Dictionary of Literary Terms by Barnet, Berman, Burto

I read this from cover to cover, skipping some of the more boring entries such as the six-page entry on different types of meter and versification in poetry (I'll lean all that next quarter anyway). I learned some interesting factoids:

- The first edition of Shakespeare's complete works was published in folio format in 1623.
- deus ex machina literally refers to God coming from a machine. In Greek drama, it referred to a God coming into the drama and solving the characters' problems. Nowadays it can also refer to any unexpected and unlikely agent or action entering a story and resolving the conflict.
- a debat (with an accent over the "a" but I don't know how to do that) is a medieval literary form in which two speakers (often allegorical characters who embody some idea or form) debate/discuss a topic.
- didactic literature: literature that solely has instructive value. An example of this is a fable, which tells the reader how to live life.
- a motif is usually a theme/device/symbol/image that shows up in many different works. An example of this is the Faustian theme (selling one's soul to the devil), which occurs in such varied works as Goethe's Faust, Marlowe's The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus, Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Grey, and Bulgakov's Master and Margarita.

This is a short read (97 pages) and for me, is a step towards reading larger encyclopedic works. Totally worth reading.