Books I studied for my IB exams
Discover the essential books I studied for my IB exams, from Hemingway and Shakespeare to Austen and Marx—a curated reading list for exam success.
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Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen’s witty comedy of manners—one of the most popular novels of all time—that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Bennet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. Renowned literary critic and historian George Saintsbury in 1894 declared it the “most perfect, the most characteristic, the most eminently quintessential of its author’s works,” and Eudora Welty in the twentieth century described it as “irresistible and as nearly flawless as any fiction could be.”
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
by William Shakespeare
After seeing the ghost of his murdered father, Hamlet realizes that his new stepfather was the killer and plots revenge and ponders the value of life.
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For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
A book about love and courage and decency and glory. It is written with a wisdom that washes the mind and cools it. With an understanding that rips the heart with compassion.
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The Complete Poetry & Prose of William Blake
by William Blake
Since its first publication in 1965, this edition has been widely hailed as the best available text of Blake's poetry and prose. Now revised, if includes up-to-date work on variants, chronology of poems and critical commentary by Harold Bloom. An "Approved Edition" of the Center for Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.
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Paroles
by Jacques Prevert
In the years immediately following World War II, Jacques Prevert spoke directly to and for the French who had come of age during the German Occupation. First published in 1946 by Les Editions de Minuit, a press with its origins in the Underground...
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The Communist Manifesto
by Karl Marx
In 1848, two young men published what would become one of the defining documents of modern history. The Communist Manifesto, as it was called, rapidly realigned political faultlines all over the world, and its aftershock resonates to this day. In the 150 years since its publication, no other social program has inspired such divisive and violent debate. And the recent collapse of the first regime that embraced it calls for a new, retrospective interpretation of the Manifesto'sintent and impact. Featuring an extensive, provocative introduction by historian Martin Malia, this authorised English translation of The Communist Manifesto, edited and annotated by Engels, with prefaces to editions published between 1872 and 1888, provides an opportunity to examine the document that shook the world.
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The Covenant
by James A. Michener
Volume 2 of 2; The story begins 1500 years ago. The Bushmen are facing a crisis. the beautiful lake, long the center of their lives, is drying up, and they must move across a hostile African desert to seek better conditions.