I don't know if anyone considers Sparknotes as a source of genuine literary analysis, but in ninth grade while trying desperately to understand "A Tale of Two Cities," Sparknotes had a breakdown of the use of language in the famous intro that reframed the way I considered words could work (not just units of meaning but also units of sounds, but ALSO the sounds--sharpness, rate, assonance, consonance, etc--could shape the meaning of the text as much as the literal definitions of the words used). It did also give me a life long case of Dickens apologism, so consider for yourself if the tradeoff was worth it. I very much think it was, but again. That's because I like Charles Dickens' works, which unfortunately is a terminal diagnosis. Me on my death bed being like, "Listen, the man could write a sentence."
