Crash Course AP Literature

All the Pretty
Horses by Cormac
McCarthy,
published 1992
(first book of The
Border Trilogy;
received National
Book Award)

Main characters: John Grady Cole, Lacey Rawlins, Jimmy Blevins, and

Alejandra

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Sixteen-year-old John Grady Cole grew up on his

grand-fathers’ ranch. After his grandfather’s death, Cole learns the ranch is to

be sold. He cannot face the idea of living in town, so he convinces his best

friend to travel to Mexico, hoping they will find work as cowboys.

Tags: coming of age, loss of innocence, the nature of evil

Frankenstein by
Mary Shelley,
published 1818

Genre: novel

Setting: 18th century Europe

Main characters: Narrator: Robert Walton (in letters to his sister), Victor

Frankenstein

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: In college, Victor Frankenstein excels at the

sciences and discovers the secret to giving life to the inanimate. He eventually

creates his “monster.” This classic novel explores the results of unchecked

ambition.

Tags: science fiction, horror, effects of ambition

Gulliver’s Travels
by Jonathan Swift,
published 1726

Genre: satire (fictional narrative)

Setting: early 18th century, primarily in Great Britain, but also in fictional

lands such as Brobdingnag

Main characters: Lemuel Gulliver, narrator

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Gulliver, a British surgeon, turns sea captain in four

voyages that reveal to him the worst of human nature.

Tags: satire, fantasy, adventure, politics

Hamlet by William
Shakespeare,
written between
1599 and 1601

Genre: play

Setting: medieval Denmark

Main characters: Hamlet, Claudius, Polonius, Ophelia

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: The ghost of the murdered king of Denmark asks his

son Hamlet to avenge his death.

Tags: foreshadowing, death and suicide, uncertainty of the future, treachery,

moral corruption