The tricky part of creating a syllabus for the late 19th and 20th centuries is deciding what to leave out. There's so much to read and so little time, but this is an amazing course with a stunning and challenging syllabus. It's perfect for the literary-minded high school junior or senior. 

David Copperfield, our first novel, was the favorite and most autobiographical of all Dickens's books. Whitman's ground-breaking poetry collection, Leaves of Grass, is next. Then we push through some of the greatest novels ever written: Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment, Hardy's Return of the Native, Twain's Huckleberry Finn, and Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. We look at the poetry of the Modernists and some short stories by Kafka, O'Connor, and Hemingway. We dip our toes into some Faulkner (warning: he's hard to read!) and Orwell's political allegory Animal Farm. We cover classic high school texts The Old Man and Sea, The Crucible, Lord of the Flies, and To Kill a Mockingbird. We finish up with a beloved 21st century novel, Peace Like a River. 

Self-paced literature courses do not meet live. Students will have access to the course syllabus, quizzes, and recorded lectures. Assignments are designed to be completed weekly, but students are free to move at their own pace.

Lecture recordings will be accessible until June 15.

The Course Syllabus includes the following (Books are NOT provided—see the course book list for information on translations and editions)

• David Copperfield, Dickens

• Selected poems from Leaves of Grass, Whitman

• Selected poems by Emily Dickinson

• Crime and Punishment, Dostoevsky

• Return of the Native, Hardy

• The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain

• The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald

• Selected poems by Pound, Eliot, Williams, etc.

• Our Town, Wilder

• Go Down Moses, Faulkner

• Animal Farm, Orwell

• The Old Man and The Sea, Hemingway

• The Crucible, Miller

• Lord of the Flies, Golding

• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

• Peace Like a River, Leif Enger