Audio only

How to Read Literature Like a Professor [Third Edition]

A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Understanding Literature, from The Great Gatsby to The Hate You GiveBy Thomas C. FosterNarrated by David de Vries
Length11h 39m

About this audiobook

Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest—a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to a diverse range of writing and literary devices that enrich these works, including symbols, themes, and contexts—teaches you how to make your everyday reading experience richer and more rewarding. While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor. What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun. The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi's Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea. ?Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Audiobook details

Rating★★★★ 3.9 (34K)
Includes Goodreads, Amazon
GenreLiterary Classics
Length11 hrs 39 mins
Narrated byDavid de Vries
FormatAudiobook
Publish dateNov 5, 2024
LanguageEnglish

More from Thomas C. Foster

To Kill a MockingbirdHarper Lee12h 18m4.5 (7.4M)$29 · $0.00
These Precious DaysAnn Patchett11h 14m4.5 (45.2K)$29 · $0.00
Pride & Prejudice (Annotated)Jane Austen15h 10m4.7 (13.3K)$2 · $0.00
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m4.7 (2.8K)$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m4.7 (8.9K)$46 · $0.00
This Side of Paradise - The Original 1920 Edition (Annotated)F. Scott Fitzgerald11h 30m4.6 (1.6K)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m4.6 (9.3K)$18 · $0.00
The Complete Histories / History Plays of William Shakespeare (Annotated)William Shakespeare29h 42m4.6 (2.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m4.7 (359)$29 · $0.00
The Old Man and the Sea (Annotated)Ernest Hemingway4h 27m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Twelfth Night (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography (Annotated)William Shakespeare, Sidney Lee16h 38m4.6 (1.4K)$2 · $0.00
Henry V (The Play, Historical Background and Analysis of the Character in the Play)William Shakespeare, William Hazlitt8h 50m4.6 (1.3K)$1.99 · $0.00
H. P. LOVECRAFT Ultimate Collection: Novellas, Short Stories, Poetry & Essays (Annotated)H. P. Lovecraft12h 28m4.6 (2.3K)$2 · $0.00
Time RegainedMarcel Proust16h 8m4.5 (10.6K)$1.99 · $0.00
Lessons in TruthH. Emilie3h 50m4.6 (1.4K)$4.70 · $0.00
TORAH - Bilingual Edition: English/Hebrew (Annotated)Max Margolis, JPS28h 26m4.6 (1K)$2 · $0.00
Betty Crocker picture cooky bookBetty Crocker, Inc. General Mills2h 13m4.5 (6.5K)$1 · $0.00
The Complete Tales of Beatrix PotterBeatrix Potter3h 36m4.5 (75K)$3 · $0.00
Anne of Green GablesL. M. Montgomery11h 1m4.5 (1.2M)$2.30 · $0.00
Crime and Punishment (The Unabridged Garnett Translation) (Annotated)Fyodor Dostoevsky24h 25m4.5 (15.4K)$1.99 · $0.00

You may also like

MemoriesF. Max Müller3h 17m4.0 (1.2K)$1 · $0.00
CurepediaSimon Price33h 40m4.3 (254)$53 · $0.00
The Bona Fide Legend of Cool Papa BellLonnie Wheeler9h 56m4.3 (318)$20 · $0.00
The Big FellaJane Leavy22h 46m4.0 (3.2K)$46 · $0.00
Curiosities of Literature (Vol. 1-3) (Annotated)Isaac Disraeli72h 43m4.0 (479)$2 · $0.00
The Symbolism of FreemasonryAlbert Mackey12h 33m4.2 (751)$1 · $0.00
Why Bob Dylan MattersRichard F. Thomas9h 15m3.9 (1.8K)$29 · $0.00
Twilight of the GodsSteven Hyden10h 55m4.0 (2.8K)$29 · $0.00
Your Song Changed My LifeBob Boilen8h 31m3.6 (1.9K)$26 · $0.00
Pasta, Pane, VinoMatt Goulding9h 9m4.3 (985)$29 · $0.00
The Sound of the MachineKarl Bartos19h 35m4.5 (370)$30
Fire IslandJack Parlett6h 49m$24 · $0.00
Some Account of the Life of Mr. William Shakespear (1709)Nicholas Rowe1h 36m$2 · $0.00
Chess History and Reminiscences (Annotated)Henry Bird8h 13m3.3 (90)$2 · $0.00
David Cusick's Sketches of Ancient History of the Six NationsDavid Cusick2h 14m4.0 (229)$1 · $0.00
Miss ChloeA. J. Verdelle12h 27m3.9 (212)$29 · $0.00
Phases of Irish History (Annotated)Eoin Mac Neill8h 20m4.6 (11)$1.99 · $0.00
Custom and MythAndrew Lang8h 13m3.8 (193)$2 · $0.00
Mexican PaintingJean Charlot3h 22m$18 · $0.00
Broken SilenceMichael G. Ankerich8h 6m3.9 (40)$20 · $0.00