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 portrait 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 great experience and 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 of 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. The central characters, the freedom-loving Catherine and the impulsive Heathcliff, are obsessed with each other. Their complex characters, different social status, exceptional destinies - all together form a canon love story. But this book is more than just an early Victorian love story. According to modernist Virginia Woolf, “the idea that at the heart of the manifestations of human nature 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 a 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 is school reading. And so, every decent graduate learns at the exit that "all happy families are alike...", and in the Oblonskys’ house “everything is mixed up...”
Meanwhile, “Anna Karenina” is real great book about 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, family romance, 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 and maintaining a 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 a complex work where there is 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.
I'll wrap it up here literary analysis, for much has already been written about this and better. I’ll just express my thought: be sure to re-read the texts from 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 and the social problems of provincial Turkey.
A fragrant and original book captures you from the first lines. These are diary entries of the beautiful Feride, who recalls 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 wouldn'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 has no 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, author of no less famous books“Sons and Lovers”, “Women in Love”, “Rainbow”, also wrote essays, poems, plays, and travel prose. He created three versions of the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. Last option, which satisfied the author, and 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 pen of the American writer Margaret Mitchell, who became famous thanks to her only novel. There is hardly a person who has not heard of the bestseller Gone with the Wind.
“Gone with the Wind” is the story of the civil war between the northern and southern states of America in the 60s, during which cities and destinies were destroyed, 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: opened at different times, it will be perceived in a new way each 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 now writing a large novel in prose about a man 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 a complex political situation that 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 fans of Meryl Streep's acting: 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 watching it, like any film based on a literary work, is better after reading the book itself.
Colin McCullough "The Thorn Birds" (1977)
Colleen McCullough wrote more than ten novels in her life, historical cycle"The Lords of Rome", 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, who move to Australia to settle here and from simple poor farmers become 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 eternal struggle duty and feeling, 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 does surrounding reality, 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 the complex overflows of the human soul, the thirst for love that lives in every woman, the passionate nature and inner strength of a man. 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 on 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 renewed vigor, colored in more mature and deeper tones.
BackBest books modern prose autumn 2018
Our ranking of the top 100 best modern books turned out to be quite diverse and introduced many new works. It includes books that are recognized throughout the world and have received numerous awards, and works that have become popular thanks to the Internet. Our list of the best modern books includes all the books you were looking for in the fall of 2018 on the Internet. And that is why we are confident that only the best are collected here modern books. And we really hope that our list of contemporary prose will help you find works worthy of your attention.
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Classmates
By Russian classical literature we mean the works of classics: writers who are not only exemplary, but also who have become symbols of Russian culture. Only the person who knows classical works, appreciates their merits, feels them inner beauty, can be considered truly educated. Today you will find out by opinion women's magazine Charla.
10 best books of Russian literature: “The Brothers Karamazov”
"The Brothers Karamazov" was conceived as the first part of the novel “The Life of a Great Sinner.” The first sketches were made in 1878, the novel was completed in 1880. However, Dostoevsky did not have time to complete his plans: the writer died a few months after the publication of the book. Most of The Brothers Karamazov was written in Staraya Russa, the prototype of Skotoprigonyevsk, where the main action takes place.Perhaps this novel can be considered the most complex and controversial work of the great Russian writer. Critics have dubbed it an “intellectual detective story,” and many call it the best work about the mysterious Russian soul. This is the last and one of the most famous novels Dostoevsky, it was filmed both here and in the West, where, by the way, this work is held in special esteem. What is this novel about? Each reader answers this question differently. The author himself defined his great creation as “a novel about blasphemy and its refutation.” One thing is certain, this is one of the most profound philosophical works world literature about sin, mercy, the eternal struggle taking place in the human soul.
10 best books of Russian literature: “The Idiot” by Fyodor Dostoevsky
"Idiot"- Dostoevsky's fifth novel. Published from 1868 to 1869 in the Russian Bulletin magazine. This novel occupies a special place in the writer’s work: it is considered one of Dostoevsky’s most mysterious works. Main character books - Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, whom the author himself called a “positively wonderful” person, the embodiment of Christian goodness and virtue. Having spent most of his life in seclusion, Prince Myshkin decided to go out into the world, but he did not know what cruelty, hypocrisy, and greed he would have to face: for his unselfishness, honesty, philanthropy and kindness, the prince was contemptuously nicknamed “idiot”...10 best books of Russian literature: “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
Epic novel by Leo Tolstoy "War and Peace" about the times of two wars against Napoleon - 1805 and 1812 - one of the most famous works of not only Russian, but also world literature. This book is one of the eternal classics, because it reveals with deep skill the main components human life: war and peace, life and death, love and betrayal, courage and cowardice. Greatest epic work has had tremendous success all over the world: the book has been filmed several times, plays and operas have been staged based on it. The novel consists of four parts, the first part was published in 1865 in the Russian Messenger.The tragic novel about the love of married Anna Karenina for the handsome officer Vronsky is one of the greatest masterpieces of Russian literature, still relevant today. “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way” - these lines are familiar to every person.
"Anna Karenina"- a complex, deep, psychologically sophisticated work that captures the reader from the first lines and does not let go until the end. The novel by the brilliant psychologist Tolstoy captivates with its absolute artistic authenticity and dramatic narrative, forcing the reader to watch intensely how the relationships will develop between Anna Karenina and Vronsky, Levin and Kitty. It is not surprising that this book captivated not only Russian readers, but also Europe and America.
10 best books of Russian literature: “The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov
Bulgakov wrote this brilliant novel over the course of eleven years, constantly changing and adding to the text. However, Bulgakov never managed to see it published: a full thirty years passed before one of the greatest works of Russian prose of the twentieth century was allowed to be published. "The Master and Margarita"- the most mysterious and mystical novel in Russian literature. This book has received worldwide recognition: many countries around the world are trying to comprehend its secrets.10 best books of Russian literature: “Dead Souls” by Nikolai Gogol
Gogol's immortal work "Dead Souls" about human tricks and weaknesses should definitely be in your home library. Gogol showed human souls very clearly and colorfully: after all, “ dead souls"- these are not only those that Chichikov bought, but also the souls of living people, buried under their petty interests.The novel was originally conceived in three volumes. The first volume was published in 1842. However further events have a mystical connotation: having finished the second volume, Gogol completely burned it - only a few chapters remained in drafts. And ten days after that the writer died...
10 best books of Russian literature: “Doctor Zhivago” by Boris Pasternak
"Doctor Zhivago"- the pinnacle of Pasternak’s creativity as a prose writer. The writer created his novel over ten years from 1945 to 1955. This is a sincere and poignant love story set against the backdrop of the chaos of the Civil War, which is accompanied by poems by the main character, Yuri Zhivago. These poems, written by Pasternak in different periods his life reveals in the best possible way the unique facets of the author’s poetic talent. For Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak received the Nobel Prize on October 23, 1958. But in the writer’s homeland, unfortunately, the novel became the cause of a huge scandal, and besides, the book was for many years banned. Pasternak was one of the few who defended freedom of speech to the end. Perhaps this is what cost him his life...10 best books of Russian literature: collection of stories “Dark Alleys” by Ivan Bunin
Stories "Dark Alleys"- frank, sincere, exquisitely sensual stories about love. Perhaps these stories can be considered the best example of Russian love prose. Nobel Prize laureate, brilliant writer was one of the few authors of his time (the stories were written in 1938) who spoke so openly, sincerely and beautifully about the relationship between a man and a woman, about beautiful love that can last a lifetime... “Dark Alleys” will definitely appeal to all women and girls as some of the most poignant stories about love.10 best books of Russian literature: “Quiet Don” by Mikhail Sholokhov
Epic novel "Quiet Don" in four volumes was published in 1940 in Roman-Gazeta. This is one of the largest works of Russian literature, which brought Mikhail Sholokhov world fame. Moreover, in 1965 the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize “For the artistic strength and integrity of the epic about the Don Cossacks at a turning point for Russia.” This is a grand novel about fate Don Cossacks, a fascinating saga about love, devotion, betrayal and hatred. A book about which controversy continues to this day: some literary scholars believe that the authorship does not actually belong to Sholokhov. In any case, this work deserves to be read.10 best books of Russian literature: “The Gulag Archipelago” by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Another Nobel Prize winner, classic Russian literature, outstanding writer of the twentieth century - Alexander Solzhenitsyn, author of the world-famous documentary epic "GULAG Archipelago", which tells about repressions in Soviet years. This is more than a book: it is an entire study based on personal experience the author (Solzhenitsyn himself was a victim of repression), documents and testimonies of many eyewitnesses. This is a book about suffering, tears, blood. But at the same time, it shows that a person can always remain human under the most difficult circumstances.Of course, this is far from full list outstanding books of Russian literature. Nevertheless, these are books that every person who appreciates and honors Russian culture should know.
Alisa Terentyeva
The works of the classics are like good wine - they are aged and time-tested and a huge amount readers. Many of these books are universal: they heal the soul, look for answers to the eternal questions of existence, entertain, relax, lift your spirits, make you think and give you an invaluable opportunity to gain a unique life experience.
Russian classics
"The Master and Margarita", Mikhail Bulgakov
A brilliant masterpiece of world classical literature. An extraordinary meaningful mystical novel exposing human sins and vices. It intertwined the eternal themes of the struggle between good and evil, death and immortality, as well as an incredible line of love that began with a chance meeting of people created for each other.
"Eugene Onegin", Alexander Pushkin
A good product for those who choose classic for self-development. A novel in verse, in which two characters are contrasted: the jaded, bored young man Evgeny Onegin and the pure, naive girl Tatyana Larina, who followed a sincere feeling. A story about the growth and development of one personality and the inner emptiness of another.
"Anna Karenina", Leo Tolstoy
Married Anna Karenina falls in love with the young officer Vronsky. He reciprocates her feelings. But the environment turns away from the “fallen woman.” The lovers' desperate attempts to reunite against the backdrop of the morals and customs of the nobility of that time were unsuccessful.
Doctor Zhivago, Boris Pasternak
The story of the generation of the early 20th century, which entered a new era with faith in great changes. However, the trials they had to endure (civil and first world war, revolution), brought only disappointments and broken hopes. But, despite everything, people gained invaluable experience. The book is full of reflections on the fate of people and the state.
“12 chairs”, Evgeny Petrov, Ilya Ilf
The story is about two adventurers looking for diamonds hidden in the chairs of Madame Petukhova’s living room set. The novel-feuilleton is incredibly fascinating, imbued with sharp humor and inexhaustible optimism. It will provide several exciting evenings for those who have not yet read the book, and will cheer up those who have taken it up again.
"Heart of a Dog", Mikhail Bulgakov
Professor Preobrazhensky explores rejuvenation methods. One day he brings a stray dog Sharik from the street and gives him a pituitary gland transplant from the deceased Klim Chugunkin, a drunkard and hooligan. Instead of a kind, flexible animal, you get a creature with an absolutely disgusting character and habits. The novel demonstrates the history of the relationship between the intelligentsia and the “new breed” of man.
“The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of Soldier Ivan Chonkin”, Vladimir Voinovich
A wonderful choice of work to read on vacation, such a light anecdote novel. Before the start of the Great Patriotic War In a small village, a plane lands due to a breakdown. There is no way to tow it, so the simple-minded and ridiculous guard Ivan Chonkin is assigned to him, who eventually transfers his place of duty to the house of the postman Nyura...
“And the dawns here are quiet”, Boris Vasiliev
A tragic story about the unequal confrontation between five female anti-aircraft gunners and a detachment of German saboteurs consisting of 16 people. Dreams about the future and women's stories about their loved ones create a stunning contrast with the brutal reality of war.
"Dowry", Alexander Ostrovsky
The play is about a woman forced to throw in her lot with an inconspicuous, uninteresting and unloved man simply because she does not have a dowry. The man whom she loves and considers ideal is only having fun with her, having no intention of exchanging his rich bride for her.
“Garnet Bracelet”, Alexander Kuprin
Having once seen Princess Vera in the circus box, Georgy Zheltkov fell madly in love with her. He sent her letters, hoping for nothing, since she was married. The love lasted for several years until he decided to give her garnet bracelet. Wonderful piece, which is suitable for those who are looking for something to read for the soul.
Foreign literature
The Thorn Birds, Colin McCullough
The epic story of a poor family who later became managers of a large Australian estate. The plot of the novel is based on strong, dramatic feelings between the main character Maggie and the Catholic priest Father Ralph. What will win, love or religion? The work has become one of the most popular romance novels among admirers.
Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
Roman about strong woman Scarlett O'Hara, who took care of her family on her shoulders during the difficult years of the American Civil War. The book talks about incredible story love and demonstrates the evolution of the main character’s feelings against the background of the trials of war.
"Pride and Prejudice", Jane Austen
England 18th century. Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, who have raised five daughters, are thinking about marrying young ladies. Mr. Bingley, who has settled next door, is perfectly suited to the role of the groom. Besides, he has many friends. The book is about how feelings arise and how love helps overcome pride and prejudice.
"The Great Gatsby", Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The book takes place in America during the Jazz Age. The author shows the other side of the notorious “American Dream”. At the center of the story is the story of a rich man and a spendthrift, Gatsby, who is trying to return the woman he loves, who left him when he was still achieving success. Unfortunately, wealth never brought him happiness.
"A Little Sun in Cold Water" by Francoise Sagan
This is a great version of the piece. modern classics. The story of the romance of the Parisian journalist Gilles Lantier with married woman who left her husband. The work raises the theme of fatigue from life, what is commonly called depression. It seems that the relationship helped Gilles overcome his illness. But is his chosen one happy?
Arc de Triomphe, Erich Maria Remarque
German emigrant Ravik lives illegally and works as a surgeon in pre-war Paris. Returning home late, he notices a woman trying to throw herself off a bridge. Thus begins a romance between an actress named Joan and a German refugee. An unusually beautiful, passionate and sad love story, full of philosophical reflections.
"Notre-Dame de Paris", Victor Hugo
This is a real classic historical novel, describing medieval Paris. At the center of the story is the incredible romantic story the hunchback bell ringer Quasimodo and the gypsy street dancer Esmeralda. However, the author positions the cathedral itself as the main character of the novel. Notre Dame of Paris, thereby attracting public attention to it.
"Dandelion Wine" by Ray Bradbury
Moments of summer, sealed in bottles - this is dandelion wine. The book is woven from large and small stories that take place throughout the summer, everyday discoveries, the main one of which is that we live, we feel, we breathe. The narrative itself is warm and leisurely. Brothers Douglas and Tom live in a provincial town and through them we see the world through the eyes of 12-year-old children.
"Fried Green Tomatoes at the Stop Cafe" by Fannie Flagg
Evelyn, a middle-aged woman, has lost interest in life and eats chocolate for her depression. Once a week she is forced to visit her mother-in-law in a nursing home. There Evelyn meets 86-year-old Ninny, who is full of love and zest for life. Each time the old woman tells stories from her past, which helps Evelyn reconsider her worldview.
"Over the Cuckoo's Nest" by Ken Kesey
The main character Randle recklessly chooses the latter between prison and a mental hospital. Here he is trying to change the established rules and teach other patients to enjoy life. An elderly, sullen nurse resists the innovations of a freedom-loving patient out of fear of losing power over the staff and patients.
Anna Karenina. Leo Tolstoy
The greatest love story of all time. A story that has not left the stage, has been filmed countless times - and has still not lost the boundless charm of passion - destructive, destructive, blind passion - but all the more bewitching with its greatness.
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The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov
This is the most mysterious of the novels in the entire history of Russian literature of the 20th century. This is a novel that is almost officially called “The Gospel of Satan.” This is “The Master and Margarita”. A book that can be read and reread dozens, hundreds of times, but most importantly, it is still impossible to understand. So, which pages of “The Master and Margarita” were dictated by the Forces of Light?
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Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë
A mystery novel included in the top ten best novels of all time! The story of a stormy, truly demonic passion that has been exciting the imagination of readers for more than one hundred and fifty years. Katie gave her heart to her cousin, but ambition and a thirst for wealth push her into the arms of a rich man. Forbidden attraction turns into a curse for secret lovers, and one day.
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Evgeny Onegin. Alexander Pushkin
“Have you read “Onegin”? What can you say about “Onegin”? These are the questions that are constantly repeated among writers and Russian readers,” noted the writer, enterprising publisher and, by the way, the hero of Pushkin’s epigrams, Thaddeus Bulgarin, after the publication of the second chapter of the novel. For a long time now it has not been customary to evaluate ONEGIN. In the words of the same Bulgarin, it is “written in Pushkin’s poems. That's enough."
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Notre Dame Cathedral. Victor Hugo
A story that has survived centuries, become canon and given glory to its heroes common noun images. A story of love and tragedy. The love of those to whom love was not given and not allowed - by religious dignity, physical weakness or someone else's evil will. The gypsy Esmeralda and the deaf hunchback bell-ringer Quasimodo, the priest Frollo and the captain of the royal riflemen Phoebe de Chateaupert, the beautiful Fleur-de-Lys and the poet Gringoire.
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Gone with the wind. Margaret Mitchell
The Great Saga of Civil War in the USA and about the fate of the wayward and ready to go over heads Scarlett O'Hara was first published more than 70 years ago and does not become outdated to this day. This the only novel Margaret Mitchell, for which she received a Pulitzer Prize. A story about a woman whom neither an unconditional feminist nor a staunch supporter of house-building is ashamed to emulate.
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Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare
This is the highest tragedy about love that human genius can create. A tragedy that has been filmed and is being filmed. A tragedy that does not leave the theater stage to this day - and to this day it sounds as if it was written yesterday. Years and centuries go by. But one thing remains and will forever remain unchanged: “There is no sadder story in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet...”
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The Great Gatsby. Francis Fitzgerald
“The Great Gatsby” is the pinnacle not only in Fitzgerald’s work, but also one of the highest achievements in world prose of the 20th century. Although the novel takes place in the “roaring” twenties of the last century, when fortunes were made literally from nothing and yesterday’s criminals became millionaires overnight, this book lives outside of time, because, telling the story of the broken destinies of the generation of the “Jazz Age”.
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Three Musketeers. Alexandre Dumas
The most famous historical and adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas tells about the adventures of the Gascon d'Artagnan and his musketeer friends at the court of King Louis XIII.
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Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandre Dumas
The book presents one of the most exciting adventure novels of the French classic literature of the 19th century century of Alexandre Dumas.
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Arc de Triomphe. Erich Remarque
One of the most beautiful and tragic novels about love in history European literature. The story of Dr. Ravic, a refugee from Nazi Germany, and the beautiful Joan Madu, who is entangled in the “unbearable lightness of being,” takes place in pre-war Paris. And the alarming time in which these two happened to meet and fall in love with each other becomes one of the main characters of the Arc de Triomphe.
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The man who laughs. Victor Hugo
Gwynplaine, a lord by birth, was sold as a child to comprachico bandits, who made a fair jester out of the child, carving a mask of “eternal laughter” on his face (at the courts of the European nobility of that time there was a fashion for cripples and freaks who amused the owners). Despite all the trials, Gwynplaine retained the best human qualities and your love.
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Martin Eden. Jack London
A simple sailor, in whom it is easy to recognize the author himself, goes through a long, hardship-filled path to literary immortality... By chance, he finds himself in secular society, Martin Eden is doubly happy and surprised... both by the creative gift that has awakened in him, and by the divine image of young Ruth Morse, so unlike all the people he knew before... From now on, two goals are relentlessly facing him.
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Sister Kerry. Theodore Dreiser
The publication of Theodore Dreiser's first novel was fraught with such difficulties that it led its creator to severe depression. But further fate The novel “Sister Carrie” turned out to be lucky: it was translated into many foreign languages, reprinted in millions of copies. New and new generations of readers enjoy immersing themselves in the vicissitudes of the fate of Caroline Mieber.
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American tragedy. Theodore Dreiser
The novel “An American Tragedy” is the pinnacle of the work of the outstanding American writer Theodore Dreiser. He said: “No one creates tragedies - life creates them. Writers only portray them.” Dreiser managed to portray the tragedy of Clive Griffiths so talentedly that his story does not leave the modern reader indifferent.
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Les Misérables. Victor Hugo
Jean Valjean, Cosette, Gavroche - the names of the heroes of the novel have long become household names, the number of its readers in the century and a half since the publication of the book has not become smaller, the novel has not lost popularity. A kaleidoscope of faces from all walks of French society first half of the 19th century centuries, bright, memorable characters, sentimentality and realism, intense, exciting plot.
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The adventures of the good soldier Schweik. Jaroslav Hasek
A great, original and outrageous novel. A book that can be perceived both as a “soldier’s tale” and as a classic work directly related to the traditions of the Renaissance. This is a sparkling text that makes you laugh until you cry, and a powerful call to “put down your arms,” and one of the most objective historical evidence in satirical literature.
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Iliad. Homer
The attractiveness of Homer’s poems is not only that their author introduces us to a world separated from modernity by tens of centuries and yet unusually real thanks to the genius of the poet, who preserved in his poems the beat of contemporary life. Homer's immortality lies in the fact that his brilliant creations contain inexhaustible reserves of universal human values - reason, goodness and beauty.
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St. John's wort. James Cooper
Cooper managed to find and describe in his books the originality and unexpected brightness of the newly discovered continent, which managed to captivate the whole of modern Europe. Every new novel The writer was eagerly awaited. The exciting adventures of the fearless and noble hunter and tracker Natty Bumppo captivated both young and adult readers..
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Doctor Zhivago. Boris Pasternak
The novel “Doctor Zhivago” is one of the outstanding works of Russian literature, which for many years remained closed to a wide range of readers in our country, who knew about it only through scandalous and unscrupulous party criticism.
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Don Quixote. Miguel Cervantes
What do the names of Amadis of Gaul, Palmer of England, Don Belianis of Greece, Tyrant of the White tell us today? But it was precisely as a parody of novels about these knights that “ Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. And this parody has survived the genre being parodied for centuries. "Don Quixote" was recognized best novel throughout the history of world literature.
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Ivanhoe. Walter Scott
"Ivanhoe" - key work in the series of novels by W. Scott, which take us to medieval England. The young knight Ivanhoe, who secretly returned from the Crusade to his homeland and was deprived of his inheritance by the will of his father, will have to defend his honor and love beautiful lady Rowena... King Richard the Lionheart and the legendary robber Robin Hood will come to his aid.
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Headless Horseman. Reed Main
The plot of the novel is so skillfully constructed that it keeps you in suspense until the very last page. It is no coincidence that the exciting story of the noble mustanger Maurice Gerald and his lover, the beautiful Louise Poindexter, investigating the sinister mystery of the headless horseman, whose figure terrifies the inhabitants of the savannah when he appears, is extremely beloved by readers in Europe and Russia.
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Dear friend. Guy de Maupassant
The novel “Dear Friend” became one of the symbols of the era. This is Maupassant's most powerful novel. Through the story of Georges Duroy, who is making his way to the top, the true morals of high French society are revealed; the spirit of corruption that reigns in all its spheres contributes to the fact that an ordinary and immoral person, such as Maupassant’s hero, easily achieves success and wealth.
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Dead souls. Nikolai Gogol
The publication of the first volume of N. Gogol’s “Dead Souls” in 1842 caused heated controversy among contemporaries, splitting society into fans and opponents of the poem. “...Speaking of “ Dead souls“-you can talk a lot about Russia...” - this judgment of P. Vyazemsky explained main reason disputes. The author’s question is still relevant: “Rus, where are you rushing, give me the answer?”