Challenging Authority

Margaret Atwood’s novel MaddAddam, published in 2013, completes her post-apocalyptic MaddAddam trilogy that begins with Oryx and Crake (2003) and continues with The Year of the Flood (2009). The trilogy takes place in the aftermath of a destroyed technological dystopia, a world in which corporations have totalitarian control. Atwood, an award-winning Canadian author, has been a prolific writer of poetry, short stories, novels, and many other forms since the early 1960s. She is known for... Read MaddAddam Summary

Published in 2005, Angie Sage’s Magyk is a middle grade fantasy novel and the first book in the Septimus Heap series. The story follows the adventures of the Heap family, particularly focusing on the seventh son, Septimus Heap. The narrative unfolds with the mysterious disappearance of Septimus on the day of his birth, leading to a magical journey filled with enchanted forests, dark wizards, and hidden secrets. The Heap family navigates a world brimming with... Read Magyk Summary

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Mean Spirit (1990) is the first novel by Chickasaw author Linda Hogan. Nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991, it was well-reviewed and established Hogan as an important Indigenous author. The novel tells the story of what came to be known as the Osage murders, a string of killings in Oklahoma’s Osage country after oil was discovered on Osage land. The murders were ultimately discovered to have been the result of not only... Read Mean Spirit Summary

Measure for Measure is a play written by William Shakespeare. It was first performed in 1604 and is considered one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays” because of its ambiguous tone that shifts between tragedy and comedy. Shakespeare was a prolific poet and playwright during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era. While his earlier works were primarily comedies and histories, Measure for Measure was written during the period in which Shakespeare began to write many of his most... Read Measure For Measure Summary

Medea is a tragic play written by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It was composed in 431 BCE as Euripides’s entry for the Dionysia, an important religious festival and theatrical competition in the city of Athens. Though Medea placed third in the competition that year, it has since become one of Euripides’s most popular works, enjoying special attention for its nuanced treatment of revenge and domestic strife and for the complexity of its lead character... Read Medea Summary

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Publius Ovidius Naso, known more commonly today as Ovid, originally composed his Metamorphoses in Latin and completed the work around 8 CE. The Metamorphoses combines hundreds of Greco-Roman mythological tales into 15 books of poetry, brief summaries of which follow.This guide follows A. D. Melville’s 1986 translation for Oxford World’s Classics, and citations reference page numbers rather than line numbers. This guide follows Melville’s divisions of the various myths, although not all editions will make... Read Metamorphoses Summary

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Miss Julie is a naturalistic play produced in 1888 by the Swedish playwright and novelist August Strindberg. The play follows the acute romantic entanglement of the three characters: Miss Julie, a young aristocratic woman; Jean, her father’s well-read and well-traveled valet; and Kristine, the cook. Through the psychological battle of wills between Julie and the ruthless Jean, the play explores themes of Class Conflict and Social Hierarchy, Gender Roles and Power Dynamics, and The Complexity... Read Miss Julie Summary

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Mockingjay, published in 2010 by Scholastic, is the third novel in Suzanne Collins’s bestselling Hunger Games series. The series follows the life of Katniss Everdeen, an adolescent girl living in the futuristic dystopia of Panem. Mockingjay focuses on the civil war between the 13 districts of Panem and the oppressive government of the Capitol. Through Katniss’s experiences in the war, Collins explores cycles of oppression, the meaning of love in wartime, and the power of... Read Mockingjay Summary

Published in 1722, The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe tells the life story of a woman who carves her own path through late 17th-century England and North America. Like Defoe’s first novel, Robinson Crusoe, this work also tells the tale of a singular individual who overcomes adversity—in her case, extreme poverty—to become considerably wealthy. Moll Flanders is a wife, a thief, a sex worker, and an impresario. She is... Read Moll Flanders Summary

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