The action unfolds in the late XVI or early XVII century. on four continents, everywhere where Spain has any possessions or where it is trying to conquer something else, and also on the sea, that is, the giant scene of this voluminous five hundred pages, the play is the whole world, the whole universe. It … Read more
Part one Introduction Alexander Petrovich Goryanchikov I met in a small Siberian town. Born in Russia as a nobleman, he became an ex-convict of the second class for the murder of his wife. After serving 10 years of hard labor, he lived his life in town K. He was a pale and thin man of … Read more
JL Borges The Babylonian Library The universe – some call it the Library – consists of a huge number of hexahedral galleries, with wide ventilation wells, enclosed by handrails. The arrangement of the galleries is invariable: five shelves on each wall… To one of the free sides there is a corridor leading to another gallery, … Read more
The story takes place in the era of the Regency, when the mores of French society were extremely free. With the cheerful and frivolous regent Philippe of Orleans in France, immediately began the reaction to the “lean” spirit that reigned under the elderly king. French society sighed more freely and gave vent to the thirst … Read more
AV Druzhinin Polinka Saks When Konstantin Alexandrovich Saks announced to his wife that he must go for three weeks to the province, Polinka burst into tears and began to ask her husband to refuse to travel. She is sad, she is tormented by bad forebodings. But Sachs is not just an official at large, but … Read more
Yearning for strong and harsh passions, which he did not find in the reality surrounding him, Flaubert turned to a profound history. He settled his heroes in the III century. BC. e. and chose a real episode – when the famous Carthaginian commander Hamilcar Barca, with unprecedented cruelty, suppressed an uprising of mercenary troops. It … Read more
In the house of this Elizaveta era and almost Biron lived writers, artists, musicians. However, there lived servicemen, tailors, workers, and former servants… This was also later, and not only in the border with the NEP and the first NEP years. Life was simplified to its primordial nature, and life took on a fantastic shape. … Read more
On a sunny summer day, the talented painter Basil Hallward takes in his workshop an old friend of Lord Henry Wotton – the epicurean esthete, the “Prince of Paradox”, by definition of one of the characters. In the latter one easily recognizes the features of Oscar Wilde, familiar to contemporaries, to whom the author of … Read more
Jean Racine Britannic The action takes place in Ancient Rome in the palace of Emperor Nero. He ascended to the throne illegally, thanks to his mother Agrippina. The emperor was to become Britannik, the son of Agrippina’s second husband Claudius, but she managed to bribe the army and the senate and elevated her son to … Read more
A. Pushkin Bakhchsarai Fountain In his palace sits the formidable Khan Girey, angry and sad. What is sad about Girey, what is he thinking about? He does not think about the war with Russia, he is not afraid of the machinations of enemies, and his wives are loyal to him, they are guarded by a … Read more