The novel is preceded by two epigraphs. The first (to all the novel) is taken from the book “Being reasonable, or Moral view of the dignity of life.” “Every minute swears to fate in preserving a deep silence about our lot, even up to the time when it merges with the course of life, and … Read more
The tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” by Shakespeare has been known since 1597. The plot of the fate of loving hearts, separated by the will of people or circumstances, was widely spread in the literature of the Renaissance, when the playwright worked. But it was the brilliant gift of Shakespeare that created on its basis a … Read more
Oscar Wilde Portrait of Dorian Gray 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 … Read more
Coma We literally burst into the stream of the hero’s consciousness, which conveys his feelings from the “weave” to the wreckage of the car. We understand that this man was in an accident and is on the verge of life and death. He himself realizes his “problem” and talks about it in a tone not … Read more
The action takes place in a provincial German town during the French bourgeois revolution. The poem consists of nine songs, each of which bears the name of one of the Greek Muses – patrons of different arts. The names of the muses determine the content of each song. On the roads coming from the Rhine, … Read more
A. Pushkin Feast during the plague. There is a covered table on the street, followed by several young men and women. One of the feasting, the young man, addressing the chairman of the feast, recalls their mutual friend, the merry Jackson, whose jokes and witticisms amused everyone, revitalized the feast and dispelled the darkness that … Read more
In Athens they said: “Above all else in human life is the law, and the unwritten law is higher than written.” The unwritten law is eternal, it is given by nature, on it is held every human society: it commands to honor the gods, to love relatives, to pity the weak. The written law is … Read more
F. Fenelon Adventures of Telemac The teacher of the heir to the throne of the Duke of Burgundy, the grandson of King Louis XIV, Fenelon wrote for his young pupil the philosophical utopian novel “The Adventures of Telemachus” about how a real sovereign should be and how to govern the people and the state. The … Read more
The action takes place during the Great Patriotic War, in 1942, in the territory of occupied Byelorussia. “Punishers” is a bloody chronicle of the destruction by the battalion of Hitler’s punitive Dirlewanger of seven peaceful villages. The chapters are appropriately named: “First Settlement”, “Second Village”, “Between the Third and Fourth Villages”, etc. Each chapter contains … Read more
The novel “Eugene Onegin” was written by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin in 1823 – 1831. The work is one of the most significant creations of Russian literature – according to Belinsky it is the “encyclopedia of Russian life” of the early 19th century. The novel in Pushkin’s poetry “Eugene Onegin” refers to the literary direction of … Read more