Characters: Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, The Player, The Tragedians, Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, Polonius, Ophelia, Laertes

Plot Summary: This absurdist play starts with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern playing the coin game, and the coin keeps coming up heads. They remember that a messenger had called them and continue through the wilderness. They run into the Tragedians, a group of actors who specialize in sexual performances. They eventually reach Elsinor Castle, where Claudius tells them to find out why Hamlet has gone insane. Hamlet outmaneuvers their word game, and they are thoroughly confused. They are given the task of escorting Hamlet to England to have him put to death, but Hamlet switches the letter for that says Rosencrantz and Guildenstern  need to be killed. The Player teaches them about "dying well," and at the end, everyone dies. 

Characters: Jack, Danny, Wendy, Tony, Dick Halloran, Al Shockley, Mr. Grady, Overlook Hotel

Plot Summary: A financially-troubled family, the Torrances, moves into the Overlook Hotel, where they will spend the winter alone. Jack is the caretaker, but he also hopes to finish his novel. Over the course of the winter, the family grows progressively more insane as cabin fever consumes them and the Overlook plots disaster after disaster. Jack is eventually possessed by the Overlook itself, and he goes on a killing spree. Dick Halloran, the cook who identifies in particular with Danny's ability to "shine" or read minds and flashes of the future. Halloran rescues Danny and Wendy as the Overlook explodes due to a long-present problem with its boiler. 

Characters: Kathy, Ruth, Tommy, Miss Emily, Madame

Plot Summary: The novel takes place in a world where human cloning is possible, and clones are used for organ harvesting. The novel, narrated from Kathy's perspective, follows the lives of the three clones as they grow. As children, they attend Hailsham, a school that attempts to give clones a normal school life before they embark on their predestined fate to donate their organs until they "complete." The story follows Kathy and Tommy's progressive growth as they struggle to make sense of their situations and eventually to try to earn an "exemption" due to their true love for one another. At the end, however, they are informed that no such possibility exists. Kathy, who is a carer, is left alone at the end of the novel since Tommy completes his fourth donation without her. 

Characters: Satan, Adam, Eve, God, Jesus, Fallen Angels, Angels, Beelzebub, Gabriel

Plot Summary: The epic poem begins "en media res" as Satan and his angels have fallen from Heaven into Hell after a great civil war against God. After losing, Satan uses rhetoric to gather followers and keep challenging God. Eventually, the world is created, and Satan learns that God has created creatures (humans) in his image that dwell on Earth. Satan, as a snake, convinces Eve to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that God warned Adam and Eve not to eat at penalty of death. Eve convinces Adam to do so as well, and they suffer because of it. They pray to God who shows them the future of mankind. He then kicks them out of Eden. 

Characters: Howard Roark, Peter Keating, Dominique Francon, Guy Francon, Gail Wynand, Ellsworth Toohey, Henry Cameron

Plot Summary: Roark gets kicked out of architecture school for refusing to learn designs derived from other people. He goes to intern under Cameron, a washed-up former architect with a style similar to Roark's. Meanwhile, Keating graduates as valedictorian, is hired by Francon, becomes a partner, and follows the traditional path of success. Eventually, we see Keating grow more and more unhappy as others abuse his desire for fame and wealth. Roark meanwhile struggle to pay the bills, but remains apathetic and thus impervious to the machinations that destroy Keating. Dominique, a strange woman, seduces Keating, but falls in a strange animalistic love with Roark and his authenticity. 

Characters: Multiple citizens of Dublin

Plot Summary: The Dubliners explores various families and storylines of the citizens of Dublin. Joyce portrays Dublin as a repressive and unhappy place where everyone is driven by ulterior motives and suffers from injured merit, disillusionment, and unhappiness. A central theme is Joycean paralysis and loss of innocence in facing the reality of the cruel world. 

Characters: Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, Claudius, Polonius, Laertes, Horatio, Hamlet's Father

Plot Summary: The play begins after Claudius has taken the throne of Denmark by poisoning his brother, Hamlet's father. Hamlet's father appears as a ghost and tells Hamlet to avenge his death, prompting Hamlet to become deeply troubled and occupied. He seeks refuge by feigning insanity, but eventually begins going insane for real. In the final scene, Hamlet is stabbed by Laertes, whom Claudius has urged to poison his blade. Hamlet beats Laertes, who reveals Claudius's plot. Everyone dies at the end. 

Characters: Jack Worthing, Algernon, Gwendolyn, Cecily, Lady Bracknell, Miss Prism

Plot Summary: Jack Worthing reveals he uses the excuse of his fake brother, Ernest, to excuse himself from the responsibilities of his life in the country. However, in the city, he goes by Ernest as an alter ego so he can disappear. But when he returns with Algernon, who pretends to be Jack's brother, Ernest, he must struggle to cover his lies. There is a lot of confusion and they are eventually found out. It is revealed at the end, however, that Jack's real mother is Miss Prism and he lies about his real name being Ernest in order to preserve peace.

Characters: Ishmael, Ahab, Moby Dick, Starbuck, Stubb, Flask, Queequeg, Fedallah, Pip

Plot Summary: Ishmael, a new whaler, embarks on a journey with his newly met friend Queequeg. The captain, Ahab, is a half-insane man whose sole purpose is to seek vengeance on the whale that took his leg off, Moby Dick. He leads the crew on a wild goose chase across the ocean until they meet Moby Dick. They try to hunt him for three days, but Moby Dick destroys their ship and all of them die except Ishmael. 

Characters: Billy, Boyd, Wolf

Plot Summary: Billy catches a female wolf that has been preying on his family's cattle, and becomes determined to return it to the Mexican wilderness. He bonds with the wolf, but ends up having to kill it to save it from the misery of the dog fights in Mexico. When he returns his family is dead, so he goes on another adventure to get his family's horses back. While he's doing that, he learns the bandits killed Boyd as well. He goes to get vengeance. In the end, he is left miserable and broken. 

Characters: Lear, Goneril and Albany, Regan and Cornwall, Cordelia and France, Gloucester, Kent, The Fool, Edgar, Edmund

Plot Summary: Lear wants to retire, so he plans to divide his kingdom. His daughters have a praise-contest, but Cordelia refuses to participate. Lear kicks her out. Goneril and Regan hate Lear and his men, so they banish him. Edmund, meanwhile, convinces his father Gloucester that Edgar is plotting to kill him, so Edgar gets kicked out. Eventually, Gloucester tries to help Lear, and he is punished, blinded, and banished. They all meet up, and are all basically insane, but Edgar goes back and reveals Edmund's plot while France leads Cordelia and Lear back to their kingdom. Cordelia, unfortunately, is killed though. 

Characters: Blanche, Stella, Stanley, Mitch

Plot Summary: Blanche, a southern belle, arrives on her sister's doorstep, broke but pretending she has lots of dignity and being really condescending. Stella's husband, Stanley, a really masculine man, gets angry at Blanche and makes it his personal mission to destroy her. He begins digging up dirt on her past life and shames her publicly time and time again. He even breaks her relationship with Mitch, Blanche's would-be suitor. In the end, Blanche is driven insane and is wheeled off to a mental institution.

Characters: Pip, Estella, Havisham, Joe, Mrs. Joe, Biddy, Pumblechook, Jaggers, Wemmick, Magwitch, Compeyson, Orlick

Plot Summary: Pip is a poor kid, but Havisham takes him in, and he falls in love with Estella. Now he wants to be sophisticated for Estella, so he goes to the city and lives with Jaggers, a strict, cruel man. But Estella still doesn't want him. He learns that his benefactor is the convict Magwitch, who is being hunted. By a sense of duty, he protects Magwitch, but in the end Magwitch is caught. Meanwhile, Joe, whom Pip has rejected entirely marries Biddy. Orlick hates Pip. But in the end Orlick is taken away and Pip returns home. He meets Joe's new son, little Pip, and he spends time with them. The novel has two endings: one where Pip and Estella meet up and  ends ambiguously but hopefully and the other ending ends with Estella and Pip splitting up in good terms after Estella has gotten married and freed herself from Havisham.