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To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) Revisited: Analysis, Cultural Impact, and Its Place in American Literature There are books that stir you. There are books that change you. And then, once in a lifetime perhaps, you come across a book that does both—gently, insistently, without so much as raising its voice. To Kill a Mockingbird is that book. Published in 1960, in the trembling shadow of the American civil rights movement , Harper Lee’s Southern Gothic Bildungsroman did not arrive with loud acclaim or expectation. Its modest premise—a young girl’s account of growing up in Depression-era Alabama —hardly prepared readers for the moral gravity it concealed. Yet, within a year, it had earned the Pulitzer Prize . Within a decade, it was enshrined in American classrooms. Today, more than 60 years later, it has sold over 40 million copies, been translated into more than 40 languages, and is still among the most assigned readings in American high schools. But what explains this rare perman...

  Why Don Quixote (1605-1615) is Considered the Greatest Work of Western Literature Don Quixote , written by  Miguel de Cervantes , is one of the most influential works of literature ever penned.  Published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, this Spanish novel tells the story of Alonso Quixano, a nobleman who loses his sanity after reading too many chivalric romances.  Believing himself to be a knight-errant named  Don Quixote  de la Mancha, he sets out on a series of adventures to revive chivalry and right the world’s wrongs, accompanied by his loyal squire, Sancho Panza. The novel is celebrated for its rich characterization, its intricate interplay of reality and illusion, and its satirical examination of the noble ideals of chivalry. Cervantes’ masterpiece is not only a cornerstone of Spanish literature but also a seminal work in the Western literary canon. Its themes of  idealis m versus  realism , the nature of madness, and the power of literatur...