Title (Year on AP test)
|
Author
|
Major Concepts
|
Genre
|
Absalom, Absalom! (76, 00, 10, 12)
|
William Faulkner
|
Family drama, race, rebellion, murder
|
Novel
|
Adam Bede (06)
|
George Eliot
|
Love triangles, deception, tragedy
|
Novel
|
The Adventures of Augie March (13)
|
Saul Bellow
|
Growing up, friendships, alienation, belonging, making choices, family
|
Novel
|
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (80, 82, 85, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 99, 05, 06, 07, 08, 11, 13)
|
Mark Twain
|
Slavery, rebellion, criminals, adventure, running away, individual conscience, the South
|
Novel
|
The Aeneid (06)
|
Virgil
|
Mythology, war, royalty, love, duty, fate
|
Epic Poem
|
Agnes of God (00)
|
John Pielmeier
|
Murder, faith, parenthood, religion, loyalty, lies
|
Novel
|
The Age of Innocence (97, 02, 03, 08, 12, 14)
|
Edith Wharton
|
Honor, family, popularity,money, power, psychology
|
Novel
|
Alias Grace (00, 04, 08)
|
Margaret Atwood
|
Murder, jail, amnesia, mental illness
|
Novel
|
All the King’s Men (00, 02, 04, 07, 08, 09, 11)
|
Robert Penn Warren
|
American politics, intrigue, blackmail, corruption, power
|
Novel
|
All My Sons (85, 90)
|
Arthur Miller
|
Business, corruption, choices and consequences, social responsibility
|
Drama
|
All the Pretty Horses (95, 96, 06, 07, 08, 10, 11, 13)
|
Cormac McCarthy
|
Ranching, coming of age, journey
|
Novel
|
America is in the Heart (95)
|
Carlos Bulosan
|
Childhood, assimilation in America (from the Philippines), immigration
|
Memoir
|
An American Tragedy (81, 82, 95, 03)
|
Theodore Dreiser
|
Social climbing, love triangles, class, murder trial
|
Novel
|
American Pastoral (09)
|
Philip Roth
|
Family,”the perfect life,” political terrorism,
|
Novel
|
The American (05, 07, 10)
|
Henry James
|
Love, rejection, society, secrets, revenge
|
Novel
|
Angels in America (09)
|
Tony Kushner
|
AIDS, gay rights, politics, power,
|
Drama
|
Angle of Repose (10)
|
Wallace Stegner
|
Family, traditions, dependence, writing
|
Novel
|
Anna Karenina (80, 91, 99, 03, 004, 06, 08, 09)
|
Leo Tolstoy
|
Scandal, Russia, betrayal, hope
|
Novel
|
Another Country (95, 10, 12)
|
James Baldwin
|
Race relations, gender relations, love, hatred, artists
|
Novel
|
Antigone (79, 80, 90, 94, 99, 03, 05, 09, 11, 14)
|
Sophocles
|
Civil disobedience, law, family love, loyalty, rebellion
|
Drama
|
Antony and Cleopatra (80, 91)
|
William Shakespeare
|
Love, politics, social duty, lost causes, suicide
|
Drama
|
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (94)
|
Mordecai Richler
|
adolescence, school, coming of age, comedy
|
Novel
|
Armies of the Night ((76)
|
Norman Mailer
|
Vietnam War, politics, peace protests
|
Novel/
History
|
As I Lay Dying (78, 89, 90, 94, 01, 04, 06, 07, 09)
|
William Faulkner
|
Family, death, multiple narrators
|
Novel
|
As You Like It (92, 05, 06, 10)
|
William Shakespeare
|
Love, gender roles, how to live your life, being yourself, comedy
|
Drama
|
Atonement (07, 11, 13)
|
Ian McEwan
|
Love, war, childhood, class, forgiveness
|
Novel
|
Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (02, 05)
|
James Weldon Johnson
|
Race, class, music, choices
|
Novel
|
The Awakening (87, 88, 91, 92, 95, 97, 99, 02, 04, 007, 09, 11, 14)
|
Kate Chopin
|
Feminism, gender roles, liberation, independence, expectations
|
Novel
|
“The Bear” (94, 06)
|
William Faulkner
|
Coming of age, hunting, pride, courage
|
Short Story
|
Beloved (90, 99, 01, 03, 05, 07, 09, 10, 11, 14, 15)
|
Toni Morrison
|
Murder, ghosts, family, sacrifice, (post)-Slavery
|
Novel
|
A Bend in the River (03, 15)
|
V. S. Naipaul
|
India, Africa, journeys, tradition, modernism
|
Novel
|
Benito Cereno (89)
|
Herman Melville
|
Sailors, slaves, mutiny, murder, trial
|
Novel
|
Billy Budd (79, 81, 82, 83, 85, 99, 02, 04, 05, 07, 08, 15)
|
Herman Melville
|
Sailors, mutiny, accusations, complex relationships, psychology
|
Novel
|
The Birthday Party (89, 97)
|
Harold Pinter
|
Musicians, murder, fate
|
Drama
|
Black Boy (06, 08, 13, 15)
|
Richard Wright
|
Race relations, poverty, dreams, coming of age
|
Memoir
|
Bleak House (94, 00, 04, 09, 10)
|
Charles Dickens
|
Secrets, family, murder investigation, love, betrayal, suicide, social responsibility
|
Novel
|
Bless Me, Ultima (94, 96, 97, 99, 04, 05, 06, 08)
|
Rudolfo Anaya
|
Family, religion, magic, Latin Americans, traditions, coming of age
|
Novel
|
The Blind Assassin (07, 11)
|
Margaret Atwood
|
Science fiction, accidental death, love
|
Novel
|
The Bluest Eye (95, 08, 09)
|
Toni Morrison
|
Race, beauty, feminism, fitting in
|
Novel
|
Bone: A Novel (03)
|
Fae Myenne Ng
|
Chinatown, honor, secrets, family
|
Novel
|
The Bonesetter’s Daughter (06, 07, 11)
|
Amy Tan
|
Mother-daughter bonds, assimilation in America (from China), immigration, curses, secrets, forgiveness
|
Novel
|
Brave New World (89, 05, 09, 10)
|
Aldous Huxley
|
Dystopia, science fiction, a “perfect world,” humanity, rebellion
|
Novel
|
Breath, Eyes, Memory (13)
|
Edwidge Danticat
|
Haiti, family, journey, supernatural, politics, traditions
|
Novel
|
Brideshead Revisited (12)
|
Evelyn Waugh
|
Love, aristocracy, class, society, modernism
|
Novel
|
Brighton Rock (79)
|
Graham Greene
|
Violence, gang warfare, adolescence, justice
|
Novel
|
Broken for You (09)
|
Stephanie Kallos
|
Friendship, secrets, coming to terms with the past, journeys
|
Novel
|
The Brothers Karamazov (90, 08)
|
Fyodor Dostoevski
|
Corruption, faith, love triangles, temptation, Russia
|
Novel
|
Brown Girl, Brownstones (13)
|
Paule Marshall
|
Childhood,family, culture, conflict, Barbados, self-discovery
|
Novel
|
Candida (80)
|
George Bernard Shaw
|
Feminism, love triangle, jealousy
|
Drama
|
Candide (80, 86, 87, 91, 95, 96, 04, 06, 10)
|
Voltaire
|
Comedy, politics, religion, intellectualism, coming of age,
|
Novel
|
The Canterbury Tales (901, 08, 11, 13)
|
Geoffrey Chaucer
|
Travelers, multiple narrators, series of stories
|
Novel
|
The Caretaker (85)
|
Harold Pinter
|
Relationships, everyday life,mental illness
|
Drama
|
Catch-22 (82, 85, 87, 89, 94, 01, 03, 04, 05, 07, 08, 11, 15)
|
Joseph Heller
|
World War II, Italy, difficult situations, choices
|
Novel
|
The Catcher in the Rye (01, 08, 11, 13)
|
J. D. Salinger
|
adolescence, expulsion, alienation, mental illness
|
Novel
|
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (00)
|
Tennessee Williams
|
Brothers, family, greed, friendship,love, loneliness
|
Drama
|
Cat’s Eye (94, 08, 09, 13, 15)
|
Margaret Atwood
|
Artists, Canada, childhood, friendship, memories, betrayal
|
Novel
|
The Centaur (81)
|
John Updike
|
Modern mythology, immortality, sacrifice, fathers and sons
|
Novel
|
Ceremony (94, 96, 97, 99, 01, 03, 05, 06, 07, 09, 12)
|
Leslie Marmon Silko
|
World War II, Native Americans, prisoners, religion
|
Novel
|
The Cherry Orchard (71, 77, 06, 07, 09, 10)
|
Anton Chekhov
|
Aristocracy, tradition, change, modernism, Russia, society
|
Drama
|
The Cider House Rules (13)
|
John Irving
|
Orphanage, love, friendship, love, difficult decisions, abortion
|
Novel
|
The Chosen (08, 13)
|
Chaim Potok
|
Fathers and sons, World War II, Judaism, Israel, coming of age, adolescence
|
Drama
|
“Civil Disobedience” (76)
|
Henry David Thoreau
|
Thinking for yourselves, politics, conscience vs. law
|
Essay
|
Cold Mountain (06, 08)
|
Charles Frazier
|
Civil War, journey home, love, survival
|
Novel
|
The Color Purple (92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 05, 08, 09, 12, 13)
|
Alice Walker
|
Sisters, families, self-worth, love, betrayal, forgiveness
|
Novel
|
Coming Through Slaughter (01)
|
Michael Ondaatje
|
Music, jazz, madness
|
Novel
|
Copenhagen (09)
|
Michael Frayn
|
World War II, physics, atomic bomb
|
Drama
|
The Country of the Pointed Firs (10)
|
Sarah Orne Jewett
|
Women’s relationships, modernism
|
Novella
|
Cry, The Beloved Country (85, 87, 91, 95, 96, 07, 09)
|
Alan Paton
|
Fathers and sons, racial injustice, South Africa, love, murder
|
Novel
|
Crime and Punishment (976, 79, 80, 82, 88, 96, 99, 00, 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 09, 10, 11)
|
Fyodor Dostoevski
|
Murder, guilt, prison, suffering, redemption, Russia, religion
|
Novel
|
“The Crisis” (76)
|
Thomas Paine
|
Independence, the American Revolution
|
Letters
|
The Crossing (09)
|
Cormac McCarthy
|
Nature, westerns, ghosts, violence, adolescence, coming of age
|
Novel
|
The Crucible (71, 83, 86, 89, 04, 05, 09, 14, 15)
|
Arthur Miller
|
Witch hunts, hysteria, unintended consequences
|
Drama
|
Daisy Miller (97, 03, 12)
|
Henry James
|
Travelling abroad, flirtation, consequences
|
Novella
|
Dancing at Lughnasa (01)
|
Brian Friel
|
Family, Ireland, religion, rebellion, freedom
|
Drama
|
David Copperfield (78, 83, 06, 13)
|
Charles Dickens
|
Coming of age, rags to riches, romance, self-control, respect
|
Drama
|
“The Dead” (97)
|
James Joyce
|
Marriage, secrets, self-realization, Ireland
|
Short Story
|
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (86)
|
Leo Tolstoy
|
Wealth, status, family, dying, appreciating life
|
Novella
|
Death of a Salesman (86, 88, 94, 03, 04, 05, 07, 12, 14)
|
Arthur Miller
|
Family, respect, dreams, fathers and sons
|
Drama
|
Delta Wedding (97)
|
Eudora Welty
|
Family, weddings, relationships, the South
|
Novel
|
Desire Under the Elms (81)
|
Eugene O’Neill
|
Modern mythology, family, brothers, madness, murder
|
Drama
|
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant (97)
|
Anne Tyler
|
Family, fears, wounds, isolation, imperfection (but humorous)
|
Novel
|
The Divine Comedy (06)
|
Dante Alighieri
|
Journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise (PS - not a comedy)
|
Epic Poem
|
The Diviners (95)
|
Margaret Laurence
|
Mothers and daughters, writers, solitude, love, understanding
|
Novel
|
Doctor Faustus (79, 86, 99, 04, 11)
|
Christopher Marlowe
|
Selling one’s soul, greed, temptation, religion, salvation
|
Drama
|
Doctor Zhivago (10)
|
Boris Pasternak
|
Russian Revolution, love, war, survival
|
Novel
|
A Doll’s House 71, 83, 87, 88, 95, 05, 09)
|
Henrik Ibsen
|
Marriage, self-discovery, society, expectations, individualism
|
Drama
| |
