Thoroughly revised and expanded for a new generation of readers, this classic guide to enjoying literature to its fullest—a lively, enlightening, and entertaining introduction to the tools of literary analysis, covering a diverse range of writing and literary devices, including symbols, themes, and contexts—teaches you how to improve your reading comprehension and make your everyday reading experience richer and more rewarding.

While books can be enjoyed for their basic stories, there are often deeper literary meanings beneath the surface. How to Read Literature Like a Professor [Third Edition] helps us to discover those hidden truths by looking at literature with the practiced analytical eye—and the literary codes—of a college professor.

What does it mean when a protagonist is traveling along a dusty road? When he hands a drink to his companion? When he’s drenched in a sudden rain shower? As a master class in literary criticism for beginners, Thomas C. Foster provides answers to these questions as he explores every aspect of fiction, from major themes to literary models, narrative devices, and form. Offering a broad overview of literature—a world where a road leads to a quest, a shared meal may signify a communion, and rain, whether cleansing or destructive, is never just a shower—he shows us how to make our reading experience more intellectually satisfying and fun.

The world, and curricula, have changed. This third edition has been thoroughly revised to reflect those changes, and features new chapters, a new preface and epilogue, as well as fresh teaching points Foster has developed over the past decade. Foster updates the books he discusses to include more diverse, inclusive, and modern works, such as Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give; Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven; Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X; Helen Oyeyemi’s Mr. Fox and Boy, Snow, Bird; Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street; Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Madeline Miller’s Circe; Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls; and Tahereh Mafi’s A Very Large Expanse of Sea.

In this bestselling guide, you’ll learn to decode the hidden language of literature:

• How to Analyze a Book: Master the “grammar of literature” and learn to spot the symbols, themes, and patterns—from quests and shared meals to rain and vampires—that enrich any story.
• Literary Devices Explained: Understand the codes professors use to explore everything from narrative form to character archetypes, making your reading more intellectually satisfying and fun.
• Advanced Placement English Resource: Discover why this accessible guide has become a go-to resource and favorite summer reading for AP English students and teachers across the country.
• Modern and Diverse Examples: Explore insights from classic works alongside contemporary titles like The Hate U Give, Station Eleven, Neverwhere, and Circe.