This slays me. Apparently, there are English lit instructors out there who still believe that students will read the notes version, write their term paper and still expect to pass the class. Okay, maybe there are students who will attempt it. I guess what I find really astonishing is that the profs think that if the campus bookstore doesn't sell them, then the plagiarism issue will magically go away. (I assume that they are worried more about plagiarism than sheer laziness, because it is the job of the instructor to stave off the yawns when discussing the "classics." And no amount of cribbing, cheating, or calculating is going earn a below average student an A on a term paper.) Are the instructors even remotely aware of google? Or the fact that this information is one mouse click away anyhow? When did instructors re-enter the paleolithic era, communicating in grunts and cave paintings. Make your damn classes more challenging! Do not tolerate the surface level exploration of these texts. Plot summaries only tell the plot! The true study of literature is the discussion what these ideas mean in relation to the historical moment, the cultural zeitgeist, the Freudian ramifications, the Marxist nuances, the reader's own interaction with the text, the deconstruction of the plot's elements. If you are simply quizzing where Robin bought the red hat in chapter 22, then you are doing more of a disservice to the work of art than a measly $4.95 synopsis ever will.