In a small village on the border of the Oryol and Kursk provinces, the estate of Ivan Efremovich Prostakov, living with his wife and daughters, Katerina and Elizaveta, is located. It is here that the author presents us the main character. Prince Gavrilo Simonovich Chistiakov is in the most miserable state and taken into the … Read more
AP Chekhov Duel In a small town on the Black Sea coast, two friends are talking during a bath. Ivan Andreevich Laevsky, a young man of about twenty-eight, shares the secrets of his personal life with the military doctor Samoilenko. Two years ago he got along with a married woman, they fled from Petersburg to … Read more
Jack London White Fang White Fang ‘s father – a wolf, a mother, Kichi, – half wolf, half dog. So far, he has no name. He was born in the Northern Glush and survived the only one of the whole brood. In the North, one often has to starve, and this has ruined his sisters … Read more
IV Goethe The Wanderings of Wilhelm Meister, or the Defiant The novel is a continuation of the “Years of Wilhelm Meister’s Teaching.” The hero who, at the end of the previous book, became a member of the Tower Society (or the Renouncers, as they call themselves), receives from his comrades the assignment to go on … Read more
Yablonsky comes to Petersburg; he meets with Sudeikin, the inspector of the secret police. Recently in Kharkov, Yablonsky gave the police to Vera Figner. Yablonsky requires an audience with the minister and the sovereign; Sudeikin expects for himself different awards. Sergei Degaev, a revolutionary, arrives in St. Petersburg; he remembers his Moscow childhood, his younger … Read more
XVI century. Henry, a boy from a noble French family who grew up in a provincial Bearna, after passing through the dangers of the St. Bartholomew’s night, trials and intrigue, becomes King of France Henry IV. Part I. Pyrenees The boy’s name was Heinrich. The mother instructed Henry to take care of the relative and … Read more
In the county town in a small hospital wing there is a room number 6 for the mentally ill. It “smells of sour cabbage, wick fumes, bugs and ammonia, and this stench makes you feel at first like you are entering a menagerie.” There are five people in the ward. The first is “a thin … Read more
Celestial clouds are called eternal pilgrims, who constantly travel across the sky. “Steppe azure” and “chain of pearly” space they rush from north to south. The same fate is prepared for the lyrical hero. Heavenly clouds, eternal wanderers! Steppe azure, a chain of pearls You rush, as if I, exiles, From the lovely north to … Read more
Part one Like all girls, Mary, born in a small town in the Brazilian province, dreams of love, marriage and children. However, in love she is not lucky. All the novels with cute boys left with a failure. Every time Mary behaves wrong and misses her chance. She allows herself to dream of children and … Read more
The action takes place in the XIII century. in France, in Languedoc and Brittany, where the uprising of the Albigoys, against which the Pope organizes the crusade, is beginning to flare up. The army, designed to help the overlords, is moving from the north. The play begins with a scene in the courtyard of the … Read more
Once on a ferry Martin Eden, a sailor, twenty years old, defended against a gang of hooligans Arthur Morse, Arthur about the same years as Martin, but belongs to people well-to-do and educated. As a token of gratitude – and at the same time wanting to amuse the family with an eccentric acquaintance – Arthur … Read more
The action of comedy takes place in Moscow, in the first years of the reign of Alexander II. The old important official, Aristarkh Vladimirovich Vyshnevsky, who goes into the large “richly furnished hall” with his young wife Anna Pavlovna from her rooms, reproaches her for being cold, complains that her indifference can not overcome anything. … Read more
VF Odoevsky Princess Mimi All mysterious stories begin with occasional conversation, accidentally abandoned words, fleeting encounters. Where is to be such a meeting, if not at the ball? Princess Mimi had long disliked Baroness Dauertal. The princess was already thirty. She still could not get married, but continued to attend balls. She perfectly learned to … Read more
A. J. Cronin Brody Castle The action takes place in the 1830s. in the small Scottish town of Levenford. In the house of quaint architecture, the project of which James Brodie himself developed, live: the elder mother of the head of the family, whose only entertainment is food, his wife Margaret, the exhausted woman, the … Read more
Twenty-five-year-old Valentine, a high school teacher, wakes up one morning with a sense of happiness, because he dreamed of a rainbow. Valentine is late for work – he teaches French in high school. He thinks that lately he has become too often to lie, and understands: lying on trifles means that he is not free … Read more
In January 1886, the work “Tosca” (Chekhov) was published in the “Petersburg newspaper”. The summary of the story is given in this article. Connoisseurs of literary works of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov “Tosca” is recognized as his best work in the initial period of the writer’s work. By this time the author already knew the general … Read more
VB Shklovsky Sentimental Journey Before the revolution, the author worked as an instructor of a spare armored battalion. In February of the seventeenth year he arrived with his battalion to the Tauride Palace. The revolution saved him, as well as other spare ones, from months of wearisome and humiliating sitting in the barracks. In this … Read more
Olga Vyacheslavovna Zotova was nicknamed as a viper for her vitality. When she was sixteen, her house was burnt, her parents were killed, they tried to decide her own way, but only wounded her. She knew the attackers, one of them – Valka Brykin – a scoundrel, hated even by his father. This is the … Read more
When analyzing the story “The joke”, it is noteworthy that the narrative is conducted in two times. The present moment (emphasized by the use of verbs in the present tense) towards the end of the story becomes a distant past, which the narrator remembers. He is the main character, and the whole plot is built … Read more
In accordance with the original intention of the author, who wanted to create a modern “Divine Comedy”, the composition of the play, which used the materials of the Frankfurt process over the Nazi criminals of 1963-1965. repeats the structure of the first and second parts of the epic Dante: in each “song” – three episodes, … Read more
Edgar Poe’s story “The Fall of the House of Ushers,” a brief summary of which we will consider, is written in 1839. The work of this universal writer includes short stories, poems, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, as well as hundreds of articles and reviews. Now he is widely recognized as … Read more
Lyudmila expects her lover from a military campaign. Standing at the crossroads, the girl watches as the surviving warriors pass by her, but there is no favorite among them. Lyudmila decides that her beloved has died. Going home she thinks about him and her feelings for him; it seems to her that she can not … Read more
VP Kataev Diamond my crown This book is not a novel, not a story, not a lyric diary and not a memoir. Chronological connections are replaced here by associative, and the search for beauty – by searching for authenticity, no matter how bad it may seem. This is Moovism (from “move” – it is bad). … Read more
The poem is written in the first person. A student at Moscow University Sashka Polezhaev, a friend, goes to St. Petersburg to visit his uncle. Do you remember how Pushkin at the beginning of the novel “Eugene Onegin” hero also goes to his uncle? It looks like that. He was born in a small village … Read more
John Gay Opera of the Beggar In the introduction, the author – Beggar – says that if poverty is a patent for poetry, then no one doubts that he is a poet. He is in the company of beggars and participates in the performances that this troupe gives weekly in one of the poorest quarters … Read more
Sisters Dorothea and Celia, left without their parents, lived in the house of their uncle-guardian, Mr. Brooke. The sisters were almost equally good-looking, but they differed in character: Dorothea was serious and devout, Celia – sweet and moderately frivolous. Frequent guests in the house of Mr. Brooke were two gentlemen who had a clear intention … Read more
Ikhara Saikaku The story of the love affairs of a lonely woman Sages in antiquity said that a beauty is a sword that cuts off life. Flowers of the heart are showered, and by evening only dry branches remain. It is foolish to die by an early death in the abyss of love, but, surely, … Read more
In a nutshell: The teacher’s wife is interested in her husband’s friend, the actor, and is going to leave with him. The teacher stops them, and the woman realizes that her husband is a brave and loving man. In the summer in the village they rent a room husband and wife. They have been married … Read more
C. P. Snows Corridors of power The action of the novel by C. P. Snow “Corridors of Power” occurs in Great Britain in 1955-1958. The protagonist of the novel is a young Conservative politician representing the left wing of his party, Roger Kuif. The narrative is conducted on behalf of his colleague, and later a … Read more
In the center of the poetic narrative is the touching love story of the shepherd and hunter Afrique and the nymph of Menzola. We learn that in times immemorial in Fiesole, women especially honored the goddess Diana, who patronized chastity. Many parents after the birth of children, who voted, and who in gratitude, gave them … Read more
Funny Innin Wang Zifu from Lodian early lost his father. His mother kept his eyes on him. The young lady from the Xiao family had flown him, only she had died before the wedding. One day, a cousin came to Van on the feast of lanterns and carried him along to look at the festivities. … Read more
The novel takes place in Haiti in the early years of the dictator François Duvalier. The protagonist of the novel, Mr. Brown, on whose behalf the story is narrated, returns to Port-au-Prince from a trip to the US, where he tried to find a buyer for his hotel called Trianon: after Duvalier came to power … Read more
Molière Miserly Eliza, daughter of Harpagon, and young Valer fell in love for a long time, and it happened in very romantic circumstances – Valer rescued the girl from stormy sea waves when the ship on which they both sailed crashed. Valer’s feeling was so strong that he settled in Paris and acted as a … Read more
V. Ya. Bryusov The fiery angel Ruprecht met Renata in the spring of 1534, returning after ten years of service to the Landsknecht in Europe and the New World. He did not have time to reach Cologne before dawn, where he once studied at the university and near which was his native village Lozgeym, and … Read more
XVIII century. A high-ranking employee of a well-known bank office goes to France with a very difficult task: he must inform the daughter of his old client Lucy Manette that her father is alive. Dr. Manette spent eighteen years in the Bastille, all this time his family knew nothing about him. My daughter thought that … Read more
P. Calderon The doctor of his honor The action takes place in Spain at the time of King Don Pedro the Just or the Cruel (1350-1369 gg.). During the hunt, the brother of the Infante King, Don Enrique, falls from the horse, and is unconsciously brought into the house of Don Gutierre Alfonso de Solis. … Read more
Notes on the Pion Light The custom of admiring the lanterns is very ancient. A certain student, widowed, surrendered to anguish and did not go to the celebration. Just stood at the gate. I noticed a maid with a lantern in the form of a pair of peonies and a beauty of rare beauty. Tailed … Read more
VP Astafyev Cursed and killed The first book. Fucking pit. The action takes place at the end of 1942 in the quarantine camp of the first reserve regiment, located in the Siberian Military District near Berdsk station. Part one. The recruits come to the quarantine camp. After a while, the survivors, among whom Leshka Shestakov, … Read more
Theodore Dreiser Sister Kerry America, 1889 Eighteen-year-old Carolina Mieber, or, as she was affectionately called home, Sister Kerry, leaves the hometown of Columbia City and travels by train to Chicago, where her married older sister lives. In the wallet, Kerry has only four dollars and her sister’s address, but she is inspired by the hope … Read more
M. Yu. Lermontov The Oriental Novel From the cosmic height, the “sad Demon” observes the wild and wonderful world of the central Caucasus: as a facet of a diamond, Kazbek flashes, the Terek jumps with a lioness, Daryal’s gorge curls like a serpent-and nothing but contempt. Evil is bored with the spirit of evil. Everyone … Read more
Terentius Brothers Eternal theme: late in the evening the father in anxiety awaits the house of a detained son somewhere and mutters to himself that there is no greater unrest than the excitement of the parents… The old man Mikion has no native children. His brother Demei has two sons. One of them, Aeschines, adopted … Read more
The teacher of Russian language and literature in a small provincial town Sergey Vasilievich Nikitin is in love with the daughter of a local landowner Masha Shelestova, eighteen years old, who “has not yet been considered to be small in the family” and therefore calls her Maney and Manyusey, and when the circus she visited … Read more
VM Shukshin Cut To the old woman Agafya Zhuravleva was born by Konstantin Ivanovich’s son. With his wife and daughter. To visit, relax. I drove in a taxi, and they dragged suitcases out of the trunk for a long time with their family. By the evening in the village they learned the details: he himself … Read more
Ch. T. Aitmatov And more than a century lasts the day The trains in these parts went from east to west and from west to east… And on the sides of the railroad in these parts lay the great desert spaces – Sary-Ozeki, the Middle Lands of the yellow steppes. Yedigei worked here as a … Read more
There is the sixteenth spring of Nikolay Irtenyev. He is preparing for the examinations to the university, overflowing with dreams and reflections on his future destiny. To clarify the purpose of life, Nikolai starts a separate notebook where he writes down the duties and rules necessary for moral improvement. In a passionate environment, a gray-haired … Read more
Jules Verne Children of Captain Grant On June 26, 1864, the crew of the Duncan yacht, owned by Lord Edward Glenarvan, the most prominent member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and a wealthy Scottish landowner, catches the shark in the Irish Sea, in the belly of which finds a bottle with a note in … Read more
Some people try to save others from being shot. But they act in this way in different ways. The wise calculation of the Odessa Newton-mathematician, with which Veniamin Fedorovich approached the matter, is different from Isaac Benediktovich’s stupid troubles. Isai Benediktovich behaves as if the shooting is a contagious and sticky illness, and therefore he … Read more
The main action of the story takes place 2.5 years after the events in Sunny City. Znayka in the company of Herring and Fuchsia (inhabitants of the Sun City) visited the Moon, after which he wanted to fly there himself. Steklyashkin and some of the inhabitants of the Flower City were also interested in this … Read more
This is a love story told by a hero named Fiametta, addressed primarily to women in love, who have a young lady looking for sympathy and understanding. The beautiful Fiametta, whose beauty captivated everyone, spent her life in a continuous feast; loving spouse, wealth, honor and respect – all this was given to her by … Read more
Story (1891, published in 1892) Chamber No. 6. Story (1892) The Black Monk. Story (1893, published 1894) The teacher of literature. Story (1889 – 1894) The Seagull. Comedy (1895 – 1896) House with a mezzanine. The artist’s story (1896) My life. The story of the provincial (1896) Uncle Vanya Scenes from the village life. The … Read more