Darkness Visible Summary
William Styron

Everything you need to understand or teach Darkness Visible by William Styron.

Darkness Visible Summary & Study Guide

30 Darkness Visible Lessons
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180 Multiple Choice Questions
60 Short Essay Questions
20 Essay Questions
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Darkness Visible Summary

Developed from a lecture William Styron gave at a symposium on affective disorders at Johns Hopkins University, Darkness Visible was first published as an essay in the December 1989 issue of Vanity Fair. The title derives from Milton's description of hell in Paradise Lost. The slim book chronicles Styron's battle with depression, which consumes him shortly after his sixtieth birthday. Styron begins his story in October 1985 when he flies to Paris to receive the...

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William Styron Biographies (5)

William Styron

1,072 words, approx. 4 pages

William Styron (born 1925) was a Southern writer of novels and articles. His major works were Lie Down in Darkness,The Long March, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and Sophie's Choice. His major theme w... Read more

William Styron

10,160 words, approx. 34 pages

The critics received Lie Down in Darkness (1951) as an auspicious first novel, perhaps the best to appear since World War II. Its style, if reminiscent of Faulkner, was distinctly the author's own; it... Read more

William Styron

8,703 words, approx. 30 pages

William Styron 's first novel, Lie Down in Darkness (1951), placed him in the vanguard of promising young American authors of the post-World War II era, along with such writers as J. D. Salinger, Nor... Read more

William Styron

4,016 words, approx. 14 pages

William Styron is a major American novelist who has won wide critical acclaim and stirred controversy by addressing culturally and historically contentious issues. Though not a prolific writer, he has... Read more

William Styron

10,181 words, approx. 34 pages

Biography EssayThe critics received Lie Down in Darkness (1951) as an auspicious first novel, perhaps the best to appear since World War II. If reminiscent of Faulkner, its style was distinctly the au... Read more

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