What is the point of the brief opening scene (1.1, pp. 3-4)? How about 2.2? Or 3.1?

Is there an explanation for Leontes’ jealousy?

How are we prepared for Leontes’ conversion to the truth (p. 48, III.ii.143-4)? Could he have taken the death of Mamillius another way?

Is “Exit, pursued by a bear” (p. 54, III.iii.57) tragic or comic?

Is the argument made by Polixenes on behalf of the superiority of nature to art (p. 68, IV.iv.88 ff.) also an argument against the marriage of Florize

Why tell the story of the recognitions through minor characters (5.2) rather than show it?

Does Hermione come back to life, or was she never dead?

Why does Veblen say that "temperament" (p. 423) may be the most important difference between the sexes?

Does the survival of vicarious leisure & consumption among middle-class wives support Veblen's theory of the leisure class?

Who is the audience for the mandatory show of "pecuniary strength" (p.437)?

What other explanations might there be for the relatively low level of savings among the urban classes (p. 439)?

When Veblen says that "the term 'waste'...is not to be taken in an odious sense" (p. 444), is he being ironic?

Are the professions with the highest status still those that are the least productive?

Are the activities of human culture, such as art, literature, & music "wasteful" expenditures of behavior, or are they, in Veblen's view, "useful?"

Is there anything in Veblen to remedy current economic conditions?

Why does Eliot only "sometimes" wonder what Krishna meant (DS III)?

Who is the "first-met stranger" of "Little Gidding" II?

What is the relation of the "still point" to the "dance" ("Burnt Norton" II, etc.)?

Is "pattern" discredited in "East Coker" II?

Why are the poems called "quartets?'

Must the reader endorse Eliot's religious views to judge "Four Quartets" a success?

Is "Four Quartets" anti-sex, antisocial, and/or anti-life?

Eliot helped revive Donne's reputation. Are there similarities in their poetry?

Does Donne manage to overcome your disgust with the flea? If so, how?

How does the speaker's argument in "The Flea" change from one stanza to the next?

Can you paraphrase & explicate the 3rd stanza of "The Relic?"

Why the parenthetical swipe at women in ll.3-4 of "The Relic?"

How is it creditable to the lovers of "...Mourning" that they do not understand their love (5th stanza, l.2)?

Is the compass imagery that concludes "...Mourning" confused?

What does the speaker hope to accomplish by asking his beloved's permission to weep before they are separated?

Do the two valedictory poems contradict each other, or can they be reconciled?

Is "the picture of Christ crucified" in the divine meditation "beauteous?"

How do you interpret the horse race in 2.xix-xxix?

Why does Anna confess to her husband when she does (2.xxix.213)?

Is Anna's husband a particularly bad one?

What do you make of the coincidence of the first names of Anna's husband & her lover?

Why does Tolstoy counterpose Levin & Kitty's marriage with Anna & Vronsky's relationship?

Will Levin change again?

Is it Anna herself or the society in which she lives that is more responsible for her unhappiness?

Why does Anna kill herself?

How are we to understand the epigram, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay?"

If M. believes that "our free will has no product more properly its own than...friendship," why does he say it "seized his whole will [pp.107-10]?"

Why does M. believe that "a single dominant friendship" [p. 112] dissolves all other obligations?

Do any of M.'s observations on friendship apply to women?

Are we meant to believe M. when he says, "For myself, I like only pleasant & easy books...[p. 124]?"

How can we determine when "it is time to untie ourselves from society, since we can contribute nothing to it [p. 121]?"

Are friendship & solitude meant for different stages of one's life, or does M. make a case for holding them in a kind of perpetual,moderating balance?

Is the grandmother’s final appeal to the misfit genuine, or just another ploy?

Why aren't the mother or grandmother given a name?

Blog exclusive! Why is the story cast as a family vacation?

Why do Bailey & his family go quietly?

Why do bad things happen to this family?

What is the function of humor in the story?

Blog exclusive! What does this story have to do with the song of the same title? (Click here for lyrics.)

Iago fails to gain promotion & suspects his wife of infidelity with Othello. Are these sufficient reasons for his malice?

Why does Othello fall victim to Iago?

Should Desdemona have anticipated Othello's jealousy, or is jealousy too unpredictable?

What does Desdemona mean by replying to Othello that her sins "are loves I bear to you (V.2.p.133)?"

What is Emilia referring to when she claims Desdemona "was too fond of her most filthy bargain (V.2.p.137)?"

What difference does it make that Othello is black?

Why did Joyce have the boy raised by his aunt & uncle?

Why doesn't the boy buy something for Mangan's sister?

How old is the narrator of "Araby" at the time he tells the story?

Why does the egg get the title role?

What is the night-mask (pp. 228-9)?

Does Julius know that Ma & Janet are dead?

Why do the inhabitants of Umuru owe a sacrifice to Kitikpa?

Why are there three girls rather than one or two?

Is Sammy a typical teenage boy of his time?

Does Sammy quit to impress the girls, or to protest Lengel's treatment of them?

Is "A & P" one of the world's greatest short stories?

Why did Hemingway make the old man deaf (p. 222)?

Which waiter says of the soldier "The guard will pick him up (p. 222)?"

Why is there no music in the older waiter's ideal cafe (p. 225)?

Why does the older waiter stop at the bodega (p. 225)?

Is the setting of the story important?

Why does the author begin his story with an allusion to "Hamlet?"

Why are we told of qualms on Camillo's part (p. 129), but not on Rita's?

Why doesn't Camillo take "another route" (p. 132) when he has the chance?

Who was sending the threatening letters to Camillo?

Is the fortune-teller a symbolic figure?

So what's the lesson (for us)?

How is it that Pierre and Jean find themselves at the same spot in their nocturnal walks (Ch. 2, p. 63)?

Why does Pierre tell others about Jean's inheritance (Marowsko: Ch. 2, p. 67; the barmaid: Ch. 3, p. 75), when he can't bear to think about it?

Why does Pierre change his mind over night about revealing his suspicions to Jean (Ch. 5, pp. 101-2)?

What does it signify that both Pierre and his father find refuge in boats?

Does the absence of admirable characters affect our evaluation of the novel?

Do you agree with the Introduction (p. 9) that this novel is not an overgrown short story?

Does Agamemnon add a proviso (Bk. 3, p. 120) to the deal between Alexandros & Menelaos?

Why is Helen upset at Aphrodite (Bk. 3, pp. 124-5)? What does it mean that she recognizes the goddess?

Why are we told that Akhilleus has a choice between two destinies (Bk. 9, p. 183)?

Why is Akhilleus victorious over Hektor?

Does our selection concentrate too much on battle scenes?

Is anything in The Iliad true?

Did you find Fitzgerald's unconventional spellings (Akhilleus, Hektor, et al.) distracting?

Is Maimonides using philosophy to explain Bible texts, or is he using scripture to support philosophical views?

If matter is a veil over the deity, can knowledge of the world tell us nothing about God?

How are anger & disobedience deficiencies of matter (pp. 84-87)?

Does Maimonides' attitude toward women & slaves distort his view of matter & form (pp. 83-87)?

What is the "great assembly" referred to on p. 88?

How can Maimonides account for moral evil, e.g. injustice, if privations do not have agents?

If someone complained to you that there was more evil than good in the world, would you use Maimonides' arguments (pp. 93 ff.) to dissuade them?

Do Bouvard & Pecuchet represent Flaubert when they agree that "the morality of art rests on the side that flatters [each person's] own interests?"

Ch. 5, p. 133

Did you have difficulty distinguishing the joint thoughts of Bouvard & Pecuchet from those of the narrator?

In the Dictionary, under "Antiques," is Flaubert taking a cynical view of antiques, or mocking the cynical view?

Likewise for "budget," "concision," "concupiscence," "conspirator," "countenance," "face," "references."

How would the novel have been different if it had only one main character?

Turgenev told Flaubert that satire must be short to be readable. Was he right?