A certain yakshas, a demigod of the suite of the wealth god and the ruler of the northern mountains of Kubera, exiled by his master for some offense far to the south, at the end of summer, when all who are out of the house, especially yearning for their loved ones, sees a lonely cloud … Read more
Carlo Goldoni Theodal Community council of Montefosco in the person of three members of the community – Nardo, Cecco and Mengone, as well as two elders – Pascualotto and Marcone gathered on a very important occasion: the old Marquis Ridolfo Montefosco died, and now his son was going to enter their land, the Marquis of … Read more
Graham Green Comedians 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 … Read more
Oscar Wilde A faithful friend One morning the old Water-rat leaned out of the hole. The duck taught her children to stand upside down in the pond (“If you do not learn to stand on your head, you will never be accepted into a good society”). Water Rat: “Love is certainly a good thing, but … Read more
After going to Moscow after dinner with friends, the hero woke up only at the next post station – Sofia. Hardly awakening the caretaker, he demanded horses, but was refused because of the night time. I had to give the coachmen for vodka, they harnessed, and the journey continued. In Tosna, the hero gets acquainted … Read more
The typist Miss Leeson – a tiny girl with long hair and huge eyes – takes a room in the attic for $ 2 from Mrs. Parker. Men who rent rooms in the neighborhood with her, crazy about a cheerful girl, whose head is always bizarre fantasies. One of the stars in the sky, the … Read more
In the summer of 1956, on a hundred and eighty-fourth kilometer from Moscow, a passenger leaves the railway line on Murom and Kazan. It is the narrator whose destiny is reminiscent of the fate of Solzhenitsyn himself. He dreams of working as a teacher in the heart of Russia, away from urban civilization. But to … Read more
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (17 (29) January 1860, Taganrog, Ekaterinoslav Province (now – Rostov Region) – 2 (15) July 1904, Badenweiler, Germany) – Russian writer, playwright, doctor. The author of short stories, novels and plays, is recognized as one of the greatest writers in world literature. Almost the entire adult life, Chekhov was a practicing physician. … Read more
In 1689, the evening of July 15, the abbot de Kerkabon, the Prior of the Madonna of Our Lady, along with her sister, walks along the seacoast. Loved by his flock is a priest and never married, 45-year-old Mademoiselle de Kercabon, talking about how in 1666 from these places to Canada their brother and wife … Read more
Thomas Mann Buddenbrooks In 1835 the Buddenbrock family, highly revered in the small German merchant city of Marienkirche, moved to a new house on Mengstraße, recently acquired by the head of the firm “Johann Buddenbroke”. The family consists of the old Johann Buddenbrock, his wife, their son Johann, daughter-in-law Elizabeth and grandchildren: ten-year-old Thomas, eight-year-old … Read more
Sixties. One of the main characters – Fyodor Sonnov, on the train to some near Moscow station, staggers through the streets of the town. Having met an unfamiliar young man, Fyodor kills him with a knife. After the crime – absolutely meaningless – the killer “talks” with his victim, talks about his “guardians”, about his … Read more
In Italy comes a young merchant, whose name is Reichard, from Germany. He admires the houses and charming women, passing by on a gondola. In front of him is a beautiful building, from the windows of which look the charming heads of young women. Reichard aloud expresses his admiration for them, to which the gondolier … Read more
Figaro and Suzanne, the servants of the Count and Countess Almaviva, are preparing for the wedding. Figaro finds out from his bride that the Count is hoping to seduce her, and is enraged. He is determined to take revenge on his master. Dr. Bartolo appears with Marcelina, who at all costs wants to marry Figaro. … Read more
NV Gogol Notes of a Madman Titular Adviser Aksenti Ivanovich Poprishchin, forty-two years old, keeps his diary entries for over four months. On a rainy day on Tuesday, October 3, 1933, Poprishchin, in his old-fashioned greatcoat, leaves, after a while, for an unloved service in one of the departments of the St. Petersburg department, hoping … Read more
Anatole France Island of the Penguins In the foreword the author reports that the only purpose of his life is to write the history of penguins. For this he studied many sources, and above all the chronicle of the greatest penguin chronicler John Talpa. Like other countries, Penguin has survived several eras: ancient times, the … Read more
Immediately after arriving in Moscow, Nicholas feels the changes that have taken place with him. In his soul there is a place not only for his own feelings and experiences, but also compassion for someone else’s grief, the ability to understand the actions of others. He realizes all the unhappiness of the grief of the … Read more
The Monk Sergei was born in the Tver land, during the reign of Prince Dmitry of Tver, under Metropolitan Petra. The saint’s parents were noble and pious people. His father was called Cyril, and his mother was called Maria. An amazing miracle happened before the birth of the saint, when he was in the womb … Read more
VN Semin Breastplate “Ost” The action takes place in Germany, during the Second World War. The protagonist is a teenager Sergei, who was hijacked to Germany, to Arbaytla-ger. The narration covers about three years of the hero’s life. Non-human conditions of existence are described. Arbeit camp is better than concentration camp – the extermination camp, … Read more
Mark Twain Prince and beggar London, mid-16th century. On the same day, two boys are born – Tom, the son of the thief John Kenti, huddling in the stinking cul-de-sac Yard Courtyard, and Edward, heir to King Henry the Eighth. Edward is waiting for all of England, Tom does not really need even his own … Read more
I. Talisman At the end of October, a young man entered the Palais Royal building – Rafael de Valantin, in whose eyes the players noticed some terrible secret, his features expressed the impassiveness of a suicide and a thousand deceived hopes. Los Valentine lost the last Napoleon, and in a daze began to wander the … Read more
The action of the poem takes place in the autumn-winter of 1843 The lyrical hero of the poet leaves cheerful Paris and his beloved wife in order to make a short trip to his native Germany, which he missed very much and visit an old sick mother who had not seen for thirteen years. He … Read more
After another successful scam, Peters and Tucker decide to become philanthropists. Once in the provincial town of Floresville, they, with the consent of local residents, open the “World University” there, and they themselves become his trustees. On the first of September, the newly-opened educational institution hospitably opens the doors to students from five states, and … Read more
LN Tolstoy Kreutzer Sonata Early spring. The end of the century. In Russia there is a train. In the car there is a lively conversation; merchant, clerk, attorney, smoking lady and other passengers argue about the women’s question, about marriage and free love. Only love covers marriage, says the smoking lady. Here, in the middle … Read more
Leonhard Frank Disciples of Jesus The novel’s events date back to 1946 and unfold in Würzburg am Main, which was destroyed by American aviation after the SS command, ignoring the will of the impotent population, rejected the Americans’ demand to surrender the city without a fight and signed an order for defense. Few have any … Read more
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 three languages: English, German and French. … Read more
The story “The Night Before Christmas” was written by NV Gogol in 1830 – 1832. The first edition of the work was published in 1832 in the printing house of A. Plushar. The story is included in the well-known cycle of the writer “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”. In “Nights Before Christmas” Gogol with … Read more
Iris Murdoch Child of the word Hilary Birdu is forty one years old. He works “in the state department – no matter what”, in the bureaucratic hierarchy, except for the typist and clerk, stands on the lowest step; lives in an uncomfortable apartment, which serves him only as a “place for sleeping,” without trying to … Read more
AR Lesage Türkare The young baroness was after the death of her husband in very cramped circumstances. Therefore, she is forced to encourage courtship of a little sympathetic and distant from her circle, the businessman Türkare, who is in love with her and promises to marry. It’s not entirely clear how far their relationship went, … Read more
In the family of the steppe landlords, Sasha’s daughter grows like a field flower. Her parents are nice old men, honest in their cordiality, “flattery disgusts them, but arrogance is unknown.” Parents tried in childhood to give their daughter everything that their small means allowed; However, science and books seemed superfluous to them. In the … Read more
V. Irving The History of New York In one of the New York hotels in 1808, a short, nimble little old man settled and lived there for a long time, paying nothing to the owners, so they eventually became worried and began to make inquiries about who he and than is engaged. Having found out … Read more
Louis-Ferdinand Céline (Louis-Ferdinand Céline, real name – Detusch, Destouches, May 27, 1894, Courbevoie – July 1, 1961, Meudon) is a French writer, a doctor by education. Published in 1932 in France, the novel “Journey to the End of the Night” (Voyage au bout de la nuit) and the subsequent novel “Death on Credit” (Mort a … Read more
Moliere Don Giovanni, or the Stone Guest After leaving his young wife, Don Elvira, Don Juan rushed to pursue another captivating beauty. He was not at all embarrassed that in the city where he had arrived on her tracks and where he intended to kidnap her, six months earlier the commander had been killed by … Read more
These letters are a polemic of the author with the Jesuits, the fierce persecutors of the supporters of the teachings of the Dutch theologian Jansen, who opposed the true believers to the rest of the masses formally accepting the church doctrine. In France, the mainstay of Jansenism was the Parisian abbey of Por-Royal, in the … Read more
The life of the common people has always been difficult. Especially in Russia with its unbearable climate. Especially before the abolition of serfdom. The country was ruled by ruthless, greedy landowners, kings who drove into the coffin of the peasants to achieve their goals. The fate of serfs who built the first railway between Moscow … Read more
King of England Uther Pendragon falls in love with Igraine, the wife of the Duke of Cornwall, with whom he is at war. The famous sorcerer and soothsayer Merlin promises to help the king to win Igreina, provided that the child gives it to him. Duke dies in battle, and the barons, wishing to put … Read more
AP Chekhov Three Sisters The action takes place in the provincial town, in the house of the Prozorovs. Irina, the youngest of the three sisters of the Prozorovs, is twenty years old. “It’s sunny and fun in the yard,” and a table is set in the hall, waiting for the guests-officers of the artillery battery … Read more
A. Pushkin The Bronze Horseman “On the shore of the desert waves” of the Neva is Peter and thinks of the city that will be built here and which will become Russia’s window to Europe. A hundred years have passed, and the city “from the darkness of the forests, out of the marshland / blossomed … Read more
Giant Bird Exiled Oorfene Deuce, obsessed with a desire to take revenge, settled in his house in the Blue Country, along with a lively bear and a wooden clown. After seven years, spent in dreams to regain power over the Magic country, a huge eagle of Carfax flew into the garden of Urfin. According to … Read more
AP Chekhov Uncle Vanya A dull autumn day. In the garden, in the alley under the old poplar, a table is set for the tea. The samovar has an old nanny Marina. “Eat, Father,” she offers to the tea doctor Astrov. “I do not feel like it,” he replies. Telegin appears, an impoverished landowner, nicknamed … Read more
The subject of the story is the “life-be” of the representatives of the St. Catherine’s Popovka: Protopriest Saveliy Tuberozov, priest Zakhary Benefaktov and deacon Achilla Desnitsyn. Childless Tuberozov keeps all the ardor of the heart and all the energy of youth. Personality of the Benefit – the embodiment of meekness and humility. Deacon Achilles is … Read more
The tale “The Cat in Boots,” a brief summary of which can be useful to schoolchildren in the lessons of foreign literature, is one of the most famous works of the writer Sh. Perrault. An indicator of the popularity of the book is its repeated screen versions both in feature films and in cartoons. In … Read more
The idea of creating the work came to AP Chekhov, when the familiar artist told him the case of a dog that got into the circus. The story, which had the original name “In the Academic Society,” is published in 1887. Five years later, in 1892, the work “Chestnut” by Chekhov was published with a … Read more
The novel of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment” was written in 1866. The idea of the work appeared in the writer as far back as 1859, when he was serving a sentence in penal servitude. Initially, Dostoevsky was going to write the novel “Crime and Punishment” in the form of a confession, but in … Read more
The action takes place in the vicinity of the cities of Vilna and Grodno, in estates and villages located above the Neman. Recently, in 1863, the January uprising was suppressed. The tsarist government seeks to deprive the Poles of the possibility of considering these lands their own. The estates of large landowners were confiscated into … Read more
In the hot summer afternoon the mouse prince Krokhobor drank water from the swamp and met the frog king of Vzdulomord there. He turned to him, as Homer turned to Odysseus: “Wanderer, who are you from what kind of family?” And came from where? ” Word for word, they met, the frog planted a mouse … Read more
Denis Diderot Immodest treasures The action of this work, saturated in accordance with the literary fashion of the era of pseudo-eastern color, takes place in Africa, in the capital of the Congo-Banze empire, in which Paris is easily discerned with its mores, quirks, and also quite real inhabitants. From 1500000003200001 the Sultan Mangogul ruled the … Read more
Molière School of Wives The play is preceded by the dedication of Henrietta of England, the wife of the brother of the king, the official patron of the troupe. The author’s foreword informs readers that the answers to the condemned play are contained in Critic (meaning the comedy in one act “Criticism of the School … Read more
When I mention the name of Anna Akhmatova, I have the image of a regal lady, mistress of the muses. This woman has lived a great, dramatic and at the same time a happy life. Poets of the “Silver Age” in their poems often confessed their love for this queen of Russian poetry. In the … Read more
Makar Alekseevich Devushkin is a titular counselor for forty-seven years, rewriting for a small salary of paper in one of the St. Petersburg departments. He has just moved to a new apartment in the “capital” house near Fontanka. Along the long corridor are the doors of the rooms for the tenants; The hero himself is … Read more
F. S. Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby “If you measure a person with her ability to show herself, then in Gatsby was something truly magnificent, some heightened sensitivity to all the promises of life… It was a rare gift of hope, a romantic fuse, I have not met him again. “ Nick Carraway belongs to the … Read more