Crash Course AP Literature

serialized from
December 1860 to
August 1861

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: A poor young boy finds himself the recipient of

some money from an unknown benefactor and he seeks to improve his status in

life.

Tags: love, ambition, self-improvement, social class, symbolism,

foreshadowing

Jane Eyre by
Charlotte Brontë,
published 1847

Genre: novel, (Gothic and romantic) English

Setting: early 19th century, England

Main characters: Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Jane Eyre, as an adult, tells the story of her young

life so far, from an orphan to a love-torn woman.

Tags: love, self determination, social class, religion

Moby Dick by
Herman Melville,
published 1851

Genre: novel

Setting: 1830s or 1840s, aboard the whaling ship The Pequod, upon the

Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans

Main characters: Ishmael (narrator), Captain Ahab, Moby Dick (the white

whale)

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Defying all odds, Captain Ahab commits his crew to

hunting down and destroying Moby Dick because he sees him as representing

all that is evil.

Tags: epic adventure, allegory, quest, hubris

The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain,
published 1884

Genre: episodic/picaresque novel

Setting: Mississippi River mid 1800s

Main characters: Huckleberry Finn, Jim, Tom Sawyer, Miss Watson

Main Plot/Idea/Concept: Huck, abused by his alcoholic father, escapes with a

runaway slave named Jim. He struggles with whether or not to turn Jim in to the

authorities.

Tags: satire, American themes/setting, slavery, pragmatism vs. romanticism,

dialect

Genre: novel

Setting: St. Petersburg, Russia and a Siberian prison