Herman Melville White Pea Jacket In 1843, in a harbor of the Pacific, a young sailor – it is easy to recognize the hero of the novel “Taipi”, continuing his journey home – enters the American frigate “Neversink.” Since there is not a single extra sailor’s jacket on the ship after many years of sailing, … Read more
The action takes place in the thirties and ends in the spring of 1941. The sisters of Makiok belong to an ancient family. At one time, their name was known to all residents of Osaka, but in the twenties the financial situation of Makiyoka’s father was shaken, and the family gradually became poor. There were … Read more
From the county town of the N-provincial province, a battered britzka departs in the July morning, in which the merchant Ivan Ivanovich Kuzmichev, the rector of the N-th church of Fr. Christopher of Syria and nephew of Kuzmichev Egorushka, a boy of nine, sent by his mother, Olga Ivanovna, the widow of the college secretary … Read more
N. Gogol Dead Souls Volume One The proposed story, as will become clear from the following, occurred somewhat shortly after the “glorious expulsion of the French.” In the provincial town of NN comes the college counselor Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov (he is not old and not too young, neither fat nor thin, looks rather pleasant and … Read more
The main character of the poem is Vasily Terkin. It’s a guy at least where he can stand up for himself and the eater is excellent. Terkin is a veteran fighter. This is his second war, the first was Finnish. Terkin is talking about that old war. He remembers how one day his squad stopped … Read more
The central character of Ivan Bunin’s story has never been mentioned for the entire story by name. On the ship, in Capri and in Naples, he is called the gentleman from San Francisco. In the described time period he is 58 years old, and he goes on a two-year tour of the Old World, accompanied … Read more
Prosper Merimee The chronicle of the reign of Charles IX of 1572. In France religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots are in full swing. There is a fierce struggle for power in which the interests of the three main parties – Protestants or Huguenots – are colliding (after the death of Prince Conde, the valiant … Read more
LN Andreev Grand Helmet Four players play in the “screw” three times a week: Evpraksiya Vasilievna with his brother Prokopy Vasilievich against Maslennikov and Yakov Ivanovich. Yakov Ivanovich and Maslennikov absolutely do not approach each other as partners: the thin old man Yakov Ivanovich is extraordinarily cautious and pedantic, he never takes risks, unlike the … Read more
LP Hartley Mediator Aging Lionel Colston recalls the days he spent with a boy from his school friend Markus Model at the Brande Hall estate in the summer of 1900. The belief in the inviolability of the centuries-old order, when everyone should occupy a strictly defined position in society, corresponding to its origin, is the … Read more
F. Sacchetti Three hundred novels In the preface to his book, the author confesses that he wrote it, following “the example of the excellent Florentine poet, Messer Giovanni Boccaccio.” “I, the Florentine Franco Sacchetti, an ignorant and rude man, asked himself to write a book for you, collecting in it stories about all those unusual … Read more
I Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov, sitting on the porch, awaits the son of Arkady at the inn. Nikolai Petrovich owned the estate, his father was a military general, and he himself was brought up in childhood as a governess only, since mother was one of the “commanders.” The elder brother of Nicholas Paul chose military service. … Read more
The author uses the form of the first person narrative. His hero – a thirty-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Glan recalls the events that occurred two years ago, in 1855. The impetus was the letter that came by mail – in an empty envelope lay two green bird feathers. Glan decides for his own pleasure and just … Read more
VP Aksenov Colleagues Three friends – Alexey Maksimov, Vladislav Karpov and Alexander Zelenin – graduated from the Leningrad Medical Institute. The guys are friends from the first year, despite the difference in character and temperament: Maximov – sharp, ironic, internally vulnerable and therefore “closed”, Karpov – cheerful, favorite girls, Zelenin – a little funny, impetuous, … Read more
PD Boborykin China Town Trade and business life is boiling in all the streets and alleys of China Town, when on a bright September morning Andrei Dmitriyevich Paltusov, who returned to Moscow recently, a thirty-five-year-old nobleman of a notable and peculiar appearance, visits the bank on Ilyinka and meets his old friend Evgraf Petrovich there. … Read more
In the house of Ivan Petrovich Shuisky, in the presence of many clerics and some boyars, they decide to divorce Fyodor Ioannovich with the Tsarina, Godunova’s sister, thanks to whom, by all accounts, Boris is holding. They make a paper, where, remembering the barrenness of the queen and the young Demetrius, they ask the king … Read more
The Tower of United Reflection Once there lived in friendship two scientists – Tu and Guan. And they married sisters. True, very different characters: Guan had the most stringent rules, and Tu thoughtless, even unchecked. And they brought up their wives in accordance with their own views. At first, both families lived together, and then … Read more
FR de Chateaubriand Atala, or Love of two savages in the desert Atala is considered the daughter of the leader of the muskogul tribe, but her real father is Christian Spaniard Philippe Lopez. Christian was also the mother of Atala, baptized her daughter and raised her in the Christian faith. At the birth of A. … Read more
Prince Alexander was the son of the Grand Duke Yaroslav. His mother’s name was Theodosius. Alexander was taller than others, his voice was like a trumpet, and his face was fine. He was strong, wise and brave. A nobleman from the Western country called Andreyash specially came to see Prince Alexander. Returning to his own, … Read more
The plot is a free interpretation of the ancient Greek myth. The Trojan prince Paris had already stolen Helen Spartan, but the war had not yet begun. Still alive King Priam and Hector, did not become Andromache’s slaves and the prophesying Cassandra, the young Polixena did not die under the sacrificial knife, she did not … Read more
Frank Algernon Cowperwood, after leaving prison, refuses the career of an exchange speculator. He leaves Philadelphia and leaves for Chicago. The chairman of the board of the largest city bank, Lake City, Jude Addison, kindly introduces Cowperwood into the course of local affairs. In the club “Union League” Frank gets acquainted with the most influential … Read more
AP Chekhov The lady with the dog Dmitry Dmitrievich Gurov married early, his wife does not like, the children are more likely to be uneasy. He does not miss the chance to make a romance on the side. On vacation in Yalta, he drew attention to a lady strolling along the embankment with a dog. … Read more
L. N. Tolstoy Albert Five people of rich and young people came one night to have fun on a Petersburg balik. Champagne was drunk a lot, the girls were beautiful, dancing and noise did not stop; but it was somehow boring, awkward, everyone seemed to think that it was all unnecessary. One of the five … Read more
Events take us to Connecticut, the farmer’s house, Phil Hohen. The action takes place in early September 1923 and at the dawn of the next day. The three sons of Hogan fled from the house in turn, very disagreeable in the father’s way, and the hand is not easier. Only twenty-eight-year-old daughter of Josie gets … Read more
The author remembers one “monstrous act” committed in the days of childhood. “Nobody knows about this deed, and the wild act for children is unheard of: at the base of a large yellow rock, on the seashore, near Sevastopol, in a deserted place, I buried in the sand, I buried one Englishman and one Frenchman…” … Read more
This work Swift can be attributed immediately to several genres: a novel-narrative, a novel-journey, a pamphlet and at the same time it contains features of an anti-utopia (and at the end of a book of utopia), and also contains elements of fiction. But most importantly this novel can in fact be considered prophetic, since all … Read more
1950’s. France. The main heroine Cecil was born in a well-to-do bourgeois family, for several years she was in a Catholic boarding house where she received a secondary education. Her mother died, and she lives in Paris with her father, Reimon. The father, a forty-year-old widower, easily flits through life, not hiding from his daughter … Read more
A. P. Chekhov Chamber No. 6 In the county town in a small hospital wing there is a room number 6 for the mentally ill. It “smells of sour cabbage, wick fumes, bugs and ammonia, and this stench makes you feel at first like you are entering a menagerie.” There are five people in the … Read more
V. M. Hugo Vengeance On December 2, 1851, President Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon I, made a coup d’etat by dissolving the National Assembly and arresting the figures of the parliamentary opposition. On December 4, the army suppressed the uprising that had begun in Paris, and many unarmed townspeople, including women and children, were … Read more
Who Moduya, known as Syunkin, was born in Osaka in the family of an apothecary in 1828. She was the most beautiful and most gifted of all the children of an apothecary, moreover, she had an even, cheerful disposition. But at eight, the girl suffered a misfortune: she was blind. Since that time, she left … Read more
P. Calderon The Hidden Caballero In Madrid, Casade Campo, the favorite park of the townspeople, don Juan Carlos and his servant Mosquito await twilight. They can not appear in the city during the day: two months ago, Don Carlos killed a noble caballero Alonso, the son of Don Diego and the brother of Lysard, in … Read more
Zemsky doctor Dmitry Iontovich Startsev comes to work in the provincial city of S., where he soon gets acquainted with the Turks. All members of this hospitable family are famous for their talents: witty Ivan Petrovich Turkin puts amateur performances, his wife Vera Iosifovna writes stories and novels, and her daughter plays on the piano … Read more
Chapter I The story opens a story about the family of Petrusha Grinev and about his childhood. Seeking to teach the windy son “to the languages and all sciences” Father Andrei Petrovich hires the Frenchman Beaupre, who is more drunk. After some time the Frenchman is fired, after which Andrei Petrovich decides to send his … Read more
Russian military steam clipper “Zabiyaka” quickly goes to the south. Sailors cleaned, washed, scrubbed and cleaned the deck: a military ship begins the day. Suddenly there was a loud, alarming cry from the sentry: “A man in the sea!”. All rushed to the deck and saw among the waves a fragment of the mast and … Read more
From the mouth of the Oka to Saratov and further down the right side of the Volga “Mountains” is called. They are engaged here in the field of farming and in various trades. Marco Danilovich Smolokurov in his youth was going to get married together with his elder brother in one day, but Mokey went … Read more
The “seducer’s diary” is a part of the most famous book of the Danish philosopher and writer Seren Kierkegaard “Ili-Ili”, sometimes printed and separately, in the form of a novel. In the “Preface” to the book, her imaginary publisher Victor Eremita explains: the notes he publishes are found in the old office he bought on … Read more
Alexander Nikolaevich Ostrovsky is rightly considered the singer of the merchant’s environment. His pen belongs to about sixty plays, the most famous of which are “His people – we will be counted”, “Groza”, “Bespridnitsa” and others. “Storm,” as Dobrolyubov characterized it, is “the most resolute work” of the author, since the mutual relations of tyranny … Read more
John Osborn Look back in anger Action of 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 … Read more
A young rake and a mote, having neglected the affairs of the family, did not know how to keep in a boggling expenditure. He let all his possessions go in the wind, and none of his relatives wanted to shelter him. Hungry, he hung around the city, complaining and moaning. Suddenly an unknown old man … Read more
A. Pushkin The Miserly Knight The young knight Albert is going to come to the tournament and asks his servant Ivan to show a helmet. The helmet is penetrated through the past duel with the knight Delormej. It is impossible to put it on. The servant comforts Albert by the fact that he repaid Delorzhu … Read more
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 in the psychiatric hospital, make themselves felt. The … Read more
Each of those living on earth is the result of countless additions: four thousand years ago in Crete love could begin, which ended yesterday in Texas. Every life is a moment, open to eternity, Wolfe says. And here is one of them… Eugene Gant is a descendant of the Englishman Gilbert Gant, who arrived in … Read more
V. Mayakovsky Bathhouse The play takes place in the USSR in 1930. The inventor of Eccentrics is going to include the time machine he designed. He explains the importance of this invention to his friend Bicyclebikin: you can stop a second of happiness and enjoy a month, you can “twist the stretched long years of … Read more
“After the wedding, there was not even a light snack.” An 18-year-old girl, Anya, married a 52-year-old official Modest Alekseich. After the wedding they go to the monastery, on a pilgrimage. On the train, Modest Alexeyitch, smiling, recalls one instance: “When Kosorotov received the Order of St. Anne of the second degree and came to … 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
EM Remarque On the Western Front without Change The height of the First World War. Germany already fights against France, Russia, England and America, Paul Boyer, on whose behalf the narrative is conducted, represents his fellow soldiers. Schoolchildren, peasants, fishermen, artisans of different ages gathered here. Rota lost almost half of the composition and nine … Read more
VA Zhukovsky Twelve sleeping virgins The mysterious narrative is preceded by an appeal to the Dream, the “air companion of young days”, whose presence promises a sweet recollection. The first ballad. Thunderbolt In time immemorial over frothy Dnieper sat, twisting, Gromoboy. He curses his sad lot, a beggarly and homeless life, with which he is … Read more
Moscow, the decade of reforms of Alexander II. In a small, well-kept apartment, a widow’s mother and her young son, Yegor Dmitrievich Glumov, live. From the conversation it becomes clear that Glumov tells his mother that he will try to achieve success through his acquaintances, and not as before. He also says that he has … Read more
AP Platonov Return After serving the whole war, the Guards Captain Alexei Alekseyevich Ivanov departs from the army for demobilization. At the station, long waiting for the train, he gets acquainted with the girl Masha, the daughter of the spaceman, who served in the dining room of their part. They travel together for two days, … Read more
E. Rotterdam The Praise of Stupidity Stupidity says: let the gross mortals talk about her as they please, she also dares to claim that her divine presence, only one, cheers the gods and people. And therefore now the laudable word Nonsense will be spoken. Who, if not Nonsense, should become a trumpeter of his own … Read more
AV Vampilov Last summer in Chulimsk Action takes place in a taiga district center in the early summer morning. Valentina, a slender, pretty girl of about eighteen, goes to the teahouse where she works, and on the way she looks around the front garden in front of the house: again the boards are taken out … Read more