Dead Poets Society

Today we are going to tell you something about the book "Dead Poets Society" by N.H. Kleinbaum. Bantman Books published it in the year 1989. The book has 166 pages with 15 chapters. It is a very popular story also because of the reason that the book has been filmed in 1993.

The book is a novel and tells a story about young boys and their English teacher who advice the boys to make their life extraordinary.

Welton Academy - a new school year stars for the students. The expectations are very high and everybody tries to live up with them.

The school has a new English teacher, Mr. John Keating. Nobody expected, what this new teacher was able to reach with his very own teaching methods. He changes his students' lives completely by challenging them to make their lives extraordinary. The boys, inspired by their new teacher, established the Dead Poets Society, a secret club they found out about an old annual. With Mr. Keating's help the students do not only discover language and its beauty but also the importance of every single moment in their lives by the old saying "Carpe diem! - "Seize the day".

Neil Perry, one of the best students and Todd Anderson's roommate wants to become an actor. By chance he gets the leading part in a play. Shortly before the premiere his dad finds out about his son's disobedient plans and forbids him to play. That night Neil is urged by this escalated situation, which shows the pressure his dad puts on him, to make his own choice, think freely, which is to commit suicide. This seems to be the end for Mr. Keating who is accused of being guilty by the parents and teachers. Later he is dismissed.

The main characters are Mr. Keating, Neil Perry and Todd Anderson. The other characters are Knox Overstreet, Charlie Dalton, Steven Meeks, Richard Cameron and the headmaster Mr. Gale Nolan.

The author tells the story from the view outside the story through these 15 chapters in this book. The story is focused on the changes of students who were all 16-year-old boys, especially on Todd Anderson, a transfer student, and the relationship between the boys and their new English professor.

In the main the novel is written in direct speech. The sentences are not too long and not too difficult with the exception on the poems and a few scenes of a "Midsummer Night's Dream". The language often creates a special atmosphere - sometimes a melancholy and sad one.

The author N.H. Kleinbaum, a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, is a former newspaper reporter and editor. Her other novelizations include the Bantman Starfire title Growing Pains and D.A.R.Y.L. She lives in Mt. Kisco, New York, with her husband and three children.