Required to read. Best Must-Read Books: Types of Literature Must-Read Classics

Surely many people believe that classical works by their definition are long, boring, have a long-term writing period, and therefore are not always understandable for the modern reader. This is a common mistake. Indeed, in fact, the classics are all that is not subject to time.

The best classics are presented to your attention. They conquered millions of readers. And even those who claim to be dissatisfied with the author's creation, believe me, did not remain indifferent.

The themes revealed in such works are relevant for any century. And an author of the 19th century would write such a book now, it would again become a bestseller. 1.
The novel consists of two different, but intertwined parts. The duration 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 are driving the people? They are the result of the actions of individuals - kings, military leaders - or such feelings as patriotism, or there is 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 has been languishing 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 woman-pawnbroker.

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 of different mothers - symbolize those irrepressible elements that can lead to the death of Russia.

5.
Should I stay with her husband, who was always indifferent to her inner world and never loved her, or should I surrender with all my heart to the one who made her feel happy? Throughout the novel, the heroine, the young aristocrat Anna, is tormented by such a choice.

6.
The poor young prince is returning home by train to Russia. On the way, he meets the son of one of the wealthy merchants, who is obsessed with a passion for a girl, a kept woman. In a metropolitan society obsessed with money, power and manipulation, the prince turns out to be a stranger.

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 traditions of "harsh" realism, the life of landowners in the Russian province is described, where a former official comes to turn his swindle.

8.
A young Petersburg rake, fed up with love and secular entertainments, leaves for the village, where a friendship is struck 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 respond to her feelings.

9.
The famous Moscow surgeon decides to conduct a very risky experiment on a stray dog \u200b\u200bin his large apartment, where he receives patients. As a result, the animal began to transform into a human. But along with this he acquired all human vices.

10.
People come to the provincial town who, it would seem, cannot be connected by anything. But they are familiar with each other, as they are in the same revolutionary organization. Their goal is to start a political riot. Everything goes according to plan, but one revolutionary decides to leave the game.

These are what we think are the 10 best classics that everyone should read. But the following works are no less great! Let's go further:

11.
A cult work of the 19th century. At 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 that can explain everything is valuable. Except love.

12.
He was a physician by profession, a writer by vocation, whose talent was fully revealed when creating short humorous stories. They quickly became classics around 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, cannot be done. And all for the sake of the treasure, which a few more people know about. And no one is going to share it.

14.
After three years of separation, young Alexander returns to the house of his beloved Sophia to propose to her. However, she refuses him and says that now she 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 your honor. This is what the young officer guides when the impostor tsar attacks the fortress in which he serves.

16.
Terrible poverty and despair are strangling the old inhabitant of Cuba. One day, as usual, he goes to sea, not hoping for a big catch. But this time, a large prey is caught on his hook, with which the fisherman fights for several days, not giving her the opportunity to leave.

17.
Ragin is a selfless doctor. However, his zeal is fading away, he sees no reason to change life around him, because the madness that reigns around cannot be cured. 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 of how to live, or get off the couch and start realizing your plans? The young and lazy landowner Ilya Ilyich initially occupied the first position, but after falling in love, he woke up from his sleepy state.

19.
One can write magnificent works not only about the life of a big city, but also about the life of a small Ukrainian farm. During the day, the order is familiar to everyone, and at night the power passes to supernatural forces that can help and at the same time destroy.

20.
A talented surgeon settles illegally in Paris, but at the same time 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 a new place, he quickly starts another romance.

21.
The Russian tutor goes on a journey with the family he serves. However, he is secretly in love with the girl Pauline. 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 prize.

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. But one day the city's defense weakens, and the enemy goes on the offensive.

23.
A cycle of small pieces written in a different artistic manner. Here you can find a romantic duelist, and sentimental stories about eternal love, and a harsh picture of reality in which money rules, and because of them a person can lose the most important.

24.
What Pushkin did not succeed in his time, did Dostoevsky. The work is entirely 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.
The story of the invincibility and resilience of a person 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 erected with the help of strength and ingenuity in a swampy area. Deception and violence are hidden under its harmonious facade. Residents are confused by the city itself, giving them false dreams.

27.
This collection of short stories is the first major work that has won the author's recognition. It is based on personal observations while hunting on his mother's estate, where Turgenev learned about the mistreatment of peasants and the injustice of the Russian system.

28.
The main character is the son of a landowner, whose property was confiscated by a corrupt and insidious 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 under the pressure of his family, friends and society, he enters the military service and goes to the front. There he becomes a witness of such horrors that he dares not tell anyone.

30.
The mischievous and energetic Tom enjoys childish pranks and games with his friends. Once at the city cemetery, he witnesses a murder committed by a local vagrant. The hero makes a vow that he will never tell about it, and this is how his journey into adulthood begins.

31.
The story of a pitiful Petersburg official who had his expensive overcoat stolen. No one wants to help him return the thing, from which the hero eventually becomes seriously ill. Even during the author's lifetime, critics praised 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. Much 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 humans.

33.
The novel tells the story of 19-year-old Arkady, the illegitimate son of a landowner and a maid, about how he struggles to rectify his situation and “become a Rothschild,” even though Russia remains tied to its old value system.

34.
The novel is about how a hero, who is very broken and disappointed because of 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 captivating tale tells the story of the struggle of an indecisive, alienated 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 at Sevastopol, which is under siege, and makes a detailed survey of the city. As a result, the reader has the opportunity to study all the features of military life. We find ourselves at the dressing station, where terror reigns, and at the most dangerous bastion.

37.
The work is partially based on the life experience of the author, who took part in the war in the Caucasus. A nobleman, disenchanted with his privileged life, enlists in the army to escape the superficiality of everyday life. A hero in search of full life.

3 8. $
The author's first social novel, which is partly an artistic opening speech 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 about it.

39.
One of the greatest and most successful dramas. The Russian aristocrat and her family return to their estate to watch the public auction going on, at which their house and a huge garden are displayed for debts. The old masters are losing the fight to the new trends of life.

40.
The hero was sentenced to death on charges of murdering his wife, but was subsequently exiled to Siberian hard labor for 10 years. Life in prison is hard for him - he is an intellectual and feels 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 bride had an affair with the king. It was a blow to his pride, so he renounces everything worldly and tonsured a monk. So many years of humility and doubt pass. Until he dares to become a hermit.

42.
In the hands of the editor falls a manuscript, which tells about a young and depraved man who worked as a judicial investigator. It becomes one of the "corners" in a love triangle in which a married couple is involved. The end 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, flees into the interior of the country, where he meets the one that he does not want to let go.

44.
The main character, like all his friends, is a war veteran. He is a poet at heart, but works for a friend who runs a small office for the production of tombstones. That money is not enough, and he earns additional income by giving private lessons and playing the organ at a local mental hospital.

45.
In someone else's 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, far from the war, he is healed - both physically and mentally.

46.
During breakfast, the barber discovers a human nose in his bread. With horror, he recognizes him as a regular visitor who carries the rank of collegiate assessor. In turn, the injured official discovers the loss and submits an absurd announcement to the newspaper.

47.
The main character, a boy, striving for independence and freedom, escapes from his alcoholic father, faking his own death. And so begins his journey through the south of the country. He meets an escaped slave, and together they float down the Mississippi River.

48.
The plot of the poem is based on the events that really took place in St. Petersburg in 1824. Political, historical and existential questions, which the author formulates with dazzling force and laconism, continue to be the subject of controversy among critics.

49.
To save his beloved, who was forcibly carried away by an evil sorcerer, the warrior Ruslan will have to go on an epic and dangerous journey, faced with 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 meaning in their lives. The three sisters, as well as their brother, live in a remote province, but they are struggling to return to refined Moscow, where they grew up. The play captures the decline of the "masters of life."

51.
The hero is possessed by an all-consuming love for one princess, who hardly knows about his existence. One day a secular 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 obsession. Secret and otherworldly clues alternate with the story of the ardent Herman, who wants to make his fortune at the card table. An old lady knows the secret of success.

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. While 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 has done throughout his life. The stories were written on the eve of the terrible world war in the context of the crumbling Russian culture. Each piece focuses on the theme of love.

55.
The story is told from the perspective of an anonymous narrator who recalls his youth, in particular his stay in a small town west of the Rhine. Critics consider the hero to be a classic “superfluous person” - indecisive and undecided about his place in life.

56.
The four laconic plays, later known as Little Tragedies, were written at a time of rising creativity, and their influence cannot be overemphasized. As the author's transposition of plays by Western European authors, Tragedies offers its readers urgent problems.

57.
This story takes place in Europe, in a hedonistic society during the Roaring Twenties. A wealthy schizophrenic girl falls in love with her psychiatrist. As a result, a whole saga unfolds about troubled marriages, love affairs, duels and incest.

58.
Some scholars distinguish three poems in the work of this author, which embody one original idea. One of them is, of course, Mtsyri. The main character is a 17-year-old monk who was forcibly taken away from his aul as a child, and one day he escapes.

59.
A completely young mongrel runs away from its permanent owner and finds a new one. It turns out to be an artist who performs in a circus with numbers in which animals participate. Therefore, for a clever little dog, a 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. In the title of the work there is a reference to a Shakespearean play.

61. Leo Tolstoy - Fake coupon
Schoolboy Mitya desperately needs money - he needs to repay the debt. Overwhelmed by this situation, he follows the evil advice of his friend, who showed him how to change the denomination of the banknote. This act creates a chain of events that affect the lives of dozens of other people.

62.
Proust's most outstanding work, known for its length and the theme of involuntary memories. The novel began to take shape back in 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 groups of the village population if they were 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 was 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 the 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, dodges the shots of the Coast Guard and manages to outwit her.

66.
During a train ride, one of the passengers overhears a conversation going into the compartment. When one woman claims that marriage should be based on true love, she asks her: what is love? In his opinion, love quickly turns into hate, and tells his story.

67. Leo Tolstoy - Marker Notes
The narrator is a simple marker, a person who keeps score and places balls on the billiard table. If the game is nice and the players are not stingy, then he gets a good reward. But one day a very reckless young man appears in the club.

68.
The main character is looking for peace in Polesie, which should cheer him up. But in the end he gets one unbearable boredom. But one day, having lost his way, he stumbles upon 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.
The focus is on a tall, powerful janitor. He falls in love with a young washerwoman and wants to marry her. But the lady decides in a different way: the girl goes to the ever-drunk shoemaker. The hero finds his consolation in taking care of a small dog.

70.
One evening, the three sisters shared their dreams with each other: what they would do if they became the king's wives. But the pleas of only the third sister were heard - Tsar Saltan took her in marriage and ordered to give birth to an heir by a certain date. But the envious sisters start to do bad things.

"To Kill a Mockingbird". Harper lee

It was probably extremely easy to write a novel about the rape of a white woman by a black man in the deeply racist South of the United States of America, from the perspective of a little girl, full of too simple solutions and cinematic sentiments. But fortunately, this is not about Harper Lee's novel " To Kill a Mockingbird". The little girl is an inquisitive and shrewd Scout, and her father, who protects the accused, is the immortal Atticus Finch, who has become the bulwark of justice in a tired and haggard town. All of this is followed, not simple and not sentimental, but classic moral complexities, and an endlessly renewable source of wisdom in the realm of nature for human decency.

"1984". George Orwell, 1949

Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell

The time is 13:00, the date does not matter, the year is not mentioned. Winston Smith, an official in the Ministry of Truth, works hard day and night in the service of Big Brother, the remote, pseudo-gracious ruler of this darkly familiar dystopia. Orwell's novel is an essay of every possible way of humiliating a nation by government: spiritually, physically, intellectually, through encirclement, torture, observation and censorship, to the extent that the state can manipulate reality at will. When a beautiful rebel leads 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 Ruel Tolkien, 1954

"The Lord of the Rings" by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Tolkien

When a home Catholic, pipe-smoking professor from Oxford named John Ronald Ruel Tolkien sat down to write a novel, no one could have imagined that his violent fantasy would create a whole continent inhabited by elves, dwarves, orcs, wizards and walking trees. Tolkien summoned his deep knowledge of ancient languages \u200b\u200band 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 the tiny gnome-like hobbit, Frodo, goes in search of adventures with the goal of destroying the Ring of Omnipotence - an evil artifact that can cause the death of all Middle-earth. As the founding text of the modern fantasy style, The Lord of the Rings also carries an extremely dark longing for pre-industrial England, forever lost in the filthy trenches of World War I.

Catcher in the rye". Jerome David Salinger, 1951

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

No matter how many school teachers of foreign literature try to "domesticate" the novel Jerome Selinger « Catcher in the rye”In the classroom, he will never lose his satirical poignancy in his life. When Holden Caulfield finds out that he has been expelled from another private school, he escapes in the middle of the night and goes to New York for a few days, meeting with girls, remembering his late brother, thinking about where ducks fly in winter, before informing sad news to parents. Time passes in the throes of complete indifference to the joys of life, changing the boy who has just grown up. It is a constant reminder of the sweetness of childhood, of the hypocrisy of the adult world and the strange gap between them.

"The Great Gatsby". Francis Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

There's no better party than the Age of Jazz multimillionaire Jay Gatsby. No one has a bigger house, or a bigger pool, and no one drives a longer, more sparkling, 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, reaching out to meet the green lantern that shines on the other side of the bay, opposite his magnificent mansion? "The Great Gatsby" reveals the empty, tragic heart of a man who achieved everything on his own. This is not just a gripping read about a great loss. This is one of the most quintessential American novels ever written.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. J.K. 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 growing up and evil have managed to sell over 350 million books in 65 languages. The phenomenon of Harry Potter has its ill-wishers, but the success of books in special covers "for adults", allowing you to read the novel without hesitation on the subway and trains, speaks for itself ...

"A little prince". Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1943

Le Petit Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

50 years before Harry Potter, and even 10 years before " Catcher in the rye", Was" The Little Prince ", a pamphlet Antoine de Saint-Exuperydirected against adults and their rational thinking. The work is imbued with extreme tenderness, poetry and some kind of simple but deep human wisdom. The naivety, which is noticeable at first glance, is actually hidden by an amazing, subtle humor, as well as sadness and touchingness.

"The Grapes of Wrath". John Steinbeck, 1938

"The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck

Before the hurricanes of Dust Cauldron had calmed down, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about a family of impoverished Oki, the Joads, who travel west in pursuit of the mirage of the good life from their ruined Midwest farm to California. The Joads find nothing but the bitterness, poverty, and oppression of migrant farm workers living in Hoover's Villages, but their unstoppable strength in the face of the calamities of an entire continent makes Steinbeck's epic much more than a story of unfortunate events. The book is a written testimony of that time, as well as a permanent monument to human perseverance.

"451 degrees Fahrenheit". Ray Bradbury, 1953

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

The classic of world science fiction is Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 (the temperature of ignition of paper), about firefighters starting fires instead of putting them out, about books that are forbidden to read, and about people who have almost forgotten what it means. being human…

"One Hundred Years of Solitude." Gabriel García Márquez, 1967

Cien años de soledad by Gabriel García Márquez

Novel Gabriel García Márquez « One Hundred Years of Solitude"- this is the greatest work, the most characteristic of the direction of magical realism. This passionate humorous story of Macondo and his family, the Buendía family, has a certain appeal of myth.

Brave New World. Aldous Huxley, 1932

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

A classic science fiction example played alongside George Orwell's 1984. Back in 1932, Aldous Huxley managed to foresee 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" by Margaret Mitchell

It's one of the best-selling books of all time, but that's not what makes the spectacular sugar book cocktail Margaret Mitchell so great. A powerful, original and all-encompassing historical novel about the courageous Scarlett O'Hara, the rogue Rhett Butler and the romantic, infinitely beautiful Ashley Ulksa, 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 quintessential American novel is gone With the Wind". The book is immensely readable, as love stories have never been more triangular. But it is also a distinctive interpretation of one of the mainstream American mythologies - the disappearance, in blood and dust, of the great old South.

"Lord of the Flies". William Golding, 1954

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

If the novel was written in the 19th century, it would be about the joyful, whimsical and fantastic Neverland, created by boys. But in Golding's version, the ostentatious childish purity quickly disappears in the absence of adults, making the boys two warring tribes, one led by the righteous Ralph and his asthmatic bosom friend Piggy, the other led by the former leader of the choir, Jack. Golding traces the fall of this new Eden with ruthless, meticulous care and total psychological clarity. And in the process, he mercilessly exposes the myths and clichés of childhood innocence.

Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade. Kurt Vonnegut, 1969

"Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children" s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death "by Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut may still be a cult writer today, but he deserves full canon awards for his kaleidoscopic puzzle of Billy Pilgrim, the man who "flew out of time." The Pilgrim leaps helplessly from decade to decade, living 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 the Second World War, where he survived the bombing of Dresden. " Slaughterhouse number five"Is a cynical novel, but beneath the bitterness of black humor lies a desperate, painfully honest attempt to face the horrific crimes of the 20th century.

Lolita. Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

"Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov

The novel was born in agony. Nabokov practically burned the manuscript halfway to completion, and his first publisher was a French publishing house that specializes in pornographic literature. But Lolita has become the greatest bestseller, the most unlike the American classics. The main character named Humbert Humbert is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured and agreeably ironic man who hates himself as much as he can hate a human being, but he loves, and can only love, pretty little girls, whom he calls "nymphets." Lolita is the story of Humbert's romance with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze. Their story is as disgusting and unacceptable as one can imagine, but Humbert's voice, an endlessly resourceful stream of evil, understandable to all curses, raises it to the level of a tragic, confusing epic.

"Over the cuckoo's nest." Ken Kesey, 1962

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo" s Nest by Ken Kesey

When Kesey decided to tackle the description of the hypocrisy, cruelty and forced obedience of modern life, he unearthed his personal experience of the subject of research in a hospital for the mentally ill. In "The Cuckoo's Nest," unbridled patient Randall Patrick McMurphy fights Mildred Ratched's cold, unfriendly, power-obsessed sister in an attempt to free, or at least breathe a little life into, the crushed and terrified patients she puffs up to observes the silent, stony-faced narrator, Chieftain Bromden. Containing these two allegories of individualism and heart-breaking psychological drama, the novel “ Over 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 "by Douglas Adams

Originally aired on Radio 4, this 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 diligently forced to read and understand the works of Albert Camus. At that time it was almost impossible to do this, and compulsion could cause the French writer to be rejected for life. But The Outsider is really worth rereading now. The scorched despair of Camus's intelligent humanism and his precise manner of presentation are simply inimitable.

"American tragedy". Theodore Dreiser, 1925

"An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser

Clyde Griffiths is an ambitious young man. He is in love with a rich girl, but a poor girl, Robert Alden, who works with him in his uncle's factory, becomes pregnant with him. One day he takes Roberta on a boat ride on the lake with the intention of killing her. From now on, his fate is a foregone conclusion. But by this time Dreiser had already made it clear that the fate of Clyde 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 approach to his writing style, skillfully connecting every sentence. But by the end of the work, he will build them into a powerful water supply system, giving it some very significant meaning.

"The Old Man and the Sea". Ernest Hemingway, 1952

"The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

It has long been worth explaining to anyone 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 made to fail. A person can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated. "

Anna Karenina. Lev Tolstoy

The greatest love story of all times and peoples. A story that did not leave the stage, filmed countless times - and still has not lost the boundless charm of passion - a passion destructive, destructive, blind - but all the more mesmerizing with its grandeur.

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Master and Margarita. Michael Bulgakov

This is the most mysterious novel in the 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 re-read dozens, hundreds of times, but most importantly, which is still impossible to understand. So, which pages of The Master and Margarita are 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 times and peoples! The story of a stormy, truly demonic passion that has excited the imagination of readers for more than one and a half hundred years. Cathy gave her heart to her cousin, but ambition and lust 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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Eugene Onegin. Alexander Pushkin

“Have you read Onegin? What can you say about Onegin? These are the questions that are repeated incessantly in the circle of writers and Russian readers, "- noted after the publication of the second chapter of the novel, the writer, an enterprising publisher and, by the way, the hero of Pushkin's epigrams Faddey Bul-garin. For a long time ONEGIN is not accepted to evaluate. In the words of the same Bulgarin, he “was written in the poems of Pushkin. That's enough. "

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Notre Dame Cathedral. Victor Hugo

A story that has survived the centuries, has become a canon and has given its heroes the glory of common nouns. A story of love and tragedy. The love of those to whom love was not given and was not allowed - by religious dignity, physical infirmity or someone else's evil will. Esmeralda the gypsy and the deaf hunchback-bell ringer Quasimodo, the priest Frollo and the captain of the royal archers Phoebus de Chateauper, the beautiful Fleur-de-Lis and the poet Gringoire.

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Gone With the Wind. Margaret Mitchell

The great saga of the American Civil War and the fate of the wayward and ready to go over the heads Scarlett O'Hara was first published more than 70 years ago and is not outdated to this day. This is the only novel by Margaret Mitchell for which she received a Pulitzer Prize. A story about a woman who is not ashamed to be equal to either an unconditional feminist or a convinced supporter of housebuilding.

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Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare

This is the highest tragedy of love that a human genius can create. A tragedy that was filmed and filmed. A tragedy that does not leave the stage to this day - to this day it sounds like it was written yesterday. Years and centuries go by. But one thing remains and will forever remain unchanged: "There is no story sadder in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet ..."

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The Great Gatsby. Francis Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is not only the pinnacle of Fitzgerald's work, but also one of the highest achievements in world prose of the 20th century. Although the action of the novel takes place in the "turbulent" twenties of the last century, when fortunes were made literally out of nothing and yesterday's criminals became millionaires overnight, this book lives out of time, because, telling about the broken destinies of the generation of the "age of jazz".

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Three Musketeers. Alexandr Duma

The most famous historical adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas tells the story of 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. Alexandr Duma

The book features one of the most gripping adventure novels by the classic of 19th century French literature, Alexandre Dumas.

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Triumphal Arch. Erich Remarque

One of the most beautiful and tragic love stories in the history of European literature. The story of a refugee from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ravik, and the beautiful Joan Madou entangled in the "unbearable lightness of being" takes place in pre-war Paris. And the alarming time in which these two had a chance to meet and fall in love with each other became one of the main characters of the Arc de Triomphe.

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The man who laughs. Victor Hugo

Gwynplaine is a lord by birth, in childhood he was sold to gangsters-comprachikos, who made a fairground 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 trials, Gwynplaine retained his best human qualities and his love.

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Martin Eden. Jack London

A simple sailor, in whom it is easy to recognize the author himself, goes a long, full of hardship path to literary immortality ... By chance, finding himself in a secular society, Martin Eden is doubly happy and surprised ... and the creative gift awakened in him, and the divine image of the young Ruth Morse, so not similar to all the people he knew before ... From now on, two goals relentlessly stand before him.

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Sister Kerry. Theodore Dreiser

The publication of Theodore Dreiser's first novel was so difficult that it led to its creator severe depression. But the further fate of the novel "Sister Carrie" turned out to be happy: it was translated into many foreign languages, reprinted in millions of copies. New and new generations of readers are happy to immerse themselves in the vicissitudes of the fate of Caroline Mieber.

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American tragedy. Theodore Dreiser

The novel "American Tragedy" is the pinnacle of the work of the outstanding American writer Theodore Dreiser. He said: “Nobody 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 indifferent the modern reader.

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Les Miserables. Victor Hugo

Jean Valjean, Cosette, Gavroche - the names of the heroes of the novel have long become household names, the number of its readers for a century and a half since the publication of the book does not decrease, the novel does not lose popularity. A kaleidoscope of faces from all strata of French society in the first half of the 19th century, vivid, memorable characters, sentimentality and realism, a tense, exciting plot.

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Adventures of the gallant soldier Švejk. Yaroslav Hasek

Great, original and hooligan romance. 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, at which you laugh to tears, and a powerful call to "lay down 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 in the fact that their author introduces us into a world separated from modernity by tens of centuries and yet extraordinarily real thanks to the poet's genius, who preserved in his poems the beating of contemporary life. Homer's immortality lies in the fact that his ingenious creations contain inexhaustible reserves of universal human values \u200b\u200b- reason, goodness and beauty.

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St. John's wort. James cooper

Cooper was able to find and describe in his books that originality and unexpected brightness of the recently discovered continent, which has managed to fascinate the entire modern Europe. Each new novel of the writer was eagerly awaited. The exciting adventures of the fearless and noble hunter and tracker Natty Bumpo 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 circle of readers in our country, who knew about it only from scandalous and unscrupulous party criticism.

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Don Quixote. Miguel Cervantes

What do the names of Amadis of Gaul, Pal-Merin of England, Don Belyanis the Greek, Tyrant the White tell us today? But it was precisely as a parody of the novels about these knights that Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's “Cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” was created. And this parody survived the parodied genre for centuries. Don Quixote was recognized as the best novel in the history of world literature.

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Ivanhoe. Walter Scott

“Ivanhoe” is a key work in the cycle 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 bequeathed by his father's will, will have to defend his honor and love of the 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 Mine

The plot of the novel is built so skillfully that it keeps you in suspense until the very last page. It is no coincidence that the fascinating story of the noble mustanger Maurice Gerald and his beloved, the beautiful Louise Poindexter, investigating the sinister mystery of the headless horseman, whose figure, when he appears, terrifies the inhabitants of the savannah, is extremely fond of readers of Europe and Russia.

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Dear friend. Guy de Maupassant

The novel "Dear Friend" has become 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 upward, the true morals of high French society are revealed, the spirit of corruption prevailing 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. Nikolay Gogol

The publication of the first volume of "Dead Souls" by N. Gogol in 1842 caused a stormy polemic among his contemporaries, splitting society into admirers and opponents of the poem. “… Speaking about“ Dead Souls ”- you can talk a lot about Russia…” - this judgment of P. Vyazemsky explained the main reason for the disputes. The author's question is still relevant: "Rus, where are you rushing, give an answer?"

How many books on this list have you read?

1. Mikhail Bulgakov - master and Margarita.
2. Antoine de Saint-exupery - little prince.
3. Mikhail Bulgakov - a dog's heart.
4. Leo Tolstoy - war and peace.
5. Fyodor Dostoevsky - crime and punishment.

6. Mikhail Lermontov is a hero of our time.
7. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov - twelve chairs.
8. Alexander Pushkin - Eugene Onegin.
9. Gabriel Garcia Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude.

10. Anton Chekhov - stories 11. Nikolai Gogol - dead souls.
12. Fyodor Dostoevsky - an idiot 13. Arthur Conan - Doyle - the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
14. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov - the golden calf.
15. Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina 16. Nikolai Gogol - evenings on a farm near Dikanka.
17. Daniel Defoe - Robinson Crusoe 18. Erich Maria Remarque - three comrades.
19. Margaret Mitchell - Gone With The Wind.
20.about. Henry - short stories 21. Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
22. William Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet.
23. Alexandre Dumas - Three Musketeers 24. Oscar Wilde - Portrait of Dorian Gray.
25. Ernest Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea 26. Jerome D. Salinger - Over the Catcher in the Rye.
27. Alan Alexander Milne - Winnie - the Pooh 28. Ken Kesey - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
29. Stendhal - red and black 30. Erich Maria Remark - no change on the western front.

31. Alexandre Dumas - Count of Monte Cristo.
32. William Shakespeare - Hamlet 33. Alexander Pushkin - the captain's daughter 34. Lewis Carroll - Alice in Wonderland.
35. Miguel Cervantes - Don Quixote 36. John Tolkien - Lord of the Rings 37. Jane Austen - pride and prejudice.
38. Mark Twain - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
39. Ivan Goncharov - Oblomov 40. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust.

41. Fyodor Dostoevsky - brothers Karamazov.
42. Alexander Green - scarlet sails 43. Ivan Turgenev - fathers and children.
44. Mikhail Bulgakov - White Guard 45. Richard Bach - a seagull named Jonathan Livingston.

46. \u200b\u200bAlexander Pushkin - Belkin's stories 47. Victor Hugo - Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris.
48. Arthur Conan - Doyle - the dog of the Baskerville.
49. George Orwell - 1984 50. Jack London - Martin eden 51. Jerome K. Jerome - three in the boat, not counting the dog.
52. Boris Pasternak - Doctor Zhivago.
53. Charlotte Bronte - Jane Air 54. Erich Maria Remark - Arc de Triomphe 55. Ray Bradbury - 451 degrees Fahrenheit 56. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - roadside picnic 57. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - starts Monday Saturday.
58. Mikhail Sholokhov - Quiet Don 59. Jules Verne - children of the captain of the grant.
60. Stanislav Lem - Solaris 61. Alexander Griboyedov - Woe from Wit.
62. Robert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island.
63. Homer - an odyssey 64. Jack London - white fang 65. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky - it's hard to be a god.

66. Jules Verne is a mysterious island.
67. Ivan Bunin - dark alleys.
68. Richard bach - illusions.
69. Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita.
70. Stendhal - Parma monastery.

71. Homer - Iliad 72. Francis Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby.
73. Giovanni Boccaccio - Decameron.
74. Paulo Coelho - alchemist 75. Boris Akunin - the adventures of erast fandorin.

76. Veniamin Kaverin - two captains.
77. Theodore Dreiser - American Tragedy.
78. Emily Bronte - Thunder Pass.
79. Lee Harper - To Kill a Mockingbird.
80. Ernest Hemingway - farewell to arms.

81. Umberto Eco - the name of the rose 82. Jaroslav Hasek - the adventures of a gallant soldier seamstress during the World War.
83. Franz Kafka - trial 84. Nikolai Gogol - Taras Bulba.
85. Ethel Lillian Voynich - the gadfly 86. Colin McCullough - the thorns singers 87. Ernest Hemingway - the holiday that is always with you 88. Kurt vonnegut - massacre number five, or the children's crusade.
89. Richard bach is the only one.
90. James Clavell - Shogun.

91.Andrey Platonov - foundation pit

92. Tolstoy - Hadji Murat the lion.
93. Victor Hugo - Outlaws

94. Eleanor Porter - Pollyanna

95. Georges Sand - Consuelo 96. Richard bach - the bridge through eternity

97. Astrid Lindgren - Pippi Longstocking

98. Erich Maria remark - life on loan

99. Voltaire - Candide, or optimism

100. James Joyce - Ulysses more interesting books in Psychology!

Perhaps you have your own options? Write how many books from our list you have read and add those that you think should be here!

1. "The Master and Margarita" Mikhail Bulgakov

2. "Eugene Onegin" Alexander Pushkin

3. "Crime and Punishment" Fyodor Dostoevsky

4. "War and Peace" Leo Tolstoy

5. "The Little Prince" Antoine de Saint-Exupery

6. "Hero of Our Time" Mikhail Lermontov

7. "Twelve Chairs" Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov

8. "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

9. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez

10. "Jane Eyre" Charlotte Brontë

11. "Dead Souls" Nikolai Gogol

12. "Anna Karenina" Leo Tolstoy

13. "The Idiot" Fyodor Dostoevsky

14. "Portrait of Dorian Gray" Oscar Wilde

15. "Woe from Wit" Alexander Griboyedov

16. "Fathers and Sons" Ivan Turgenev

17. "Dracula" Bram Stoker

18. "The Catcher in the Rye" by Jerome Salinger

19. "Three Comrades" Erich Maria Remarque

21. Little Women - Louise May Alcott

22. "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

23. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" - Milan Kundera

24. "Final Diagnosis" by Arthur Haley

25. "The Dawns Here Are Quiet" Boris Vasiliev

26. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

27. The Thorn Birds - Colin McCullough

28. "Life on loan" Erich Maria Remarque

29. "Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare

30. "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway

31. "Dark Alleys" Ivan Bunin

32. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

33. "The Trial" Franz Kafka

34. "Hamlet" by William Shakespeare

35. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

36. "Two Captains" Veniamin Kaverin

37. "The Great Gatsby" by Francis Scott Fitzgerald

38. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

39. "Oblomov" Ivan Goncharov

40. "Lolita" Vladimir Nabokov

41. All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

42. For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

43. "Arc de Triomphe" Erich Maria Remarque

44. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach

46. \u200b\u200bFlowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

47. "Demons" Fyodor Dostoevsky

48. "The Cherry Orchard" Anton Chekhov

49. "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco

50. "Scarlet Sails" Alexander Green

In 1934, aspiring writer and journalist Arnold Samuelson came a long way to visit Ernest Hemingway at his Florida home. The writer was impressed by such dedication and presented the guest with a list of references, which, in his opinion, was worth reading to every self-respecting person and writer.

Bright Side publishes this list especially for you and wishes you a pleasant reading.

English humor. Required reading. Very funny.

English humor. Thin. Specific. Limitless. One of the national traits along with stiffness and arrogance. The British know how to laugh at themselves. The national proverb says "Everyone has a fool in his sleeve", which means "Everyone has his own fool in his sleeve."

For those who speak English, in the original. For the rest, the translation is below.

An English lady, while visiting Switzerland, was looking for a room, so she asked the schoolmaster if he could recommend any. He took her to see several rooms and, when everything was settled, the lady returned home to make the final preparations to move. When she arrived home, the thought suddenly occurred to her that she had not see a W.C. around the place. She immediately wrote a note to the schoolmaster asking him if there was a W.C.

The schoolmaster was a very poor student of English, so she asked the Parish Priest if he could help him in the matter. Together they tried to discover the meaning of W.C. and came to the conclusion that it meant Wayside Chapel. The school master then wrote the following note to the English lady:

I take great pleasure in informing you that the W.C. is situated nine miles from the house, in the center of pine groves, surrounded by lovely trees. It is capable of seating 220 people and is open on Sundays and Thursdays only. As there are a great number of people expected during the summer months, I would suggest that you come early, although there is plenty of standing room. This is an unfortunate situation, particularly if you are in habit of going regularly.

You will no doubt be glad to hear that a good number bring their lunch and make day of it, while others who can afford to go by car, arrive just in time. I would recommend your Ladyship to go on Thursdays when there is an organ accompaniment, the acoustics are excellent and even the most delicate sound can be heard everywhere. It may interest you to know that my daughter was married in the W.C. and it was there that she first met her husband. I can remember the rush for seats, there were ten people to a seat, usually occupied by one. It was wonderful to see the expressions on their faces.

The newest attraction is the bell donated by a resident of this district. It rings each time a person enters. A bazaar is to be held to provide plush seats for all, since the people feel that it is a long felt need. My wife is rather delicate so she can "t attend regularly. It is almost a year since she went last. Naturally it pains her very much not to be able to go more often.

I shall be delighted to reserve the best seat for you if you wish, where you will be seen by all. For the children, there is a special time and place so that they will not disturb the elders.

The School Master.

An English lady was looking for a room during her visit to Switzerland, so she asked the school principal what he could recommend to her. He showed her several rooms, and when everything was settled, the lady returned home to England for the last preparations before moving. When she arrived home, she suddenly remembered that she had not seen a toilet (WC) in the house. So she immediately wrote to the school principal about it.

The school principal did not speak English very well, so he asked the parish priest to help him in this matter. Together, they tried to figure out the meaning of the acronym WC and came to the conclusion that it means Wayside Chapel. The headmaster soon wrote this reply to an English lady:

In the text of the letter, the abbreviation WC is used, by which the school director means the chapel, and the English lady means the restroom.

Dear Madam,

It is with great pleasure that I hasten to inform you that the WC is located 9 miles from home, in the center of a pine forest among beautiful trees. It easily accommodates 220 people and is only open on Sundays and Thursdays. As many visitors are expected during the summer months, I would recommend arriving early, although there are ample standing places. I think this is not very convenient, especially if you are used to walking regularly.

You will no doubt be glad to know that many bring their lunch and spend all day here, while others who can afford to arrive by car arrive just in time. I would recommend Your Lordship to come on Thursdays when the organ is playing. The acoustics are so good that even the slightest sound is heard everywhere. You may be interested to know that my daughter got married in WC and it was here that she met her future husband. I remember how many people came, 10 people per seat. They had such wonderful expressions on their faces.

A new attraction of this place is a bell presented by a resident of this district. It rings every time someone walks in. A charity bazaar will soon be held to provide everyone with plush seating, as people have long had a need for them. My wife is in poor health so she cannot visit regularly. It's been almost a year since she was there last time. Undoubtedly, it hurts her that she cannot walk more often.

I will gladly book the best seat for you, if you like, where everyone can see you. There is a separate time and place for children so that they do not disturb the elders.

I remain yours,

Head teacher

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30 must-read quotes

1. "If you choose not to feel unhappy in the face of life's difficulties, then you will." - Marcus Aurelius

2. “A man needs not courage, but the ability to control his nerves, to remain calm and calm. This can only be achieved through practice. " - Theodore Roosevelt

3. “Do you want to rule a great empire? First, learn to dominate yourself. " - Publius Sire

4. “Don't let the force of the first impression knock you off your feet. Just tell her, “Wait. Let me see who this person really is. Give me the opportunity to test it. ” - Epictetus

5. “Man does not just exist, he himself decides what his existence will be, what he will become in a moment. Moreover, each person has freedom of choice. " - Victor Frankl

6. “The primary task in life is to understand that there are external things that I am not able to control. However, I have control over the choices I make about these things. Where is the good and the bad? In me, in my choices. " - Epictetus

7. "To forget the big picture, you need to dive into the details." - Chuck Palahniuk

8. “Genius is the ability to bring to life what is in your mind. There is no other definition. " - Francis Scott Fitzgerald

9. "A good person paints events with his own color ... and benefits from everything that happens." - Seneca

10. “You must imitate the habits of a tiger. Kindle the blood, tighten your muscles ... ". - Shakespeare

11. “We either wear out or rust. I prefer the former. " - Theodore Roosevelt

12. “He says the best way is to hold on. And I agree with that, at least until I see no other option but to hold on. " - Robert Frost

13. “What is defeat? Nothing but a lesson; nothing but the first steps towards something better. " - Wendell Phillips

14. “I scratched the path of the straight line and the curve one and the same”. - Heraclitus

15. "Whatever is done right and humbly is noble." (Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum.) - Sir Henry Royce

16. “Is the cucumber bitter? Throw it out. Are there some blackberry bushes on the way? Go around them. That's all you need to know. " - Marcus Aurelius

17. "Anyone who is not able to look for the unexpected does not see anything, for the known path is a dead end." - Heraclitus

18. "Sages are able to find a worthy use even for their dislike." - Plutarch

19. “When any unpleasant event shakes your life, turn inward and stay in rhythm. You will gain a better understanding of harmony if you always return to it. " - Marcus Aurelius

20. “The best men are not those who wait for opportunities, but those who take advantage of them. Seize opportunities, conquer them, make them serve you for your good. " - Edwin Hubbel Chapin

21. "Hack the following rule in your nose: do not succumb to disasters and misfortunes, do not trust prosperity and always remember that luck has a tendency to behave as it pleases." - Marcus Aurelius

22. "If you were weak on the day of distress, then your strength is poor." - Proverbs 24:10

23. "Provide a guarantee - and there will be a threat in the form of a catastrophe." - Ancient inscription on the Delphic oracle

24. "Fate leads a person who accepts it, and hinders those who oppose it." - Cleanthes

25. “My formula for human greatness lies in the words“ amor fati ”: it means not wanting to change anything either in the past, or in the future, or in all eternity. Not just endure the need ... but love it. " - Nietzsche

26. "Gentleman, this daring undertaking builds me up." - Winston Churchill

27. "The task of man is to make this world as better as possible ... and to take care of his own soul." - Leroy Percy

28. "When a person knows that he will be hanged in two weeks, it perfectly concentrates his mind." - Dr. Johnson

29. “Live by what you are blessed with, since fate has sent you happiness. But fate leads us from one severe test to another. " - Virgil

30. “To be a philosopher does not mean to have subtle thoughts or to be the founder of a school. This means solving life problems not only theoretically, but also practically. " - Henry David Thoreau

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Quote post by ravingdon

Guided by the assertion that no one knows more about great books than great writers, J. Peder Zane, a columnist for the American newspaper The News & Observer, reached out to 125 of the most prominent British and American writers of our time. He asked everyone to “submit a list, ranked in order with the ten greatest works of fiction of all time,” from novels, storybooks, drama and poetry.

Among those interviewed were such famous authors as Stephen King, Norman Mailer, Anne Patchett, Jonathan Franzen, Claire Messoud and Joyce Carol Oates. Out of 544 selected works, each of them made their top. The book at the beginning of the list received 10 points, and at number ten - 1 point. Based on the responses received, Zane compiled a book guide, The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books.

Everyone has their own ideas about what can be considered the greatest literary work of all time. But it's always interesting to know the opinion of the masters of the word. Let's take a look at what the rating of the greatest books looks like, according to modern writers.

The ten greatest books of the 20th century:

1. "Lolita" Vladimir Nabokov
2. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. "In Search of Lost Time" by Marcel Proust
4. "Ulysses" James Joyce
5. "Dubliners" James Joyce
6. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
7. "Noise and Fury" by William Faulkner
8. "To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf
9. Flannery O'Connor's Complete Stories
10. "Pale Fire" Vladimir Nabokov

The ten greatest books of the 19th century:

1. "Anna Karenina" Leo Tolstoy
2. "Madame Bovary" Gustave Flaubert
3. "War and Peace" Leo Tolstoy
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
5. A.P. Chekhov's stories
6. Middlemarch by George Eliot
7. "Moby Dick" Herman Melville
8. "Great Expectations" Charles Dickens
9. "Crime and Punishment" Fyodor Dostoevsky
10. "Emma" Jane Austen

A must-read classic

We recommend quite a few books, even those that have not yet been written. But after the recent verbal battles within the BroDude editorial office, we realized that unusual reading would be useless until we learned the classics. This list is just a small fraction of those classics that are strictly required reading.

Faust by Johann Goethe

Fools are content with
That they see meaning in every word.

The title of the book is so firmly connected with its author that many are sure that Goethe's Faust is the name of the main character of the work, or even its title.

It is worth reading if only to know what one of the most cited, respected, praised and referenced novels in human history is. Lovers of motivation should like it, there is more than enough of it here. After all, my dear, this is not just a story about how the charming Satan acquired a soul from the poor and hard worker Faust. This is a novel about people who rebelled against vegetation in reality in the name of freedom of action and thought. About people who are called to transform the world by joint free and reasonable labor.

And it is also a treasure trove of quotes and wise sayings, in addition to the winged one: "Stop, moment, you are wonderful!" And if you try to understand this not the most simple book, then in return it will endow you with the deep wisdom of the centuries, accumulated by Herr Goethe and poured into a stream of ink on white pages.

Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

There is a force that is called reason.
And you can weigh on the scales
Good and evil.

An unthinkable crime against humanity is to claim that The Divine Comedy is outdated, irrelevant and boring reading. It is boring for narrow-minded people, outdated for the ignorant, irrelevant for the stupid. Alighieri wrote an immortal opus named after the triumph of life not so that some idiot, seeing many letters, would begin to revile his life's work.

It doesn't matter if you are a Christian or a Muslim, an atheist or a believer - everyone should read this work. And even more so an atheist. Not in order to figure out which of the circles of Hell you will find yourself in, but in order to learn to distinguish between good and bad, good and evil, worthy from vile. The stories of students, real and not so, make you think about life. Not come to God, but understand yourself.

You can even describe this masterpiece as a review of a computer game. "The plot is an interesting, carefully thought out world to the smallest detail." And at the same time you can study the history of Italy during its most interesting period. Dig, how I love this piece!

If you want to throw yourself out of the window, Schweik said. - So go into the room, I opened the window. I would not advise you to jump out of the kitchen, because you will fall into the garden right on the roses, break all the bushes, and you will have to pay for this. And from that window, you will fly beautifully onto the sidewalk and, if you're lucky, break your neck. If you are unlucky, you will only break your ribs, arms and legs, and you will have to pay for hospital treatment.

Josef Schweik is a separate layer of literary heroes who left the pages of books and took on a life of their own. He doesn't need a literary story - he himself is a walking anecdote. There are few such heroes, except that he, Don Quixote, and ... And, perhaps, that's all. No one has such anecdotal significance. Therefore, some people perceive Schweik as an easy, unpretentious story. Yes, it is written in a masterpiece satirical language, sometimes rude, sometimes ridiculous. And yet, this is incredibly accurate and in some places even offensive satire denouncing the war, the military leadership and, of course, idiots from society.

Hasek, a personality as epic as well as insane, created the same hero. And despite the title of "idiot" thanks to the merciless mockery of the delirium reigning around, Josef Schweik, smoking a pipe, drinking beer and telling one story more beautiful than another, begins to seem like a completely normal person. So if suddenly you are considered an idiot, read this masterpiece, maybe you are really not yourself? And what are the exact quotes here: from the topical: "From the walls of the police department breathed the spirit of power alien to the people" - to the vital: "The trouble is when a person suddenly starts philosophizing - it always smells like delirium tremens." They can be collected, inserted as a comment on any news, and they will always be, as they say, to the point.

Childhood, Maxim Gorky

To die is not great wisdom, you would know how to live!

There could have been Tolstoy's Childhood, but this is not his main work, there are others, more important and sensitive, who will characterize the count and life better. You will read them anyway. But with Gorky, everything is quite the opposite: without reading childhood you will not understand either the author himself or life. The sad autobiographical account of Gorky's early years, which you successfully skipped in high school, explains many things much better. It's even strange: book actions take place at the end of the 19th century, but life, people and human bastardism have not changed. It is about these things that Gorky, from the position of a wise man with gray hair, writes. And it is impossible to come off, and you cannot argue with the opinion of the author.

Unfortunately, the image of the Bolshevik writer rejects modern readers from him, but in vain. “Old Woman Izergil” is one of the best folklore works in history, “At the Bottom” is social, “Makar Chudra” sounds funny, and, of course, the wonderful “Childhood”, which should be read for yourself, and not out of respect for the school the program and the person after whom the streets and planes were named.

"Crime and Punishment", Fyodor Dostoevsky

Poverty is not a vice, it is true. I know that drunkenness is not a virtue, and even more so. But poverty, my dear sir, poverty is a vice, sir. In poverty, you still retain your nobility of innate feelings, in poverty - never and no one.

An absolutely anticipated piece on this list, isn't it? And it is precisely because of this "expectation", because of his fame, because of the thrill that the author's name evokes, that it is worth reading it. Because Dostoevsky became as fashionable as dubstep in 2011. And it is disgusting that many people try to love and read him, although what they read does not cause any emotions in them. Therefore, you must independently study the most iconic work of the master and form your attitude towards it without regard to fashion and universal veneration.

Well, of course, not just for that. The book is really interesting and good. The author plunges into the psychological process of the crime, like Jacques-If Cousteau in the bosom of another sea, and fishes out pictures from there that make the criminal understand rather than condemn. And what colorful and unfortunate heroes are everywhere, it is even difficult to call them secondary.

But from the standpoint of personal opinion, many aspects can be argued, and this is correct, this is good: when a book gives rise to controversy, it means that it is obligatory.

1. Life on loan
Erich Maria Remarque

A man, his car, a fragile 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 upside down. If you believe in the dubious thesis that every girl at the age of 17 should read the 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 is aging in his place. A wonderful mystical novel about the naive selfishness of young people, about the immorality of beauty and about how really scary never to change.

3. Lord of the flies
William Golding

A creepy book about the entertainment of English schoolchildren on a desert island. Little boys live the opposite evolution, transforming from civilized children into angry, wild animals, cultivating fear and strength, capable of killing. The story is 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 young neurotic wife Nicole and young frivolous actress Rosemary is the main novel about love, strength and weakness.

5. Slaughterhouse number 5
Kurt Vonnegut

The subtitle of the novel, The Children's Crusade, is the most accurate definition of World War II. This is the war that children went to - 17-year-old boys with missing brains. The main character makes an endless movement in time, recalling his senseless and completely unheroic campaign against the World Evil. In this book about the war - not a single battle scene. Only the stupidity and absurdity of the whole venture through the eyes of a living youth.

6. Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov

You can endlessly argue about what it was - a dirty perversion or pure feeling, provocation or confession. It doesn't matter. Reading this book about the relationship between forty-year-old Humbert and his thirteen-year-old stepdaughter is worth at least in order to understand why we all sometimes behave so strangely when dealing with adult men.

7. A Clockwork Orange
Anthony Burgess

Rebellious, cult, cruel and very teenage book. IT'S worth reading when you're 16, or not at all. The main character - a young man Alex, a bully, a sadist and a terrible monster rapes, kills, speaks in strange slang and suddenly transforms into a respectable citizen, an employee of a music archive. There is no logic, there is only a miracle, but quite understandable - Burgess began to write the novel, thinking that he would die, and finished, already knowing that the fatal diagnosis was a mistake.

8. Easy breathing
Ivan Bunin

An important story about the schoolgirl Olya Meshcherskaya, femininity and first sex, an officer in love and a shot at the station. “Light breath” is that important quality of girls, which 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 and gloomy writer. It is not easy for a young girl to fall in love with him. But we must try. The novella "Metamorphosis" is an absurd pamphlet on the theme of human loneliness. One fine morning, a young traveling salesman Gregor wakes up as a disgusting centipede, a cockroach, a beetle, a disgusting filth, which his family is afraid to even look at. Leaving aside the author's modernist pranks, you understand that this is all about life, about the illusory nature of love, about the ugliness and loneliness of everyone.

10. Mistress of the French lieutenant
John Fowles

Every day a young woman in black stands by the sea and looks at the horizon. The woman's name is Sarah and there is a rumor that she is expecting a sailor lover who dishonored her. A young man is about to marry a young charming girl. But one day he sees a woman in black, and everything goes awry. Will he marry or give vent to feelings? It's your decision. The genius 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 “antihero” in the title role. Young journalist Georges Duroy tries to break through in Paris. He is untalented, greedy, cowardly and illiterate. But he is very handsome. A scary story about how smart and talented women become victims of their own blindness. This novel is a graft against gigolo stories for life.

12. Alice in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll

A great tale dedicated to a little girl, an acquaintance of the author. "Lolita" with no signs of sex. It is useful to re-read "Alice" as an adult in order to develop imagination, unexpected outlook on things and a sense of humor.

13. Jen Eyre
Charlotte Brontë

The poor, ugly, iron-willed governess is the most unexpected character in a Victorian novel. Jen Eyre is the first to tell a man about her love, but refuses to obey the whims of her lover, chooses independence and insists on equal rights with a man. Contemporaries were horrified by such debauchery, and young girls are still happy to re-read the story of strong and uncompromising love.

14. Scarlet sails
Alexander Green

A wonderful, romantic, familiar from childhood fairy tale about Assol, Gray and unshakable faith in a dream with a simple and clear morality - any miracle can happen if you do it yourself. For yourself or for someone you love.

15. Kid
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

A poignant story of space Mowgli, left by his parents on an uninhabited planet. As you might guess, we are the very wild kids abandoned by the generation of hippies to their fate. “They set off on a dangerous free flight, but they never found anything” - many Moscow boys and girls raised on Beatles records and stories about Che Guevara will say the same about their parents.

16. Nastenka
Vladimir Sorokin

The first and main story of the collection "Feast" about a young girl who was eaten by her parents on her sixteenth birthday should be read immediately after leaving school, when the heart is still languishing with Turgenev's bliss and Bunin's sadness. The story “Nastenka” differs from “Dark Alley” in the same way as adulthood from childhood. And if you start your adult life, then with the story "Nastenka". Then it will not be scary further.

17. What to do
Nikolay Chernyshevsky

The first socialist story in Russian is devoted, oddly enough, not to the struggle against the tsarist regime, but to the relationship between men and women. Young heroes fight against 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 any truth or dignity in America in the mid-40s - and began to wander. To the sounds of jazz in smoky clubs, to the whistle of the wind through the cracks of freight cars, to aching bones after spending the night on the bare ground and, of course, to endless conversations 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 unhappy 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, a military educational institution for the children of the Russian elite. This book is about how a person can defend himself in the struggle against an alien, incomprehensible environment. And also about real friendship and mutual assistance.

21. Asylum. Diary in letters
Anne Frank

Diary of 15-year-old girl Anna, who is hiding with her family in Amsterdam from the Nazis, who have already sent other Dutch Jews to concentration camps. Anna wittily and aptly writes 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 happens in the head of a young lady when the world is collapsing around. Anna did not live to see the victory over fascism for two months - she was still found and sent to a concentration camp, but her diary lives in translations into many languages \u200b\u200bof 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 a 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 lilies bloom in girls' breasts, and musical instruments are able to mix cocktails. In a world full of cruel, ironic, but always flawlessly beautiful metaphors, you want to live your whole life. We live.

24. Neuromancer
William Gibson

One of the inventors of the cyberpunk style, the popular American science fiction writer has created a gloomy, cruel and magnificent world of the future, entangled in networks of megacorporations, bathed in neon light and drowning in endless solitude. The most romantic book of our chrome days about the wanderings of the eternal.

25. Catcher in the Rye
Jerome David Salinger

The story of the growing up of the young selfish, maximalist and idealist Holden Caulfield for many years will remain the most famous and most instructive book about the young. This is what we all are: touchy, unkind, confused, wild and infinitely beautiful, because we are 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 above all a genius lyricist with a touch of pure madness. “When a Girlfriend is in a Coma” is a semi-fantastic drama about love and friendship, full of subtle, vivid observations. It is after Girlfriend ... that Copeland seems to be the only writer in the world who loves us seriously.

27. Cinderella's Trap
Sebastian Japrizo

An easy, wonderful detective story about young French devils who love white outfits and open cars. One of the most magnificent works about the amazing girlish mischief, meanness, and nastiness, written with endless admiration.