Miss Vaccaro's Webpage
Menu
AP Literature SUmmer Reading 2016
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive
it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a
durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the
anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern
inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his
existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.
-- Book description from Amazon.com
The Stranger is not merely one of the most widely read novels of the 20th century, but one of the books likely to outlive
it. Written in 1946, Camus's compelling and troubling tale of a disaffected, apparently amoral young man has earned a
durable popularity (and remains a staple of U.S. high school literature courses) in part because it reveals so vividly the
anxieties of its time. Alienation, the fear of anonymity, spiritual doubt--all could have been given a purely modern
inflection in the hands of a lesser talent than Camus, who won the Nobel Prize in 1957 and was noted for his
existentialist aesthetic. The remarkable trick of The Stranger, however, is that it's not mired in period philosophy.
-- Book description from Amazon.com
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader understand the turbulent and dynamic world of Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg. When Raskolnikov, a young student, is driven to murder by desperate poverty and a belief in his own superiority, he is plunged into a dark hell of guilt and delirium. Set in the gloomy slums of St. Petersburg in the 1860s, this stark and gripping psychological tale describes a man’s search for redemption in the face of suffering and a society’s search for meaning in the chaos of a changing world. Shortly after returning from a decade-long exile in Siberia, Dostoevsky fled creditors only to end up living in destitution in Austria. Staying in a hotel he couldn’t afford, with barely enough money for tea, he composed this
masterfully modern examination of a murderer's mind.
-- Book description from Amazon.com.
This Prestwick House Literary Touchstone Edition™ includes a glossary and reader’s notes to help the modern reader understand the turbulent and dynamic world of Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg. When Raskolnikov, a young student, is driven to murder by desperate poverty and a belief in his own superiority, he is plunged into a dark hell of guilt and delirium. Set in the gloomy slums of St. Petersburg in the 1860s, this stark and gripping psychological tale describes a man’s search for redemption in the face of suffering and a society’s search for meaning in the chaos of a changing world. Shortly after returning from a decade-long exile in Siberia, Dostoevsky fled creditors only to end up living in destitution in Austria. Staying in a hotel he couldn’t afford, with barely enough money for tea, he composed this
masterfully modern examination of a murderer's mind.
-- Book description from Amazon.com.