How to Read Literature Like a Professor Revised Edition

What does it mean when a literary hero is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he's drenched in a sudden rain shower? Most lay readers tend to stay on the surface of a book, and though there's much to enjoy there, the sneaking suspicion that we keep missing something - a deeper meaning, a hidden truth, a twist on the ordinary - prevails. A road, in a novel, poem or play, almost always symbolizes a quest of some kind, sharing a meal may signify a communion-like bond between two people, and rain is seldom just rain, but usually means a cleansing experience or a symbolic re-birth. This amusing and instructive guide to literature teaches us how to get more out of reading, simply by looking at literature with the eyes - and the literary codes - of the ultimate professional reader, the college professor. Ranging from the major themes (such as seasons, sex, vampires, violence, quests and geography), to literary models (the Bible, Shakespeare, Greek mythology and fairy tales), and narrative devices (irony, plot and symbol), HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR gives us a broad overview of literature and shows us how to make reading it more rewarding and fun.