INDEPENDENT R EADING P ROJECT
AP Literature & Composition (Gately)
In addition to core novels and plays assigned in class, you will also read five novels or plays independently—one work each month, from September
through January. At least three of these five texts will form the basis of your paper, which you will research, write, and revise from February to early April.
As you read, you will also be required to complete a text review packet for each novel or play (see below).
The paper itself is a lengthy, detailed essay in which you explore the works of at least 2 authors and 3 works. The research, review packets, journal writing,
first draft and final draft span the entire year. Select and develop your topic and thesis with guidance from me and from your classmates. Though some
class time will be given to this project, the majority of the work is independent in nature.
Guidelines
The central idea of the project is for you to explore a question through an in-depth exploration of literature. You may choose either of the following
formats for your paper, or another with approval from me. The final paper should be approximately 10 pages in length, not counting the works cited
page.
 Select two authors and compare the use of an important central theme or technique in their works. 10-12 pages of text.
 Select two or three authors connected by some element, perhaps literary period, style, movement or theme, and write an essay exploring
connections among them. 10-12 pages of text.
Paper Requirements
Primary sources...............
You will have to have read 5 works by at least 3 different authors.
Secondary sources...........
After you have read your primary sources and explored them through your review packets, begin to explore the critics! You
must use at least 4 secondary sources in your essay. Secondary sources are papers, articles, or other critical material written in
periodicals, newspapers, or scholarly journals. They should be used to support, expand or challenge the ideas you have developed
through your own research and thought.
Works Cited.....................
This page is a listing in MLA format of only the sources you have used in your paper.
Text Review Packet
Complete for each work; due in class on the date indicated (reverse side), typed, single-spaced.
Part 1:
Include author, title, year of publication
List of primary and secondary characters with descriptions of key traits, relationships, roles, etc.
Description of point-of-view and other notable structural, literary, and stylistic techniques
Major conflicts described (in abstract terms, with resolutions)
Part 2:
10-12 Key Passages (quoted in MLA format) with analysis, double journal entry style
Part 3:
400-500 words about your observations of the novel as a whole, with some attention to details such as characterization, symbolism, style, etc.
Beginning in October, this page should be the place where you also discuss the connections that emerge among your selections.
W HAT T O R EAD
Choose something worthy. Consider Perrine’s distinction between literature and commercial fiction and choose the former. Why? As Perrine indicates,
literature will allow you to analyze more deeply, unpack more layers – literature will give you more to think about, more to write about. Some commercial
fiction authors you may be tempted to read include Stephen King, Jodi Piccoult, Tom Clancy, Michael Crichton. While their work generally entertains,
they are not suited for the type of analysis necessary in a college-level course. Instead, choose works written by authors such as Henry James, Zora Neale
Hurston, Cormac McCarthy, Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, etc. All selections must be pre-approved by your teacher.
Text Review
Packet due...
Selection Type
Description
MLA List
For your first reading selection, choose a text from the MLA list of "best books".
10/20
Contemporary Choice
Choose a book of literary merit that was written either in the year of your birth or any year after.
11/17
Conestoga Curriculum
For this selection, please review the required reading lists of all English courses at Conestoga that
you have not taken. Consider works such as Catcher in the Rye from American X, Pride and Prejudice
from British H, Crime and Punishment from European H, and a host of others. What novels or
plays did you miss out on reading?
12/22
Prize-winning
Evaluate the list of Pulitzer Prize-Winning novels or plays over the years. Choose either a play or
novel from the list.
Open
The final book selection is up to you! Consider what you have read thus far and the connections
emerging among your texts. Try, if you can, to find another text that will deepen or broaden your
possible theses. Remember that it’s usually better to have more material than not enough!
Consult your teacher or peers for suggestions if needed.
1/26
3/2
On the due date, you should have not only finished reading the novel or play, but also completed the text review packet required (see box on reverse side
for details).
On the next page.... List of MLA's Top 100 Novels.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
ULYSSES by James Joyce
THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald
A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN by James Joyce
LOLITA by Vladimir Nabokov
BRAVE NEW WORLD by Aldous Huxley
THE SOUND AND THE FURY by William Faulkner
CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller
DARKNESS AT NOON by Arthur Koestler
SONS AND LOVERS by D.H. Lawrence
THE GRAPES OF WRATH by John Steinbeck
UNDER THE VOLCANO by Malcolm Lowry
THE WAY OF ALL FLESH by Samuel Butler
1984 by George Orwell
I, CLAUDIUS by Robert Graves
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Theodore Dreiser
THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers
SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut
INVISIBLE MAN by Ralph Ellison
NATIVE SON by Richard Wright
HENDERSON THE RAIN KING by Saul Bellow
APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA by John O’Hara
U.S.A.(trilogy) by John Dos Passos
WINESBURG, OHIO by Sherwood Anderson
A PASSAGE TO INDIA by E.M. Forster
THE WINGS OF THE DOVE by Henry James
THE AMBASSADORS by Henry James
TENDER IS THE NIGHT by F. Scott Fitzgerald
THE STUDS LONIGAN TRILOGY by James T. Farrell
THE GOOD SOLDIER by Ford Madox Ford
ANIMAL FARM by George Orwell
THE GOLDEN BOWLby Henry James
SISTER CARRIE by Theodore Dreiser
A HANDFUL OF DUST by Evelyn Waugh
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
AS I LAY DYING by William Faulkner
ALL THE KING’S MEN by Robert Penn Warren
THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder
HOWARDS END by E.M. Forster
GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN by James Baldwin
THE HEART OF THE MATTER by Graham Greene
LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding
DELIVERANCE by James Dickey
A DANCE TO THE MUSIC OF TIME (series )by Anthony Powell
POINT COUNTER POINT by Aldous Huxley
THE SUN ALSO RISES by Ernest Hemingway
THE SECRET AGENT by Joseph Conrad
NOSTROMO by Joseph Conrad
THE RAINBOW by D.H. Lawrence
WOMEN IN LOVE by D.H. Lawrence
TROPIC OF CANCER by Henry Miller
THE NAKED AND THE DEAD by Norman Mailer
PORTNOY’S COMPLAINT by Philip Roth
PALE FIRE by Vladimir Nabokov
LIGHT IN AUGUST by William Faulkner
ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac
THE MALTESE FALCON by Dashiell Hammett
PARADE’S END by Ford Madox Ford
THE AGE OF INNOCENCE by Edith Wharton
ZULEIKA DOBSON by Max Beerbohm
THE MOVIEGOER by Walker Percy
DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP by Willa Cather
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY by James Jones
THE WAPSHOT CHRONICLES by John Cheever
THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE by Anthony Burgess
OF HUMAN BONDAGE by W. Somerset Maugham
HEART OF DARKNESS by Joseph Conrad
MAIN STREET by Sinclair Lewis
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100.
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Lawrence Durell
A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA by Richard Hughes
A HOUSE FOR MR BISWAS by V.S. Naipaul
THE DAY OF THE LOCUST by Nathanael West
A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway
SCOOP by Evelyn Waugh
THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE by Muriel Spark
FINNEGANS WAKE by James Joyce
KIM by Rudyard Kipling
A ROOM WITH A VIEW by E.M. Forster
BRIDESHEAD REVISITED by Evelyn Waugh
THE ADVENTURES OF AUGIE MARCH by Saul Bellow
ANGLE OF REPOSE by Wallace Stegner
A BEND IN THE RIVER by V.S. Naipaul
THE DEATH OF THE HEART by Elizabeth Bowen
LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad
RAGTIME by E.L. Doctorow
THE OLD WIVES’ TALE by Arnold Bennett
THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London
LOVING by Henry Green
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN by Salman Rushdie
TOBACCO ROAD by Erskine Caldwell
IRONWEED by William Kennedy
THE MAGUS by John Fowles
WIDE SARGASSO SEA by Jean Rhys
UNDER THE NET by Iris Murdoch
SOPHIE’S CHOICE by William Styron
THE SHELTERING SKY by Paul Bowles
THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE by James M. Cain
THE GINGER MAN by J.P. Donleavy
THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS by Booth Tarkington
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Novels
2014 The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (Little, Brown)
2013 The Orphan Master's Sonby Adam Johnson (Random House)
2012 No award
2011 A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan (Alfred A.. Knopf)
2010 Tinkers by Paul Harding(Bellevue Literary Press)
2009 Olive Kitteridge byElizabeth Strout (Random House)
2008 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz(Riverhead Books)
2007 The Road by Cormac McCarthy (Alfred A. Knopf)
2006 March by Geraldine Brooks (Viking)
2005 Gilead by Marilynne Robinson (Farrar)
2004 The Known World by Edward P. Jones (Amistad/ HarperCollins)
2003 Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Farrar)
2002 Empire Falls by Richard Russo (Alfred A. Knopf)
2001 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon (Random House)
2000 Interpreter of Maladies byJhumpa Lahiri (Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin)
1999 The Hours by Michael Cunningham (Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
1998 American Pastoral byPhilip Roth (Houghton Mifflin)
1997 Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer bySteven Millhauser (Crown)
1996 Independence Day byRichard Ford (Alfred A. Knopf)
1995 The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields (Viking)
1994 The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (Charles Scribner's Sons)
1993 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler (Henry Holt)
1992 A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley (Alfred A. Knopf)
1991 Rabbit At Rest by John Updike (Alfred A. Knopf)
1990 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos(Farrar)
1989 Breathing Lessons byAnne Tyler (Alfred A. Knopf)
1988 Beloved by Toni Morrison(Alfred A. Knopf)
1987 A Summons to Memphis byPeter Taylor (Alfred A. Knopf)
1986 Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry (Simon & Schuster)
1985 Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie (Random House)
1984 Ironweed by William Kennedy (Viking)
1983 The Color Purple by Alice Walker (Harcourt Brace)
1982 Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (Knopf)
1981 A Confederacy of Duncesby the late John Kennedy Toole(a posthumous publication) (Louisiana State U. Press)
1980 The Executioner's Song byNorman Mailer (Little)
1979 The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever(Knopf)
1978 Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson (Atlantic Monthly Press)
1977 (No Award)
1976 Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow (Viking)
1975 The Killer Angels byMichael Shaara (McKay)
1974 (No Award)
1973 The Optimist's Daughterby Eudora Welty (Random)
1972 Angle of Repose byWallace Stegner (Doubleday)
1971 (No Award)
1970 Collected Stories by Jean Stafford (Farrar)
1969 House Made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday (Harper)
1968 The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron(Random)
1967 The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (Farrar)
1966 Collected Stories byKatherine Anne Porter(Harcourt)
1965 The Keepers Of The Houseby Shirley Ann Grau (Random)
1964 (No Award)
1963 The Reivers by William Faulkner (Random)
1962 The Edge of Sadness byEdwin O'Connor (Little)
1961 To Kill A Mockingbird byHarper Lee (Lippincott)
1960 Advise and Consent byAllen Drury (Doubleday)
1959 The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters by Robert Lewis Taylor (Doubleday)
1958 A Death In The Family by the late James Agee (a posthumous publication) (McDowell, Obolensky)
1957 (No Award)
1956 Andersonville byMacKinlay Kantor (World)
1955 A Fable by William Faulkner (Random)
1954 (No Award)
1953 The Old Man and the Seaby Ernest Hemingway (Scribner)
1952 The Caine Mutiny byHerman Wouk (Doubleday)
1951 The Town by Conrad Richter (Knopf)
1950 The Way West by A. B. Guthrie (Sloane)
1949 Guard of Honor by James Gould Cozzens (Harcourt)
1948 Tales of the South Pacificby James A. Michener(Macmillan)
1947 All the King's Men byRobert Penn Warren (Harcourt)
1946 (No Award)
1945 A Bell for Adano by John Hersey (Knopf)
1944 Journey in the Dark byMartin Flavin (Harper)
1943 Dragon's Teeth by Upton Sinclair (Viking)
1942 In This Our Life by Ellen Glasgow (Harcourt)
1941 (No Award)
1940 The Grapes of Wrath byJohn Steinbeck (Viking)
1939 The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (Scribner)
1938 The Late George Apley byJohn Phillips Marquand (Little)
1937 Gone With the Wind byMargaret Mitchell (Macmillan)
1936 Honey in the Horn byHarold L. Davis (Harper)
1935 Now in November byJosephine Winslow Johnson(Simon & Schuster)
1934 Lamb in His Bosom byCaroline Miller (Harper)
1933 The Store by T. S. Stribling (Doubleday)
1932 The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (John Day)
1931 Years of Grace byMargaret Ayer Barnes(Houghton)
1930 Laughing Boy by Oliver Lafarge (Houghton)
1929 Scarlet Sister Mary byJulia Peterkin (Bobbs)
1928 The Bridge of San Luis Reyby Thornton Wilder (Boni)
1927 Early Autumn by Louis Bromfield (Stokes)
1926 Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis (Harcourt)
1925 So Big by Edna Ferber(Doubleday)
1924 The Able McLaughlins byMargaret Wilson (Harper)
1923 One of Ours by Willa Cather (Knopf)
1922 Alice Adams by Booth Tarkington (Doubleday)
1921 The Age of Innocence byEdith Wharton (Appleton)
1920 (No Award)
1919 The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington(Doubleday)
1918 His Family by Ernest Poole (Macmillan)
1917 (No Award)
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dramas
2014 The Flick by Annie Baker
2013 Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar
2012 Water by the Spoonful byQuiara Alegría Hudes
2011 Clybourne Park by Bruce Norris
2010 Next to Normal, music byTom Kitt, book and lyrics byBrian Yorkey
2009 Ruined by Lynn Nottage
2008 "August: Osage County"by Tracy Letts
2007 Rabbit Hole by David Lindsay-Abaire
2006 No Award.
2005 Doubt, a parable by John Patrick Shanley
2004 I Am My Own Wife byDoug Wright
2003 Anna in the Tropics byNilo Cruz
2002 Topdog/Underdog bySuzan-Lori Parks
2001 Proof by David Auburn
2000 Dinner With Friends byDonald Margulies
1999 Wit by Margaret Edson
1998 How I Learned to Drive byPaula Vogel
1997 No award.
1996 Rent by the late Jonathan Larson
1995 The Young Man From Atlanta by Horton Foote
1994 Three Tall Women byEdward Albee
1993 Angels in America: Millennium Approaches by Tony Kushner
1992 The Kentucky Cycle byRobert Schenkkan
1991 Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon
1990 The Piano Lesson byAugust Wilson
1989 The Heidi Chronicles byWendy Wasserstein
1988 Driving Miss Daisy byAlfred Uhry
1987 Fences by August Wilson
1986 (No Award)
1985 Sunday in the Park With George; music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine.
1984 Glengarry Glen Ross byDavid Mamet
1983 Night, Mother by Marsha Norman
1982 A Soldier's Play by Charles Fuller
1981 Crimes of the Heart byBeth Henley
1980 Talley's Folly by Lanford Wilson
1979 Buried Child by Sam Shepard
1978 The Gin Game by Donald L. Coburn
1977 The Shadow Box byMichael Cristofer
1976 A Chorus Line conceived, choreographed and directed by Michael Bennett, with book byJames
Kirkwood and Nicholas Dante, music by Marvin Hamlisch, and lyrics by Edward Kleban
1975 Seascape by Edward Albee
1974 (No Award)
1973 That Championship Seasonby Jason Miller
1972 (No Award)
1971 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds byPaul Zindel
1970 No Place To Be Somebodyby Charles Gordone
1969 The Great White Hope byHoward Sackler
1968 (No Award)
1967 A Delicate Balance byEdward Albee
1966 (No Award)
1965 The Subject Was Roses byFrank D. Gilroy
1964 (No Award)
1962 How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying by Frank Loesser and Abe Burrows
1961 All The Way Home by Tad Mosel
1960 Fiorello! Book by Jerome Weidman and George Abbott,music by Jerry Bock and lyrics bySheldon Harnick.
1959 J. B. by Archibald Macleish
1958 Look Homeward, Angel byKetti Frings
1957 Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill
1956 Diary of Anne Frank byAlbert Hackett and Frances Goodrich
1955 Cat on A Hot Tin Roof byTennessee Williams
1954 The Teahouse of the August Moon by John Patrick
1953 Picnic by William Inge
1952 The Shrike by Joseph Kramm
1951 (No Award)
1950 South Pacific by Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
1949 Death of a Salesman byArthur Miller
1948 A Streetcar Named Desireby Tennessee Williams
1947 (No Award)
1946 State of the Union byRussel Crouse and Howard Lindsay
1945 Harvey by Mary Chase
1944 (No Award)
1943 The Skin of Our Teeth byThornton Wilder
1942 (No Award)
1941 There Shall Be No Night byRobert E. Sherwood
1940 The Time of Your Life byWilliam Saroyan
1939 Abe Lincoln in Illinois byRobert E. Sherwood
1938 Our Town by Thornton Wilder
1937 You Can't Take It With Youby Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman
1936 Idiots Delight by Robert E. Sherwood
1935 The Old Maid by Zoe Akins
1934 Men in White by Sidney Kingsley
1933 Both Your Houses byMaxwell Anderson
1932 Of Thee I Sing by George S. Kaufman, Morrie Ryskind and Ira Gershwin
1931 Alison's House by Susan Glaspell
1930 The Green Pastures byMarc Connelly
1929 Street Scene by Elmer L. Rice
1928 Strange Interlude byEugene O'Neill
1927 In Abraham's Bosom byPaul Green
1926 Craig's Wife by George Kelly
1925 They Knew What They Wanted by Sidney Howard
1924 Hell-Bent Fer Heaven byHatcher Hughes
1923 Icebound by Owen Davis
1922 Anna Christie by Eugene O'Neill
1921 Miss Lulu Bett by Zona Gale
1920 Beyond the Horizon byEugene O'Neill
1919 (No Award)
1918 Why Marry? by Jesse Lynch Williams
1917 (No Award)