A. Sinyavsky Lyubimov In a fairy tale narrates about a strange story that happened to an ordinary Belorussian inhabitant Lene Tikhomirov. Until then, there had been no miraculous events at Lyubimov, which was under the wet mountain, but, on the contrary, there was a large Komsomol and intellectual stratum and life was completely socialist under … Read more
Voltaire Orleans virgin The action of this satirical poem takes place during the Hundred Years War between France and England (1337-1453). Some contemporaries of Voltaire said that the author, ridiculing Jeanne d’Arc, treated her more cruelly than the bishop of the city of Beauvais, who burned her once at the stake. Voltaire, of course, laughed … Read more
The middle of the XVII century. Instituted by the Fronde, the people of Paris murmur: the deputies, the merchants, the judiciary are outraged by the policies of Cardinal Mazarin, who sucks out all the juices from taxpayers. The Queen, who was going to Mass in the Cathedral of the Notre Dame, was haunted by a … Read more
In anticipation of the young landowner Eletskaya, who married a St. Petersburg official, the whole estate is buzzing with preparations. Finally, the young people come. They were trained with bread and salt and musicians. Yeletsky immediately takes command, intending to conduct the affairs of the estate. At dinner time, guests and “local people who lived … Read more
The appearance of a new person in the village is always an event. When in the summer of 184 … a new home teacher appeared in the rich estate of the Islaevs, the already established balance was somehow disturbed or, at least, shaken. From the very first day, Alexey Nikolayevich fell in love with his … Read more
Among the passengers of a large ocean boat sailing from New York to Buenos Aires is the world chess champion Mirko Centovic. A more informed friend of the narrator reports that Mirko was orphaned at the age of twelve. A compassionate pastor from a remote village in Yugoslavia took him into care. The boy was … Read more
A young American with the biblical name Ishmael, bored with being on land and having difficulty with money, decides to go sailing on a whaling ship. In the first half of the XIX century. the oldest American whaling port of Nantucket – is by no means the largest center of this fishery, however, Izmail considers … Read more
In the winter night of 1826, Princess Ekaterina Trubetskaya went after her decembrist husband to Siberia. The old Count, the father of Catherine Ivanovna, with tears strews a bearish cavity into the carriage, which must be taken away for ever from the house by his daughter. Princess mentally says goodbye not only to her family, … Read more
In St. Petersburg, in the rich house of Zvezdintsevs, in front of the mirror, admires the beautiful and depraved lackey Grigory, lazily responding to the repeated calls of Vasily Leonidich, the master’s son, flirting with Tanya, a cheerful and energetic maid. In the customary morning bustle, servants scurry about, callers are continuously ringing at the … Read more
Everything is whiter than the edge of the mountains, here they are lighted up a little. The clouds, touched by purple, spread thinly over the sky with thin ribbons. No words, she is beautiful in the moonlight, but the moonless moon pleases her eyes when countless fireflies run in the air The sunset sun, casting … Read more
James Joyce Portrait of the artist in his youth Stephen Dedal remembers how in childhood his father told him a fairy tale about the boy Bu-bu and the cow Mu-mu, how his mother played a piano dance to him on the piano, and he danced. In school in the preparatory class, Stephen is one of … Read more
Very funny and at the same time very instructive story “Barankin, be a man!” was created in 1961 by the Soviet writer Valery Vladimirovich Medvedev. This amazing story will tell you about the adventures of two friends – classmates-semes Yura Barankin and Kostya Malinin, who once suddenly did not want to learn. It all started … Read more
EP Jakobsen Niels Lüne Roman is a story of the life and pursuits of a Danish intellectual, a contemporary of Jacobsen, whom the author carries back a generation – about twenty years. The book opens with a description of the characters of the hero’s parents: his mother is an enthusiastic romantic soul living in a … Read more
The novel is a family chronicle with a sequel. The events described in the novel unfold in Paris in the 19th century. and begin with the fact that in 1815, after serving in the French National Guard, Florent Bussardel, the son of a recently deceased prominent customs official, returns to the bosom of the family. … Read more
JR Kipling Mary Gloucester Dies Anthony Gloucester – “one of the rulers of the market” (the so-called his newspaper). Before his death, he calls his son Dick (“I paid for your whims, did not forbid anything… I created myself and millions, but I’m cursed – you are not my son!”), Who tells the story of … Read more
The work of A. Konan Doyle “Motley Ribbon” is included in the series of works about Sherlock Holmes, detective extremely talented and intelligent. The narrative is conducted on behalf of Dr. Watson, a friend of Sherlock Holmes. … In one April morning the Sherlock Holmes house was visited by a certain girl, a client. It … Read more
Japan of the thirties. Someone Simamura, a middle-aged man, travels by train to a snowy country – this is the name of the harsh mountainous region in the north of Honshu, which is famous for its heavy snowfalls. For the first time he came there to admire the northern nature a year ago in the … Read more
The receptionist of a wholesaler of ready-to-wear clothing, Takichiro Sada, observes that two bunches of violets have blossomed on an old maple tree growing near their house – they grow in two small hollows on the trunk of an old maple tree and blossom every spring as Tieko remembers herself. They seem like a girl … Read more
Samson, blinded, humiliated and scolded, languishes in captivity with the Philistines, in the prison of the city of Gaza. Slave labor wears out his body, and spiritual suffering torments the soul. Neither day nor night Samson can not forget about what a glorious hero was before, and these memories inflict bitter torments on him. He … Read more
32-year-old mentally retarded Charlie Gordon lives in New York and works as a cleaner in a private bakery where his uncle arranged it. He almost does not remember his parents and younger sister. Charlie goes to a special school, where the teacher Alice Kinnian teaches him to read and write. One day, Miss Kinnian leads … Read more
The teacher of Elvira brings Dinya Khimene a pleasant message: from two lovers of the young nobles – Don Rodrigo and Don Sancho – the father of Jimena, Count Gormaz, wants to have the first son-in-law; namely don Rodrigo given the feelings and thoughts of the girl. In the same Rodrigo, the girlfriend of Jimena, … Read more
Once in the spring, in Moscow, at an unusually hot sunset, two citizens appeared at the Patriarch’s Ponds: Mikhail Alexandrovich Berlioz, chairman of the board of one of the major literary organizations; he was also the editor of a thick art magazine, and the poet Ivan Nikolaevich Ponyrev, who created under the pseudonym Bezdomny. It … Read more
M. Drabble One summer season The novel takes place in England in the early sixties. The heroine of the novel, Emma Evans, on whose behalf the story is narrated, recalls the events that happened to her a few months earlier. Emma’s husband David is an actor. He acts mostly on television, but once the famous … Read more
The action begins in October 1789, ends in March 1799 and unfolds mainly in the north of Italy, in the vicinity of Venice. The narrative is a letter from the main character, Jacopo Ortiz, to his friend Lorenzo, as well as the memoirs of Lorenzo about Jacopo. In October 1797, an agreement was signed between … Read more
IS Turgenev Notes of the hunter: Lgov Lgov – a large steppe village. Near it there is a pond overgrown with reeds; there were ducks. Behind the boat, the hunters turned to a local resident, nicknamed Suchok. “Barefoot, ragged and disheveled Beetle seemed to look like a retired courtyard of sixty.” The conversation with the … Read more
R. Aldington Death of the hero The action takes place in 1890-1918. The work is written in the form of the author’s memories of his peer, a young English officer who died in France at the very end of the First World War. His name appeared on one of the last lists of those who … Read more
Ken Kizi One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Hero-narrator Bromden – the son of a white woman and an Indian leader – pretends to be weak, deaf and weak-minded. He has long been in a psychiatric hospital, escaping in its walls from the cruelty and indifference of “normal America.” However, the years spent by Bromden … Read more
Once the heroes of the cycle “Noble crook” Jeff Peters and Andy Tucker, who, according to Peters, “each dollar in the hand of another… perceived as a personal insult, if he could not perceive it as a prey,” returned from Mexico after another successful scam and stopped in a Texas settlement called the Bird City, … Read more
COLA BRUNION (MASTER OF CLAIM) Opera in three acts (six scenes) Libretto by VG Bragin Characters: Cola Bryunion Selina (Lasochka) Martina Gambi Zhyflyar Duke Ml de Teom Curet Notary Woman with a torch Pulyar, foreman of the city Konyushy Voznica Drunk soldier The Herald Baritone Mezzo soprano Soprano Tenor Baritone Tenor Soprano Bass Tenor Soprano … Read more
Akir was an adviser to Sinagrip, king of Ador and Nalive land. He was told by God that he would remain childless. Akira had a wife and great wealth, but there was no heir. He raised the altars and began to pray to God for the birth of his son. But God commanded the king’s … Read more
ALEXANDER SERGEYEVICH DARGOMYZHSKY 1813-1869 In the history of Russian music, Dargomyzhsky entered as one of the founders of realistic art. Protest against social inequality, interest in the destinies of people from the people, social and accusatory orientation are the most important features of his creativity. His operas differ in the fineness of the embodiment of … Read more
Italy, 1943-1944 Cesir is thirty-five years old, she was born in Chocharia, a mountainous area lying to the south of Rome. A young girl she married a shopkeeper, moved to Rome, gave birth to a daughter and at first was very happy – until she did not discover the true face of her husband. But … Read more
March 1966; Thirty-four-year-old engineer Konstantin Platonovich Zorin remembers how he, a native of the village, was humiliated by city bureaucrats and how he once hated everything rural. And now he is pulling back into his native village, so he came here on leave for twenty-four days, and he wants to heat the sauna every day, … Read more
Long Daphnis and Chloe The action takes place on the well known Greek island of Lesbos in the Aegean Sea, and not even on the whole island, but in the village alone on its outskirts. There lived two shepherds, one co-op, another sheep-breeder, one slave, another free. Once, he saw: a goat feeds his abandoned … Read more
This is a story about a small flower, which no one knew on earth, because he grew up alone in a vacant lot. Cows and goats did not go there, and children from the pioneer camp there never played. The grass did not grow on the vacant lot, but dead stones lay alone. The wind … Read more
LM Leonov Thief Moscow was quiet here, in a place called Blagusha. Firsov surveyed the surroundings and experienced a fine and desponding emptiness, familiar from experience, when here, just as before, for other books, a handful of human destinies ripened in him. And then Firsov saw how waking up that Nikolka Zavarikhin had come to … Read more
Walter Scott Ivanhoe It’s been almost a hundred and thirty years since the Norman Duke William the Conqueror defeated the Anglo-Saxon armies and captured England at the Battle of Hastings (1066). The English people are going through hard times. King Richard the Lionheart did not return from the last crusade, taken prisoner by the treacherous … Read more
Jules Verne Fifteen-year-old captain January 29, 1873, the schooner-brig “Pilgrim”, equipped for whaling, goes on a voyage from the port of Oakland, New Zealand. On board are the brave and experienced captain Gul, five experienced sailors, the fifteen-year-old sailor-sailor Dick Send, the ship Negro, and the wife of the owner of Pilgrim James Weldon, Mrs. … Read more
Arthur Hailey Airport The novel takes place in January 1967, Friday night from 18.30 to 1.30 at the International Airport. Lincoln in Illinois. Three days and three nights over the Mid-West states, the strongest storm is rampant, all airfield services are working with extreme strain. About a hundred planes of two dozen airlines did not … Read more
In a certain kingdom there lived a merchant. His wife died, and he remained with the only daughter Vasilisa the Beautiful, who was then 8 years old. Dying, the mother blessed her daughter and gave her a doll, saying: – Take care of the doll, and when you have some kind of grief, give her … Read more
Carlo Gozzi The deer King Once a great magician and wizard Durandarte came to the city of Serendippe. The king of this city, Deramo, received the guest with an unprecedented luxury and courtesy, for which the grateful wizard left him with a gift of two amazing magical secrets. No matter how powerful Durandarte was, according … Read more
Narration in the story is from the first person. The action takes place in 1948. The protagonist is a boy who studies in the fifth grade in a regional center, located 50 kilometers from his native village. In the village there was only an elementary school, and all the teachers marked the boy’s abilities and … Read more
The action takes place in the depths of the Rhine, on the mountain heights and in the underworld of the Nibelungen in fairy-tale times. Slowly flowing mighty Raine. In the waves it is played by mermaids – playful and carefree daughters of the Rhine. They keep a golden treasure resting on the bottom of the … Read more
In the house of an intelligent Narodnik Ivan Akimovich Samgin, a son was born, to whom his father decided to give an “unusual” peasant name to Klim. It immediately singled out the boy among the other children of his circle: the daughter of Dr. Somov Lyuba; the children of the lodger Varavka Varvara, Lydia and … Read more
NV Gogol A Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich A fine man Ivan Ivanovich! What a glorious beak he has! When it gets hot, Ivan Ivanovich will throw off the bekesh, rest in one shirt and look at what is happening in the yard and on the street. Melons are his favorite … Read more
Sixty years have passed since the return of Hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the Shire. He is one hundred and ten years old, but outwardly he does not change at all. This brings the wizard Gandalf to a frightening thought: the magic Ring, stolen by Bilbo from Gollum, is in fact the Ring of Power. Millennia … Read more
A wealthy gentleman with his family sets out on a luxury steamer on a trip to Europe, but suddenly dies in one of the hotels. On the same ship, where an endless feast continues, his corpse is taken back to the hold. A gentleman from San Francisco who, in the story, has never been named … Read more
Act 1 The cellar is like a cave. Everywhere on the walls – plank beds. In the middle of the doss house there is a large table, two benches, a stool, everything – unpainted and dirty. The Kvashnya is in charge of the samovar, the Baron chews the black bread, Nastya reads the disheveled book. … Read more
AN Ostrovsky Poverty is not a vice The action takes place in a district town, in the house of merchant Tortsov, during Svyatok. Action is the first day. A small steward’s room. In the depths of the door, to the left there is a window, near the window there is a table and a chair, … Read more
The narrator endures inquisitorial tortures in prison. The last words he hears are the words of the death sentence. The condemned faints. Opening his eyes, he discovers that he is in utter darkness. Afraid that he was immured alive, he jumps to his feet and goes forward. Realizing that he was in a rather spacious … Read more