As exams approach, students are often unable to find the right websites to help them prepare. Do not rely on cheap guides or inadequately explained answers on websites and start scrolling through these sites to get information about not just the author but detailed analysis of the theme, the characters, critical essays to support your analysis and also the text that you may need to read for free.

 

• LitCharts

Brought to you by the makers of Sparknotes, the sites hosts material for a large number of books. It is divided into sections of themes, basic summary, elaborated summary along with character sketch that you all can refer to along with a theme tracking feature, timelines for characters and symbols.

 

• Jstor

Lacking critical material for your answers? Jstor is there to help you out with its digital library that contains books, primary sources along with journals. While subscription is necessary in most cases, it does allow you to add up to 3 books/journals in your shelf if you sign up (which is free).

 

• Project Gutenberg

Founded by Micheal S. Hart, Project Gutenberg is the oldest digital library that holds full texts of public domain books that you can view in different formats. Go here to read any of Behn’s play or Donne’s poetry. It is free and legal.

 

• Infoplease

Often to understand the text and certain cultural bound situations, you need information on the socio political scenario of the era when the author wrote along with aspects of the author’s life as well to learn about the development of the plot. On infoplease, you can find factual information about any author, any play and any century that you wish to know of.

 

5) Shakespeare.mit.edu

This electronic source brings to you the complete collection of Shakespeare’s play and poetry that can be accessed for free.

• YouTube

  YouTube since a few years has been emerging as a great source of information for literature students with channels like Crash Course (where John Green teaches you about Romeo and Juliet , Beloved, The Catcher in the Rye etc), Yale Courses (where along with being taught by Yale professors, you also get a glimpse into the classroom if an ivy league university) and Thug Notes (where modern day slangs meet simple summary and analysis of the text).

 
Adarsh Yadav
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