Satire

Originally published in 1994, Thank You for Smoking is a political satire novel centered around Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for the fictional Academy of Tobacco Studies, an organization founded by the tobacco industry with the true purpose of countering negative scientific data and public condemnation of tobacco. Nick’s job has made him a pariah, as he has humiliated everyone from grieving relatives of cancer victims to federal employees. He also must watch his back, as... Read Thank You for Smoking Summary

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The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler, originally published in 1959, follows the exploits of a working-class Jewish boy growing up in a turbulent neighborhood and family in Montreal, Canada. Told in four parts, the novel chronicles Duddy’s relentless pursuit of higher social status and monetary success. Duddy travels on both sides of the law in his business dealings, keeping company with moguls and outlaws alike. He ends up working in industries that he... Read The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz Summary

The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, published in 1968, is a debut novel by Ayi Kwei Armah, one of the most noteworthy writers of postcolonial Ghana. Armah was born in Takoradi, Ghana, in 1939. He was educated at schools in Ghana and private institutions in America, including Harvard University. He has also worked as a translator, scriptwriter, and a university lecturer.The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born focuses on life in post-independence Ghana and... Read The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born Summary

Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, is a critically acclaimed, sprawling saga of the vivid world of New York City in the 1980s. Modeled after Charles Dickens’s socially realistic novels, the book is a satire on the excesses and disparities of New York society. Powered by diverse, opinionated characters and iconic locations, the plot follows the wealthy, married Manhattan investment broker Sherman McCoy as his American Dream begins to unravel. Sherman’s... Read The Bonfire of the Vanities Summary

Written in the late 1300s, Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is one of the greatest surviving works of Middle English literature, and was a huge influence on later writers from Shakespeare to Keats, among many others.This guide refers to Neville Coghill’s modern English translation (Penguin, 2003).Plot SummaryThe Canterbury Tales tells the story of a group of pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the holy shrine of St. Thomas Becket. This is a story... Read The Canterbury Tales Summary

The Canterville Ghost, by Oscar Wilde, is a story about forgiveness, love, and the clash of Old World and New World beliefs. Through a satirical approach, Wilde highlights the shortcomings of each set of beliefs and how the characters overcome those shortcomings to bridge the two worlds. The story begins with Hiram Otis and Lord Canterville discussing the ghost that haunts Canterville Chase, where the Otis family will be living. When they arrive, they find... Read The Canterville Ghost Summary

When the story begins, a man named Erwin Martin, who never smokes, is buying cigarettes. Mr. Martin works for a company called F & S, where he is in charge of the filing department. Mr. Martin has already been contemplating—and planning—the murder of a coworker for over a week. Two years prior, a woman named Ulgine Barrows joined F & S, where she quickly proposed changes to the department—changes that Mr. Martin finds intolerable.Later, as... Read The Catbird Seat Summary

John Collier (1901-1980) is best known for his short stories, many of which are constructed as fantastic parables of modern day life. He also wrote poetry and screenplays, and was a developer for the television show “The Twilight Zone.” “The Chaser” first appeared in his short story collection Fancies and Goodnights, which won the 1952 Edgar Award and the 1952 International Fantasy Award. It is a cautionary parable of love, capitalism, and the wisdom of... Read The Chaser Summary

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“The Conversion of the Jews,” originally published in 1958 in the literary magazine The Paris Review, is a satirical postmodern short story by American novelist Philip Roth (1933-2018). The short story was later included in a collection of Roth’s stories titled Goodbye Columbus (1959), which won the National Book Award for Fiction. This guide references the version collected in The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998).“The Conversion of the Jews” centers around the precocious and... Read The Conversion of the Jews Summary

The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) is a short novel by Thomas Pynchon that handles topics related to the US counterculture movement and the 1960s at large. In the novel, Oedipa Maas unearths a centuries-old conspiracy about warring mail-delivery firms. This discovery leads her along an absurdist investigation of the firms and their motivations. The novel has been heralded as one of the best English-language novels of the 20th century and is considered a primary... Read The Crying of Lot 49 Summary

Anton Chekhov was born in Russia in 1860. His most celebrated works include the plays Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard and the short stories “The Peasants” and “The Lady With the Dog.” Chekhov was no stranger to comedy, but his humor is often couched within serious, unsettling situations, featuring characters who are unable or unwilling to overcome their shortcomings and help themselves. “The Death of a Government Clerk” contains some of these same elements... Read The Death of a Government Clerk Summary

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The Devil Wears Prada, published in 2004, is the debut novel of author Lauren Weisberger. It tells the tale of a hapless assistant working for a tyrannical boss in the fashion industry.The story takes place largely in present-day New York City, mostly in the offices of a high-fashion magazine called Runway. The central character, Andrea Sachs (who uses the nickname Andy), narrates the story from the first-person perspective, and the events she describes transpire over... Read The Devil Wears Prada Summary

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Published in 1969, The Edible Woman was Margret Atwood’s first novel and established her reputation as a significant contemporary novelist. The Edible Woman follows recently engaged Marian McAlpin as she attempts to reconcile her need for personal autonomy with the gendered expectations inherent within the roles of a wife and mother. As Marian begins to feel a loss of identity, her body suddenly refuses certain foods, particularly meat. To reflect the inner struggle her protagonist... Read The Edible Woman Summary

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