Events develop in the mid-50’s. The novel begins with the meeting of Father Tassin, a seventy-year-old member of the Jesuit order, and Saint-Denis, director of a large state reserve in French Equatorial Africa. Father Tassen is a scientist who studies in Africa his paleontological hypotheses and has among the missionaries the reputation of a person … Read more
Ian Banks Aspen factory Frances Coldheim in the attic of his house built the Aspen Factory – a device consisting of a dial and traps, where he launches a wasp, and from where she crawls, it depends on what death she will die. F. consults with the Factory, brings her victims – rats, gulls, dragonflies. … Read more
VM Shukshin Hunting to live The central heroes of the work are old Nikitich and a young fellow. The action takes place in the taiga. The old man Nikitich, who, from “small years dragged along the taiga”, sometimes lives in huts, which are cut down in the taiga. So it was this time. Uninhabited, but … Read more
Arthur Schnitzler Wife of the wise man The protagonist of the narrative, on whose behalf the story is narrated, comes to a seaside resort with the intention of staying there for a long time and fully enjoying the desired rest. He had just received his doctorate, and the young lady he was courting married to … Read more
IS Turgenev Notes of the hunter: Biryuk The author of “Notes” was traveling in the evening with hunting for droshky. A thunderstorm broke out. At the height of the storm, a tall figure of the forester invited the hunter to him. They rode for a long time, finally, in the shine of lightning, a small … Read more
V. Irving Rip Van Winkle At the foot of the Kaathsky Mountains is an ancient village, founded by Dutch settlers in the earliest period of colonization. In ancient times, when this region was still a British province, there lived in it a good-natured fellow named Rip Van Winkle. All his neighbors loved him, but his … Read more
At nine in the evening the author and four of his friends returned from the same house in the vicinity of Paris. A full moon shone in the sky, attracting the gaze of the revelers and arousing wit already sharpened on the pavement stones. One suggested that this is a heavenly dormer window, from which … Read more
Grandmother’s gift I had a grandmother. And she loved me very much. She came to visit us every month and gave us toys. And she brought along a whole basket of cakes. Of all the cakes she allowed me to choose the one that I like. And my elder sister Lelyu did not like her … Read more
The night is the first. Night Two It was already four o’clock in the morning, when a crowd of young friends – not the philosophers or the torchbearers of life – entered the room of Faust. It seemed to them that Faust knew everything. No wonder he surprised everyone with his manners and neglected secular … Read more
Russian writer Vitaly Kartsev, who lives in Munich in 1982, gets the opportunity to be in Moscow in 2042. Preparing for the trip, he meets his classmate Bukashev Leszek, who made a career in the KGB line in the USSR and their meeting was not accidental, because Leshka knew about his interesting trip. In the … Read more