sydney. Poor guy.
Three scantily clad young girls enter a store. No, this isn’t your grandfather about to tell an inappropriate joke. And no, you’re not watching...
Historical fiction novels like The Help can whisk you back to a place and time that you may have only read about in history books. Or... a place an...
Brave New World is supposed be an exciting book about a negative utopia and the corrupt powers of authority. So where’s the big car chase? What's...
Meet Emma Woodhouse of Jane Austen's Emma. She’s a rich young woman with a good social life living in 18th-century England. We bet she has an aw...
"Girl," by Jamaica Kincaid, is a poem—er, a story... er... what is this thing? Either way, it's about a mother's advice to her daughter. And noth...
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens is about a young blacksmith boy (Pip) and his two dreams: becoming a gentleman and marrying the beautiful Est...
Gulliver's Travels is a classic tale of adventure with a dash of what-the-heck-is-happening thrown in for good measure.
Do we need creative arts to survive, or is logic enough? And how can The House on Mango Street help us decide? Check out this video to find out.
This video covers the plot of Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Brontë. In it, Jane Eyre, an orphan-turned-governess with a miserable childhood fall...
Check out this video to find out why Wuthering Heights should never be considered #relationshipgoals.
Can you really learn about human nature by removing yourself from the company of other humans? Henry David Thoreau thought it was a possibility and...
Their eyes may have been watching God, but we think we know who won that staring contest.
We bet you didn't realize Shakespeare was such a rebel. Seriously. If he were around today, he'd be riding a motorcycle, TIVOing Sons of Anarchy, a...
This video summarizes the plot of Brave New World from the point of view of John (you know, the “savage”). It covers the escapism, social casts...
Meet Charles Darnay, the nobleman who spends more time on trial and in prison than attending balls and drinking expensive wine. Don't feel too bad...
The Great Gatsby is set in and around New York City and Long Island. On the big L.I., there are two areas known as "West Egg" and "East Egg." East...
Trying to live up to expectations can be stressful. Watching someone else struggle with it, though? That's just fine.
Elizabeth thinks Darcy's a callous jerk; he thinks she’s a gold-digger. You know these two are just MFEO.
Thought that English society was all about hosting balls and finding husbands back in the day? Well, you thought… right. But that doesn't make this love story any less exciting to read.
Why does Dr. Watson keep appearing in Sherlock Holmes's stories? Shmoop amongst yourselves.
This video summarizes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby goes from a rich party guy in love with a married woman to dead. What happens in between? Well, decadence, bootlegging, a lot of girl drama for a start. But hey, that’s the Roaring Twenties.
Dig up your trench coat, grab your magnifying glass, and stick on that fake mustache (we know you have one): it's time to unleash your inner Sherlock Holmes and analyze the ending of The Awakening. Was it suicide? Or was it an accident?
Why was Jay Gatsby so great? Was it his ability to get away with bootlegging, his enduring love for Daisy, or his ability to throw epic parties that attracted hundreds of people? Or, was it something else—something deeper?
If you're still eating pie on a regular basis, you probably haven't read this book or seen the movie. If you have and it hasn't swayed you...well, kudos. You have a stomach of steel, and we are very impressed.
We get it: Jennifer Lawrence is awesome. We think so, too. That being said, we wouldn't actually want to see her killing other kids in a bloodthirsty sociopolitical spectacle, so what makes things different in Panem?
Three words: The Hunger Games. Wait, one more word: "scapegoat." Wait—oh, just watch the video already.
Oscar Wilde was a beast when it came to wordplay. Oh, maybe that's why Shmoop loves him so much—we're pretty wilde, too.
Heathcliff may not be as much of a romantic hero as Mr. Darcy, but you'll fall in love with him all the same. If you tend to love self-serving and revengeful brooders, that is.
A great marriage begins with a blooming pear tree and ends with a hurricane, rabies, and a murder trial…or something like that.
This novel is all about finding yourself, which hopefully you can accomplish before you find yourself smack dab in the middle of an ocean without a paddle. Or a boat, for that matter.
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we want? Not so much.
Minny pulls quite a stunt in this story. Just try not to make a scene when Grandma Mimi won't tell you what her chocolate cream pie's "secret ingredient" is next Christmas Eve.
It's not your everyday teenager that volunteers to enter a fight to the death, but then again not every teenager has a cool name like "Katniss Everdeen" either. Clearly she was destined for greatness.
The adventures of Lemuel (yes, that is actually his name) will put your childhood "quests" to shame. But at least your sleepovers in the tree house didn't lead you to insanity. Or so we hope...
This video provides a summary of the dystopian novel Divergent. It covers Beatrice Prior’s path from discovering she is Divergent (doesn’t fit neatly into one of the categories of her society) to reinventing herself as Tris in Dauntless, the brave faction, to stopping Erudite from making the Dauntless into Abnegation-killers. Plus, there’s some crazy challenges—what else can you expect from the faction that values bravery?
When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy wife locked up in the attic is probably one of them.