In the theater – the premiere, in the main role – a mediocre actor Monfleri. But the poet and the brethren, the Gascon of Cyrano de Bergerac, forbade this “foolish jester” to appear on stage, and, as soon as Cyrano’s menacing voice is heard in the hall, the actor runs away frantically from the stage. … Read more
The story-parable “The Green Lamp” by A. Green talks about the amazing life story of two completely different people. First – the pauper John Eve, an Irishman who came to London in search of work and later became a wealthy man. The second is Stilton, a millionaire whose fortune totaled 20 million pounds, which went … Read more
Joseph Heller Amendment-22 The fictional island of Pianosa in the Mediterranean, invented by the author’s fantasy base of the US Air Force. Quite real World War II. However, each of the numerous characters of this extensive literary fresco has its own war, for the sake of victory in which they spare no effort, no life, … Read more
The novel “Nineties” is the first part of the famous trilogy, which also includes the novels “Golden Miles” and “Winged Seeds”. The trilogy covers sixty years of Australian history, dating back to the nineties of the last century. It has the same heroes; their fate and relations the writer traces with unflagging attention. Nineties – … Read more
Florent returned to Paris, where seven years ago, in December 1851, after a barricade battle in the night city, was sent into exile, to the hell of Cayenne. He was taken only for the fact that he, like a lost man, wandered around the city at night and his hands were bloody-he was trying to … Read more
The old people Afanasy Ivanovich Tovstogub and his wife Pulcheria Ivanovna live alone in one of the remote villages, called Old Rus in the Little Russia. Their life is so quiet that a guest who has unexpectedly come to a low bar-house, buried in the greenery of the garden, the passions and unsettling worries of … Read more
The peasant and front-line soldier Ivan Denisovich Shukhov turned out to be a “state criminal”, a “spy” and got into one of Stalin’s camps, like millions of Soviet people, guilty without conviction at the time of the “personality cult” and mass repressions. He left home on June 23, 1941, on the second day after the … Read more
Leaving on a business trip to Siberia, my father instructed me to buy a gift for my mother’s birthday – he did not have time to return to the holiday. So I got ten rubles in my hands. I changed the top ten the next day. My bosom friend Sashka Smolin did not believe that … Read more
Two young girls, “poplar and birch”, Lizaveta Grigoryevna Bakhareva and Eugenia Petrovna Glovatskaya return from Moscow after graduation from the institute. Along the way, they enter the monastery to Aunt Bakhareva, Mother Superior of Agnia, where Lisa shows new views on the role of women in the family and life. There, the girls get acquainted … Read more
Summer of 1914. In his Ukrainian estate Molinci lives a beautiful young landowner Evelina Royskaya. She has two sons: Yuzek is seventeen, a sweet, serious boy, and unbridled Valerek fourteen years old. Her husband studied agriculture in English agronomic journals and tried to instill in the Ukrainian estate English ways of farming. In the estate … Read more
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 rise on time … Read more
At the very end of August the cadet adolescence of Alexei Alexandrov was over. Now he will study in the Third Junker name of Emperor Alexander II infantry school. In the morning he paid a visit to Sinelnikov, but alone with Yulenka he managed to stay no more than a minute, during which, instead of … Read more
The dacha season is over, and Vasily Petrovich Bachey with his sons Petya and Pavlik was returning to Odessa. Petya for the last time looked around the endless marine space, glowing with a gentle blue glow. The following lines came to mind: “The lonely sail grows white / In the fog of the blue sea…” … Read more
VG Korolenko Blind musician In the Southwest of Ukraine, in the family of the rich country landowners Popelskikh, a blind boy is born. At first no one notices his blindness, only his mother guesses this by the strange expression of Petrusya’s face. Doctors confirm the terrible guess. Father Peter – a good-natured man, but rather … Read more
Ivlin Vo Loved One unbearably hot evening in the home of Francis Hinzli in Hollywood comes Sir Ambrose Abercrombie and finds the host, screenwriter “Megapoliten Studios” company, together with his young friend and poet Denisom Barlou for a glass of whiskey. All three Englishmen, and the British, according to Sir Eberkombi, here in America, should … Read more
Events take place many years ago in a distant African country. Boas tirelessly hunt for rabbits, and monkeys and elephants observe neutrality. Despite the fact that rabbits usually run very fast, at the sight of boas they seem to fall into a stupor. Boas do not choke rabbits, but as if hypnotize them. Once a … Read more
O. de Balzac Eugenia Grande Evgenia Grande was considered the most enviable bride in Saumur. Her father, a simple bocar, grew rich in the days of the Revolution, buying up the confiscated church possessions for a pittance-the best vineyards in the Saumur okrug and several farms. At the Consulate, he was elected mayor, and during … Read more
On the day when it becomes known that the Russian fleet was defeated by the Japanese, Captain Vasily Alexandrovich Rybnikov received a mysterious telegram from Irkutsk. He moved to a dingy station hotel and immediately begins to dash around all the places in St. Petersburg. Everywhere: in the streets, in restaurants, in theaters, in wagon … Read more
The merchant’s daughter in marriage, Olympia Samsonovna Bolshova, sits alone at the window with a book and, arguing “what a pleasant experience these dances”, begins to waltz: she has not danced for a year and a half and is afraid, if anything, to “get embarrassed.” Dancing badly. The mother, Agrafena Kondratyevna, enters: “No light dawn, … Read more
GI Gazdanov Evening with Claire France, late 20-ies. our century. The hero of the novel is a young Russian emigre, the narrative is conducted on his behalf. He’s in love with Claire. Claire is a pure Frenchwoman, she teases the admirer, then he allows him to hope for his favor. She is sick, and the … Read more
This story is told by Stepan Ivanovich Kurochka, who is from Gadyach. The story is written in a notebook, the notebook lay in the table, some of the sheets from it dragged the little Pasichnikov’s wife into pies. Therefore, there is no end to it, if there is a desire for an end, you can … Read more
VF Odoevsky Russian nights 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 … Read more
K. Marlo The tragic story of Dr. Faust The choir enters the stage and tells the story of Faust: he was born in the German city of Roda, studied in Wittenberg, received his doctorate. “Then, full of audacious self-conceit, He rushed to forbidden heights On the wings of waxes, but the wax melts-And the sky … Read more
Carlo Goldoni Family antiquarians, or mother-in-law and daughter-in-law Count Count Anselmo Terraciani more or less recovered when he, neglecting class estates, married his only son Giacinto in Doradice, the daughter of the rich Venetian merchant Pantalone dei Bisogniosi, who gave her twenty thousand dowry dowry. This amount could form the basis of the welfare of … Read more
It is easier to say a new word than to reconcile words that have already been said between themselves. Our mind is more perceptive than consistent, and covers more than we can comprehend. If a thought can not be expressed in simple words, then it is insignificant and must be discarded. Express a false thought … Read more
In the Volyn province, not far from the town of Hlebno, above the winding river is the village of Lozishchi. All its inhabitants bear the surname Lozinsky with the addition of different nicknames. There are legends that once Lozinsky were Cossacks, they had some privileges, but now all this has been forgotten. Osip Lozinsky Oglobla, … Read more
One day two workers went to watch their mowing grass. It was a holiday, the weather was good, hot. These people worked at the plant, mined malachite and other stones. The work was hard and harmful. One guy was very young, unmarried. But the work has already affected his health, “in the eyes of the … Read more
Hugo Foscolo The last letters of Jacopo Ortiz 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. … Read more
In this comedy, the main thing is not the plot, but the hero, the “boastful warrior”. In the old days in Greece there were no professional soldiers, there were militiamen. And then, when the war became a profession, there were dashing mercenaries who went to serve anyone, even to the edge of the world, mostly … Read more
RL Stevenson The strange story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde The story takes place in London, at the end of the 19th century. Mr. Utterson, a notary, was a self-contained man, terse and awkward in society, and yet very sympathetic. He was strict with himself, but he showed indulgence to the weaknesses of his … Read more
BA Mozhaev Live Fyodor Fomich Kuzkin, nicknamed in the village Zhivym, had to leave the collective farm. And it was not Fomich, the collective farm forwarder, who was the last person in the Prudki: he extracted bags for the farm, then the tubs, then harnesses, and carts. And Avdotya’s wife worked as tirelessly. And earned … Read more
Step 1 A room that is still called a nursery. Lopakhin and Dunyasha are waiting for Ranevskaya and everyone who went to meet her from the station. Lopakhin remembers how Ranevskaya felt sorry for him in her childhood. Lopakhin reproaches Dunyasha for the fact that she behaves like a young lady. Appears. Epihodov. Entering, he … Read more
The events described in the play develop in the village, which is jointly owned by Chestin and Eugenia. In the past, they loved each other, but, at the request of his father, whose will Evgenie did not dare disobey, she had to go under the crown with a rich old man. Chestin, who had no … Read more
JACOMO MEYEREBER 1791-1864 Meyerbeer entered the history of musical culture as the largest representative of the romantic musical theater of France. He approved the type of five-act “big opera”, calculated for the splendor of the production and spectacular spectacularity. At the heart of the musical drama of Meyerbeer is the principle of impressive contrasts, the … Read more
Lucian Conversations of the gods I. Prometheus and Zeus Chained to the rocks of the Caucasus Titan Prometheus asks Zeus to release him. But no, the penalty is not enough: after all, Prometheus not only stole Zeus’ fire and gave it to people, but also (most terrible) created a woman! Therefore, heavy chains and the … Read more
“But here I must confide to your Excellency the confession of my private adventures.” The beautiful Consafeia multiplied day by day to me of politeness… which ended in the fact that she gave me her hand… “ Letter N. N. Rezanova N. Rumyantsev June 17, 1806 “Let them appreciate my deed as they please, but … Read more
Not far from the monastery in Georgia, the Russian general carries with him from the mountains a captive six-year-old child. On the way the prisoner fell ill, did not eat anything, and “quietly, proudly died.” One monastic monk leaves the child at home. After accepting the baptism, the boy soon had to become a monk … Read more
Tauris, the ancient Greeks called the modern Crimea. There lived Taurians – a Scythian tribe that honored the goddess-virgo and brought her human sacrifices, which in Greece had long since emerged from custom. The Greeks believed that this goddess-maiden – not who else, like their Artemis-hunter. They had a myth, at the outset and at … Read more
The play takes place in a one-room apartment of Jimmy and Alison Porter in Birmingham, in one of the major cities of Middle England on Sunday evening. Jimmy and his friend Cliff, who lives in a neighboring apartment, sit in armchairs and read newspapers. Jimmy, a young man of about twenty-five, is an irritating mixture … Read more
About the work Kataev’s story “The son of the regiment” was written in 1944. In the book for the first time in Soviet literature, the theme of war was revealed through the perception of the child – Vanya Solntseva, a boy of twelve years. For the story “Son of the Regiment” Kataev was awarded the … Read more
It all started with Saratov, where the troupe came on tour and where the actors were accommodated in a bad hotel. It’s hot, director Sergei Leonidovich flew to Moscow, leaving instead of assistant Smurny. This Smurny long ago laid eyes on Lyalya (Lyudmila Petrovna Telepnev), one of the actresses of the theater, but when she … Read more
The pious parents of St. Theodosius lived in the city of Vasiliev. When they had a son, on the eighth day he was given a name, on the fortieth – they called him. Then the parents of the blessed moved to the city of Kursk. The boy grew up, went to church every day, avoided … Read more
Chick had a terrible trouble. The teacher of the Russian language Akaki Makedonovich said that he brought one of the parents to school. The teacher had a habit of writing grammar rules in verse form, and the pupils had to learn this poem, and at the same time the rule. Akaki Makedonovich was proud of … Read more
N. G. Garin-Mikhailovsky Childhood Themes The action takes place in the Kartashovs’ house. The head of the family is retired general Nikolai Kartashev. The harsh nature and the alignment of Nicholaev’s general Kartashev the elder give a definite direction to the upbringing of children, among whom the subject, the eldest in the family of boys, … Read more
In the preface to the History of the Sewarambs, the author notes that this book is not the fruit of a rich fantasy, but the true notes of Captain Silenus. This is confirmed not only by the doctor’s testimony, to which the captain, when he died, gave the main work of his life, but also … Read more
B. Cellini The Life of Benvenuto Cellini The Life of Benvenuto, the son of Maestro Giovanni Cellini, a Florentine written by himself in Florence Memoirs of Benvenuto Cellini are written in the first person. In the opinion of the renowned jeweler and sculptor, every person who has accomplished something valiant is obligated to tell about … Read more
VM Garshin Artists The narrative is alternated on behalf of two artists – Dedova and Ryabinin, contrasted with each other. Grandfather, a young engineer, having received a small inheritance, leaves the service to devote himself entirely to painting. He works hard, writes and writes landscapes and is perfectly happy if he manages to capture an … Read more
Like an ant – a grain of sand to a grain of sand – Father Vasily built his life: he married, became a priest, produced a son and daughter. After seven years, life crumbled to dust. Drowned in the river by his son, his wife began to drink with sorrow. Rest is not found by … Read more
GOLD OF RHINE The prelude of the tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung”, in four scenes R. Wagner’s libretto Characters: Daughters of the Rhine (mermaids): Voglinda Velgunda Floschild Soprano Soprano Mezzo soprano Nibelungs (dwarfs): Alberich Mime, his brother Bass Tenor Giants: Fazolt Fafner, his brother Bass Bass Gods: Wotan, the supreme god Frika, Wotan’s wife … Read more
Rainy November evening in 186 * in St. Petersburg Mary Mikhailovna – twenty-three-year-old rich widow of the Guards adjutant – begins to keep an intimate diary to understand the reasons for his constantly bad mood. It turns out that she never loved her husband, that she is bored with her son, a three-year-old “sour” Vodka, … Read more