AP Literature & Composition

By: Sophocles (441 BC)

"This is a tragedy about Antigone disobeying the King's law by burying her brother, Polynices. In the play, Creon (King) promises death to whoever buried Polynices when he finds out who it is." (240 pages)

By: Kate Chopin (1899)

"The Awakening explores one woman's desire to find and live fully within her true self. Her devotion to that purpose causes friction with her friends and family, and also conflicts with the dominant values of her time." (128 pages)

By: Sylvia Plath (1963)

"The Bell Jar is the story of an ambitious, talented female poet who struggles with mental health, suicide attempts, and her disconnect with society's expectations of her." (244 pages)

By: Aldous Huxley (1932)

"Brave New World presents a futuristic society engineered perfectly around capitalism and scientific efficiency, in which everyone is happy, conform, and content — but only at first glance." (288 pages)

By: Leslie Marmon Silko (1977)

"Ceremony tells the story of Tayo, a young man of mixed Laguna and white descent who overcomes his wartime post-traumatic stress disorder by reconnecting to his Native American heritage." (243 pages)

By: Arthur Miller (1949)

"Death of a Salesman narrates the last 24 hours in the life of 63-year-old Willy Loman, a failed salesman who had a distorted idea of the American Dream and work ethic. The play also explores his relationship with his wife, his sons, and his acquaintances." (139 pages)

By: Miguel De Cervantes (1605)

"Don Quixote portrays the life and insightful journey of Don Quixote de la Mancha, a Spanish man who seems to be losing his mind on his quest to become a knight and restore chivalry alongside a farmer named Sancho Panza." (992 pages)

By: Mary Shelley (1818)

"The novel follows the ambitious scientist Victor Frankenstein, who, driven by a desire to overcome death and unlock the secrets of life, creates a human-like creature from reanimated body parts." (288 pages)

By: Donna Tartt (2013)

"The Goldfinch is a captivating tale of a young boy, Theo, who survives a tragic event. The story follows his journey through life, art, and the seedy underworld, all centered around a priceless painting." (771 pages)

By: Margaret Atwood (1985)

"The Handmaid's Tale is a dystopian novel about a woman's struggles in a totalitarian society where her identity, fertility and freedoms are suppressed." (336 pages)

By: Julia Alvarez (1991)

"How the García Girls Lost Their Accents tells the story of the García family, who flee the Dominican Republic for the United States after their father opposes the brutal Trujillo regime." (336 pages)

By: E.M. Forster (1910)

"Howards End tells the story of two families, the Schlegels and the Wilcoxes, who represent different aspects of society in Edwardian England. Specifically, it follows the Margaret Schlegel, the novel’s protagonist, amid her attempts to manage her own family as she becomes engaged to and marries the widowed Mr. Wilcox." (318 pages) 

By: Amy Tan (1995)

"The Hundred Secret Senses focuses on the difficult and complicated relationship between Olivia and her half-sister, Kwan. Olivia was born to an American mother and a Chinese father, (who died when she was four years old.) Kwan Li, her half-sister, is the product of their father’s first marriage and is twelve years older than Olivia." (368 pages)

By: James Baldwin (1974)

"A young woman embraces her pregnancy while she and her family set out to prove her childhood friend and lover is innocent of a crime he didn't commit." (197 pages)

By: Ralph Ellison (1952)

"Invisible Man is the story of a young, college-educated black man struggling to survive and succeed in a racially divided society that refuses to see him as a human being." (624 pages)

By: Charlotte Bronte (1847)

"Jane Eyre is a first-person narrative told from the perspective of Jane, a seemingly 'plain' girl who meets a lot of challenges in life. The novel presents Jane's life from childhood to adulthood." (624 pages)

By: Octavia Butler (1979)

"The story follows Dana, an African-American writer living in Los Angeles in 1976, who finds herself inexplicably transported back in time to the antebellum South. Dana discovers that her time-travel episodes are linked to the life of Rufus Weylin, a white slaveholder, and her own ancestry." (288 pages)

By: Celeste Ng (2017)

"It is 1997 in Shaker Heights, the planned suburban community where the Richardson family lives. The four Richardson children—Lexie, Trip, Moody, and Izzy—attend high school. The story begins with the house on fire, and Izzy, whom the others suspect of setting it, has disappeared. The story then shifts to eleven months earlier and reveals all of the events that lead up to the fire." (368 pages)

By: William Shakespeare (1606)

"Three witches tell the Scottish general Macbeth that he will be King of Scotland. Encouraged by his wife, Macbeth kills the king, becomes the new king, and kills more people out of paranoia." (108 pages) 

By: Herman Melville (1851)

"The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for vengeance against Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that bit off his leg on the ship's previous voyage." (464 pages)

By: Richard Wright (1940)

"Native Son is a tragic story about Bigger Thomas, a young black man who accidentally murders a young white woman. The novel emphasizes race relations in America and the psychological effects that racism has on black Americans." (544 pages)

By: Ocean Vuong (2019)

"Flickering between wartime Vietnam and early thousands Hartford, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous explores themes of race, nationality, gender, and the question of what constitutes a family. The story follows Little Dog, a poet in his early thirties with ambivalent feelings about his escape from his decaying New England town." (256 pages)

By: Ken Kesey (1962)

"Set in a mental institution, the book focuses mainly on the antics of the rebellious Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to serve his sentence for battery and gambling in the hospital rather than at a prison work farm. The head administrative nurse, Nurse Ratched, rules the ward with absolute authority and little medical oversight." (272 pages)

By: Nella Larsen (1929)

"Passing tells the story of a friendship between two African American women in the 1920s. Both women are light-skinned and able to pass as white in segregated America." (176 pages)

By: Lorraine Hansberry (1959)

"A Raisin in the Sun portrays a few weeks in the life of the Youngers, a Black family living on the South Side of Chicago in the 1950s. When the play opens, the Youngers are about to receive an insurance check for $10,000. This money comes from the deceased Mr. Younger’s life insurance policy. Each of the adult members of the family has an idea as to what he or she would like to do with this money." (151 pages)

By: Colson Whitehead (2009)

"Benji Cooper is one of the few Black students at an elite prep school in Manhattan. But every summer, Benji escapes to the Hamptons, to Sag Harbor, where a small community of Black professionals have built a world of their own. He is searching for himself. This is a coming-of-age story that is humorous and touching." (352 pages)

By: Toni Morrison (1977)

"Song of Solomon explores the quest for cultural identity. Based on the African-American folktale about enslaved Africans who escape slavery by flying back to Africa, it tells the story of Macon "Milkman" Dead, a young man alienated from himself and estranged from his family, his community, and his historical and cultural roots." (352 pages)

By: Lynn Nottage (2017)

"Sweat is located in Reading, Pennsylvania, one of America’s poorest cities with a poverty rate of over 40%. The play is also set at a pivotal transitional time in American industry, when many longstanding factory jobs were outsourced to other countries. The play examines the intersecting stories of workers on strike." (144 pages)

By: Zadie Smith (2016)

"The story takes place in London, New York and West Africa, and focuses on two girls who can tap dance, alluding to Smith's childhood love of tap dancing. It's about a woman's journey from childhood to young adulthood, tracing her shifting relationships and evolving sense of identity." (464 pages)

By: William Shakespeare (1610)

"Set on a remote island, the story follows Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, who uses his magical powers to create a tempest that shipwrecks his usurping brother, Antonio, and other nobles on the island." (108 pages)

By: Tommy Orange (2018)

"There There is a powerful novel that explores the lives of Native Americans living in urban Oakland. It delves into their struggles, identity, and the complexities of modern Native American life." (304 pages)

By: Virginia Woolf (1927)

"To the Lighthouse is made up of three powerfully charged visions into the life of the Ramsay family, living in a summer house off the rocky coast of Scotland. It's a novel that takes us on a journey through the inner thoughts and emotions of its characters, exploring themes of perception, time, and the nature of art." (160 pages)

By: Friedrich Durrenmatt (2010)

"The Visit is a play that tells the story of a woman returning to her hometown after forty-five years to exact revenge on the man that betrayed her—or, as she puts it, to 'buy justice.'" (112 pages)