Title: Great Books on the Internet
1Great Books on the Internet
Dave Andrews
Heather Caddell
Sara Jones
2Contents
- Overview
- Great Books on the Web
- Case Studies
- Research and Interpretation
3Overview
- With the dawn of the age where most everything
can be accessed through the Internet, literature
is becoming widely available. As opposed to
buying several books, a computer will suffice as
a library of works. If the interest grows to
read Macbeth, navigating the web can get the work
for you along with notes or research on the text.
Great Books on the Internet displays sites,
which contain full text and how to research great
books, for those who want to discover the library
contained in your computer.
4Great Books on the Web
- There are thousands of internet sights that
provide full text versions of classic literature,
and even some that have contemporary literature. - I have picked three sights that I feel do a
particularly good job in organizing and making
these books easily accessible to the average
computer user.
5http//www.bartleby.com
- This is a company that sells books, but it also
has an extensive library of full texts online
separated into categories, such as fiction,
non-fiction and reference. - It is organized by author and then by individual
works. - The works are split into chapters which makes the
whole site functional and easy to use.
6http//www.literature.org/
- Although this site has less of a selection as the
previous one, it is organized quite well and easy
to use. - Each full text version is in an easily readable
font and formatted so the text doesnt fill the
entire screen. - I picked this site for its conducive reading
conditions.
7http//www.concordance.com/
- Although this site is not as esthetically
pleasing as the first two, it has a wide variety
of ways to search for the text you are looking
for. - Once the text is chosen there are many ways to
choose which part of the book you would like to
read. For example, instead of just picking a
chapter, key words can be typed in to read about
a certain theme in the text.
8Case Studies
- Macbeth
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Beloved
9Macbeth
- http//www.macbethessays.com/
-
- As was stated earlier in this presentation,
sometimes you just cant trust what you will get
off of the web. When I started my search for
Macbeth, I was looking for sites that might have
some kind of critical essays about the play.
Instead, I got this site which offers to let you
buy mediocre (at best) essays right off of the
Internet. At least, for those of us who are above
purchasing our homework, the site did offer some
pointers on writing an essay, should you actually
choose to do it the old fashioned way. These
pointers were good ones to follow, but they were
also ones that have been drilled into our head
since Junior High. The bottom-line? Dont waste
your time, it certainly wont tell you anything
new. -
-
-
10Macbeth
- http//students.roanoke.edu/t/tnunez/MACBETHomepag
e.html - This website was actually pretty good at giving
information about the play, Shakespeare, and the
time frame in general. Background information is
given over the actual person Macbeth, as well as
historical information about the play itself.
There is also a section that deals with witches
and the role they play within the piece. This
includes links to related web sites as well as
specific references to witches from within the
play. - One of the main features that I really enjoyed
about this website was the fact that it gave
information on the history of Scotland and its
clans. Each character is listed according to
which clan they belong to in the play. An example
of their tartan is also given and a description
about the clan itself. I never saw any
information like this on the other websites I
examined, and thought that it was a very unique
way to approach the play. - There is also a final section within this site
that is devoted to art that is inspired by
Shakespeare. This is a good opportunity to gather
pictures for a presentation or simply to enjoy
some one elses interpretation of a beautiful
piece of literature. Several good links are given
throughout this site and the information is
arranged in a way that is both attractive to the
eye and easy to follow.
11Macbeth
- http//library.thinkquest.org/2888/
- This site was very impressive and contained
quite a wealth of information. It even begins
with a forward that provides instructions for
optimum use of the site. This site contains the
entire text of the play and it can be linked to
through various acts and scenes as well as read
straight through. To help aid in the reading of
the piece, a glossary is provided as well as
various links which lead to discussions of themes
and so forth. - Reviews of several different editions of the
play are also available to make sure that you
select the copy that would be best suited to your
needs. This site is a total multi media
presentation that incorporates text as well as
pictures, audio excerpts, and scene videos. There
is also an interactive zone where you can post
any questions or information that you may have
about the play. These will then be responded to
by the Macbeth Discussion Board, as well as
others who may be enjoying the site. - Finally, this site provides a lengthy list of
other sites as well as a small abstract about
what they include within them. Several of these
links also seemed to prove worth while and would
probably be helpful to research.
12The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.sjsu.edu/depts/steinbec/srchome.html
- This web site turned out to be the official
site for the San Jose State Colleges Center for
Steinbeck Studies. As a result, roughly about
half of it deals with the classes and
administration of the center. However, there is
still valuable information to be gained from
here. - One of the main things that I liked about this
site was that interpretations of its text are
available in French or Spanish as well. This
would allow people who were not native English
speakers to also access the information
presented. As far as content is concerned, there
are a few areas which might prove to be helpful. - There is a list provided of Steinbecks life
works along with the year in which they were
published. Also, there is a fairly detailed
biography of his life which includes time lines,
pictures, and other visual aids. Several
recommended web sites are also given. Many of
which seemed to be fairly developed sites with
good information.
13The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.teachwithmovies.com/guides/grapes-of-wr
ath.html - My first impulse upon encountering this site was
to simply leave it and explore another. After
looking at it for a few minutes, however, I
decided that it might actually be of some value,
particularly for teaching majors. - Obviously the subject of this web site is using
movies in the classroom. Here, the example is the
Grapes of Wrath. The site starts out by giving
basic information about the movie such as who
starred in it, what year it was made, etc. Then,
however, it goes on to list the benefits that
would and the possible problems that might occur
if the film were to be shown. - Helpful background information is also given as
to the historical context of the movie and the
piece from which the film is based, in this case,
Steinbecks novel. The themes of the piece are
explored in detail and several other pieces of
literature or film which share parallel themes
are suggested. - Finally, at the end of the site we are given a
list of discussion questions that a teacher may
wish to ask her class. I thought that these could
be especially helpful if someone was trying to
develop a lesson plan.
14The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.go.com./WebDir/Arts_and_Humanities/Book
s_and_ - Literature/All_authors/S_U/Steinbeck_Jo
hn/Grapes_of_ - Wrath_The
- This web page is helpful and short. It doesnt
have any real information on the piece, it is
simply a list of web pages that are related to
Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath. Many of these
proved to be helpful and all of the sites
provided seemed to be of the more academic
variety. -
15The Grapes of Wrath
- http//home.pacific.net.au/greg.hub/grapes.html\
- This page was by far the best that I could find
on Steinbeck and his novel. In fact, I think it
was one of the best sites that I have ever come
across for any novel. The thing is absolutely
huge! There are several special features included
in this site. - One of these is the fact that a summary is given
of the piece, but it is very detailed and can be
linked to by chapter. This breaking down of the
book into smaller segments creates room for a
lot more detail. Also, if you are focusing on a
particular portion of the novel, you dont have
to scroll through everything else to reach it. - There is also a forum area available where
questions or comments can be posted and responded
to. From the amount of material in there, it
seemed that the place was actually pretty busy. -
16The Grapes of Wrath
- One of the neatest features of this web site was
that besides having several critical essays and
discussions of theme available, it actually
provided a format for which to write a paper.
There are several different topics which are
given such as imagery and when you select one,
it will link you to an outline that will have
questions already arranged in a nice, coherent
package. While it is obviously not necessary to
follow the outline, the questions that they
contain are very good starting points when you
are beginning to write your paper. - There is also a section in which one can read a
variety of book reviews over the novel and see
what the critics thought of Steinbecks work when
it was first published. - A variety of other links provide historical
information on the author as well as the piece,
and even explore various related topics such as
the Depression, Woody Guthrie, and Operation
Grapes of Wrath. Various links to other Internet
web sites are also provided. -
-
-
17The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.awerty.addr.com/grapes2.html
- This site would be helpful in gathering
background information. It provides character
overviews as well as a fairly detailed summary of
the plot. One of the things that I thought made
this site stand out a little is the fact that it
has a section for commentary in which some of the
writing techniques are given attention -
-
-
18The Grapes of Wrath
http//www.sjsu.edu/depts/steinbec/srchome.html
This web site turned out to be the official site
for the San Jose State Colleges Center for
Steinbeck Studies. As a result, roughly about
half of it deals with the classes and
administration of the center. However, there is
still valuable information to be gained from
here. One of the main things that I liked about
this site was that interpretations of its text
are available in French or Spanish as well. This
would allow people who were not native English
speakers to also access the information
presented. As far as content is concerned, there
are a few areas which might prove to be
helpful. There is a list provided of Steinbecks
life works along with the year in which they were
published. Also, there is a fairly detailed
biography of his life which includes time lines,
pictures, and other visual aids. Several
recommended web sites are also given. Many of
which seemed to be fairly developed sites with
good information.
19Beloved
http//www.az.com/andrade/morrison/start.html
This site was fairly decent for being a non
academic site. It is posted by a fan of
Morrisons, and she makes a point of stating that
she is not an authority. However, the site does
examine the use of symbolism in the text of
Beloved with suporting citations from the text
itself. Also, there is a list of frequently asked
questions which she responds to rather well. The
bottom line? This site is a good one to get your
wheels turning about the book. If you are doing
an official academic paper, however, you might
want to find a source with more credibility.
20Beloved
http//www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorriso
n/beloved.htm There wasnt much meat to this
site, unfortunately. A few critical essays are
provided which offer a pretty good insight into
the text. The only thing that I really considered
worthwhile, however, were that the links this
site offers to other sites are pretty decent and
would probably yield more information than this
site.
21Beloved
http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/mmaynard/Morrison/biog
raph.html This was one of the better sites that
I found over Beloved. For starters, this was the
first site that I ran across that actually had
personal background information on Morrison
herself. Also, there are a number of critical
reviews available over her works that could prove
useful in research. There is also a section
that gives historical information into the
background of Beloved, as well as a time line
showing major events in history that would have
happened around the time the novel would have
taken place. Several parallel themes are also
discussed and are explored using citations from
the text as well as other sources. Internet links
are also given to other sites that might yield
information.
22Beloved
http//wcuvax1. Wcu.edu./amiller/smith/Bio.htm
This site also includes a personal biography into
the life of Toni Morrison. Internet links are
also provided to other sites containing
biographical information. A brief overview of
the book itself is also given along with other
site links about the actual piece. However,
neither set of links is something to wrote home
about.
23Beloved
http//www.homework-online.com/beloved/index.asp
This was an incredibly good site with lots of
useful information. A detailed summary is
presented of the novel along with an extensive
character analysis. There is also a lengthy
section which examines many of the complex themes
which weave in and out of the novel. Likewise,
there is also a section that is dedicated to the
use of symbols in the piece as well as the
structure of it as a whole. These areas not only
delve deeper into the text than most of the other
sites, but they provide a really unique outlook
on the book itself. Another feature that I
really enjoyed was the fact that there is an
entire section that is devoted to Morrisons
writing style and structure, which is an area
that most of the other sites just barely touched
on.
24Research and Interpretation
The Internet, besides being the place to check
your e-mail, can be extremely useful when trying
to gather information about great books. Most
books have some site dedicated to help you
further your knowledge about what you had read or
what you want to read. Going to any search
engine and typing in the name of the book can
lead you to many sites that could either be the
site you were looking for or something totally
unrelated to Moby Dick, but rather a site that
should be blocked by Parental Control. The
problem with researching great books on the
Internet is sorting through the helpful and the
helpless. When going to research on a novel on
the Internet, the usual guidelines should be
followed such as .org, .gov, and .edu are
usually more reliable sources, always check why
the site is in existence, and who is the author.
It is easy to find a commercial site that is a
homepage of your best friends high school
brother that contains a work copied from another
website word for word on the criticism of Moby
Dick being a symbol for soap. Basing your
central argument on these findings dont quite
hold up. There are good sites out there and
finding them doesnt require a day of surfing,
but just a careful and judgmental eye.
25Useful Sites for Research
- These following sites are all excellent sites in
helping you research a great book on the
Internet. - http//lang.nagoya-.ac.jp/matsuoka/AmeLit.html
- http//www.novelguide.com/novelanalysis.html
- http//www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw/lit.html
litcrit - http//www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/authors.html
- http//www.teleport.com/mgroves/index.shtml
- http//www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm
- http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/daniel/amlit/index.ht
ml - http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/.dir/
26Great Books on the Internet
Dave Andrews
Heather Caddell
Sara Jones
27Contents
- Overview
- Great Books on the Web
- Case Studies
- Research and Interpretation
28Overview
- With the dawn of the age where most everything
can be accessed through the Internet, literature
is becoming widely available. As opposed to
buying several books, a computer will suffice as
a library of works. If the interest grows to
read Macbeth, navigating the web can get the work
for you along with notes or research on the text.
Great Books on the Internet displays sites,
which contain full text and how to research great
books, for those who want to discover the library
contained in your computer.
29Great Books on the Web
- There are thousands of internet sights that
provide full text versions of classic literature,
and even some that have contemporary literature. - I have picked three sights that I feel do a
particularly good job in organizing and making
these books easily accessible to the average
computer user.
30http//www.bartleby.com
- This is a company that sells books, but it also
has an extensive library of full texts online
separated into categories, such as fiction,
non-fiction and reference. - It is organized by author and then by individual
works. - The works are split into chapters which makes the
whole site functional and easy to use.
31http//www.literature.org/
- Although this site has less of a selection as the
previous one, it is organized quite well and easy
to use. - Each full text version is in an easily readable
font and formatted so the text doesnt fill the
entire screen. - I picked this site for its conducive reading
conditions.
32http//www.concordance.com/
- Although this site is not as esthetically
pleasing as the first two, it has a wide variety
of ways to search for the text you are looking
for. - Once the text is chosen there are many ways to
choose which part of the book you would like to
read. For example, instead of just picking a
chapter, key words can be typed in to read about
a certain theme in the text.
33Case Studies
- Macbeth
- The Grapes of Wrath
- Beloved
34Macbeth
- http//www.macbethessays.com/
-
- As was stated earlier in this presentation,
sometimes you just cant trust what you will get
off of the web. When I started my search for
Macbeth, I was looking for sites that might have
some kind of critical essays about the play.
Instead, I got this site which offers to let you
buy mediocre (at best) essays right off of the
Internet. At least, for those of us who are above
purchasing our homework, the site did offer some
pointers on writing an essay, should you actually
choose to do it the old fashioned way. These
pointers were good ones to follow, but they were
also ones that have been drilled into our head
since Junior High. The bottom-line? Dont waste
your time, it certainly wont tell you anything
new. -
-
-
35Macbeth
- http//students.roanoke.edu/t/tnunez/MACBETHomepag
e.html - This website was actually pretty good at giving
information about the play, Shakespeare, and the
time frame in general. Background information is
given over the actual person Macbeth, as well as
historical information about the play itself.
There is also a section that deals with witches
and the role they play within the piece. This
includes links to related web sites as well as
specific references to witches from within the
play. - One of the main features that I really enjoyed
about this website was the fact that it gave
information on the history of Scotland and its
clans. Each character is listed according to
which clan they belong to in the play. An example
of their tartan is also given and a description
about the clan itself. I never saw any
information like this on the other websites I
examined, and thought that it was a very unique
way to approach the play. - There is also a final section within this site
that is devoted to art that is inspired by
Shakespeare. This is a good opportunity to gather
pictures for a presentation or simply to enjoy
some one elses interpretation of a beautiful
piece of literature. Several good links are given
throughout this site and the information is
arranged in a way that is both attractive to the
eye and easy to follow.
36Macbeth
- http//library.thinkquest.org/2888/
- This site was very impressive and contained
quite a wealth of information. It even begins
with a forward that provides instructions for
optimum use of the site. This site contains the
entire text of the play and it can be linked to
through various acts and scenes as well as read
straight through. To help aid in the reading of
the piece, a glossary is provided as well as
various links which lead to discussions of themes
and so forth. - Reviews of several different editions of the
play are also available to make sure that you
select the copy that would be best suited to your
needs. This site is a total multi media
presentation that incorporates text as well as
pictures, audio excerpts, and scene videos. There
is also an interactive zone where you can post
any questions or information that you may have
about the play. These will then be responded to
by the Macbeth Discussion Board, as well as
others who may be enjoying the site. - Finally, this site provides a lengthy list of
other sites as well as a small abstract about
what they include within them. Several of these
links also seemed to prove worth while and would
probably be helpful to research.
37The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.sjsu.edu/depts/steinbec/srchome.html
- This web site turned out to be the official
site for the San Jose State Colleges Center for
Steinbeck Studies. As a result, roughly about
half of it deals with the classes and
administration of the center. However, there is
still valuable information to be gained from
here. - One of the main things that I liked about this
site was that interpretations of its text are
available in French or Spanish as well. This
would allow people who were not native English
speakers to also access the information
presented. As far as content is concerned, there
are a few areas which might prove to be helpful. - There is a list provided of Steinbecks life
works along with the year in which they were
published. Also, there is a fairly detailed
biography of his life which includes time lines,
pictures, and other visual aids. Several
recommended web sites are also given. Many of
which seemed to be fairly developed sites with
good information.
38The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.teachwithmovies.com/guides/grapes-of-wr
ath.html - My first impulse upon encountering this site was
to simply leave it and explore another. After
looking at it for a few minutes, however, I
decided that it might actually be of some value,
particularly for teaching majors. - Obviously the subject of this web site is using
movies in the classroom. Here, the example is the
Grapes of Wrath. The site starts out by giving
basic information about the movie such as who
starred in it, what year it was made, etc. Then,
however, it goes on to list the benefits that
would and the possible problems that might occur
if the film were to be shown. - Helpful background information is also given as
to the historical context of the movie and the
piece from which the film is based, in this case,
Steinbecks novel. The themes of the piece are
explored in detail and several other pieces of
literature or film which share parallel themes
are suggested. - Finally, at the end of the site we are given a
list of discussion questions that a teacher may
wish to ask her class. I thought that these could
be especially helpful if someone was trying to
develop a lesson plan.
39The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.go.com./WebDir/Arts_and_Humanities/Book
s_and_ - Literature/All_authors/S_U/Steinbeck_Jo
hn/Grapes_of_ - Wrath_The
- This web page is helpful and short. It doesnt
have any real information on the piece, it is
simply a list of web pages that are related to
Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath. Many of these
proved to be helpful and all of the sites
provided seemed to be of the more academic
variety. -
40The Grapes of Wrath
- http//home.pacific.net.au/greg.hub/grapes.html\
- This page was by far the best that I could find
on Steinbeck and his novel. In fact, I think it
was one of the best sites that I have ever come
across for any novel. The thing is absolutely
huge! There are several special features included
in this site. - One of these is the fact that a summary is given
of the piece, but it is very detailed and can be
linked to by chapter. This breaking down of the
book into smaller segments creates room for a
lot more detail. Also, if you are focusing on a
particular portion of the novel, you dont have
to scroll through everything else to reach it. - There is also a forum area available where
questions or comments can be posted and responded
to. From the amount of material in there, it
seemed that the place was actually pretty busy. -
41The Grapes of Wrath
- One of the neatest features of this web site was
that besides having several critical essays and
discussions of theme available, it actually
provided a format for which to write a paper.
There are several different topics which are
given such as imagery and when you select one,
it will link you to an outline that will have
questions already arranged in a nice, coherent
package. While it is obviously not necessary to
follow the outline, the questions that they
contain are very good starting points when you
are beginning to write your paper. - There is also a section in which one can read a
variety of book reviews over the novel and see
what the critics thought of Steinbecks work when
it was first published. - A variety of other links provide historical
information on the author as well as the piece,
and even explore various related topics such as
the Depression, Woody Guthrie, and Operation
Grapes of Wrath. Various links to other Internet
web sites are also provided. -
-
-
42The Grapes of Wrath
- http//www.awerty.addr.com/grapes2.html
- This site would be helpful in gathering
background information. It provides character
overviews as well as a fairly detailed summary of
the plot. One of the things that I thought made
this site stand out a little is the fact that it
has a section for commentary in which some of the
writing techniques are given attention -
-
-
43The Grapes of Wrath
http//www.sjsu.edu/depts/steinbec/srchome.html
This web site turned out to be the official site
for the San Jose State Colleges Center for
Steinbeck Studies. As a result, roughly about
half of it deals with the classes and
administration of the center. However, there is
still valuable information to be gained from
here. One of the main things that I liked about
this site was that interpretations of its text
are available in French or Spanish as well. This
would allow people who were not native English
speakers to also access the information
presented. As far as content is concerned, there
are a few areas which might prove to be
helpful. There is a list provided of Steinbecks
life works along with the year in which they were
published. Also, there is a fairly detailed
biography of his life which includes time lines,
pictures, and other visual aids. Several
recommended web sites are also given. Many of
which seemed to be fairly developed sites with
good information.
44Beloved
http//www.az.com/andrade/morrison/start.html
This site was fairly decent for being a non
academic site. It is posted by a fan of
Morrisons, and she makes a point of stating that
she is not an authority. However, the site does
examine the use of symbolism in the text of
Beloved with suporting citations from the text
itself. Also, there is a list of frequently asked
questions which she responds to rather well. The
bottom line? This site is a good one to get your
wheels turning about the book. If you are doing
an official academic paper, however, you might
want to find a source with more credibility.
45Beloved
http//www.luminarium.org/contemporary/tonimorriso
n/beloved.htm There wasnt much meat to this
site, unfortunately. A few critical essays are
provided which offer a pretty good insight into
the text. The only thing that I really considered
worthwhile, however, were that the links this
site offers to other sites are pretty decent and
would probably yield more information than this
site.
46Beloved
http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/mmaynard/Morrison/biog
raph.html This was one of the better sites that
I found over Beloved. For starters, this was the
first site that I ran across that actually had
personal background information on Morrison
herself. Also, there are a number of critical
reviews available over her works that could prove
useful in research. There is also a section
that gives historical information into the
background of Beloved, as well as a time line
showing major events in history that would have
happened around the time the novel would have
taken place. Several parallel themes are also
discussed and are explored using citations from
the text as well as other sources. Internet links
are also given to other sites that might yield
information.
47Beloved
http//wcuvax1. Wcu.edu./amiller/smith/Bio.htm
This site also includes a personal biography into
the life of Toni Morrison. Internet links are
also provided to other sites containing
biographical information. A brief overview of
the book itself is also given along with other
site links about the actual piece. However,
neither set of links is something to wrote home
about.
48Beloved
http//www.homework-online.com/beloved/index.asp
This was an incredibly good site with lots of
useful information. A detailed summary is
presented of the novel along with an extensive
character analysis. There is also a lengthy
section which examines many of the complex themes
which weave in and out of the novel. Likewise,
there is also a section that is dedicated to the
use of symbols in the piece as well as the
structure of it as a whole. These areas not only
delve deeper into the text than most of the other
sites, but they provide a really unique outlook
on the book itself. Another feature that I
really enjoyed was the fact that there is an
entire section that is devoted to Morrisons
writing style and structure, which is an area
that most of the other sites just barely touched
on.
49Research and Interpretation
The Internet, besides being the place to check
your e-mail, can be extremely useful when trying
to gather information about great books. Most
books have some site dedicated to help you
further your knowledge about what you had read or
what you want to read. Going to any search
engine and typing in the name of the book can
lead you to many sites that could either be the
site you were looking for or something totally
unrelated to Moby Dick, but rather a site that
should be blocked by Parental Control. The
problem with researching great books on the
Internet is sorting through the helpful and the
helpless. When going to research on a novel on
the Internet, the usual guidelines should be
followed such as .org, .gov, and .edu are
usually more reliable sources, always check why
the site is in existence, and who is the author.
It is easy to find a commercial site that is a
homepage of your best friends high school
brother that contains a work copied from another
website word for word on the criticism of Moby
Dick being a symbol for soap. Basing your
central argument on these findings dont quite
hold up. There are good sites out there and
finding them doesnt require a day of surfing,
but just a careful and judgmental eye.
50Useful Sites for Research
- These following sites are all excellent sites in
helping you research a great book on the
Internet. - http//lang.nagoya-.ac.jp/matsuoka/AmeLit.html
- http//www.novelguide.com/novelanalysis.html
- http//www.georgetown.edu/crossroads/asw/lit.html
litcrit - http//www.lib.lsu.edu/hum/authors.html
- http//www.teleport.com/mgroves/index.shtml
- http//www.luminarium.org/lumina.htm
- http//www.cwrl.utexas.edu/daniel/amlit/index.ht
ml - http//www.sparknotes.com/lit/.dir/