"To Kill a Mockingbird". Harper Lee
It must have been extremely easy to write a novel about litigation on the rape of a white woman by a black man, which takes place in the deeply racist south of the United States of America, from the point of view of a little girl, full of too simple solutions and cinematic sentiment. But, fortunately, this is not about Harper Lee's novel " To Kill a Mockingbird". The little girl is an inquisitive and insightful Scout, and her father, who defends the accused, is the immortal Atticus Finch, who became the stronghold of justice in a tired and exhausted town. All this is followed, not simple and not sentimental, but the classic complexity of moral principles, and an endlessly renewable source of wisdom in the realm of nature of human decency."1984". George Orwell, 1949 "Nineteen Eighty-Four", George Orwell
The time is 13:00, the date does not matter, the year is not mentioned. Winston Smith, an official at the Ministry of Truth, toils day and night in the service of Big Brother, the remote, falsely benign ruler of this darkly familiar dystopia. Orwell's novel is an essay on every possible way a nation can be humiliated by a government: spiritually, physically, intellectually, through encirclement, torture, surveillance and censorship, to the point where the state can manipulate reality at will. When a beautiful resistance member sways Smith into rebellion, 1984 becomes something more - a strange, tragic, and deeply sad love story. That the novel is as prophetic as it is pessimistic was Orwell's triumph and the misfortune of the century. "Lord of the Rings". John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 1954
"The Lord of the Rings", John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Tolkien
When a house Catholic, a pipe-smoking Oxford professor named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien sat down to write a novel, no one could have imagined that his wild fantasy would create a whole continent inhabited by elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards and walking trees. Tolkien called on his deep knowledge of ancient languages and mythology, as well as his harrowing memories of the Battle of the Somme, to create a 20th-century tale of magic and heroism, misty mountains and mystical forests, virtue and temptation, where a tiny dwarf-like hobbit, Frodo, goes in search of adventure to destroy the Ring of Omnipotence - an evil artifact that can cause the death of all of Middle-earth. As a founding text of the modern fantasy style, The Lord of the Rings also carries with it an extremely dark longing for pre-industrial England, lost forever in the muddy trenches of World War I.The Catcher in the Rye". Jerome David Salinger, 1951
"The Catcher in the Rye", J. D. Salinger
No matter how many school teachers of foreign literature try to "domesticate" the novel Jerome Selinger « The Catcher in the Rye” in the classroom, he will never lose his satirical poignancy in his life. When Holden Caulfield finds out he's been expelled from another private school, he runs away in the middle of the night and goes to New York for a few days, meeting girls, remembering his dead brother, wondering where the ducks fly in winter, before breaking the sad news to his parents. Time passes in the throes of complete indifference to the joys of life, changing the boy who has just matured. It is a constant reminder of the sweetness of childhood, the hypocrisy of the adult world, and the strange gap between them."The Great Gatsby". Francis Scott Fitzgerald, 1925
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
There's no better party than Jazz Age multimillionaire Jay Gatsby. No one has a bigger house, or a bigger pool, and no one drives a longer, shinier, more luxurious car. His silk shirts alone make women cry. But who is he? Where is he from? How did he make his fortune? And why does he stand every night on his dock, holding out his hand towards the green lantern that glows on the other side of the bay, opposite his magnificent mansion? "The Great Gatsby" reveals the empty, tragic heart of a man who has achieved everything with his own on their own. This is not just an exciting read about a great loss. This is one of the most typical American novels ever written.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. JK Rowling, 1997
"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", J. K. Rowling
The adventures of a young wizard and his friends and their relationship with the forces of adulthood and evil have managed to sell over 350 million books in 65 languages. The Harry Potter phenomenon has its detractors, but the success of books with special "adult" covers that allow you to read the novel without embarrassment on the subway and trains speaks for itself..."The little Prince". Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
"Le Petit Prince", Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
50 years before Harry Potter, and even 10 years before writing " The Catcher in the Rye", was " The little Prince", pamphlet Antoine de Saint-Exupery directed against adults and their rational thinking. The work is saturated with extreme tenderness, poetry and some simple but deep human wisdom. Naivety, which is noticeable at first glance, actually hides amazing, subtle humor, as well as sadness and touching. "The Grapes of Wrath". John Steinbeck, 1938
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Before the Dust Bowl hurricanes had calmed down, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about a family of impoverished Okies, the Joads, who head west in pursuit of the mirage of the good life from their devastated Midwestern farm to California. The Jodes find only the bitterness, poverty and oppression of the migrating farm laborers living in the Hoover Villages, but their unstoppable strength in the face of the adversity of an entire continent makes Steinbeck's epic so much more than a story of unfortunate events. The book is a written record of that time, as well as an invariable monument to human perseverance."451 degrees Fahrenheit". Ray Bradbury, 1953
Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
A classic of world science fiction is Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 (the flash point of paper), about firemen who start fires instead of extinguishing them, about books forbidden to read, and about people who almost forgot what it means being human… "One Hundred Years of Solitude" Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1967
"Cien años de soledad", Gabriel García Márquez
Novel Gabriel Garcia Marquez « One hundred years of solitude"- this is the greatest work, the most characteristic of the direction of magical realism. This impassioned, humorous story of Macondo and his family, the Buendía family, has a certain magnetic force of myth."Brave new world." Aldous Huxley, 1932
"Brave New World", Aldous Huxley
A classic example of science fiction, which is placed alongside George Orwell's 1984. Back in 1932, Aldous Huxley managed to predict such modern phenomena as cloning, growing embryos in test tubes, totalitarianism, neo-fascism and its artificial obligatory happiness, materialistic globalization and soft-ideology."Gone With the Wind". Margaret Mitchell, 1936
"Gone with the Wind", Margaret Mitchell
It's one of the best-selling books of all time, but that doesn't make for an impressive sugar book cocktail. Margaret Mitchell so great. Powerful, original and all-encompassing historical novel about the courageous Scarlett O'Hara, the roguish Rhett Butler and the romantic, boundlessly beautiful Ashley Ulks, in a world destroyed by the cataclysm of civil war. As the quintessence of the English novel is Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, so the quintessence of the American novel is the novel gone With the Wind". The book is tremendously readable, as love stories have never been more triangular. But it is also a distinctive interpretation of one of the main American mythologies - the disappearance, in blood and dust, of the great old South."Lord of the Flies". William Golding, 1954 "Lord of the Flies", William Golding
If the novel had been written in the 19th century, it would have been about a joyful, whimsical and fantastic Neverland created by boys. But in Golding's version, ostentatious childlike purity quickly disappears in the absence of adults, turning the boys into two warring tribes, one led by the righteous Ralph and his asthmatic bosom friend Piggy, the second under the leadership of the former leader of the choir, Jack. Golding traces the fall of this new Eden with relentless, meticulous care and total psychological clarity. And in the process, he mercilessly debunks myths and clichés about childish innocence. "Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade". Kurt Vonnegut, 1969
"Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death", Kurt Vonnegut
Vonnegut may still be a cult writer, but he deserves full canon awards for his kaleidoscopic jigsaw puzzle about Billy Pilgrim, the man who "fell out of time." The Pilgrim jumps helplessly from decade to decade, living through the episodes of his life without any sequence, not excluding his own death, his capture by aliens from the planet Tralfamador, and his traumatic service during World War II, where he survived the bombing of Dresden. " Massacre number five is a cynical novel, but beneath the bitterness of black humor lies a desperate, painfully honest attempt to come face to face with the heinous crimes of the 20th century."Lolita". Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
"Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov
The novel was born in agony. Nabokov practically burned the manuscript halfway through completion, and his first publisher was a French publisher specializing in pornographic literature. But "Lolita" has become the greatest bestseller, the most unlike the American classics. Main character named Humbert Humbert is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured and endearingly ironic man who hates himself as much as a human being can, but he loves, and can only love, pretty little girls, whom he calls "nymphets." Lolita is the story of Humbert's affair with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze. Their story is about as disgusting and unacceptable as one can imagine, but Humbert's voice, an endlessly resourceful stream of evil, understandable curses, raises it to the level of a tragic, intricate epic."Above the Cuckoo's Nest" Ken Kesey, 1962
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Ken Kesey
When Kesey decided to tackle the hypocrisy, cruelty, and forced obedience of modern life, he unearthed his personal experience object of research in a hospital for the mentally ill. In The Cuckoo's Nest, rampant patient Randle Patrick McMurphy struggles with the cold and unfriendly, power-crazed sister Mildred Ratched in an attempt to free, or at least breathe some life into, the crushed and terrified patients she puts on airs for. watching the silent, stony-looking narrator, Chief Bromden. Containing these two allegories of individualism and heartbreaking psychological drama, the novel " Above the cuckoo's nest manages to cheer up without giving the slightest chance to excessive sentimentality."The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Douglas Adams, 1979
"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Douglas Adams
Originally broadcast on Radio 4, this quote-worthy comedy about the ill-fated adventures of a simple Englishman and his alien friend is a prime example of how science fiction can be smart and funny at the same time."Outsider". Albert Camus, 1942
"L" Étranger, Albert Camus
Everyone remembers how at school they were diligently forced to read and understand the works of Albert Camus. Then it was almost impossible to do this, and coercion could cause rejection of the French writer for life. But the story "The Outsider" is really worth re-reading now. The scorched despair of Camus's intelligent humanism and his clear manner of presentation are simply inimitable."American tragedy". Theodor Dreiser, 1925
"An American Tragedy", Theodore Dreiser
Clyde Griffiths is an ambitious young man. He is in love with a rich girl, but he gets pregnant by a poor girl, Roberta Alden, who works with him in his uncle's factory. One day, he takes Roberta for a boat ride on the lake with the intention of killing her. From now on, his fate is sealed. But by this point, Dreiser had already made it clear that Clyde's fate had been predetermined even before that by the cruelty and cynicism of society. Dreiser's usual criticism, line by line, makes him the weakest American novelist. He uses a plumbing style of writing, artfully connecting each sentence. But by the end of the work, he will build them into a powerful plumbing, sending some very significant meaning through it."The Old Man and the Sea". Ernest Hemingway, 1952
"The Old Man and the Sea", Ernest Hemingway
For a long time no one should explain that the story "The Old Man and the Sea" is a modern classic that brought Ernest Hemingway Nobel Prize. And the main idea in the story of a simple fisherman Santiago, embodying the difficult story of a man forced to fight for life every day and at the same time trying to coexist in harmony with the world, has long become winged, acting as the motto of many admirers of literature, and not only: “Man is not built to endure defeat. Man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated."Perhaps you have not read all the books on this list, because at first glance they are so different. But try to read something that is unfamiliar to you. We guarantee that it will not leave you indifferent.
Books help develop character and teach, no matter how trite, good and beautiful. In addition, reading books can distract and captivate a person, giving him unforgettable moments of life. Reading can pass your free time, spending it, which is the most attractive, with considerable benefit. Today there are millions of books in the world - even in a lifetime they cannot be read by one person. Are there any books that must be read? Various researchers and organizations have compiled their own lists of books that must be read in your life.
1. "Life on loan". This sentimental work of Erich Maria Remarque is one of the most famous of the writer. Those who are unfamiliar with the work of this author should begin their acquaintance with this book. Many re-read “Life on loan” more than a dozen times, each time finding something new in this work.
What is this book about? There are two main characters here - a racing guy who risks his life every day, and a girl who is terminally ill with tuberculosis. At the same time, both of them believe only in the best - that is why the ending of the book is ironic and insanely absurd, and every page is saturated with tragedy.
2. "Lolita". This novel by Vladimir Nabokov cannot leave anyone indifferent. He catches with his provocative sincerity and longing. Until now, people are discussing what it was - crazy love or perversion. Everyone needs to read this confession in order to form their own opinion about the behavior of men.
What is this book about? About the love and relationship of an adult forty-year-old man and a teenage girl of thirteen.
3. "Master and Margarita". This immortal novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is extremely relevant even today, is very difficult to understand, as it refers to philosophical reading. It is read easily and quickly, but many “grow up” to it at a more mature age.
What is this book about? A mystic about love and power, about an unrecognized genius and his muse, about how the Devil once again was defeated over the soul of a person and about the fact that God exists, but in everyone's soul.
4. "Demons". Fyodor Dostoyevsky has no light fiction at all. But this work is a rather serious product that only a prepared reader needs to “taste”.
What is this book about? Demons lurk in every one of us. The terrible act that the protagonist committed in his youth haunts him throughout his life, embodied in the ghost of a murdered girl.
5. "Tender is the night." This is one of the main novels by Francis S. Fitzgerald, where there is love and a love triangle, as well as great weakness or weak strength, whichever is closer.
What is this book about? darling and beautiful life on the Cote d'Azur - it would seem, live and rejoice, but what to do if there is no most important thing - happiness?
6. "Dear friend." The classic of French literature, Guy de Maupassant, has gained fame as an aesthete, and his works are strong and, as they say, “tasty” - critics say that this is his best work.
What is this book about? About Alphonse. More precisely, about one stupid, greedy, illiterate, but terrible handsome man with whom a smart and talented woman falls in love.
7. "Loneliness in the network." The books of modern authors, such as Janusz Wisniewski, are closer to the younger generation, especially since they are based on things that are very close to perception.
What is this book about? About the modern life that young people spend in front of a computer monitor, about love and loneliness, about how important it is in the world to have a loved one.
8. "Gone with the Wind". The book, which was conceived by Margaret Mitchell as a novel about love and war, became a bestseller - it still occupies the top positions in the ratings.
What is this book about? About a strong woman who, after a series of tragic events that unfolded against the background of the war between the North and the South, was able not to lose herself, but to get back on her feet. There is love and betrayal, resourcefulness and self-interest, family values and patriots who are ready to do anything for their idea.
9. "Portrait of Dorian Gray". Many people know and love the tales of Oscar Wilde, but this mystical work is rightfully considered the best on the list of the writer.
What is this book about? The selfish young man does not want to grow old and lose his beauty - the artist paints his portrait, where he hides Dorian's soul. Now the portrait is aging, not the young man.
10. "Easy breathing." This work is considered the most famous by Ivan Bunin, although the legend is as old as the world - the relationship between a man and a woman does not always develop without clouds.
What is this book about? About a frivolous attitude to life - the first love of a schoolgirl and an officer, then the first intimacy, which ends rather sadly.
11. "Scarlet sails". The most famous work of Alexander Green is a symbol of dreams come true, a beautiful fairy tale about a handsome prince.
What is this book about? Since childhood, a poor girl living in a fishing village is sure that a prince will come for her, and his ship will definitely have scarlet sails. And if you love, is it hard to create a miracle for the dearest person?
12. "Diary in the letters of Anne Frank". In Amsterdam, a monument was erected to this girl in honor of the Jews who died during the war. Anne Frank is a real-life 15-year-old girl who kept a diary during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Today, "Diary ..." is a real document, which has been translated into many languages of the world.
What is this book about? Thoughts of a teenager during the war - what does a girl dream about when her familiar world is destroyed?
13. "The Catcher in the Rye". The controversial and rebellious work of Jerome D. Salinger, which is recommended reading in adolescence.
What is this book about? The growing up of a teenager who, due to his age, is endowed with youthful maximalism and idealism. Many see themselves in the main character: just as vulnerable and sensitive, touchy and unbridled, often confused and lost.
14. "Transformation". Franz Kafka himself is a complex and sometimes gloomy writer, but it is certainly worth reading at least one of his works, especially since this short story is a complete allegory that borders on the absurd.
What is this book about? Somehow the main character wakes up in the morning, and he is not a man, but a disgusting centipede, which even relatives do not want to look at, let alone communicate - complete loneliness in all manifestations, the illusion of love and the ugliness of the soul.
15. Jane Eyre. It is believed to be the only so-called "women's novel" written in the era of Victorian England, which is worth reading for men too. All other works are only pathetic attempts to repeat the success of Charlotte Brontë. At one time, the novel made a real sensation.
What is this book about? About a governess who, although poor and ugly, has an iron will and a strong character. Despite her love for a man - about this, by the way, she is also the first to admit that the girl prefers independence and does everything possible to have equal rights with men. This is a story of strong and uncompromising love - a real "debauchery" for the time when the novel was written.
Surely many people think that classical works by definition are long, boring, have a long period of limitation of writing, and therefore are not always clear to the modern reader. This is a common mistake. After all, in fact, the classic is everything that is not subject to time.
The best classics are brought to your attention. They conquered millions of readers. And even those who claim to be dissatisfied with the creation of the author, believe me, did not remain indifferent.
The themes revealed in such works are relevant for any age. And if a 19th-century author were to write such a book now, it would again become a bestseller. one.
The novel consists of two different, but intertwined parts. The time of the first is modern Moscow, the second is ancient Jerusalem. Each part is filled with events and characters - historical, fictional, as well as scary and amazing creatures.
2.
What forces move the people? They are the result of the actions of individuals - kings, generals - or such a feeling as patriotism, or is there a third force that determines the direction of history. The main characters are painfully looking for the answer to this question.
3.
The novel is based on the experience that Dostoevsky received in hard labor. Student Raskolnikov, who lived in poverty for several months, is convinced that a humane goal will justify the most terrible act, even the murder of a greedy and useless old money-lender.
4.
A novel that was ahead of its time and came out long before the emergence of such a cultural phenomenon as postmodernism. The main characters of the work - 4 sons born from different mothers - symbolize those irrepressible elements that can lead to the death of Russia.
5.
Should I stay with my husband, who was always indifferent to her inner world and never loved her, or should I give myself with all my heart to the one who made her feel happy? Throughout the novel, the heroine, the young aristocrat Anna, suffers from such a choice.
6.
The poor young prince is returning by train home to Russia. On the way, he meets the son of one of the rich merchants, who is obsessed with a passion for one girl, a kept woman. In the metropolitan society, obsessed with money, power and manipulation, the prince turns out to be an outsider.
7.
Despite the name, the work itself has nothing to do with mysticism, which is mainly inherent in the work of this writer. In the tradition of "severe" realism, the life of landowners in the Russian provinces is described, where a former official comes to pull off his scam.
8.
The young Petersburg rake, having had enough of love and secular entertainment, leaves for the village, where a friendship is struck up with a poet who is in love with one of the daughters of a local nobleman. The second daughter falls in love with the rake, but he does not return her feelings.
9.
The famous Moscow surgeon decides to conduct a very risky experiment on a stray dog in his large apartment, where he receives patients. As a result, the animal began to turn into a human. But at the same time he acquired all human vices.
10.
People come to the provincial town who, it would seem, cannot be connected with anything. But they know each other because they belong to the same revolutionary organization. Their goal is to arrange a political revolt. Everything goes according to plan, but one revolutionary decides to quit the game.
These are, in our opinion, the top 10 classic books that everyone should read. But the following works are no less great! Let's go further:
11.
Iconic work of the 19th century. In the center of the story is a student who does not accept traditional public morality and opposes everything old, non-progressive. For him, only scientific knowledge is valuable, which can explain everything. Except love.
12.
By profession he was a doctor, by vocation he was a writer, whose talent was fully revealed when creating short humorous stories. They quickly became classics all over the world. In them, in an accessible language - the language of humor - human vices are revealed.
13.
This work is on a par with Gogol's poem. In it, the main character is also a young adventurer who is ready to promise everyone what, in principle, is impossible to do. And all for the sake of a treasure, which a few more people know about. And no one is going to share it.
14.
After a three-year separation, young Alexander returns to the house of his beloved Sophia to propose to her. However, she refuses him and says that she now loves another. The rejected lover begins to blame the society in which Sophia grew up.
15.
What should a real nobleman do if the life of a young noble girl depends on him? Sacrifice yourself, but do not drop the honor. This is what the young officer directs when the fortress in which he serves is attacked by the impostor tsar.
16.
Terrible poverty and hopelessness suffocate the old inhabitant of Cuba. One day he, as usual, goes to sea, not hoping for a big catch. But this time, a large prey comes across his hook, with which the fisherman fights for several days, not giving her the opportunity to leave.
17.
Ragin selflessly serves as a doctor. However, his zeal is coming to naught, he sees no reason to change life around him, because it is impossible to cure the madness that reigns around him. The doctor begins daily visits to the ward where the mentally ill are kept.
18.
What is more destructive - to do nothing and only indulge in dreams about how it is worth living, or to get up from the couch and start realizing your plans? The young and lazy landowner Ilya Ilyich at first occupied the first position, but after falling in love, he woke up from his sleepy state.
19.
You can write great works not only about life big city but also about the life of a small Ukrainian farm. During the day, the usual rules apply here, and at night power passes to supernatural forces that can both help and at the same time destroy.
20.
A talented surgeon settles illegally in Paris, but he is not prevented from practicing medicine. Before moving, he lived in Germany, from which he fled, but at the same time he let his beloved die. In the new place, he quickly begins another romance.
21.
The Russian tutor goes on a journey with the family in which he serves. At the same time, he is secretly in love with the girl Polina. And so that she understands all his nobility, he begins to play roulette in the hope of getting big money. And he succeeds, but the girl does not accept the winnings.
22.
The world of family comfort, nobility and true patriotism is breaking down under the onslaught of a social catastrophe in Russia. The fleeing Russian officers settle in Ukraine and hope that they will not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks here. But one day the defense of the city weakens, and the enemy goes on the offensive.
23.
A cycle of small works that are written in a different artistic manner. Here you can find both a romantic duelist and sentimental stories about eternal love, and a harsh picture of a reality in which money rules, and because of them, a person can lose the most important thing.
24.
What Pushkin did not succeed in his time, Dostoevsky succeeded. The work is completely a correspondence between a poor official and a young girl who also has a small income. But at the same time, the heroes are not poor in soul.
25.
A story about the invincibility and resilience of a man who does not want to be someone's loyal soldier. For the sake of freedom, Hadji Murad goes over to the side of the imperial troops, but he does this in order to save not himself, but his family, which is held captive by the enemy.
26.
In these seven works, the author leads us through the streets of St. Petersburg, which was built with the help of strength and ingenuity in a swampy area. Deception and violence hide under its harmonious façade. The inhabitants are confused by the city itself, giving them false dreams.
27.
This collection of short stories is the first major work that won recognition for the author. It is based on personal observations while hunting on his mother's estate, where Turgenev learned of the mistreatment of peasants and the injustice of the Russian system.
28.
The protagonist is the son of a landowner whose property was confiscated by a corrupt and treacherous general. After the death of his father, the hero becomes a criminal. To achieve the ultimate goal - revenge - he resorts to more cunning means: he seduces the daughter of his enemy.
29.
This classic war novel is written from the perspective of a young German soldier. The hero is only 18 years old, and he, under the pressure of his family, friends and society, enters military service and goes to the front. There he witnesses such horrors that he dares not tell anyone.
30.
Mischievous and energetic Tom enjoys childish pranks and games with his friends. One day, at the city cemetery, he witnesses a murder committed by a local tramp. The hero makes a vow that he will never talk about it, and so begins his journey into adulthood.
31.
The story of a miserable Petersburg official who was robbed of his expensive overcoat. No one wants to help him return the thing, from which the hero eventually becomes seriously ill. Even during the life of the author, critics adequately appreciated the work from which all Russian realism was born.
32.
The novel is on a par with another work of the author - "The Call of the Ancestors". Most of " White Fang” is also written from the point of view of the dog whose name appears in the title. This allows the author to show how animals see their world and how they see a person.
33.
The novel tells the story of 19-year-old Arkady - the illegitimate son of a landowner and a maid - as he struggles to make amends and "become a Rothschild" despite Russia still being tied to its old value system.
34.
A novel about how the hero, who is very broken and disappointed due to a failed marriage, returns to his estate and finds his love again - only to lose it. This reflects the main theme: a person is not destined to experience happiness, except as something ephemeral.
35.
A dark and fascinating tale tells of the struggle of an indecisive, aloof hero in a world of relative values. The innovative work introduces the moral, religious, political and social themes that dominate the author's later masterpieces.
36.
The narrator arrives in Sevastopol, which is under siege, and makes a detailed inspection of the city. As a result, the reader has the opportunity to study all the features of military life. We get to the dressing station, where horror reigns, and to the most dangerous bastion.
37.
The work is partly based on the life experience of the author, who took part in the war in the Caucasus. A nobleman, disillusioned with his privileged life, enlists in the army to escape the superficiality of everyday life. A hero in search of a full life.
3
8. $
The first social novel of the author, which is partly an artistic introduction for those who belonged to the previous era, but lived at a time when political and social movements began. This era has already been forgotten, but it is worth remembering.
39.
One of the greatest and most successful dramatic works. A Russian aristocrat and her family return to their estate to see how the public auction is going, where their house and huge garden are put up for debt. The old masters lose in the fight against the new trends of life.
40.
The hero was sentenced to death on charges of killing his wife, but was subsequently exiled to Siberian penal servitude for 10 years. Life in prison is hard for him - he is an intellectual and experiences the anger of other prisoners. Gradually, he overcomes disgust and experiences a spiritual awakening.
41.
On the eve of his wedding, a young aristocrat learns that his fiancee had an affair with the king. It was a blow to his pride, so he renounces everything worldly and takes the vows as a monk. So pass long years of humility and doubt. Until he decides to become a hermit.
42.
A manuscript falls into the hands of the editor, which tells about a young and depraved man who worked as a forensic investigator. He becomes one of the "corners" in the love triangle in which the married couple is involved. The outcome of the story is the murder of his wife.
43.
A work banned until 1988, in which, through the fate of a military doctor, the story of a people who perished in the turmoil of the revolution is told. From the general madness, the hero, together with his family, runs deep into the country, where he meets the one he does not want to let go.
44.
The protagonist, like all his friends, is a war veteran. He is a poet at heart, but works for a friend who runs a small tombstone business. This money is not enough, and he receives additional income by giving private lessons and playing the organ in a local mental hospital.
45.
In a foreign war, Frederic falls in love with a nurse and tries to seduce her, after which their relationship begins. But one day the hero is wounded by a fragment of a mortar shell, and he is sent to a Milan hospital. There, away from the war, he is healed - both physically and morally.
46.
During breakfast, the barber discovers a human nose in his bread. With horror, he recognizes it as the nose of a regular visitor who bears the rank of collegiate assessor. In turn, the injured official discovers the loss and submits an absurd ad to the newspaper.
47.
The protagonist, a boy, striving for independence and freedom, escapes from his alcoholic father by faking his own death. And so begins his journey through the south of the country. He meets a runaway slave and they float down the Mississippi River together.
48.
The plot of the poem is based on the events that really took place in St. Petersburg in 1824. The political, historical and existential questions that the author formulates with dazzling power and conciseness continue to be the subject of controversy among critics.
49.
In order to save his beloved, who was forcibly taken away by an evil sorcerer, the warrior Ruslan will have to go on an epic and dangerous journey, facing many fantastic and terrible creatures. This is a dramatic and witty retelling of Russian folklore.
50.
The most famous play describes a family of aristocrats who struggle to find any meaning in their lives. The three sisters and their brother live in a remote province, but they struggle to return to the sophisticated Moscow where they grew up. The play captures the decline of the "masters of life".
51.
The hero is obsessed with an all-consuming love for one princess, who hardly knows about his existence. One day, a society lady receives an expensive bracelet for her birthday. The husband finds a secret admirer and asks him to stop compromising a decent woman.
52.
In this classic literary representation of gambling, the author explores the nature of the obsession. Secret and otherworldly clues alternate with the story of a fiery Herman who wants to make his fortune at the card table. The secret of success is known to one old woman.
53.
Muscovite Gurov is married and has a daughter and two sons. However, he is not happy in family life and often cheats on his wife. Resting in Yalta, he sees a young lady walking along the embankment with her little dog, and is constantly looking for opportunities to get to know her.
54.
This collection is in some way the culmination of the work that he did throughout his life. The stories were written on the eve of a terrible world war in the context of a collapsing Russian culture. The action of each work concentrates on a love theme.
55.
The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous narrator who reminisces about his youth, in particular his stay in a small town west of the Rhine. Critics consider the hero a classic "extra person" - indecisive and undecided about his place in life.
56.
Four laconic plays, later known as "Little Tragedies", were written at the moment of the rise of creative forces, and their influence cannot be overestimated. Being the author's transcription of plays by Western European authors, "Tragedies" offer readers topical problems.
57.
This story takes place in Europe, in a hedonistic society during the Roaring Twenties. A rich schizophrenic girl falls in love with her psychiatrist. As a result, a whole saga of troubled marriages, love affairs, duels and incest unfolds.
58.
Some scholars distinguish three poems in the work of this author, in which one original idea is embodied. One of them is, of course, Mtsyri. The main character is a 17-year-old monk who was forcibly taken away from his village as a child, and one day he escapes.
59.
A completely young mongrel runs away from her permanent owner and finds herself a new one. It turns out to be an artist who performs in a circus with numbers in which animals participate. Therefore, for a smart little dog, his own separate number is immediately invented.
60.
In this story, among its many themes, such as Europeanized Russian society, adultery and provincial life, the theme of a woman comes to the fore, or rather, the planning of a murder by a woman. The title of the piece is a reference to Shakespeare's play.
61. Leo Tolstoy - Fake Coupon
Schoolboy Mitya is in desperate need of money - he needs to repay the debt. Depressed by this situation, he follows the evil advice of his friend, who showed him how to change the denomination of the banknote. This act sets off a chain of events that affects the lives of dozens of other people.
62.
The most outstanding work of Proust, which is known for its length and the theme of involuntary memories. The novel began to take shape as early as 1909. The author continued to work on it until his last illness, which forced him to stop working.
63.
The voluminous poem tells the story of seven peasants who set out to ask various sections of the village population if they are happy. But wherever they went, they were always given an unsatisfactory answer. Of the planned 7-8 parts, the author wrote only half.
64.
The story of the sad life of a young girl who lived in extreme poverty and became an orphan in an instant, but she is adopted by a wealthy family. When she meets her new half-sister, Katya, she instantly falls in love with her and the two soon become inseparable.
65.
The protagonist is a classic Hemingway hero: a violent guy, an underground liquor dealer who smuggles weapons and transports people from Cuba to the Florida Keys. He risks his life to dodge the Coast Guard's bullets and manages to outsmart her.
66.
During a train ride, one of the passengers overhears a conversation going on in the compartment. When one woman argues that marriage should be based on true love, he asks her: what is love? In his opinion, love quickly turns into hatred, and tells his story.
67. Leo Tolstoy - Notes of the marker
The narrator is a simple marker, a person who keeps score and arranges balls on a billiard table. If the game goes well and the players come across not stingy, then he gets a good reward. But one day a very gambling young man appears in the club.
68.
The protagonist is looking for peace in Polissya, which should cheer him up. But in the end he gets one unbearable boredom. But one day, having gone astray, he comes across a hut, where an old woman and her beautiful granddaughter are waiting for him. After such a magical meeting, the hero becomes a frequent guest here.
69.
In the center of attention is a janitor of high stature and powerful physique. He falls in love with a young washerwoman and wants to marry her. But the lady decides differently: the girl goes to the eternally drunk shoemaker. The hero finds his consolation in caring for a small dog.
70.
One evening, the three sisters shared their dreams with each other: what would they do if they became the wives of the king. But the prayers of only the third sister were heard - Tsar Saltan marries her and orders her to give birth to an heir by a certain date. But envious sisters begin to mischief.
1. Living on loan
Erich Maria Remarque
A man, his car, a frail girl dying of tuberculosis. The heroine spends all her money on Balenciaga dresses, and the hero really wants to believe in the best. The ironic and absurd ending turns this sentimental story on its head. If you believe in the dubious thesis that every girl at the age of 17 should read Remarque, then let it be “Life on loan”.
2. Portrait of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde
The beautiful and capricious young man Dorian does not want to grow old. The talented artist Basil paints his portrait and, without knowing it, literally conveys his soul on canvas. Now Dorian is forever young, and the portrait grows old instead of him. A wonderful mystical novel about the naive selfishness of young people, about the immorality of beauty, and about how scary it really is to never change.
3. Lord of the Flies
William Golding
A creepy book about the entertainment of English schoolchildren on a desert island. Little boys live evolution in reverse, turning from civilized children into evil, wild animals, cultivating fear and strength, capable of killing. A story about freedom, which implies responsibility, and about the fact that youth and innocence are not synonymous at all.
4. The night is tender
Francis Scott Fitzgerald
Expensive cars, villas on the Cote d'Azur, silk dresses - but there is no happiness. A love triangle involving a doctor named Dick, his neurotic young wife Nicole, and a frivolous young actress Rosemary - main novel about love, strength and weakness.
5. Slaughterhouse number 5
Kurt Vonnegut
The subtitle of the novel is " Crusade children” is the most correct definition of World War II. This is a war that children have gone to - 17-year-old boys with missing brains. The protagonist makes an endless movement in time, remembering his senseless and completely unheroic campaign against the world's evil. There is not a single battle scene in this book about the war. Only the stupidity and absurdity of the whole undertaking through the eyes of a living young man.
6. Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
One can endlessly argue about what it was - a dirty perversion or a pure feeling, a provocation or a confession. It doesn't matter. Reading this book about the relationship between forty-year-old Humbert and his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter is worth reading if only to understand why we all sometimes behave so strangely when communicating with adult men.
7. A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess
Rebellious, cult, violent and very teenage book. It's worth reading when you're 16, or not at all. The main character - a young man Alex, a hooligan, a sadist and a terrible monster rapes, kills, speaks strange slang and suddenly transforms into a respectable citizen, an employee of the music archive. There is no logic, there is only a miracle, but quite understandable - Burgess began writing a novel, thinking that he would die, and finished, already knowing that the fatal diagnosis was a mistake.
8. Light breathing
Ivan Bunin
An important story about high school student Olya Meshcherskaya, femininity and first sex, an officer in love and a shot at the station. “Easy breathing” is that important quality of girls that makes men go crazy with love, and the young ladies themselves are unforgivably frivolous about their own lives.
9. Transformation
Franz Kafka
Kafka is a complex gloomy writer. It is not easy for a young girl to fall in love with him. But you have to try. The short story "Transformation" is an absurdist pamphlet on the theme of human loneliness. The young salesman Gregor wakes up one fine morning with a disgusting centipede, a cockroach, a beetle, a vile muck that his family is afraid to even look at. If we leave aside the modernist pranks of the author, you understand that this is all about life, about the illusory nature of love, about the ugliness and loneliness of everyone.
10. French lieutenant's mistress
John Fowles
Every day, a young woman dressed in black stands on the seashore and looks at the horizon. The woman's name is Sarah and there is a rumor that she is waiting for a sailor lover who dishonored her. A young man is going to marry a young charming girl. But one day he sees a woman in black, and everything goes wrong. Will he marry or give vent to feelings? You will decide. The brilliant Fowles wrote two versions of the ending to show that conscience is an individual choice.
11. Dear friend
Guy De Maupassant
A classic French romance with an "anti-hero" in the title role. A young journalist, Georges Duroy, is trying to make his way in Paris. He is mediocre, greedy, cowardly and illiterate. But very handsome. Scary tale about how smart and talented women become victims of their own blindness. This novel is an inoculation from stories with gigolos for life.
12. Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
A great fairy tale dedicated to a little girl, a friend of the author. "Lolita" without signs of sex. “Alice” is useful to re-read as an adult in order to develop fantasy, an unexpected look at things and a sense of humor.
13. Jen Eyre
Charlotte Bronte
A poor, ugly, iron-willed governess is the most unexpected character in a Victorian-era romance. Jen Eyre is the first to tell a man about her love, but refuses to submit to the whims of her lover, chooses independence and insists on equal rights with a man. Contemporaries were horrified by such depravity, and young girls are still happy to relive the story of strong and uncompromising love.
14. Scarlet sails
Alexander Green
A beautiful, romantic, familiar tale from childhood about Assol, Gray and an unshakable faith in a dream with a simple and clear moral - any miracle can happen if you do it yourself. For yourself or for someone you love.
15. Baby
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
A piercing story of space Mowgli, left by his parents on a desert planet. As you might guess, it is we who are the very wild kids abandoned by the generation of hippies to the mercy of fate. “They set off on a dangerous free flight, but they never found anything” - many Moscow boys and girls who grew up on Beatles records and stories about Che Guevara will say the same about their parents.
16. Nastenka
Vladimir Sorokin
First and main story collection "Feast" about a young girl who was eaten by her parents on her sixteenth birthday - should be read immediately after graduation, when the heart is still languishing with Turgenev's bliss and Bunin's sadness. The story "Nastenka" differs from "Dark Alleys" in the same way as adult life differs from childhood. And if you start adult life, then with the story "Nastenka". Then it won't be scary anymore.
17. What to do
Nikolay Chernyshevsky
The first socialist story in Russian is dedicated, oddly enough, not to the struggle against the tsarist regime, but to the relationship between men and women. Young heroes struggle with jealousy and possessiveness, learn to respect each other.
18. Drachma Tramps
Jack Kerouac
The twenty-year-old veterans who returned from the war did not find either truth or dignity in America in the mid-40s - and began to wander. To the sounds of jazz in smoky clubs, to the whistling of the wind through the cracks of freight cars, to the ache of bones after spending the night on bare ground, and, of course, to the endless talk about Christianity, Buddhism, communism, anarchism - conversations in which, bit by bit, they opened for himself the meaning of the universe and the meaning of human life.
This is a very simple and short story about unrequited love. On several pages, one of the most sincere and lyrical writers of the 20th century clearly explains to all young girls that unhappy love is the most magical thing that can happen to a person.
20. Notes of a revolutionary
Peter Kropotkin
Revolutionary and anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin talks about his life in the Corps of Pages - military educational institution for the children of the Russian elite. This book is about how a person can defend himself in the fight against an alien, incomprehensible environment. And also about true friendship and mutual assistance.
21. Shelter. Diary in letters
Anne Frank
The diary of a 15-year-old girl Anna, who, together with her family, is hiding in Amsterdam from the Nazis, who have already sent other Dutch Jews to concentration camps. Anna writes wittily and aptly about herself, about her peers, about adults, about the world and about her first sexual dreams, and this diary is an amazing document illustrating what goes on in the head of a young lady when the world is collapsing around her. Anna did not live to see the victory over fascism for two months - she was nevertheless found and sent to a concentration camp, but her diary lives on in translations into many languages of the world.
22. Carrie
Stephen King
The first novel by the great writer King about the unfortunate girl Carrie White, endowed with the gift of telekinesis. A detailed chronicle of cruel, beautiful and fully justified revenge for the bullying of classmates penetrates to the bone and, most importantly, looks much more adequate, truthful and realistic than, say, the film “Dogville” by Lars Von Trier.
23. Foam days
Boris Vian
It is thanks to this short novel by the fabulous French hoaxer Vian that we know that girls have lilies in their breasts, and musical instruments can mix cocktails. In a world full of cruel, ironic, but always impeccably beautiful metaphors, one wants to live a lifetime. We live.
24. Neuromancer
William Gibson
One of the inventors of the cyberpunk style, a popular American science fiction writer created a gloomy, cruel and magnificent world of the future, entangled in networks of mega-corporations, flooded with neon light and immersed in endless loneliness. The most romantic book of our chromed days about eternal wanderings.
25. Catcher in the Rye
Jerome David Salinger
The story of the growing up of a young egoist, maximalist and idealist Holden Caulfield for many years will remain the most famous and most instructive book about the young. That's exactly how we all are: touchy, unkind, confused, wild and infinitely beautiful, because sincere, naive and vulnerable.
26. While the girlfriend is in a coma
Douglas Copeland
The author of the popular book “Generation X”, as you know, counted us all. However, Copeland is not only and not so much a social writer, he is first of all a brilliant lyricist with a touch of pure madness. “When the Girlfriend is in a Coma” is a semi-fantastic drama about love and friendship, full of subtle, brightest observations. It is after “Girlfriend ...” that it seems that Copeland is the only writer in the world who loves us seriously.
27. Cinderella trap
Sebastian Japriso
A light wonderful detective story about young French devils who love white outfits and open cars. One of the most magnificent works about the amazing girlish harmfulness, meanness, and filth, written with endless admiration.
