MOLIERE The philistine in the nobility It would seem, what else does the respectable bourgeois, Mr. Jourdain, need? Money, family, health – everything you can wish for, he has. So in fact, no, thought the Jourdain to become an aristocrat, become like the noble masters. His mania caused a lot of inconvenience and excitement to … Read more
Herbert Wells Invisible Man In the tavern “The coachman and horses”, owned by Mrs. Hall and her henpecked husband, in early February, there appears a mysterious stranger wrapped from head to foot. To get a guest on a winter day is not easy, but a visitor generously pays. His behavior seems more strange, more and … Read more
Early 80’s. In Leningrad there live three inseparable friends: Sashka Kunitsyn, Roman Krylov and Ashot Nikogosyan. All three – up to thirty. All three are “litsedey.” Sashka – “balerun” in the Kirov theater, Roman – actor on “Lenfilm”, Ashot – sings, plays, deftly imitates Marcel Marceau. They are different, and at the same time very … Read more
Aldous Huxley Counterpoint A few months from the life of the so-called intellectual elite of London. Receptions, meetings, visits, travel… Friendly conversations, fundamental disputes, secular gossip, family and love troubles… In music, a kind of polyphony is called a counterpoint, in which all the voices are equal. And this principle is observed in the novel … Read more
A. J. Cronin Citadel The action takes place in the 1920-1930-ies. In Great Britain. In a small mining town Blanelli comes a young doctor Andrew Manson – a new assistant doctor, Dr. Page. When he arrives, he learns that his cartridge is paralyzed and will have to carry a double load. The wife of Page … Read more
Night. Nurse Varka, a girl of about thirteen, shakes the cradle and sings a lullaby a little audibly. The child cries and does not fall asleep, Varka wants to sleep, but if she falls asleep, the owners will kill her. She dreams, as people walk along the road, and then fall and fall asleep. Then … Read more
I. The Talisman At the end of October, a young man entered the Palais Royal building – Rafael de Valantin, in whose eyes the players noticed some terrible secret, his features expressed the impassiveness of a suicide and a thousand deceived hopes. Los Valentine lost the last Napoleon, and in a daze began to wander … Read more
Prosper Merimee The Etruscan vase of Auguste Saint-Claire was not liked in the so-called “big world”; the main reason was that he tried to please only those who were to his heart. He walked one by himself and carefully avoided the others. In addition, he was careless and absent-minded. He was proud and proud. He … Read more
This story – the “true” chronicle of the city of Glupov, “Glupovsky Chronicler”, embracing a period of time from 1731 to 1825, which “consistently composed” four Glubovsky archivist. In the chapter “From the publisher” the author especially insists on the authenticity of the “Chronicler” and offers the reader “to catch the physiognomy of the city … Read more
After spending some time on the bench with thoughts of a mysterious stranger, he suddenly felt someone come and stand behind him. Klara Milich was embarrassed, apologizing for her courage, but she wanted so much to tell him. Aratoff suddenly felt vexed: on himself, at her, on an absurd appointment and on this explanation among … Read more
V. V. Nabokov Invitation to execution “In accordance with the law, Cincinnatus C. declared a death sentence in a whisper.” Unforgivable Cincinnatus wine – in its “impenetrability”, “opacity” for the rest, to the horror of the similar (the jailor Rodion now and then turns into the director of the prison, Rodrig Ivanovich, and vice versa, … Read more
Two young people – a medical student Busygin and a sales agent Semyon, nicknamed Silva – priodararili for unfamiliar girls. Passing those to the house, but not meeting the further hospitality, which they counted on, they find that they were late for the train. The time later, on the street is cold, and they are … Read more
KG Paustovsky Telegram October was unusually cold, rainy. The cinder roofs turned black. The tangled grass in the garden lay down, and everything blossomed and there was no way to knead it and showered only one small sunflower near the fence. Over the meadows dragged from behind the river, clinging to the flying windy clouds … Read more
A young American, Winterbourne, who has lived in Europe for many years and has become unaccustomed to American customs, comes to a small Swiss town of Vevey to see his aunt. In the hotel, he accidentally gets acquainted with the rich American family of Millers – a nine-year-old boy, his older sister and their mother. … Read more
There was a nuclear explosion. A group of teenagers who were taken to evacuation was on a desert island. Ralph and the boy, nicknamed Piggy, find a large shell. They call all the guys. The boys are from three to fourteen years old. Choose the “main”. They become Ralph, and Jack is entrusted to lead … Read more
Romantic story of Maxim Gorky “Old Woman Izergil” was written in 1894. The composition of the work is “a story in a story”. The narration is conducted on behalf of the author and the heroine of the story of the old woman Izergil. Three parts are subordinated to a common idea: meditation on the true … Read more
Peter Handke Short letter to a long farewell The work of Handke is written in the first person. We still do not recognize the name of the narrator. There are not many external events in the story. It represents a free chronicle of several days, which are marked for the hero by a severe spiritual … Read more
Tribute, the throne heir of the Yan kingdom, lived hostage in the Qin country. The prince there mocked him, did not let him go home. The insulted Tribute planned to take revenge on the offender. Escaping finally from captivity, he began to call the bravest warriors for a campaign against the ruler Qin. But the … Read more
On the one hundred and eighty-fourth kilometer from Moscow along the Ryazan railway, “from the good half a year after that train slowed down, almost as if to a touch.” The passengers clung to the windows, wanting to see the reason only the machinists knew about. * In the summer of 1956, the author-narrator Ignatich … Read more
The western coast of Norway. Cloudy weather, morning half-light. Brand, a middle-aged man in black clothes and a knapsack behind his shoulders, makes his way west over the mountains to the fjord, where his native village lies. Brand holding fellow travelers – a peasant with his son. They argue – a straight path through the … Read more
A. P. Chekhov I want to sleep Night. Nurse Varka, a girl of about 13, shakes the cradle and sings a lullaby a little audibly. The child cries and does not fall asleep, Varka wants to sleep, but if she falls asleep, the owners will kill her. She dreams, as people walk along the road, … Read more
This book was one of my favorites when I was a child. Now I remember, I can not say exactly what I liked about it, but I re-read it several times. The book tells about schoolchildren, friendship, mutual aid, creative interests of heroes. I still remember that it was in this book that I read … Read more
Walter Scott Rob Roy The novel “Rob Roy” gives a broad and complex picture of Scottish and English public relations of the early XVIII century. Action develops quickly, more lively than in other novels of Walter Scott. The protagonist, Francis Osbaldiston, was suddenly recalled from Bordeaux to his father on an important matter. Arriving in … Read more
Curculion means “Bread worm”. This is the nickname of a one-eyed freeloader, he took root, a cunning and a glutton who leads the intrigue in this comedy. His breadwinner and patron – an ardent lover boy – the girl this young man loves belongs to an evil pimp, and it needs to be redeemed as … Read more
The author argues on how good the neighborhood of Moscow is, but best of all about the Gothic towers of the Si… new monastery, hence the whole of Moscow with an abundance of houses and churches, a multitude of groves and pastures on the other side, “more dainty, in the thick greenery of ancient elms, … Read more
The book consists of two parts. Some of the stories tell of Mowgli, about his life in the jungle among wild animals. At the age of two, the little son of a lumberjack is lost in the jungle. Behind him, the lame tiger Sher-Khan is scampering and wants to make him his prey. The child … Read more
Georg Buchner Death of Danton Georges Dunton and Ero-Seschel, his companion in the National Convention, play cards with ladies, among them Julie, Danton’s wife. Danton apathetically rant about women, their charm and cunning, about the inability to know and understand each other. At the soothing words of Julie Danton melancholy notes that he loves her, … Read more
Sophocles Trachyonians Almost all Greek heroes were kings in different cities and towns, except Hercules. His future divinity, he practiced forced labor in the service of an insignificant king from South Greece. For him, he performed twelve feats, one more difficult. The last was the descent to Hades, the underworld, behind a terrible three-headed dog … Read more
Don Abbondio, the priest of a small village located in that part of Lake Como, where it wraps south between two mountain ranges and is all riddled with protrusions and bays, returns home after a pleasant walk on November 7, 1628 at sunset. He is already ready to turn to the path leading to the … Read more
VP Astafyev The Shepherd and the Shepherdess On the desert steppe along the railway line, under the sky, in which the Ural mountain range emerges with heavy cloudy delirium, there is a woman. There are tears in her eyes, it becomes more difficult to breathe. At the dwarf kilometer pillar, she stops, moving her lips, … Read more
Kh. L. Borges The history of eternity The works included in the cycle “The history of eternity” are united primarily by the author’s interest, they are distinguished by their own characteristics, a certain cyclicality, the recurrence of events in time, isolation… One of the stories included in “The History of Eternity” , – “Approach to … Read more
Henry James Letters from Aspern Researcher creativity of the great poet Jeffrey Aspern comes to Venice to get acquainted with his former beloved Juliana Bordero, who lives with her unmarried niece Tina in a big house and does not communicate with anyone. Juliana has Aspern’s letters, which the hero of the story dreams of capturing, … Read more
Eugene Ionesco Chairs There are many invisible characters in the play and three real ones – the Old Man (95 years old), the Old Woman (94 years) and the Orator (45-50 years old). At the front of the stage there are two empty chairs, three doors and a window on the right, and three doors … Read more
Georges Duroy, the son of the well-to-do peasants, the keepers of the vegetable marrow, is endowed with a happy appearance on the whim of nature. He is slender, tall, blond, he has a wonderful mustache… He really likes women, and he is in Paris. But he has three francs in his pocket, and his salary … Read more
Robinson from childhood dreamed of sea voyages. He was the youngest child in the family, and he did not need rationality. The father, a man of sedate and measured, persuaded his son to change his mind and begin to lead an ordinary modest existence. But the exhortations of the father and mother do not help, … Read more
K. McCullers Ballad of an unhappy tavern A small town in the American South. Cotton mill, workers’ houses, peach trees, a church with two stained-glass windows and a main street of yards in a hundred. If you walk along the main street in the August afternoon, then little will be pleased with the eye in … Read more
The action takes place the first postwar spring, at the end of March, on the Upper Don. The narrator goes with the comrade to the village of Bukanovskaya. On the way, he meets Andrei Sokolov, who leads a boy of five or six years by the hand. While the narrator is waiting for the boat, … Read more
Alvaro Mendiola, a Spanish journalist and film director who has been living in France for a long time in voluntary exile, after suffering a severe heart attack, after which doctors prescribed rest, together with his wife, Dolores comes to Spain. Under the shadow of his home, which once belonged to a large family, from which … Read more
Arkady Makarovich Dolgoruky, who is also a teenager, recounts in his notes about himself and recent events, in which he was one of the main participants. He is twenty years old, he just graduated from high school in Moscow, but he decided to postpone his admission to the university, so as not to be distracted … Read more
Why Goncharov’s novel is called “Cliff” is not clear from the very beginning, so it is necessary to get acquainted with at least a brief summary of this work. At the beginning of the novel “Obryv” we see how two friends Boris Pavlovich Raisky and Ivan Ivanovich Ayanov are going to visit the Petersburg house … Read more
“When I was little, I loved to have dinner with adults, and my sister Lelya loved such dinners as much as I did.” So begins the story Zoshchenko, which is conducted on behalf of the boy Minky. The desire of children to be at the table had several reasons. The first was a lot of … Read more
Tomáš is a surgeon and works in a clinic in Prague. A few weeks ago in a small Czech town he met Theresa. Theresa works as a waitress at a local restaurant. They spend together only an hour, then he returns to Prague. Ten days later she comes to him. This unfamiliar girl awakens in … Read more
The action takes place in the living room of the country villa Orpheus and Eurydice, reminiscent of the illusionist’s salon; despite the April sky and bright lighting, it becomes obvious to the audience that the room is in the power of mysterious charms, so that even the usual objects in it look suspicious. In the … Read more
On the Feast of the Ascension, at three o’clock in the afternoon, at the Black Gate in Dresden, the student Anselm overturns an enormous basket of apples for his eternal misfortune – and hears terrible curses and threats from the old woman-merchant: “You’ll fall under the glass, under the glass!” Having paid for his oversight … Read more
The mystery, whose action unfolds in the “locality near paradise,” opens the scene of the ascension of prayer to Jehovah. All the few “mankind” participate in the prayer: the Adam and Eve, their sons Cain and Abel, the daughters of Hell and Sella, and the children conceived by the daughters of Adam from his sons, … Read more
They met in December, by accident. When he got to Andrei Bely’s lecture, he roared and laughed so much that she, who happened to be in the chair next to her and at first looked at him with some bewilderment, also laughed. Now every evening he went to her apartment, which she had rented solely … Read more
The story begins with the fact that a certain prince for a long time could not find a suitable girl for himself, namely, a real princess. One day, when he was quite desperate, a storm broke out, and a drenched stranger knocked at the palace, claiming that she was a real princess. The Queen Mother … Read more
Swiss province of the beginning of XX century. A young man named Josef Marty is an assistant in the technical bureau of engineer Karl Tobler. Before entering the new place, Josef had to live a few months without work, so he very much appreciates his current position and tries to be worthy of the hopes … Read more
MM Roshchin Valentin and Valentina The action takes place nowadays in a big city. A room in the style of the fifties. Evening tea. In the chair Valentina’s grandmother, next to Valina’s mother, near the mirror – Zhenya, the elder sister. Waiting for Valya. Mother is indignant. It seems to her that Valya is too … Read more
Working village in Siberia. The first post-war year. The teacher Nadezhda Sergeevna Drozdova, Nadia, a tall, young, beautiful woman with a constant sadness in gray eyes, hears from her husband about some half-crazy Lopatkin. This eccentric, you see, invented a machine for casting cast-iron pipes and tries to introduce it into production, not realizing that … Read more