summaries of classic and contemporary literature

This is a list of Britannica articles that include summaries and analyses of significant classic and contemporary literature. It is organized alphabetically by title. These articles are brief guides that summarize each book’s plot, identify its characters and themes, provide insights into the book’s author, and describe how readers have reacted to the book across history.

• 1Q84: summary | analysis
• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: summary
• All Quiet on the Western Front: summary | analysis
• Anne of Green Gables: summary
• Around the World in Eighty Days: summary | analysis
• The Awakening: summary | analysis
• The Bell Jar: summary | analysis
• Beloved: summary | analysis
• Bleak House: summary | analysis
• The Bluest Eye: summary | analysis
• Brave New World: summary | analysis
• The Call of the Wild: summary | analysis
• The Castle of Otranto: summary | analysis
• Catch-22: summary | analysis
• The Catcher in the Rye: summary | analysis
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: summary | analysis
• Charlotte’s Web: summary | analysis
• A Clockwork Orange: summary | analysis
• The Color Purple: summary | analysis
• The Colour of Magic: summary | analysis
• The Count of Monte Cristo: summary | analysis
• Crime and Punishment: summary | analysis
• David Copperfield: summary | analysis
• Doctor Faustus: summary | analysis
• Don Quixote: summary | analysis
• Dracula: summary | analysis
• Emma: summary | analysis
• The Fall of the House of Usher: summary | analysis
• A Farewell to Arms: summary | analysis
• The Fellowship of the Ring: summary | analysis
• Finnegans Wake: summary | analysis
• Frankenstein: summary | analysis
• The Grapes of Wrath: summary | analysis
• Great Expectations: summary | analysis
• The Great Gatsby: summary | analysis
• Gulliver’s Travels: summary | analysis
• The Handmaid’s Tale: summary | analysis
• Heidi: summary | analysis
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: summary
• The Hound of the Baskervilles: summary
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame: summary | analysis
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings: summary | analysis
• I, Robot: summary | analysis
• In Cold Blood: summary | analysis
• Invisible Man: summary | analysis
• The Island of Doctor Moreau: summary | analysis
• Jane Eyre: summary | analysis
• A Journey to the Centre of the Earth: summary | analysis
• The Jungle: summary | analysis
• The Little Prince: summary | analysis
• Madame Bovary: summary | analysis
• Mary Poppins: summary | analysis
• The Master and Margarita: summary
• Middlemarch: summary | analysis
• Moby Dick: summary | analysis
• Mrs. Dalloway: summary | analysis
• The Name of the Rose: summary | analysis
• Nineteen Eighty-four: summary | analysis
• The Old Man and the Sea: summary | analysis
• Oliver Twist: summary | analysis
• The Picture of Dorian Gray: summary | analysis
• The Pilgrim’s Progress: summary | analysis
• The Adventures of Pinocchio: summary | analysis
• Pippi Longstocking: summary
• Pride and Prejudice: summary | analysis
• Rebecca: summary | analysis
• The Satanic Verses: summary | analysis
• The Scarlet Letter: summary | analysis
• The Secret Garden: summary | analysis
• Sense and Sensibility: summary | analysis
• The Shining: summary | analysis
• Slaughterhouse-Five: summary | analysis
• The Sound and the Fury: summary | analysis
• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: summary | analysis
• The Stranger: summary | analysis
• Stranger in a Strange Land: summary | analysis
• The Sun Also Rises: summary | analysis
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit: summary
• To Kill A Mockingbird: summary | analysis
• Treasure Island: summary | analysis
• The Trial: summary | analysis
• Ulysses: summary | analysis
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being: summary | analysis
• Walden: summary
• War and Peace: summary | analysis
• The War of the Worlds: summary | analysis
• Where the Wild Things Are: summary
• The Wind in the Willows: summary
• Winnie-the-Pooh: summary
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: summary | analysis