Literature
With the development of language, the human imagination has found a way to create and communicate through the written word. A literary work can transport us into a fictional, fantastic new world, describe a fleeting feeling, or simply give us a picture of the past through novels, poems, tragedies, epic works, and other genres. Through literature, communication becomes an art, and it can bridge and bond people and cultures of different languages and backgrounds.
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Featured content, July 28, 2023
6 Fictional Languages You Can Really Learn
Pedich Edhellen? Do you speak Elvish?
Why Is There an R in Mrs.?
There’s no r in missus, so what’s it doing in the abbreviation?
5 Good Books That Inspired Bad Deeds
Words gone wild.
What jobs did Sir Walter Scott have?
What jobs did Sir Walter Scott have?
Celtic literature
Celtic literature, the body of writings composed in Gaelic and the languages derived from it, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, and...
romance
Romance, literary form, usually characterized by its treatment of chivalry, that came into being in France in the mid-12th...
Irish literature
Irish literature, the body of written works produced by the Irish. This article discusses Irish literature written in English...
Latin American literature
Latin American literature, the national literatures of the Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere. Historically,...
Literature Quizzes
Writer’s Digest
With which U.S. state is the writer John Steinbeck closely associated? Test the "state" of your literary knowledge in this...
Greek and Roman Literature: Fact or Fiction?
Was the Trojan Horse a real horse? Did Homer really write the Iliad? Test your knowledge of Greek and Roman literature...
Sherlock Holmes: Fact or Fiction?
Was the first Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles?" From London addresses to famous quotes, grab your magnifying...
Shakespearean Plays: Fact or Fiction?
Is the title character of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet a prince of England? From Twelfth Night to The...
William Shakespeare: Fact or Fiction?
Is William Shakespeare nicknamed "the Bard of Avon?" Did Shakespeare always spell his name one way? Spell check your smarts...
Write vs. Wrong: Fact or Fiction?
Who did Helen Keller dedicate her autobiography to? What was Lewis Carroll’s profession? Sort right from wrong in this quiz...
Indian Literature: Fact or Fiction?
You may be familiar with Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, but how much do you know of Indian literature? Sort...
Famous Writers: Fact or Fiction?
From the Italian Renaissance and Victorian era to India and Canterbury, delve into the lives of Dante, Isaac Asimov, and...
Poetry Puzzle: Fact or Fiction?
Was the first published African American poet a woman? Were Emily Dickinson’s poems widely published during her lifetime?...
A Study of Poems: Fact or Fiction?
In the poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas, how many reindeer does Santa have? Is Xanadu a real place? What king does...
Literature Videos
Literature Subcategories
Folk Literature & Fable
Step into the world of folklore, fables, legends, tall tales, and epics, in which heroes are known to undertake arduous journeys and dragons, fairies, and giants abound. Stories such as these circulated long before systems of writing were developed; ballads, folktales, poems, and the like were transmitted exclusively by word of mouth before written languages took over, and they continue to captivate listeners and readers to this day.
Articles
Fictional Characters
Here you'll find some of your favorite fictional characters from literature, film, television, and the like, whether it's the analytical mastermind Sherlock Holmes and his endearing associate Dr. Watson or the menacing and helmeted Darth Vader, the ill-tempered Donald Duck, or the teenage sleuth Nancy Drew.
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Batman
fictional character
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the Avengers
fictional superhero team
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Robin
fictional character
Journalism
Extra, extra! Although the content and style of journalism and the medium through which it is delivered have varied significantly over the years, journalism has always given us a way to keep up with current events, so that we always have our fingers on the pulse.
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Hunter S. Thompson
American journalist
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Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö
Swedish journalists and authors
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Dorothy Thompson
American journalist and writer
Libraries & Reference Works
Looking to impress your friends with your expansive knowledge of historical events, philosophical concepts, obscure words, and more? We may be biased, but it seems fair enough to say that reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, and textbooks have provided such a service for years (in some cases, hundreds or even thousands of years). You can look for them at your local public library, which likely stores books, manuscripts, journals, CDs, movies, and other sources of information and entertainment.
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Benjamin Spock
American pediatrician
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Ptolemy
Egyptian astronomer, mathematician, and geographer
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Albrecht von Haller
Swiss biologist
Literatures of the World
Literature knows no geographical bounds; authors can be found in nearly all corners of the globe. Find out more about regional literary styles and forms.
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Literary Criticism
Everyone's a critic. But not all literary criticism involves judging the quality of a text; it can also focus on interpreting the meaning of a work or evaluating an author's place in literary history.
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Samuel Taylor Coleridge
British poet and critic
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Northrop Frye
Canadian literary critic
- literary criticism
Literary Terms
Want to be able to distinguish your limericks from your haikus and your paeans from your panegyrics? Dive deep into literary terms and forms.
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epic
literary genre
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epistolary novel
literature
- literature
Nonfiction
The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth! Or that's the idea, at least. Nonfiction works center on facts and real events. Although there is some debate about which kinds of literature qualify as nonfiction, the genre typically includes books in the categories of biography, memoir, science, history, self-help, cooking, health and fitness, business, and more.
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The Feminine Mystique
work by Friedan
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The Diary of a Young Girl
work by Frank
- nonfictional prose
Novels & Short Stories
Whether it's Don Quixote, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby, or The Fall of the House of Usher, novels and short stories have been enchanting and transporting readers for a great many years. There's a little something for everyone: within these two genres of literature, a wealth of types and styles can be found, including historical, epistolary, romantic, Gothic, and realist works, along with many more.
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The Hunchback of Notre Dame
novel by Hugo
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A Farewell to Arms
novel by Hemingway
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Emma
novel by Austen
Oratory
I have a dream... Four score and seven years ago... It's not a fluke that these phrases came to be so widely known and remembered. Truly great and persuasive speeches elicit strong emotional reactions in their audiences and may have broad historical repercussions. Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream speech and Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, quoted above, are two iconic examples of successful oratory, as are Elizabeth I's speech to the troops at Tilbury and Winston Churchill's first speech as prime minister to the House of Commons.
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St. Augustine
Christian bishop and theologian
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St. Ambrose
bishop of Milan
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Isocrates
Greek orator and rhetorician
Plays
All the world's a stage, as Shakespeare put it in As You Like It; and the stage is where you'll find performances of works by such famed playwrights as Anton Chekhov, Eugene O'Neill, and the Bard himself, among many others.
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A Raisin in the Sun
play by Hansberry
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Our Town
play by Wilder
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The Seagull
play by Chekhov
Poetry
Poetry is a vast subject that encompasses much more than just your average Roses are red, violets are blue poem. Delve into the category of literature that Percy Bysshe Shelley called a mirror which makes beautiful that which is distorted; sonnets, haikus, nursery rhymes, epics, and more are included.
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- utopian poetry
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metre
prosody
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sonnet
poetic form