Masterplots

Gr 9 Up—Retaining the place of the series as the premier high school "lit-crit" reference work, this set presents and evaluates 2500 years of the world's most significant literature. Long and short fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama are analyzed in 2200 essays, more than 400 of which have been added since the 1996 edition. Also new to this edition is a set table of contents in each volume. Pieces examining cultural issues (Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Elie Wiesel's Night) and portrayals of modern life (Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything is Illuminated) are well-represented. The alphabetically arranged entries open with a listing of the type of work, its author, the date of the first publication, and, when appropriate, a list of characters; if the piece discusses fiction, the heading also includes information on the type, time, and locale of the plot. Each article provides a "synopsis review" or "essay review," critical evaluation, and further reading recommendations that will encourage and direct deeper inquiry. Several useful indexes are on hand: chronological; geographical (author's provenance); title; author; and, perhaps most valuable from an educator's perspective, a themes and issues index. Purchase of the print collection includes access to the online version to an unlimited number of users. Absolutely worth the price of admission.—Christina Connolly, Clark University, Worcester, MA