The hero of the novel, an enterprising and intelligent American from the state of Connecticut – the Yankees. During a fight at his factory, they hit him on the head with a crowbar. As a result, it is transferred from America of the XIX century to Britain of the VI century, which is ruled by … Read more
Once, on April 28, 2941, TE, a wizard named Gandalf and thirteen gnomes, headed by Thorin, knocked at the house to the hobbit Bilbo Baggins. They persuaded the hobbit to go camping for the treasures of the dwarves, captured by the dragon Smog and piled in the caves of Lonely Mountain. Bilbo is hired as … Read more
The road from Colombo goes along the ocean. On the surface of the water, primitive pies swing, on silk sands, in paradise nakedness, black-haired adolescents are lying around. It would seem, what for to this forest people of Ceylon city, cents, rupees? Do not they all give them a forest, an ocean, a sun? However, … Read more
The novel takes place in the fifties. A difficult conversation takes place between Charles Lumley and the landlady. She suspected that something was wrong, it was painful to spend time idly, apparently, does not work anywhere. Overtaken by surprise, the young man on the run composes a criminal story, posing as a private detective, which … Read more
Alexander Vasilyevich Druzhinin (8 (20) October 1824, St. Petersburg – 19 (31) January 1864, ibid.) – Russian writer, literary critic, translator of Byron and Shakespeare; the initiator of the creation of the Society for the benefit of needy writers and scientists. Noble origin. He received a home education, studied at the Corps of Pages (1841-1843). … Read more
A. Ya. Yashin Levers In the evening, four people were sitting on the collective farm’s board: the bearded cattle breeder Tsipyshev, the storekeeper Shchukin, the brigade leader of the field-brigade Ivan Konoplev and the collective farm chairman Pyotr Kuzmich Kudryavtsev. They were waiting for the start of the party meeting, but the teacher Akulina Semenovna, … Read more
Ch. T. Aitmatov Plakh The active persons of the book are the collectors of the anasha, a young man banished from the theological seminary for heresy, former zeks, “kulaks.” In the novel “Scaffolding” we can distinguish three main story lines related to the general problems. The first line is the fate of a pair of … Read more
In this story, the author gives two portraits of landowners – people who are unattractive, but that’s why they are notable as characteristic types of provincial nobility. One of them is Major-General Vyacheslav Illarionovich Khvalynsky. This is a fat and tall man, whose characteristic feature is the manner of speaking, swallowing sounds, and even words. … Read more
The story is based on the philosophy of Serenus Tseitblom. Born in 1883, he graduated from the gymnasium of the town of Kaisersaherna, then the university, becomes a teacher of classical languages and acquires a family. Adrian Leverkun is two years younger. Early childhood he spends in the parental estate, near Kaisersaherna. The entire way … Read more
DA Furmanov Chapayev In the frosty January midnight of the nineteenth year from the station of Ivanovo-Voznesensk the working detachment assembled by Frunze sent to the Kolchak Front. From all factories and factories, workers come to accompany their comrades. In front of a crowd of people, speakers speak with brief speeches. On behalf of the … Read more
Apartment Sudakov in Moscow. Its owner – Stepan Alekseevich – serves somewhere in the sphere of work with foreigners. His son Proov finishes school. Father wants him to go to MGIMO. Daughter Iskra works in the newspaper in the department of letters. She’s twenty-eight years old. She is married. Iskra’s husband George (Egor) Samsonovich Yesyunin … Read more
AN Tolstoy The Road to Calvary The first book. The Sisters Beginning in 1914, St. Petersburg, “tormented by sleepless nights, deafening his longing for wine, gold, bezlyuboy love, tearing and powerless sensual sounds of tango – the death hymn lived as if waiting for a fateful and terrible day.” A young, clean girl, Daria Dmitrievna … Read more
V. Alfieri Brutus Second In Rome, in the temple of Accord, Caesar delivers a speech. He fought a lot and finally returned to Rome. Rome is mighty, it inspires fear of all nations. For the greater glory of Rome, it remains only to subdue the Parthians and take revenge on them for the victory over … Read more
“The Tale of Sonechka” tells about the most romantic period in the biography of Marina Tsvetaeva – about her Moscow life in 1919-20. in Borisoglebsky Lane. This time of uncertainty, poverty, persecution. At the same time, this is the time of the great crisis, in which there is something romantic and great, and behind the … Read more
Every act here has its own subtitle: “Games and fun”, “Walpurgis Night”, “Exorcism of the Devil.” Forty-six-year-old George, Ph. D., a teacher at a college in New England, and his wife, Martha, return home late at night after receiving the father of Martha, the rector of the same college. Already on the threshold they begin … Read more
To Sherlock Holmes, Lord Saint-Simon calls for help. A year ago, traveling around the USA, the lord met a charming girl, Miss Hetty Doran, the daughter of the richest gold owner on the entire Pacific coast and a violent character. The girl came to London and they got engaged. Before the wedding, Hetty was in … Read more
V. Mayakovsky Man On Mayakovsky’s head, the palm of the sun is the priest of the world, the surrenderer of all sins. The earth says to him: “Now let go of you!” Let the stupid historians, who were taught by contemporaries, write that the poet lived a boring and uninteresting life. Let him know that … Read more
G. H. Andersen Ognivo Returning home, the soldier met a sorceress. So sent him to a hollow where in 3 rooms of 3 chests guarded by terrible dogs, he could collect copper coins, silver and gold, having first planted dogs on the old woman’s checkered apron. For this she asked me to bring her a … Read more
The action takes place in a large fictional city on the Volga – Bryakhimov. An open area near the coffee shop on the Volga boulevard. Knurov and Vozhevatov, having ordered champagne in a tea appliance, begin to discuss the news: a well-known beauty in a society, Larissa Ogudalova, a well-known beauty, marries a poor official … Read more
“The Tale of the Barrel” is one of the first pamphlets written by Jonathan Swift, however, unlike the “Battle of Books” that was created around the same time, where it was mainly about subjects of literary character, “Tale of the Barrel”, with its relatively small volume, contains, as it seems, practically all conceivable aspects and … Read more
The author sails along the Yenisei, a strong, wide river. Sails to the homeland of his childhood. Standing on the deck of the ship, licking drops of spray from the lips, he, like many – many before him, asks a rhetorical question – why? Why so little time devoted to what is really expensive, why … Read more
V. M. Hugo Ernani Spain, 1519. Palace of the Duke of Rui Gomez de Silva in Zaragoza. Late evening. The old man is not at home. Dona Sol, his niece and bride, is waiting for her lover Ernani – today their destiny must be decided. Duenna, hearing a knock on the door, opens and sees … Read more
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 killed. Victor Hugo was … Read more
On May 12, 1827, a meeting of the Pickwick Club was held, devoted to the message of Samuel Pickwick, Esq., And entitled: “Reflections on the origins of the Hamsted ponds with the addition of some observations on the theory of sticklebacks.” It established a new department called the Correspondent Society of the Pickwick Club, composed … Read more
The only daughter of a wealthy noblewoman lost her mother early and her father again married a lady with two girls. Since then, the fate of the young Cinderella has changed. Now she was serving her stepmother and in every way pleasing her daughters. I cooked, sewed, washed and cleaned the whole house and did … Read more
VG Korolenko The river plays Tyulin – the hero of the story, the carrier on the river Vetluga. He has a youthful face, “almost without a beard and mustache, with expressive features,” a bassy chest voice, “slightly hoarse, as if from a strong hangover,” but there are “notes as direct and naive as this church, … Read more
N. V. Gogol Portrait The tragic story of the artist Chartkov began before a shop in the Shchukinsky yard, where, among the many paintings depicting peasants or landscapes, he discerned one and, having given the last twenty-ruble for her, brought home. This is a portrait of an old man in Asian clothes, it seemed unfinished, … Read more
The action takes place in 1890-1918. The work is written in the form of the author’s memories of his peer, a young English officer who died in France at the very end of the First World War. His name appeared in one of the last lists of those who died on the battlefield, when hostilities … Read more
Autumn. In the spacious hut of the well-to-do, morbid peasant Peter – the wife of Anisya, Akulina, his daughter from the first marriage, they sing songs. The owner himself again calls and scolds, threatening to calculate Nikita, a dapper boy of about twenty-five, an employee of a lazy and walking man. For him, Anisya angrily … Read more
In the ancient castle on the shore of the lake live a baron and a baroness. Fortunately, there seems to be no limit, especially since they found it already in adulthood. Edward loved Charlotte from his youth, but he had to marry a wealthy woman, who was much older than him, under the compulsion of … Read more
Leni Pfeiffer, nee Grüten, German. She is forty-eight years old, she is still beautiful – and in her youth was a true beauty: a blonde, with a beautiful stately figure. She does not work, she lives almost in poverty, she may be evicted from the apartment, or rather, from the house that once belonged to … Read more
Once in a library in the evening they began to talk, the characters of Russian literature about Ivan the Fool argued. “I’m ashamed,” said Poor Liza, “that he is with us.” “It’s embarrassing to stand next to him,” Oblomov said. – It stinks of his clothes. “Let him know that he’s clever,” suggested Poor Lisa. … Read more
KF Hebbel Agnes Bernauer The action takes place between 1420 and 1430. The population of the free city of Augsburg looks forward to the knightly tournament, in which the Duke Albrecht of Bavaria himself, son of the ruler of Munich Ernst of Bavaria, participates. Everyone wants to get to this spectacle, they take places in … Read more
A young girl with a sonorous name Apollinary Vikhrova comes after school in Moscow to study. Her mother stayed there, on the Yenge, in the Pashutinsky forestry, but her father was a professor in the capital, a specialist in the forest. Only to see him, Paul does not want: every now and then he whips … Read more
DON CARLOS Opera in five acts (eight scenes) 1 Libretto by J. Meri and C. du Locle in the processing of A. Gislanzoni Characters: Philip II, King of Spain Don Carlos, Spanish Infant Rodrigo, the Marquis de Poza The Grand Inquisitor, The blind ninety-year old man Monk (Emperor Charles V) Elizaveta Valois Princess Eboli Tebaldo, … Read more
Saint-Marie Henri d’Affia, marquis – the organizer of the conspiracy against Cardinal Richelieu; historical dates of his life: 1620 – 1642. At the beginning of the novel the young nobleman S.-M. goes from his native province to the court to enter the service of Richelieu, but on the way he witnesses the outrageous arbitrariness and … Read more
The novel is preceded by a letter to the anonymous benefactor “chamberlain and various orders to the knight” in order to draw the reader’s attention to the fact that praise or indignation turns to dust, as well as a person who praises or denigrates this book. The author turns to the reader in verse, urging … Read more
Maxim Gorky The song about the falcon The sea - a huge, lazy sigh by the shore – fell asleep and motionless in the distance, bathed in blue radiance. It merged with the sky, reflecting its clouds. Ugly curved mountains border the sea, hide the moon. Nadir-Ragim-ogly, an old Crimean shepherd, sighs heavily, lying on … Read more
A. Serafimovich The Iron Stream The novel takes place after the revolution of 1917, during the Civil War. A huge flow of people – either a camp of immigrants, or an army – entered the Cossack village. Cossacks are not alone, only women and children. On the mound near the windmill rally. The people shout, … Read more
When a new face appears in the village – this is considered an event. One summer a new home teacher came to the rich estate of the Islaevs. From the very first day of Alexey Nikolaevich, his pupil Kolya Islaev, who was ten years old, fell in love. The teacher made a bow to him, … Read more
The action takes place in the German city of Harz in the Middle Ages. Blond Eckbert, a knight of forty, lives with his wife Bertha. They love each other, but they have no children. They live in seclusion, their guests are rare, except for a friend of the family Philip Walter. One day after dinner, … Read more
About Burenka, the priest’s cow One day a villan went by – a peasant, speaking in Russian, – with his wife on Sunday for mass. Pop preaching reads, they say, the Lord will reward a hundredfold for every gift from a pure heart. A peasant with a woman is coming home, and he says that, … Read more
In the evening, Stets played cards. Among those present was Thomas Garvey, a young man who was stranded in Lisse because of a serious illness. During the game, Harvey heard a woman’s voice, clearly pronounced: “Running on the waves.” And the rest of the players did not hear anything. The day before, Harvey watched from … Read more
Voltaire Micromegas Heroes of the story “Micromegas” – the natives of the planets of Sirius and Saturn, Micromegas, a young man, the inhabitant of the star Sirius, by 450 years – on the threshold of adolescence – engaged in anatomical research and wrote a book. The mufti of his country, a loafer and an ignoramus, … Read more
The works of MM Prishvin are taught to observe and love nature. The writer notices the slightest changes occurring around him, knows how to tell about them so that we can clearly imagine everything to ourselves. From this story you can see that even in the simplest, unsightly, at first glance, nothing noticeable flower is … Read more
Our carols are neither small nor large; She does not climb into the door And sends us to the window: Do not break, do not ruin. – Give the whole cake. Great Russian chastushka The acquaintance with oral folk art begins [usually with calendar-ritual lyrics, from those poetic forms [which were associated with the most … Read more
The story takes place at the steel plant in the late XIX – early XX centuries. A rainy August morning. The factory whistle is caught by the engineer Andrei Ilyich Bobrov, a short, thin man with a pale appearance and a pleasant smile, at the tea. Recently, Andrei Ilyich suffers from insomnia due to a … Read more
On the dusty road among the maize fields of Oklahoma is a man of about thirty. This is Tom Jowd. After serving time in prison for an accidental murder, he returns home to the farm. He leaves the prison ahead of schedule and therefore has no right to leave the state. On the farm, he … Read more
For some time now, a rumor began spreading around the town that the Sea Devil had started in the sea. He caused a lot of troubles – he cut the nets, threw fish out of the boats. But he saved someone from the shark, there were such rumors. The “Sea Devil” wrote newspapers, a scientific … Read more
Bhavabhuti Malati and Malkhava Piece in verse and prose Bhurivasu, the minister of Padmavati, the king of the city, and Devarata, the minister of the country of Vidarbha, as soon as Bhurivas was given birth to Malati’s daughter, and Devarata’s son Madhava, conspired to betrothed them. But King Padmavati firmly decided to marry Malati for … Read more