Book about books?

[Kris]

Is there a book about English and American literature that briefly tells the main points (theme, mode, characters, setting, storyline, etc.) of major works?

I've looked at The Complete Idiot's Guide and the ...for Dummies series, and I'm not sure that's quite what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something that has a page or two on each title. (If such a thing exists.)

Any recommendations would be appreciated! Thank you!

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Can't think of such a book off the top of my head (although librarians might know, maybe a big fat reference book exists), but there is the website shmoop.

I'm not linking to them because we don't want to imply an endorsement of a company, or anything. Shmoop dot com backslash literature

[Kris]

How about Wikipedia? For example:

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British... leads to novels such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninetee... which lists plot and main/secondary characters.

[Rosa]

Wikipedia is not a book!!

[Jessica]

[Jessica]

the summary actually really fits

[Knits Reads Games Sings]

What about The HarperCollins Reader's Encyclopedia of American Literature

Or The Norton Anthology of American Literature?

Or Prentice Hall Literature (This one comes up as a suggested textbook for American Literature courses.)

[Paige]

Masterpieces of World Literature in Digest Form: First series

That's the edition I have, which I acquired at a yard sale a long time ago. There are apparently more recent editions, and Magill apparently also has similar works on world philosophy and African-American literature at this point.