Interesting works of art. Classical literature (Russian). Russian classical literature: list of the best works

All the romantic pathos that shrouded the Middle Ages is presented in Ivanhoe. Valiant knights, beautiful ladies, sieges of castles and political subtleties of vassal relations - all this found a place in Walter Scott's novel.

In many ways, it was his creation that contributed to the romanticization of the Middle Ages. The author described historical events that affect the period in English history after the Third crusade. Of course, there were serious artistic improvisations and fiction, but this only made the story more fascinating and beautiful.

It was impossible not to include in this selection the most famous creation of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. For many schoolchildren, studying “Dead Souls” is the highlight of their literature lessons.

Nikolai Gogol is one of the few classics who knew how to write about the problems of bourgeois life and Russia as a whole in such a sarcastic and direct tone. There is neither the epic heaviness of Tolstoy nor the unhealthy psychologism of Dostoevsky. Reading the work is easy and pleasant. However, it is unlikely that anyone will deny him the depth and subtlety of the phenomena he noticed.

The adventure novel “The Headless Horseman” is multi-layered: detective and love motives are intertwined in it. Plot intricacies create intrigue and keep you in suspense until the very end. last pages books. Who is this headless horseman? A ghost, a figment of the heroes’ imagination or someone’s insidious trick? You are unlikely to sleep until you get the answer to this question.

Charles Dickens was extremely popular during his lifetime. People were waiting for him next novels in much the same way as we are now waiting for the release of some “Transformers”. The educated English public loved his books for their inimitable style and plot dynamism.

The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club is Dickens's funniest work. The adventures of English snobs, who proclaimed themselves explorers of human souls, are full of absurd and comical situations. Social issues, of course, is present here, but it is presented in such a simple form that one cannot fall in love English classic After reading it, it's simply impossible.

Madame Bovary is rightfully considered one of the greatest novels of the world classics. This title in no way detracts from the fascination of Flaubert’s work - a challenging story love adventures Emma Bovary is bold and daring. After the publication of the novel, the writer was even brought to justice for insulting morality.

The psychological naturalism that permeates the novel allowed Flaubert to clearly reveal a problem that is relevant in any era - the convertibility of love and money.

Oscar Wilde's most famous work touches a nerve with its deeply nuanced portrayal of its protagonist. Dorian Gray, an esthete and a snob, has extreme beauty, which contrasts with the internal ugliness that develops throughout the plot. You can spend hours reveling in watching Gray's moral decline, allegorically reflected in the visual change in his portrait.

"American tragedy" - the wrong side of the American dream. The desire for wealth, respect, position in society, and money is common to all people, but for most, the path to the top is closed by default for various reasons.

Clyde Griffiths is a man from the lower classes who is trying with all his might to break into high society. He is ready to do anything for his dream. But society, with its ideals of success as absolute life goal itself is a catalyst for moral violations. Clyde ends up breaking the law to achieve his goals.

To Kill a Mockingbird is an autobiographical novel. Harper Lee described her childhood memories. The result is a story with an anti-racist message, written in simple and accessible language. Reading the book is useful and interesting; it can be called a moral textbook.

Not long ago, a continuation of the novel entitled “Go Set a Watchman” was published. The images of the characters are so completely turned inside out. classic work writers that cognitive dissonance cannot be avoided when reading.

The life hacker may receive a commission from the purchase of products featured in the publication.

Photo – pixabay.com

1. Remember the pillar of Russian literature

Pushkin and Lermontov? Ugh, corny! We finally grow up when we forget school grievances and reread "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy- an incredibly large-scale and deep reflection on the hidden springs of history, Napoleon, Kutuzov, as well as love and the motives of human actions.

+1 : Continue with " Anna Karenina" Confusion of feelings, a scandal in a noble family and the opportunity to understand whether Leo Tolstoy was a misogynist.

2. Look at people who don't change over time

IN "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov satirical scenes of the adventures of Satan and his retinue in Soviet Moscow are interspersed with the story of the arrest and execution of Christ. There is also room for the love of the titular Master and Margarita. The novel hooks you in such a way that you then want to re-read it again and again.

+1 : « dog's heart“- Bulgakov’s story about how Professor Preobrazhensky conducts an experiment on the yard yard Sharik and turns him into a person. In post-revolutionary Moscow, the resulting semi-criminal element instantly found a place.

Still from the film “Anna Karenina” (2012)

3. Get into the deep jungle of psychology

"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky considered a classic psychological novel. Student Raskolnikov kills the old pawnbroker to prove that he is a “superman.” Pangs of conscience ruin the lives of him and those around him.

+1 : Novel Oscar Wilde « The Picture of Dorian Grey"will show how easy it is to slide downhill, ruining your own soul. Main character falls under the charm of a vicious friend, and his whole vile essence is reflected in the portrait, keeping him youthful.

4. Be horrified by perverted individuals

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind tells about a young man who, not having his own scent, decides to take it away from others. A frightening yet compelling combination of the beautiful and the disgusting in a superbly written text.

+1 : IN "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov the hero does everything to seduce a 12-year-old girl. The excellent language of the book did not make it any less controversial - there were many attempts to ban the novel due to its obscene content.

Still from the film “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006)

5. Believe in love with a happy ending

In the book Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" Elizabeth Bennett and Mark Darcy will be able to cope with their negative impulses and look at each other with an open mind. Dear old England, subtle irony, interesting characters and current topics of all times.

+1 : "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë shows strong female character and a vivid confrontation between independent individuals who cannot decide to love. Touching, sad, heartfelt and with an unpleasant secret in the attic of the family house.

6. Understand the moral of the story

Fairy tale parable "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry will teach many important things about friendship and love, loyalty and duty, beauty and intolerance of evil. “We are responsible for those we have tamed,” remember?

+1 : Book Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" about a seagull learning life and the art of flight, reads like a hymn to self-improvement and self-sacrifice, a manifesto of boundless spiritual freedom.

Still from the TV series “Jane Eyre” (2006)

7. Hate war and its consequences

"Three Comrades" by Erich Maria Remarque talks about the friendship of three men and tragic love one of them. The characters are likable, action-packed, and the story is perfectly wrapped up with a mood that's very similar to John Green's bestseller The Fault in Our Stars.

+1 : The filth and inhumanity of war are perfectly shown in the novel Ernest Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls". All life is a combination of love, courage, self-sacrifice, moral duty and the value of someone else's existence.

8. Immerse yourself in a dystopia

In the book Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451" Firemen burn books so the government can keep society under control. Scary world, interesting thoughts, intriguing story and a strong ending.

+1 : U George Orwell we will recommend " Barnyard"(after all, you couldn’t have still not read his “1984”?). In a humorous fable, a humble farm gradually turns into a totalitarian society. These pigs are scary to watch.

Look for the continuation of the list tomorrow.

Until new books!

Being an active reader, I will try to take on the role of an assistant and sketch out a few ideas, compiling a list of the most recognized and most successful, from my point of view, works, both domestic and foreign literature. Most of these novels have already gained, and continue to gain, popularity, which means that these are exactly the books that you need to read in order to discover and understand this magical, mysterious and so tempting world of literature.

1. What to read from the classics? Relevance of the issue.

Usually such a question arises from those who suddenly realized the need for self-education or decided to fill in their gaps from school course on Russian literature.

This is where the main difficulty arises. Everyone definitely wants to read something from the collection of world masterpieces. But is there even such a thing as a literary masterpiece? Critics argue that there is no clear answer to this question impossible: some people like Russian literature, some like foreign ones, some read until they read, and some can’t imagine an evening without an exciting love story.

Having visited one of the large used bookstores in the capital, I asked the sellers what questions visitors most often ask. As it turns out, one of the most common requests is precisely the request for advice on what to read from the classics.

It turns out that in fact there are many people interested, literature of this kind is in demand, but low awareness sometimes scares off potential clients.

First of all, let's focus on the short stories. By the way, they should be understood as more short form presentation of current events than, for example, a story or story. This type of narrative is characterized by the presence of only one storyline, and the number of characters is very limited.

I would highlight the following works:

1. Augustine "Treatises"
2. D. Swift "Gulliver's Travels"
3. F. Kafka "The Process"
4. M. de Montaigne "The Complete Essay"
5. N. Hawthorne "Letter to Scarlet"
6. G. Melville "Moby Dick"
7. R. Descartes "Principles of Philosophy"
8. Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist"
9. G. Flaubert "Madame Bovary"
10. D. Austin "Pride and Prejudice"

1. Aeschylus "Agamemnon"
2. Sophocles "The Myth of Oedipus"
3. Euripides "Medea"
4. Aristophanes "Birds"
5. Aristotle "Poetics"
6. W. Shakespeare "Richard III", "Hamlet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
7. Moliere "Tartuffe"
8. W. Congreve "This is what they do in the world"
9. Henrik Johan Ibsen "A Doll's House"

Dreamers and romantics very often try to find answers to their questions in poetry. What to read from the classics in the poetic genre? Many things. But I would especially highlight:

1. Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey"
2. Horace "Odes"
3. Dante Alighieri's Inferno
4. W. Shakespeare "Sonnets"
5. D. Milton " Lost heaven"
6. W. Wordsworth "Selected"
7. S.T. Coleridge "Poems"

As for the works of our country, is there really nothing worthy? - Well, of course not! - If I were asked to answer the question of what to read from Russian classics, I would, of course, recommend “The Master and Margarita” by M. Bulgakov, “Mtsyri” by M. Lermontov, poetry and poems by A. Pushkin.

3. Reading masterpieces of world literature. What does this give us?

Is it worth returning to this direction or is it better and more correct to pay more attention modern works? It is very, very difficult to answer this question unambiguously.

Sometimes opinions are simply divided radically.

For example, opponents argue that it is already completely outdated, has lost its relevance, and has gradually turned into some kind of utopia. In turn, philologists and students of linguistic universities defend the masterpieces of the world epic, insisting that without studying history, culture and the intricacies of language, it is impossible to understand and comprehend our today's world.

Well, well... Each side is right in its own way... Probably everyone will agree that, say, Homer’s “Odyssey” is not the so-called pulp reading for a vacation or an empty pastime. It is difficult to read a work of this kind and you need to do it thoughtfully, slowly and without distraction, comprehending and remembering the details. Not everyone can do this.

It is precisely such books that can introduce the reader to the world of both native and foreign literature and help to better understand the traditions, culture and mentality of peoples. And they will also discover all the charm and richness of colors of the narrative language, thereby replenishing lexicon reading.

Undoubtedly, reading all the books mentioned in this article may take several years, but in any case, it will certainly not be time wasted.

Closer to mid-February, it seems that even love vibes are in the air. And if you haven’t felt this mood yet, the gray sky and cold wind spoil all the romance - will come to your aid best classic about love!

Antoine François Prevost's History of the Chevalier de Grieux and Manon Lescaut (1731)

This story takes place in Regency France after the death of Louis XIV. The story is told from the perspective of a seventeen-year-old boy, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy in northern France. Having successfully passed his exams, he is about to return to his father's house, but accidentally meets an attractive and mysterious girl. This is Manon Lescaut, who was brought to the city by her parents to be sent to a monastery. Cupid's arrow pierces the heart of the young gentleman and he, forgetting about everything, persuades Manon to run away with him. Thus begins the eternal and beautiful love story of the Chevalier de Grieux and Manon Lescaut, which will inspire entire generations of readers, writers, artists, musicians, and directors.

Author love story- Abbot Prevost, whose life rushed between monastic solitude and secular society. His fate - complex, interesting, his love for a girl of another faith - forbidden and passionate - formed the basis of a fascinating and scandalous (for its era) book.

“Manon Lescaut” is the first novel where, against the backdrop of a reliable depiction of material and everyday realities, a subtle and heartfelt psychological picture heroes. The fresh, winged prose of Abbé Prévost is unlike all previous French literature.

This story tells about several years in the life of de Grieux, during which an impulsive, sensitive young man thirsting for love and freedom manages to turn into a man with extensive experience and a difficult fate. The beautiful Manon also grows up: her spontaneity and frivolity are replaced by depth of feelings and a wise outlook on life.

“Despite the cruelest fate, I found my happiness in her gaze and in firm confidence in her feelings. Truly I have lost everything that other people honor and cherish; but I possessed the heart of Manon, the only good that I honored.”

A novel about pure and eternal love, which arises out of thin air, but the strength and purity of this feeling is enough to change the heroes and their destinies. But is this power enough to change life around?

Emily Bronte "Wuthering Heights" (1847)

Having made their debut in the same year, each of the Bronte sisters presented the world with their own novel: Charlotte - “Jane Eyre”, Emily - “Wuthering Heights”, Anne - “Agnes Gray”. Charlotte's novel created a sensation (it, like any book by the most famous Brontë, could have ended up in this top), but after the death of the sisters it was recognized that Wuthering Heights was one of best works that time.

The most mystical and reserved of the sisters, Emily Bronte, created a piercing novel about madness and hatred, about strength and love. His contemporaries considered him too rude, but they could not help but fall under his magical influence.

The story of generations of two families unfolds against the picturesque backdrop of the Yorkshire fields, where maddening winds and inhuman passions reign. Central characters- freedom-loving Catherine and impulsive Heathcliff are obsessed with each other. Their complex characters, different social status, exceptional destinies - all together form the canon of a love story. But this book is more than just an early Victorian love story. According to modernist Virginia Woolf, “the idea that at the basis of manifestations human nature there are forces that elevate it and raise it to the foot of greatness, and puts Emily Brontë’s novel in a special, outstanding place among similar novels.”

Thanks to Wuthering Heights, the beautiful fields of Yorkshire became a nature reserve, and we inherited, for example, such masterpieces as the film of the same name with Juliette Binoche, the popular ballad “It's All Coming Back to Me Now” performed by Celine Dion, as well as touching quotes:

“What doesn’t remind you of her? I can’t even look at my feet without her face appearing here on the floor slabs! It is in every cloud, in every tree - it fills the air at night, during the day it appears in the outlines of objects - her image is everywhere around me! The most ordinary faces, male and female, my own features - everything teases me with its likeness. The whole world is a terrible panopticon, where everything reminds me that she existed and that I lost her.”

Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina" (1877)

There is a well-known legend about how it was discussed among writers that there are no good novels about love in literature. Tolstoy perked up at these words and accepted the challenge, saying that he would write good novel about love in three months. And he did write it. True, in four years.

But that, as they say, is history. And “Anna Karenina” is a novel that is included in the school curriculum. This school reading. And so, every decent graduate learns at the exit that "All happy families look alike...", and in the Oblonskys’ house “everything is mixed up...”

Meanwhile, “Anna Karenina” is real great book O great love. Today it is generally accepted (thanks, in particular, to the cinema) that this is a novel about the pure and passionate love of Karenina and Vronsky, which became Anna’s salvation from her boring tyrant husband and her own death.

But for the author himself, this is, first of all, a family novel, a novel about love, which, having united two halves, grows into something more: a family, children. This, according to Tolstoy, is the main purpose of a woman. Because there is nothing more important, and most importantly, more difficult than raising a child, preserving the real strong family. This idea in the novel is personified by the union of Levin and Kitty. This family, which Tolstoy largely copied from his union with Sofia Andreevna, becomes a reflection of the ideal union of a man and a woman.

The Karenins are an “unhappy family,” and Tolstoy dedicated his book to analyzing the reasons for this misfortune. However, the author does not indulge in moralizing, accusing sinful Anna of destroying a decent family. Leo Tolstoy, “an expert on human souls,” creates complex work, where there are no right and wrong. There is a society that influences the heroes, there are heroes who choose their path, and there are feelings that the heroes do not always understand, but to which they give themselves fully.

This is where I conclude my literary analysis, because much has already been written about this, and better. I’ll just express my thought: be sure to re-read the texts from the school curriculum. And not only from school.

Reshad Nuri Gyuntekin “The Kinglet - a songbird” (1922)

The question of which works of Turkish literature have become world classics can be perplexing. The novel “The Songbird” deserves such recognition. Reshad Nuri Güntekin wrote this book at the age of 33, it became one of his first novels. These circumstances make us even more surprised by the skill with which the writer depicted the psychology of a young woman, social problems provincial Turkey.

A fragrant and original book captures you from the first lines. This diary entries beautiful Feride, who remembers her life and her love. When this book first came to me (and it was during my puberty), on the tattered cover there was “Chalykushu - a songbird.” Even now it seems to me that this translation of the name is more colorful and sonorous. Chalykushu is the nickname of the restless Feride. As the heroine writes in her diary: “...my real name, Feride, became official and was used very rarely, like a festive outfit. I liked the name Chalykushu, it even helped me out. As soon as someone complained about my tricks, I just shrugged my shoulders, as if saying: “I have nothing to do with it... What do you want from Chalykushu?..”.

Chalykushu lost her parents early. She is sent to be raised by relatives, where she falls in love with her aunt’s son, Kamran. Their relationship is not easy, but the young people are drawn to each other. Suddenly, Feride learns that her chosen one is already in love with someone else. In feelings, the impulsive Chalykushu fluttered out of family nest towards real life, which greeted her with a hurricane of events...

I remember how, after reading the book, I wrote quotes in my diary, realizing every word. It’s interesting that you change over time, but the book remains the same piercing, touching and naive. But it seems that in our 21st century independent women, gadgets and social networks, a little naivety won’t hurt:

“A person lives and is tied by invisible threads to the people who surround him. Separation sets in, the threads stretch and break like violin strings, emitting sad sounds. And every time the threads break at the heart, a person experiences the most acute pain.”

David Herbert Lawrence "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1928)

Provocative, scandalous, frank. Banned for over thirty years after first publication. The hardened English bourgeoisie did not tolerate descriptions of sex scenes and “immoral” behavior main character. In 1960, a high-profile trial took place, during which the novel “Lady Chatterley's Lover” was rehabilitated and allowed to be published when the author was no longer alive.

Today the novel and its storyline hardly seem so provocative to us. Young Constance marries Baronet Chatterley. After their marriage, Clifford Chatterley goes to Flanders, where during the battle he receives multiple wounds. He is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Connie's married life (as her husband affectionately calls her) has changed, but she continues to love her husband, caring for him. However, Clifford understands that it is difficult for a young girl to spend all nights alone. He allows her to have a lover, the main thing is that the candidate is worthy.

“If a man has no brains, he is a fool; if he has no heart, he is a villain; if he has no bile, he is a rag. If a man is not capable of exploding like a tightly stretched spring, he does not have masculine nature. This is not a man, but a good boy.”

During one of her walks in the forest, Connie meets a new huntsman. It is he who will teach the girl not only the art of love, but also awaken real deep feelings in her.

David Herbert Lawrence is a classic of English literature, the author of no less famous books “Sons and Lovers”, “Women in Love”, “Rainbow”, he also wrote essays, poems, plays, and travel prose. He created three versions of the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. The last version, which satisfied the author, was published. This novel brought him fame, but Lawrence's liberalism and proclamation of freedom moral choice The people glorified in the novel could only be appreciated many years later.

Margaret Mitchell "Gone with the Wind" (1936)

Aphorism “When a woman can’t cry, it’s scary”, and the very image of a strong woman belongs to the author American writer Margaret Mitchell, who became famous thanks to a single novel. There is hardly a person who has not heard of the bestseller Gone with the Wind.

"Gone with the Wind" - history civil war between the northern and southern states of America in the 60s, during which cities and destinies collapsed, but something new and beautiful could not help but be born. This is the story of young Scarlett O'Hara coming of age, who is forced to take responsibility for her family, learn to manage her feelings and achieve simple female happiness.

This is that successful novel about love when, in addition to the main and rather superficial theme, it gives something else. The book grows with the reader: open in different time, it will be perceived in a new way every time. One thing remains unchanged in it: the hymn of love, life and humanity. And unexpected and open ending inspired several writers to create sequels to the love story, the most famous of which are Alexander Ripley's Scarlett or Donald McCaig's Rhett Butler's People.

Boris Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago" (1957)

Pasternak's complex symbolist novel, written in an equally complex and rich language. A number of researchers point to the autobiographical nature of the work, but the events or characters described barely resemble real life author. Nevertheless, this is a kind of “spiritual autobiography”, which Pasternak characterized as follows: "I am writing now great novel in prose about a person who forms some resultant between Blok and me (and Mayakovsky, and Yesenin, perhaps). He will die in 1929. What will remain from him is a book of poems, which makes up one of the chapters of the second part. The time covered by the novel is 1903-1945.”

The main theme of the novel is reflection on the future of the country and the fate of the generation to which the author belonged. Historical events play an important role for the heroes of the novel; it is the whirlpool of complex political situation determines their lives.

Main actors The books are the doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago and Lara Antipova, the hero's beloved. Throughout the novel, their paths accidentally crossed and separated, seemingly forever. What really captivates us in this novel is the inexplicable and immense love, like the sea, that the characters carried through their entire lives.

This love story culminates in several winter days in the snow-covered Varykino estate. It is here that the main explanations of the heroes take place, here Zhivago writes his best poems dedicated to Lara. But even in this abandoned house they cannot hide from the noise of war. Larisa is forced to leave to save the lives of herself and her children. And Zhivago, going crazy from the loss, writes in his notebook:

A man looks from the threshold,

Not recognizing home.

Her departure was like an escape,

There are signs of destruction everywhere.

The rooms are in chaos everywhere.

He measures ruin

Doesn't notice because of tears

And a migraine attack.

There is some noise in my ears in the morning.

Is he in memory or dreaming?

And why is it on his mind

Are you still thinking about the sea?..

“Doctor Zhivago” is a novel awarded the Nobel Prize, a novel whose fate, like the fate of the author, turned out to be tragic, a novel that is alive today, like the memory of Boris Pasternak, is a must read.

John Fowles "The French Lieutenant's Mistress" (1969)

One of Fowles's masterpieces, representing an unsteady interweaving of postmodernism, realism, the Victorian novel, psychology, allusions to Dickens, Hardy and other contemporaries. A novel that is central work English literature of the 20th century, is considered one of the main books about love.

The outline of the story, like any plot of a love story, looks simple and predictable. But Fowles is a postmodernist, influenced by existentialism and passionate about historical sciences, created a mystical and deep love story from this story.

An aristocrat, a wealthy young man named Charles Smithson, and his chosen one meet Sarah Woodruff on the seashore - once "mistress of a French lieutenant", and now - a maid who avoids people. Sarah looks unsociable, but Charles manages to establish contact with her. During one of the walks, Sarah opens up to the hero, talking about her life.

“Even your own past does not seem like something real to you - you dress it up, try to whitewash it or denigrate it, you edit it, somehow patch it up... In a word, you turn it into fiction and put it away on the shelf - this is your book, your novelized autobiography. We are all running from the real reality. This is the main one distinguishing feature homo sapiens."

A difficult but special relationship is established between the characters, which will develop into a strong and fatal feeling.

The variability of the endings of the novel is not only one of the main techniques of postmodern literature, but also reflects the idea that in love, as in life, anything is possible.

And for lovers acting Meryl Streep: in 1981, a film of the same name directed by Karel Reisz was released, where the main characters were played by Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. The film, which received several film awards, has become a classic. But watch it like any film based on literary work, better after reading the book itself.

Colin McCullough "The Thorn Birds" (1977)

During her life, Colleen McCullough wrote more than ten novels, the historical series “The Lords of Rome,” and a series of detective stories. But she was able to occupy a prominent place in Australian literature thanks to just one novel - The Thorn Birds.

Seven parts of a fascinating story big family. Several generations of the Cleary clan move to Australia to settle here and from simple poor farmers become a prominent and successful family. The central characters of this saga are Maggie Cleary and Ralph de Bricassart. Their story, which unites all the chapters of the novel, tells about the eternal struggle of duty and feelings, reason and passion. What will the heroes choose? Or will they have to stand on opposite sides and defend their choice?

Each part of the novel is dedicated to one of the members of the Cleary family and subsequent generations. Over the fifty years during which the novel takes place, not only the surrounding reality changes, but also life ideals. So Maggie’s daughter Fia, whose story opens in the last part of the book, no longer strives to create a family, to continue her kind. So the fate of the Cleary family is in jeopardy.

“The Thorn Birds” is a finely crafted, filigree work about life itself. Colleen McCullough managed to reflect complex overtones human soul, thirst for love that lives in every woman, passionate nature And inner strength men. Ideal for long reading winter evenings under a blanket or on hot days on the summer veranda.

“There is a legend about a bird that sings only once in its entire life, but is more beautiful than anyone else in the world. One day she leaves her nest and flies to look for a thorn bush and will not rest until she finds it. Among the thorny branches she begins to sing a song and throws herself against the longest, sharpest thorn. And, rising above the unspeakable torment, he sings so, dying, that both the lark and the nightingale would envy this jubilant song. The only, incomparable song, and it comes at the cost of life. But the whole world stands still, listening, and God himself smiles in heaven. For all the best is bought only at the price of great suffering... At least that’s what the legend says.”

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Love in the Time of Plague (1985)

I wonder when the famous expression that love is a disease appeared? However, it is precisely this truth that becomes the impetus for understanding the work of Gabriel García Márquez, which proclaims that “...the symptoms of love and plague are the same”. And the most important idea of ​​this novel is contained in another quote: "If you meet your true love, then she won’t get away from you - not in a week, not in a month, not in a year.”

This happened with the heroes of the novel “Love in the Time of Plague,” the plot of which revolves around a girl named Fermina Daza. In her youth, Florentino Ariza was in love with her, but, considering his love only a temporary hobby, she marries Juvenal Urbino. Urbino's profession is a doctor, and his life's work is the fight against cholera. However, Fermina and Florentino are destined to be together. When Urbino dies, the feelings of old lovers flare up with new strength, painted in more mature and deeper tones.

Salman Rushdie, The Enchantress of Florence (2008)
Rushdie's tenth novel, full of historical metaphors, touches important question What came first - East or West. After reading the novel, you look at any historical book as if it were a child’s fantasy - condescendingly and without due respect - realizing that there are no unambiguous historical truths, there are conjectures and unknown quotes, from which facts are subsequently formed that are bursting at the seams. George Orwell, Animal Farm (1945)
Compulsory reading for all revolutionaries and revolutionary-minded comrades. In his famous dystopia, Orwell clearly demonstrates where “freedom, equality, fraternity” can lead a group of determined people, and that for any slogans there is one big “but” - the desire of some to subjugate and the readiness of others to obey. Like it or not, you draw parallels with the revolution of 1917 and everything that followed it. Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871)
The triumph of the absurd, the start of the fantasy genre - and best fairy tale in the world. An amazingly powerful story about the adventures of the girl Alice, first in the rabbit hole, and then on the other side of the mirror. After two fairy tales about Alice, Carroll was called both a philosopher and a prophet, the books were disassembled into quotes, and several cartoons and films were made based on the books. Ken Kesey, Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962)
The main novel of the beat generation about the confrontation between a freedom-loving patient and a tyrannical head nurse in psychiatric hospital. The book is slightly different from the famous film adaptation with Jack Nicholson in leading role- the book is narrated from the perspective of one of the patients, who is relegated to the background in the film, and attention is concentrated on Nicholson’s character. The novel was included in Time magazine's list of the 100 best English-language works from 1923 to 2005. Francis Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)
A wonderful story about typical American wealth of the early twentieth century - the First World War is behind us, the economy is progressing, those who profited from Prohibition are doing especially well, society is drowning in money and entertainment. Fitzgerald's hero ends up on Long Island, where he meets the cream of society and resists the abyss of parties, beautiful women and good drinks - at the head of the party movement is Gatsby, a strong and controversial personality. Best book about how money ruins everything, and taverns and women bring you to what you know. Patrick Suskind, Perfumer. The Story of a Killer (1985)
Only the works of Remarque are more popular than this German novel. Criminal in its essence and incredibly beautiful in its form, the story is about a man who from birth was endowed with a phenomenal sense of smell - as a result, all his life he is a slave to his gift: trying to compose and preserve the perfect aroma, he goes on a murder, one after another, and in ultimately ends tragically. Süskind perfectly conveys aromas in letters, better than, say, the creators of the film adaptation of the novel did it in 2006. Stanley Kubrick himself once thought about a film adaptation, but in the end he came to the conclusion that it was impossible to transfer Süskind’s creation to the screen - it would ruin it . J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954)
The film adaptation by Peter Jackson, a famous Tolkienist, is so detailed and scrupulous that, it would seem, there is no need to re-read the source. Error. Being a philologist, an expert medieval epic Northern Europe, Tolkien created his own separate world based on Finnish epic Kalevala and the legends of the Arthurian cycle ( Celtic history British Isles). Yes, so convincingly that thousands of Tolkienists still gather somewhere in the forests and organize role-playing games. Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (1797)
Austen began writing her first and, as it became clear later, great novel at the age of 21 - it did not impress the publishers in any way, and for more than 15 years it lay, as they say, under the carpet. Austen always wrote sincerely and realistically - her novels always touch the quick, there is no grace or show off in them, ordinary feelings of ordinary people, that is, whatever one may say, classics. Roald Dahl, Stories with Surprise Endings (1979)
A Welshman with Norwegian roots, a master of paradoxes and something of a genius, Dahl gave us Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, as well as Matilda, but he was best at shocking us with his Chekhov-like stories, with the only difference that in the end the reader, as a rule, , eyebrows sharply creep up, and his mouth breaks into an ironic smile. “I only write about what takes your breath away or makes you laugh. The children know that I’m on their side,” Dahl used to say. Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Idiot (1869)
It is absolutely impossible to choose one thing from all of Dostoevsky, so we settled on our favorite. A great work of a brilliant man. Dostoevsky - he is always about cleanliness vs. vice. All attempts of the infantile epileptic Prince Myshkin to become an ordinary sinful person lead to nowhere - more precisely, only to a complication of the disease. Women, money, rivalry with other men, power and other temptations have no power over Myshkin - he gradually fades towards the end of the novel, but against the backdrop of total discord in the souls of all the other characters, Myshkin is like the risen Jesus. Iain Banks Wasp factory (1984)
Banks' debut in literature, a gothic novel about strange boy Frank, who, as he grows up, learns both the world and himself better, and is not always happy with what he has learned. Some details in the book cause outright nausea and contribute to some kind of pubertal reflections, but in general this is the ideal postmodern in literature: a philosophical presentation, multiplied by some kind of commercial absurdity. Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (1966)
If you believe Bulgakov’s widow, his last words about the novel Master and Margarita before his death were “so that they know... so that they know...”. So that WHAT they know remains a mystery. That talent is not given with impunity? That a person is a little insect with no control over the next second of his life? Be that as it may, the mystical melodrama etched itself into the consciousness of millions - we personally knew people who, after the first few chapters, walked the streets, looking around. If Bulgakov had lived in the USA, the novel would have been filmed in Hollywood during his lifetime. In the USSR, M&M became an underground outlet for the intelligentsia - however, it remains that way to this day. Vladimir Nabokov, The Gift (1938)
You can, of course, read Lolita for your next bedtime. You can grow up a little and swallow a Camera Obscura in a couple of evenings, you can even take a swing at the Luzhin Defense. But in order to go through the entire Gift, from beginning to end, not to get lost in these endless, two-page sentences, to distinguish autobiographical notes from fiction, to master the last, fourth chapter - a book within a book - only a person who needs the WORD in literature can not a matter. Jaroslav Hasek, The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik (1921)
The good soldier Schweik is somewhat similar to the Hollywood Forrest Gump - a kind of idiot who has a bad life, and he goes to war, and manages not to die there. Intelligent satire in best performance- many jokes, however, are less understandable to us than to Hasek’s contemporaries, but the mockery of laziness, narrow-mindedness, drunkenness and the lack of any moral principles is obvious and timeless, because these are eternal “values.” I. Ilf, E. Petrov, 12 chairs, Golden Calf (1928)
Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov worked as literary blacks for the famous Soviet writer Valentina Kataeva: it was he who suggested that they write for him a novel about diamonds sewn into a chair, and he himself went on vacation to Batumi. Arriving some time later and reading the first six pages of the work, he first laughed like crazy, and then told Ilf and Petrov that he had no right to even stand next to these pages, that they were independent creative units - he blessed them, so to speak. What, we must say, HAPPINESS! Albert Camus, The Stranger (1948)
In the list of 100 books of the century by the French newspaper Le Monde, The Outsider comes first. Camus's laconic style (in the novel all the sentences are short, and, as a rule, in the past tense) was subsequently borrowed by many European writers of the twentieth century. The Outsider is about loneliness and hopelessness, about searching for oneself and the meaning of one’s existence. Existentialism clean water, headache and depression. Jean-Paul Sartre, Nausea (1938)
The protagonist of the novel is sick of everything that surrounds him, and of himself - he analyzes the meaning of certain actions, discusses with himself the purpose of certain objects - the reader, observing this painstaking thankless work, begins to feel sick by the middle of the book. Nevertheless, Nausea, like any fruit of existentialism, forces us to face the truth: most of our actions have no meaning, what we create does not make us better, there is no peace in religion, there is no happiness in love, life is loneliness. Kazuo Ishiguro, Never Let Me Go (2005)
It is difficult to attribute this work to any genre. Fantastic? Dystopia? No, rather, it’s an alternative history. The children study in a closed school. They grow up, prepare homework together, draw, and participate in plays. They grow up knowing that they are different from those others living outside the perimeter. Over time, they learn that their fate is to be a kind of farm for growing donor organs. And now the terrible thing begins adulthood. When Katie or her friend goes through a notch, then another, and for some, a fourth, after which the end comes. And even if they manage to prove that they are also living people, with the same feelings and even capable of love, it will still not give anything. This book is scary because it easily describes terrible things. Only one thing is unclear - why no one is fighting for their future. Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago (1955)
Reading this book, you understand that Nobel Prize It was not in vain that I received Pasternak, no matter what they say. It is not the artistic level of the work that fascinates - Pasternak is more of a poet. And the plot, which describes all the vicissitudes of a huge, ruthless and completely incomprehensible war, in the very thick of which one finds himself a common person with his habits and principles. And one feels sorry for this person and feels bad for him. That he could not adapt to this new life, did not find his place. He became confused and lost all those who were close to him. Aldous Huxley, O Marvelous One, new world (1932)
This story is about a genetically programmed consumer society. Here one is born into an idyllic world and is guaranteed a life of luxury. And the other comes off the assembly line to another level and must be content with what he has. Everything here is orderly and on schedule. There is no evil or crime, there are no obligations, and marriage before 30 is considered defective. And with all this, everyone is happy with what they have and everyone is happy. With your miserable beggarly happiness. Taking into account the 30s, when Huxley created his world, the thought involuntarily creeps in: he knew something!