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In The Color Purple, Celie is abused by her father and husband. She leaves her father by marrying Mr. ________, and then leaves Mr. ______, too. Bu...

What is Dracula really about? Just Count Dracula? Or is there more to it than vampires? This video addresses some major ideas in Bram Stoker’s cl...

Meet Emma Woodhouse of Jane Austen's Emma. She’s a rich young woman with a good social life living in 18th-century England. We bet she has an aw...

This video covers the plot of Jane Eyre, a novel by Charlotte Brontë. In it, Jane Eyre, an orphan-turned-governess with a miserable childhood fall...

Can you imagine what it would be like to be without the gift of sight? In "Cathedral," the narrator helps a blind man envision a cathedral by guidi...

The Great Gatsby is set in and around New York City and Long Island. On the big L.I., there are two areas known as "West Egg" and "East Egg." East...

Why did Iago want to destroy Othello? Shmoop amongst yourselves.

A word to the wise: secret marriages don't work out well in Shakespeare plays. Just ask Othello and Desdemona.

Our Town is your town, Shmoopers.

Elizabeth thinks Darcy's a callous jerk; he thinks she’s a gold-digger. You know these two are just MFEO.

Thought that English society was all about hosting balls and finding husbands back in the day? Well, you thought… right. But that doesn't make th...

But soft! What Shmoop through yonder window breaks?

Boy and girl meet, fall in love, and commit suicide in a tomb. You know, your average love story.

This video summarizes F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Jay Gatsby goes from a rich party guy in love with a married woman to dead. W...

Dig up your trench coat, grab your magnifying glass, and stick on that fake mustache (we know you have one): it's time to unleash your inner Sherlo...

Why was Jay Gatsby so great? Was it his ability to get away with bootlegging, his enduring love for Daisy, or his ability to throw epic parties tha...

Take a stroll with us through the shady back alleys of Venice. If you were looking for a relaxing ride through the gondola canals...well, wrong tra...

Oscar Wilde was a beast when it came to wordplay. Oh, maybe that's why Shmoop loves him so much—we're pretty wilde, too.

This novel is all about finding yourself, which hopefully you can accomplish before you find yourself smack dab in the middle of an ocean without a...

If you're looking for this one at the library, we suggest looking between The Color Red and The Color Blue.

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we want? Not so much.

We tend to think of Shakespeare as the timeless author who did nothing but craft beautiful, hilarious plays for our enjoyment. However, the fact is that he was a human being affected by the attitudes and beliefs of his time, just like the rest of us. Sorry to burst your Shakespearean bubble of bliss!

When you're about to marry the love of your life, not many things could stop you. However, finding out that your future hubby is keeping his crazy wife locked up in the attic is probably one of them.

Readers may be already be familiar with Dracula, but what about the mathematician and author, Bram Stoker? And yes, he graduated with a degree in math. We’re not confusing him with The Count from Sesame Street. We won’t make that mistake a seventh time.

Vlad the Impaler was an appropriately named guy, until he went on tropical vacations. Then, he went by Vlad the Imtanner. For some facts that are actually true, check out this video.

Looks, wealth, and a super cool castle to live in… Well...maybe not live in, if you happened to be Dracula. But for the most part, this guy had it made. Check out the video to learn more about the hippest undead cat on the block.

Dracula, Dorian Gray, and Bertha Mason are the cool kids on the block when it comes to Gothic literature. We’re in full favor of them starting a pop group, but we have a feeling Bertha would pull a Beyoncé and leave Gothic Kids on the Block high and dry.

Dracula knows how to charm a lady. Maybe it’s his charisma, maybe it’s his looks, maybe it’s his...hypnotism? Yeah, it’s probably the hypnotism. That seems like an unfair advantage.

Mina must be a wonderful scrapbooker if she was able to put Dracula together using nothing more than letters, journals entries, and newspaper articles. We’d let her join our mom’s scrapbooking club, but something tells us scrapbooks full of undead horror wouldn’t fit in too well with “baby’s first Christmas” and “Lucy bakes her first pie!”

Jonathan and Mina Harker are the ultimate storytelling couple, and you know what they say: the couple that tells stories together, stays together. ...Do they not say that? Watch the video and find out.

Lucy could easily be on the Bachelorette. Y’know...if the Bachelorette started accepting bloodthirsty undead women. Click on the video to find out what characteristics make Lucy so attractive. Ten bucks says it’s the blood crusted on her chin.

Jonathan Harker’s trip from London to Transylvania probably would’ve been much better had his wifi connection been working. What’s a guy to do without the comforts of Candy Crush Saga? ...Wait, was that not in the book? Huh. Better check out this video to find out more about the Modern Age.