We've put together a list of 25 profound books about the world, society, politics, fantasy, history, and human potential that have stood the test of time.
The next time you want an exciting read, check out this list.
1984 George Orwell
First published in 1949, George Orwell's dystopian novel has become a timeless classic of the dystopian genre.
In this book, for the first time, the idea of the existence of a "Big Brother" and a totalitarian regime appears, which remains relevant today, as well as at the time of writing the work.
Orwell presents readers with his vision of the world, captivating from beginning to end.
"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley
In this powerful fantasy masterpiece by Huxley, the "world controllers" create an ideal society.
Most people are content with a world based on genetic engineering, brainwashing, and strict castes. But there is always someone who yearns to break free.
Huxley's captivating story takes readers through a frightening and thought-provoking fictional world endowed with the hallmarks of modern society.
"Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" by Mary Shelley
This is a novel by an English writer about the scientist Victor Frankenstein, who achieves his goal and creates a living being from inanimate matter, but it turns out to be so terrifying that the doctor is frightened and runs out of the laboratory in disgust.
Tormented and isolated, an innocent creature will hate its creator. The plot then unfolds in the spirit of a gothic thriller that touches the hearts of readers and evokes reflections on the dangers. scientific research and human judgments.
The Process, Franz Kafka
Kafka wrote The Trial between 1914 and 1915, but it was not published until 1925, after the writer's death. This is a unique story about a bank employee, Josef K., who was arrested for an unknown reason and he is struggling to find out what he is accused of.
Kafka wanted to burn the novel, but the writer's friend Max Brod prepared the manuscript for publication, organizing the disparate chapters of the work after the author's death.
Neuromancer, William Gibson
The cyberpunk fantasy novel Neuromancer was the first in its genre to win three of the most prestigious awards - Nebula (1984), Hugo (1985) and the Philip Dick Prize.
This book contains the definition of a matrix, as well as the ideas of cyberspace, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and the worldwide computer network, which subsequently attracted close attention from both writers and readers.
"Things They Carried With Them" Tim O'Brien
The Things They Carried With Them is a groundbreaking reflection and powerful narrative of war, memory and imagination.
Tim O'Brien uses many metaphors to weave an in-depth study of the state of men in war, based on his own impressions received during Vietnam War from 1969 to 1970.
With his "semi-autobiographical" characters, O'Brien creates a style that blurs the lines between fiction and non-fiction.
"Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade" by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse Five is one of the greatest anti-war books in the world. This is the story of the bombing of Dresden, seen through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim, a man abducted by aliens.
The story is woven from different phases of the pilgrim's life, showing the heartbreaking events seen by the hero and based on the writer's own impressions, who, being an American prisoner of war, was in Dresden at the time of the bombardment by Allied forces.
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Fahrenheit 451 is a chillingly prophetic novel about a dystopian future where there are no books.
To the main character, Guy Montag, all this seems normal until he gains insight into the past and joins an underground group of outcasts.
The book surprisingly draws readers into its fictional world with a gripping plot and compelling characters.
"Collusion of Dunces", John Kennedy Toole
The key character in the book is Ignatius J. Reilly, a 30-year-old man who lives with his mother in New Orleans. This is a hero that has no analogues in world literature. He is an intellectual and an ideologue, a glutton and a quitter. Tool perfectly combined comedy with deep melancholy in Reilly's character.
"In Cold Blood" ("Ordinary Murder"), Truman Capote
"In Cold Blood" is a novel based on real event in 1959, when four members of the Clutter family were killed in Holcomb, Kansas.
The motives of the crime and the evidence were practically absent. Capote, asking local residents and investigators, collected a huge amount of information and wrote his story in the style of "new journalism".
This work by Truman Capote has earned many positive reviews for its eloquence, a high degree detail and layered storytelling.
"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
William Golding's allegorical novel Lord of the Flies became a best-seller and was included in the required reading curriculum of some colleges and universities in the 60s. This is a story about a group of boys who find themselves on desert island. With the emergence of problems, the cruel features of human nature immediately begin to appear.
This book has always received mixed reviews. In 2005, Time magazine included her in the 100 best novels on the English language since 1923. Although the American Library Association included it in the list of the 100 most controversial books.
The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
A story of self-discovery and an inspiring tale of an Andalusian shepherd who wants to find worldly treasures. But his desire leads him to wealth, which he never dreamed of.
Motivational, wisdom-filled story about how following your dream, you can come to the discovery of great miracles.
"Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom
Tuesdays with Morrie is a touching story about Mitch Albom and his mentor Morrie Schwartz.
Many of us part ways with our mentors and their ideas slowly fade from our memory. But Mitch gets a second chance to meet his sociology professor, who has only a few months left to live. And he starts visiting it every Tuesday.
This documentary book has become one of the most widely read memoirs of all time. It is made up of key life lessons that were the subject of weekly meetings.
The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde
Wilde's philosophical novel originally appeared as a short story in Lippincott's Monthly in July 1890. Moreover, the editors, fearing an “improper” reaction from readers, removed part of the text before publication.
In response, the writer revised, supplemented and published his work as an intellectual novel in a decadent style.
This is a story about a man who sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty. The book provoked a scandal in society and sharp criticism, but does not cease to arouse public interest and has been filmed more than 30 times.
A Clockwork Orange, Anthony Burgess
A Clockwork Orange is a classic nightmare in which the future is filled with criminals roaming the streets after dark. A chilling tale of good and evil and what it means to be free.
The novel's central character, Alex, was named the 10th greatest movie villain by the American Film Institute (AFI).
Stanley Kubrick's cult 1971 dystopian film of the same name is based on this novel by Anthony Burgess.
"Think Slowly... Decide Fast" by Daniel Kahneman
Decades of research in the field of psychology led Daniel Kahneman to the fact that in 2002 he became a laureate Nobel Prize in economics "for the application psychological methodology in economics".
He delved into the two systems that govern our thinking: system #1, or fast and emotional thinking; system #2 or slow and logical thinking. Kahneman exposed the flaws and biases of some thought processes.
The book challenges readers by examining our ability to control our reactions, judgments, and choices.
The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco's first novel quickly became an international sensation. 50 million copies of The Name of the Rose have been sold worldwide.
This and historical novel, and a detective, and a philosophical and cultural reflection, where the action takes place in 1327. The plot centers on a character named William of Baskerville who is investigating a murder. He uses the logic of Aristotle, the theology of Thomas Aquinas and the ideas of Roger Bacon to decipher the secret symbols and manuscripts.
"Outsider" (or "Stranger"), Albert Camus
The Outsider explores what Camus called "man's nakedness in the face of the absurd" through the story of a man accused of murder.
This story by Albert Camus takes first place in the list of "100 books of the century according to Le Monde". The writer raises in her difficult questions that echo in existential philosophy; explores the themes of alienation, fear, spiritual doubt, and the qualities that underlie human character.
"Geniuses and outsiders" ("Outliers"), Malcolm Gladwell
In the book "Geniuses and outsiders: Why is everything for some and nothing for others?" Malcolm Gladwell explores the world of the brightest, most successful and famous people planets, and also answers the question of how they differ from others.
We pay too little attention to successful parenting. The author discovers certain patterns that explain the secrets of the success of billionaires in the field software; reveals what it takes to become a great footballer; why Asian students excel in math; which allowed the Beatles to become the greatest rock band.
Ender's Game Orson Scott Card
In the militarized reality of Orson Scott Card's sci-fi universe, a group of children are being trained to special program, preparing for a fight with insectoid aliens. One of the future commanders, Andrew Wiggin, suffers from the isolation, rivalry, pressure and fear that are present in this community of young soldiers. But it is in him that the qualities that made it possible to become the tactical genius of the group are combined.
Catch-22 (Catch-22), Joseph Heller
Joseph Heller's classic story about the loss of faith and sanity as bureaucratic power rises.
The key character Captain Yossarian serves in Italy in a bomber regiment during World War II. But his main enemy is not the Nazis, but the army in which he serves. The Bombardier finds himself in a stalemate with a Catch-22 preventing him from leaving the service.
Amendment 22 is #11 on the 200 best books according to the BBC" and 7th place in the list of "100 best novels of the Newest Library".
Animal Farm, George Orwell
Animal Farm is another book by George Orwell that has become a brilliant political satire on rotten ideals, class conflicts, the 1917 revolution and subsequent events in Russia.
The farm animals rise up in rebellion to overthrow the power of the people and take matters into their own hands, but over time they realize that things are not going the way they expected.
This satirical story-parable is actually endowed with a deep meaning.
Einstein walks on the moon. The Science and Art of Memory, Joshua Foer
Einstein Walks on the Moon is the story of Joshua Foer's attempts to improve his memory. His experiments continued for a year. The author turned to advanced research, to the history of memorization methods and mnemonics.
He studied the ancient methods used by medieval scholars to memorize entire books and other methods to unlock the potential and greatly improve his memory.
This fascinating book will not only help improve memory, but also remind you how our memories affect us.
Watchmen (Sentinels), Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (illustrator)
Many critics call Watchmen the greatest graphic novel ever. He has received a number of awards, including the Hugo Award.
Sometimes books leave behind such a heavy feeling that the reader cannot immediately start reading a new book - it takes some time to “digest” the plot twists, the fate of the characters and often the difficult ending. We offer you 10 such books.
A stunning debut novel that is already being hailed as the premier novel of the new century and its author a living classic. The Wind Runner is a heartfelt, penetrating story about friendship and loyalty, about betrayal and redemption. Gentle, subtle, ironic and sentimental in a good way, Khaled Hosseini's novel resembles a painting that can be looked at endlessly.
“On December 6, 1973, when I was killed, I was fourteen years old” - this is how the most amazing bestseller of the early 21st century begins, a tragic story written on an incredibly bright note. The Lovely Bones has been translated into forty languages, has sold millions of copies, and will serve as the basis for Peter Jackson's next film project after The Lord of the Rings and King Kong. In this novel, Susie Salmon adjusts to life in heaven and watches from above as her killer tries to cover his tracks and her family comes to terms with their loss...
Beneath the streets of London, there is a world that most people are unaware of. In it, the word becomes a real power. You can get there only by opening the door. This world is full of dangers, inhabited by saints and monsters, murderers and angels...
4. Susan Collins - "Mockingjay"
Katniss survived, although her house was destroyed. Her family is relatively safe. But... Pete is kidnapped by those in power, and his fate is unknown. And then the legend becomes reality. The mysterious District Thirteen emerges from the shadows it has been hiding in for years. The war begins. A war for justice? A war for a better future? Maybe. Katniss is the symbol of resistance in this war. And if she does not want to be a pawn in someone else's big game, if she does not want the life of her beloved to be sacrificed to the interests of others, she will have to become strong. Stronger than the Hunger Games arena...
5. Vladimir Nabokov - "Lolita"
In 1955, Lolita was published - the third American novel by Vladimir Nabokov, the creator of Luzhin's Defense, Despair, Invitation to Execution and The Gift. Causing a scandal on both sides of the ocean, this book lifted the author to the top of the literary Olympus and became one of the most famous and, without a doubt, the greatest works of the twentieth century. Today, when the polemical passions around "Lolita" have long subsided, we can confidently say that this is a book about great love that has overcome illness, death and time, love that is open to infinity, "love at first sight, from the last glance, from the eternal look."
6. Patrick Suskind - “Perfumer. The Story of a Murderer
The best-selling thriller, describing the life story of the brilliant perfumer and murderous murderer Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, instantly became a worldwide sensation. The total circulation of the novel amounted to more than 15 million copies, it has been translated into 42 languages, among which there is even Latin!
21 years after the publication of the novel, he continues to excite his readers; it is studied by university students around the world, and students of various faculties and specialties: psychologists, historians, criminologists, lawyers and, of course, philologists. More recently, the novel appeared on lists of "most read works, published by Oprah and InStyle magazines. "Perfume" is recognized as the most famous novel written in German, since the book by E.M. Remarque “On western front no change."
7. Somerset Maugham - "The burden of human passions"
Perhaps Somerset Maugham's most significant novel. The genius with which the writer reveals the dark and bright sides human soul, was particularly pronounced here.
And it is in this book that Maugham, with surprising sincerity even for him, reveals his own soul ...
8. Haruki Murakami - "Norwegian Wood"
... In the evenings I sold records. And in the intervals he absentmindedly watched the audience passing in front of the shop window. Families, couples, drunks, yakuza, lively girls in miniskirts, guys with beatnik beards, hostesses from bars and other strange people. As soon as rock was put on, hippies and loafers gathered at the store - some were dancing, some were sniffing solvent, some were just sitting on the pavement. I didn't really understand what was going on. "What is it? I thought. “What do they all mean by that?”…
9. Victor Pelevin - "Numbers"
The protagonist of the novel is businessman Styopa, whose best friend is the number 34, and his worst enemy is the number 43... Styopa remembered that when he was very young, all the numbers had colors. Then they were erased, only the four had a well-defined green, the seven had blue, and the three had faint traces of orange paint on the central ledge.
10. Leonid Andreev - "The Story of the Seven Hanged"
The prose of Leonid Andreev whimsically intertwines quivering emotionality, a meticulous interest in the everyday life of Russian life and, often, an irrational fear of the nightmares of the Iron Age.
The main theme of Andreev's work "The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men" is love and death, hardness of heart and spiritual fortitude of a person. The novels and stories of this writer became one of the highest achievements of Russian literature at the beginning of the 20th century.
You were given a life sentence and there is only a piano in the cell? Then we have something for you... From Liszt to Scriabin - 10 of the most technically complex pieces ever written for piano.
1. Franz Liszt - La Companella
The work La Campanella, which means "bell" in Italian, is a piano transcription of the violin piece of the same name by Niccolò Paganini. The etude is considered one of the most difficult compositions ever written for the piano. The texture of "Campanella" includes huge jumps in the left hand, while the right gets complex passages at a very fast pace.
In this video, virtuoso pianist Lang Lang plays this piece so easily, as if it were not much more difficult than "Dance of the Little Ducklings".
- Maurice Ravel - "Night Gaspard" ("Night Visions")
When Ravel was working on the Gaspard de la Nuit suite, he deliberately wanted to make it the most technically difficult work piano repertoire. He said that when writing, he was guided by Balakirev's Islamey, wanting to surpass him in complexity. One of the leading pianists said that playing this piece "is like solving endless quadratic equations in my mind".
- Kaikhosru Sorabji - Opus Clavicembalisticum
Playing this piece is even more difficult than pronouncing its title. Opus Clavicembalisticum consists of 12 acts total duration more than 4 hours. The composer himself described his composition as follows: “The last 4 pages are as disastrous as everything I have ever done - harmony stings like Nitric acid, and the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God.
- Conlon Nancarrow - "Etudes for Mechanical Piano"
The works for mechanical piano by American composer Conlon Nancarrow are among the most deliberately complex, frantic pieces of music in the piano repertoire. They are designed to be played on a mechanical instrument, not played by live pianists. But that doesn't mean no one has tried...
- Fryderyk Chopin - Etude Op. 10 no. four
Unlike Chopin's tender nocturnes, this etude leaves the pianist no opportunity to rest. Marked presto con fuoco (fast, with heat), it requires an extremely fast pace and constant mobility in both hands.
Daria, Jam`s cool piano teacher:
“The hardest part of playing this piece for me was the coda, after which there is a crazy passage all over the keyboard up and then down. By the end of the story, you are usually exhausted, but here the climax falls on the last page. And, of course, like any study, No. 4 took a lot of time to develop the necessary technical skills.”
- Charles Valentin Alkan - Concerto for solo piano
Alkan's concert is rarely played live, and for good reason. An epic 50-minute job requires unprecedented technique and physical endurance. Alkan's melodies are not as pleasant and catchy as those of Chopin or Liszt, but he certainly knows how to the best way demonstrate virtuoso technique.
- Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 5
Alexander Scriabin's Fifth Sonata makes the most of the technical capabilities of both hands, but the main load falls on the pianist's brain. The sonata was received with bewilderment by many contemporaries. For some of them, it became the line from which they refused to accept the composer's work.
- Igor Fedorovich Stravinsky - 3 fragments from "Petrushka" for piano
3 fragments from "Petrushka" are called one of the most difficult piano compositions. All parts include numerous glissandos, tremolo and fast 2-octave shifts. As they say, it's not for the faint of heart.
- Sergei Sergeevich Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2
The second piano concerto is Prokofiev's most dramatic work. Of particular difficulty is the cadenza of the first movement, which consists of three steps and requires the pianist to make frequent and wide leaps with both hands. And yes, it lasts a full 5 minutes followed by 2 more intense parts.
- György Ligeti - "Devil's Ladder"
Well, what is the list of the most difficult works for piano without Ligeti. The etudes of this Hungarian composer frighten novice pianists. Of particular horror is the "Devil's Ladder", and not at all because of the name. The work is a masterpiece of dynamics, which develops from pianissimo to 8(!) forte.
Literary online magazine The Millions has compiled a list of the 10 most difficult books in history. The compilers of the rating did not stint on such epithets as "10 literary Everests, having conquered which, you will immediately feel your intellectual superiority over the average homo sapiens."
The compilers recommend approaching the reading of books from this list with caution, reminding the brave reader that the perception of these works can be quite difficult. Difficulties for the modern reader can be caused by the excessive volume of some of these works, the unusual syntax and the original structure of the text. Also, among the difficulties that lie in wait for the reader, an overly complex writing style, the authors' experimental work with the language, and simply the abstractness of the text were named.
The TOP 10 most difficult books compiled by the site are as follows:
1. "Nightwood" Djuna Barnes;
2. Tale of the Barrel by Jonathan Swift;
3. "Phenomenology of Spirit" Georg Hegel;
4. To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf;
5. The Memorable Life of the Maid Clarissa Harlow by Samuel Richardson
6. Finnegans Wake by James Joyce
7. "Being and Time" Martin Heidegger
8. Making Americans by Gertrude Stein
9. "Fairy Queen" Edmund Spenser
10. "Women and Men" by Joseph McElroy.
However, our reader (and translators) will not be scared by all these horror stories. Most of these books are available to our reader. Nightwood by Juna Barnes, The Making of Americans by Gertrude Stein, and postmodernist Josem McElroy with his Women and Men have not yet been translated.
Partially translated The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser and Finnegans Wake by James Joyce are probably the most difficult to translate of all the books on the list.
The list itself is probably intended to interest the reader by the method of "contradiction". If this book is difficult, why not master it? At least for himself. Yes, and the usual ratings of the level of “what to read to look well-read” have already set their teeth on edge. The list, of course, is far from complete, and it was compiled for the English-speaking reader. Probably, soon we should expect other lists of the most difficult books to read. First of all - Russians ...
See also:
* 39 books that explained Russia
* One hundred books for Tula schoolchildren
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