The novel, on which Mikhail Afanasyevich worked for more than ten years, is read and reread all over the world. The author was able to skillfully reveal not just several storylines: love, historical and fantasy, but also raise such eternal questions as meaning and price human life, Evil and Good, death and immortality and many others. Starting reading from the very first words, each of us, at any age, plunges headlong into the world of the Master, Margarita, Pontius Pilate, Woland and other heroes of the novel, discovering more and more of its facets.
George Orwell "1984"
Could there be anything more terrible and terrible than total lack of freedom? This is the question that permeates every line of George Orwell's most famous dystopian novel. This work, the name of which has already become a household name, is a brilliant satire that mercilessly denounces every form of totalitarianism. Every day, a person, surrounded by political propaganda, lies and violence, loses his personality and individuality, plunging into a life full of fear and restrictions.
William Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet"
The immortal work of the great playwright and poet is one of the must-reads both in school years, and in adulthood. The story of love and enmity between two ancient families, the Montagues and the Capulets, leaves an indelible mark on everyone’s soul. The main characters teach us kindness, selflessness and purity, inherent only in young romantics. The tragic story has become a classic, and the names of the heroes have become household names. “Romeo and Juliet” is a work that can revive faith in beauty, in love - a feeling that knows no misfortune, and even death.
Homer "Iliad"
The real name of the creator of the legendary poem of the 8th-7th centuries. BC, which is the source of ideas, plots, characters in all spheres of art, is hidden in the fog of myths. The story of the Trojan War and the return of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, to his homeland, told in great detail by him, for a long time raised doubts among researchers about its reliability. However, after excavations in Troy, a culture corresponding to that described in the Iliad was discovered. Thus, covered with centuries-old secrets and legends, the ancient Greek poem becomes the literary and, in many ways, historical school that every person must go through in his life.
Erich Maria Remarque "Arc de Triomphe"
This work is one of the most beautiful and saddest European novels of the 20th century. Its action takes place in Paris, where the main character, the German surgeon Ravik, who survived the horrors of the First World War and got used to fear and hatred, falls in love with an Italian actress who does not think about love and lives only by minute-by-minute victories. The emerging passion between two lost people, doomed to tragedy in advance, gives each of them a piece of warmth that they will never be able to feel again.
Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Having created a fundamentally new novel in world literature, called polyphonic, the author revealed in the work many of the most important themes for every person: crime and punishment, love and sacrifice, freedom and pride. An analysis of the psychological process of realizing and accepting guilt for a crime - this is what Dostoevsky wanted to say. This novel should be read several times - the deep psychologism of the characters contributes to a better understanding of not only the meaning of the novel, but also one’s own life.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The novel by the Colombian writer is the personification of magical realism, in the plot of which reality and fictional reality, everyday life and fairy tale elements. One Hundred Years of Solitude is one of the greatest books of the 20th century, a bizarre story of the jungle city of Macondo and the Buendia family, from creation to decline. The novel will take you to a very real parallel world, where miracles are commonplace, which you shouldn’t even pay attention to, men are strong and brave, and women are proud and incredibly beautiful.
"The Catcher in the Rye" Jerome David Salinger
The only novel by an American writer became a turning point in the history of world literature, and the name of the main character, Holden Caulfield, became a code for many generations of young rebels. The book tells the personal perception of life by the 16-year-old hero himself: his rejection of modern American reality, established social canons and the morality of modern society. This young man is the prototype of each of us at that age when we believed that we could change the world and go against all existing laws.
Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"
The novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” is one of the most significant works of Russian literature. From the encyclopedia of Russian life (as Belinsky rightly called the novel), one could learn almost everything about the era: style of clothing, behavior of people from high society, interests and moral principles. In the reflections of the characters, their emotions, hidden under the shell of upbringing and imposed values, we recognize ourselves. This novel is required reading during school years and at a more conscious age.
Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
“All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way,” begins one of the most famous and brilliant novels in the treasury of Russian literature. This is a book about eternal values: about family, love and faith, about human dignity, and the issues raised in it were and remain relevant. The story about the conscious choice that every person must make, about the irreconcilable conflict between duty and feeling - a novel for the ages, for all times and for all generations.
Every educated person I've probably read a lot of great books in my life. It’s not for nothing that there is a proverb: “To become smart, you only need to read 10 books, but to find them, you need to read thousands,” because worthwhile works can greatly influence a person’s consciousness and shape his vision of life.
Fiction is a storehouse of knowledge that has been collected over centuries and reflected in foreign and Russian classics. Many of the works are not only very interesting and educational, but also ideal for development in a variety of areas, helping to understand yourself and other people.
The best classical writers managed to create more than a hundred golden books that absolutely every person should read in their life. Below is a list of one hundred books included in the top best works of all time.
As evidenced by the world ranking, the list reflects not only interesting books, which are worth reading, but also those that carry considerable life lessons and will certainly help a person solve many problems or find a path to accepting himself and the world.
So, the list of the 100 best literary works that must be read contains the following works:
1. Mikhail Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”
2. Alexander Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”
3. Fyodor Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”
4. Leo Tolstoy “War and Peace”
5. Antoine de Saint-Exupery “The Little Prince”
6. Mikhail Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”
7. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov “Twelve Chairs”
8. George Orwell "1984"
9. Gabriel Garcia Marquez “One Hundred Years of Solitude”
10. JK Rowling "Harry Potter"
11. Nikolai Gogol “Dead Souls”
12. Leo Tolstoy “Anna Karenina”
13. Fyodor Dostoevsky “Idiot”
14. Oscar Wilde “The Picture of Dorian Gray”
15. Alexander Griboedov “Woe from Wit”
16. Ivan Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”
17. J. R. R. Tolkien “The Lord of the Rings”
18. Jerome Salinger "The Catcher in the Rye"
19. Erich Maria Remarque “Three Comrades”
20. Boris Pasternak “Doctor Zhivago”
21. Mikhail Bulgakov “Heart of a Dog”
22. Lewis Carroll "Alice in Wonderland"
23. Fyodor Dostoevsky “The Brothers Karamazov”
24. Arthur Conan Doyle “Sherlock Holmes” (60 works)
25. Alexandre Dumas “The Three Musketeers”
26. Alexander Pushkin " Captain's daughter»
27. Evgeny Zamyatin “We”
28. Nikolai Gogol “The Inspector General”
29. William Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet"
30. Ernest Hemingway “The Old Man and the Sea”
31. Ivan Bunin “Dark Alleys”
32. Johann Wolfgang Goethe “Faust”
33. Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451"
34. Bible
35. Franz Kafka “The Trial”
36. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov “Golden Calf”
37. Aldous Huxley “O Wonderful One” new world»
38. Mikhail Sholokhov “Quiet Don”
39. Victor Pelevin “Generation “P””
40. William Shakespeare "Hamlet"
41. Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice"
42. Veniamin Kaverin “Two Captains”
43. Ken Kesey "Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
44. Nikolay Nosov “Trilogy about Dunno”
45. Ivan Goncharov “Oblomov”
46. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky “Monday begins on Saturday”
47. Mark Twain “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”
48. Alexander Solzhenitsyn “The Gulag Archipelago”
49. Francis Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby"
50. Ray Bradbury "Dandelion Wine"
51. Alexander Volkov “The Wizard of the Emerald City”
52. Tove Jansson “All about the Moomins”
53. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”
54. Vladimir Nabokov “Lolita”
55. Erich Maria Remarque “All Quiet on the Western Front”
56. Ernest Hemingway “For Whom the Bell Tolls”
57. Erich Maria Remarque " Triumphal Arch»
58. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky “It’s hard to be a god”
59. Richard Bach “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”
60. Alexandre Dumas “The Count of Monte Cristo”
61. Jack London "Martin Eden"
62. Venedikt Erofeev “Moscow – Cockerels”
63. Alexander Pushkin “Belkin’s Tales”
64. Jean-Paul Sartre “Nausea”
65. Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon"
66. Mikhail Bulgakov “The White Guard”
67. Fyodor Dostoevsky “Demons”
68. Dante Alighieri “The Divine Comedy”
69. Chuck Palahniuk “Fight Club”
70. Anton Chekhov “The Cherry Orchard”
71. Franz Kafka “Castle”
72. Umberto Eco “The Name of the Rose”
73. William Golding "Lord of the Flies"
74. Albert Camus “The Stranger”
75. Victor Hugo “Notre Dame Cathedral”
76. Albert Camus “The Plague”
77. Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade"
78. Boris Vasiliev “And the dawns here are quiet”
79. Nikolai Gogol “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”
80. Anatoly Pristavkin “The golden cloud spent the night”
81. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky “Roadside Picnic”
82. Leonid Filatov “About Fedot the Sagittarius, a daring fellow”
83. George Orwell "Animal Farm"
84. Margaret Mitchell "Gone with the Wind"
85. Alexander Green “Scarlet Sails”
86. O. Henry “The Gift of the Magi”
87. Miguel de Cervantes “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha”
88. Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey"
89. Daniel Defoe "Robinson Crusoe"
90. Jerome K. Jerome "Three in a Boat and a Dog"
91. Anton Chekhov “Ward No. 6”
92. Alan Milne “Winnie the Pooh and all-all-all”
93. Alexander Blok “Twelve”
94. Varlam Shalamov “Kolyma Tales”
95. Andrey Platonov “Pit”
96. Joseph Brodsky “Letters to a Roman Friend”
97. Sergei Yesenin “Black Man”
98. Osip Mandelstam “The Noise of Time”
99. Jonathan Swift "Gulliver's Travels"
100. Daniil Kharms “Cases”
This is not just a list of “recommended literature” like the one that the Ministry of Education and Science hastened to present, and not just a list of good and favorite books. This is precisely a study based on an in-depth survey, literary investigation and analysis of the mention of texts in different eras. As a result, we were able to describe the origin of the key features of the “Russian soul” and even think about the future of our culture.
How was this list compiled? People who took part in the survey asked to name 20 books that are not necessarily their favorite, but which they must read in order to be able to speak “the same language” with them. More than a hundred questionnaires were received. The age of the survey participants ranged from 18 to 72 years, geography - from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok. Among the respondents are journalists, doctors, librarians, builders, engineers, businessmen, programmers, waiters, managers, teachers, etc. Almost everyone either has higher education, or study at a university. That is, the survey involved representatives of the intellectual elite, bearers of the very cultural code of Russia, if it exists.
To our surprise, it turned out that there is one. We truly speak the same language. In general, Russian society turned out to be more homogeneous than we thought.
If you need more more letters, then continuation. For those who are more impatient, we immediately offer a list of books.
100 books you need to read to understand yourself and others
1. “The Master and Margarita” Mikhail Bulgakov
Textbook of Soviet and Christian history
2. “Eugene Onegin” Alexander Pushkin
A textbook of real feelings and an encyclopedia of Russian life
3. “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoevsky
Textbook of philosophy and morality
4. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
A textbook of real human behavior
5. “The Little Prince” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Textbook of philosophy
6. “Hero of Our Time” Mikhail Lermontov
Psychology textbook
7. “Twelve Chairs” Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov
Textbook of satire
8. "1984" George Orwell
Social studies textbook
9. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Textbook of knowledge of eternity
10. Harry Potter by JK Rowling
A primer on growing up
11. “Dead Souls” Nikolai Gogol
Textbook of Russian character
12. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
Textbook family life
13. “The Idiot” Fyodor Dostoevsky
Textbook of Humanity
14. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” Oscar Wilde
A textbook of decadence
15. “Woe from Wit” Alexander Griboyedov
Textbook of Russian mentality
16. “Fathers and Sons” Ivan Turgenev
Textbook of generational conflicts
17. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
A textbook of good and evil
18. “The Catcher in the Rye” by Jerome Salinger
A Primer on Teen Crisis
19. “Three Comrades” Erich Maria Remarque
A Primer on True Friendship
22. "Alice in Wonderland" Lewis Carroll
Textbook of Logic and Dreams
23. “The Brothers Karamazov” Fyodor Dostoevsky
Textbook of philosophy and religion
24. “Sherlock Holmes” (60 works in total) Arthur Conan Doyle
Deductive Reasoning Textbook
25. “The Three Musketeers” by Alexandre Dumas
A manual on real man behavior
26. “The Captain's Daughter” Alexander Pushkin
Manual of Honor
27. “We” Evgeny Zamyatin
Textbook of political science
28. “The Inspector General” Nikolai Gogol
Textbook of Russian government
29. "Romeo and Juliet" William Shakespeare
A textbook of tragic love
30. “The Old Man and the Sea” Ernest Hemingway
Manual of Mental Strength
32. “Faust” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Textbook of ethics and will
33. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
A Primer on Anti-Degradation
34. Bible
Textbook textbooks
35. “The Trial” by Franz Kafka
A guide to surviving the world of bureaucracy
36. “Golden Calf” Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov
A textbook on a humorous attitude towards life
37. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
A textbook on renouncing illusions
38. “Quiet Don” Mikhail Sholokhov
Textbook of man's place in history
39. “Generation “P”” Victor Pelevin
Textbook of modern Russian history
40. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Textbook of contradictions
42. “Two Captains” Veniamin Kaverin
Personal growth textbook
43. “Over the Cuckoo's Nest” by Ken Kesey
Freedom textbook
44. Trilogy about Dunno Nikolay Nosov
Economics textbook
45. “Oblomov” Ivan Goncharov
Textbook of Russian mentality
46. “Monday begins on Saturday” Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Textbook of Idealism
47. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” Mark Twain
Childhood textbook
48. “The Gulag Archipelago” Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Survival Guide to the Wheel of History
49. The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald
A textbook of disappointments
50. “Dandelion Wine” by Ray Bradbury
A textbook of joy and fantasy
52. “All About the Moomins” by Tove Jansson
Textbook of knowledge of the world
53. “The History of a City” Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin
Textbook of life in Russia
54. “Lolita” Vladimir Nabokov
A Textbook of Human Weaknesses
55. “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque
Manual of behavior in war
56. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” Ernest Hemingway
Textbook of Courage
57. “Arc de Triomphe” Erich Maria Remarque
A Guide to Finding Purpose in Life
58. “It’s hard to be a god” Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
Worldview Textbook
59. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
A guide to making your dreams come true
60. “The Count of Monte Cristo” Alexandre Dumas
A Primer on Real Emotions
62. “Moscow - Cockerels” Venedikt Erofeev
Textbook of the Russian soul
63. “Belkin’s Tales” Alexander Pushkin
Russian language textbook
64. “Nausea” Jean-Paul Sartre
Textbook of philosophical attitude to life
65. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Textbook of Humanism
66. “The White Guard” Mikhail Bulgakov
Textbook of Human Dignity
67. “Demons” Fyodor Dostoevsky
Revolution textbook
68. “The Divine Comedy” by Dante Alighieri
Textbook of Sin and Faith
69. “Fight Club” Chuck Palahniuk
A textbook on life in the modern world
70. “The Cherry Orchard” Anton Chekhov
A primer on letting go of old ideals
72. “The Name of the Rose” by Umberto Eco
Textbook of erudition
73. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Team Survival Guide
74. “The Stranger” Albert Camus
Textbook of Humanity
75. “Notre Dame Cathedral” Victor Hugo
A textbook of beauty
76. “The Plague” by Albert Camus
A textbook on humanity in extreme situations
Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita
A volume of Mikhail Bulgakov standing on a bookshelf testifies to the good taste of the reader. It is no coincidence that what this author wrote survived the death of Soviet literature without loss and today is read as a continuation of the golden fund of Russian classics of the 19th century. Fascinating stories (“fiction, rooted in everyday life”), vivid images, moral problems raised to a universal scale - all this makes you return to what you read again and again.
Marquez Garcia: One Hundred Years of Solitude
One of the greatest books of the twentieth century. A strange, poetic, whimsical story of the city of Macondo, lost in the jungle - from creation to decline. The story of the Buendia family - a family in which miracles are so everyday that they are not even noticed. The Buendia clan produces saints and sinners, revolutionaries, heroes and traitors, dashing adventurers - and women too beautiful for ordinary life. Extraordinary passions boil within it - and incredible events occur.
George Orwell: 1984. Barnyard
“1984” A kind of antipode to the second great dystopia of the 20th century - “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. What, in essence, is more terrible: a “consumer society” taken to the point of absurdity, or a “society of ideas” taken to the absolute? According to Orwell, there is and cannot be anything more terrible than total lack of freedom... “Animal Farm” A parable full of humor and sarcasm. Can a humble farm become a symbol of a totalitarian society? Of course yes. But... how will this society be seen by its “citizens” - animals doomed to slaughter.
Herman Melville: Moby Dick, or the White Whale
Herman Melville is a writer and sailor, in whose work and fate the experience of a traveler and the mythopoetic worldview of the artist surprisingly organically melted. Awareness of the magnitude of Melville’s talent did not come immediately, and only a quarter of a century after the writer’s death did the outlines of the enormous contribution that he made to the treasury of world literature become visible. Melville's work - the grandiose "Moby Dick" - became one of the pinnacles of American literature.
Francis Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby
“
The Great Gatsby” is the most famous novel by Francis Fitzgerald, which has become a symbol of the “Jazz Age”. America, 1925, the time of Prohibition and gang wars, bright lights and vibrant life. But for Jay Gatsby the embodimentAmerican dreamturned into a real tragedy. And the path to the top, despite fame and wealth, led to total collapse. After all, each of us primarily strives not for material wealth, but for love, true and eternal...
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Crime and Punishment
“
Crime and Punishment” is a novel about one crime. A double murder committed by a poor student for money. It is difficult to find a simpler plot, but the intellectual and spiritual shock that the novel produces is indelible. And the question that the main character set himself to decide: “Am I a trembling creature or do I have the right?” - horrifies.Abyssthe writer explores falls in order to rise to the heights of the spirit.
Ray Bradbury: Dandelion Wine
“
Dandelion wine“Ray Bradbury is a classic work that is included in the golden fund of world literature.Enter the bright world of a twelve-year-old boy and live with him one summer, filled with joyful and sad, mysterious and alarming events; summer, when amazing discoveries are made every day, the main thing of which is that you are alive, you breathe, you feel!
Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon
This fantastic story has amazing psychological strength and makes you think universal issues morality: do we have the right to experiment on each other, what results can this lead to, and what price are we willing to pay to become “the smartest.” What about the lonely?
Alexander Pushkin: Evgeniy Onegin
Novel "Eugene Onegin“
– “encyclopedia of Russian life” – presented in thisbookwith the famous comments by Yu.M. Lotman, allowing the reader to better understand the spirit and morals of the era and the novel, the heroes of which have been loved by readers for the third century. The book is illustrated with drawings by A.S. Pushkin, made by the poet on the handwritten pages of the novel.
Ernest Hemingway: The Old Man and the Sea. Across the river, in the shade of the trees
The story “The Old Man and the Sea” is one of Hemingway’s most famous and beloved works by readers. It brought the author a Pulitzer Prize and also played an important role in awarding him the title Nobel laureate. This is a story about “tragic stoicism” and courage, about how, in the face of a ruthless fate and loneliness, a person, even losing, must maintain dignity.
Jonathan Swift: The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver
Gulliver's Travels is Jonathan Swift's most significant work. At first glance, similar to a funny fairy tale, “Gulliver’s Travels” is an allegory, a parable, the author of which is a ruthless and brilliant master of words, ridiculing human and social vices. Masterfully using all shades of the funny, from good-natured humor and gentle irony to angry sarcasm and poisonous ridicule, Swift created one of the greatest satirical books in world literature.
Leo Tolstoy: War and Peace
“War and Peace” by Tolstoy is a book for all times. It seems that it has always existed, the text seems so familiar, as soon as we open the first pages of the novel, many of its episodes are so memorable: the hunt and Christmastide, Natasha Rostova’s first ball, a moonlit night in Otradnoye, Prince Andrei at the battle of Austerlitz... Scenes of “peace” , family life are replaced by pictures that are significant for the course of all world history, but for Tolstoy they are equivalent, connected in a single stream of time.
Margaret Mitchell: Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind is the only novel by Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) for which she, a writer, emancipist and women's rights activist, received a Pulitzer Prize. This is a book about what makes us live and fight - no matter what is happening around us. For more than 70 years we have been reading this novel, for more than 70 years we have been admiring Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable in the film adaptation - and the story does not become outdated. Most likely, it is eternal.
Vladimir Nabokov: Lolita
“
Lolita” was published in 1955. Having caused a scandal on both sides of the ocean, this book raisedauthorto the top of the literary Olympus and became one of the most famous and, without a doubt, the greatest works of the 20th century. Today, when the polemical passions around “Lolita” have long subsided, we can confidently say that this is a book about great love that has overcome illness, death and time, love open to infinity, “loveat first sight, from the last glance, from the eternal glance.”
Daniel Defoe: Life and amazing Adventures the sailor Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe's famous novel was published almost 300 years ago. But even now, after many, many decades, the exciting adventures of Robinson Crusoe still captivate readers. The life of a sailor, who by chance finds himself on a desert island, is full of amazing events. And how many difficulties befall him!
Alexandre Dumas: The Three Musketeers
Where can a poor Gascon nobleman go if all he has is courage, a noble heart and ambition? Well of course inParis! And of course, such a brave man belongs among the royal musketeers. However, the honor of being in this privileged regiment must still be earned, and the surest way... is to make powerful enemies and make friends. D'Artagnan brilliantly succeeded in doing both...
Ilf, Petrov: Twelve chairs
The famous feuilleton novel by Ilf and Petrov “The twelve Chairs
” was first published in 1928. The story of two swindlers who set out in search of Madame Petukhova’s diamonds brought the authors unprecedented success. But few know that one of the most popular works of RussianliteratureThe twentieth century, which went through hundreds of successful reprints, was distorted by Soviet censorship: not only individual phrases and episodes, but also entire chapters were not allowed to be published.
Ray Bradbury: 451° Fahrenheit
“Fahrenheit 451” is a novel that brought the writer world fame. 451° Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper ignites and burns. Ray Bradbury's philosophical dystopia paints a hopeless picture of the development of post-industrial society; this is a future world in which all written publications are mercilessly destroyed special squad firefighters, and the possession of books is punishable by law, interactive television successfully serves to fool everyone...
Charles Dickens: The Life of David Copperfield as Told by Himself
The novel by the great English writer has won the love and recognition of readers all over the world. Largely autobiographical, this novel tells the story of a boy forced to fight alone against a cruel, bleak world inhabited by evil teachers, selfish factory owners and soulless servants of the law. In this war, David can only be saved by moral strength, purity of heart and talent that can turn a ragamuffin into the greatest writer in England.
Jules Verne: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
One of the most fascinating novels by J. Verne. Scientist biologist Pierre Aronnax and harpooner Ned Land go in search of strange fish spotted by sailors in different parts of the world. The mysterious creature turns out to be a submarine designed by the mysterious Captain Nemo.
Arthur Doyle: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
The English writer and journalist Arthur Conan Doyle wrote historical, adventure, fantasy novels and works on spiritualism to Peru, but in world literature he entered as the creator of the Greatest Detective of all time - Sherlock Holmes. A noble and fearless fighter against Evil, possessing a sharp mind and extraordinary powers of observation, the detective uses his deductive method to solve the most intricate puzzles, often saving human lives.
The tale of the modern classic Leonid Filatov - best book for family reading, half of the text of which has already been parsed into aphorisms and anecdotes. Here is the first fully illustrated edition. Characteristic characters, witty mise-en-scène - one of the most striking books of the twentieth century is finally being published in a wonderful design.
Antoine Saint-Exupéry: The Little Prince
A touching, kind and philosophical work by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry with original drawings. A book addressed to children will accompany you throughout your life, each time revealing itself in a new way.
Strugatsky, Strugatsky: It's hard to be a god
Perhaps the most famous of the works of the Strugatsky brothers. One of the most famous stories of Russian science fiction. A fascinating, dramatic story of the life, love and adventures of “Don Rumata” from the kingdom of Arkanar on a distant planet - a knight with two swords, under whose name Anton, a resident from the planet Earth of the 22nd century, is hiding.
Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland
The article was updated and supplemented in July 2018. We present a selection of 65 books that have become classics of world literature, and 10 online libraries where you can find a lot of fiction, scientific, historical and journalistic literature in the public domain.
1. “One Hundred Years of Solitude” – Gabriel García Márquez (“Cien años de soledad” – Gabriel José de la Concordia “Gabo” García Márquez)
“One Hundred Years of Solitude” is one of the most characteristic and popular works in the direction of magical realism.
2. “Moby-Dick, or The White Whale” – Herman Melville (“Moby-Dick, or The Whale” – Herman Melville)
The story is told on behalf of the American sailor Ishmael, who went on a voyage on the whaling ship Pequod, whose captain, Ahab, is obsessed with the idea of \u200b\u200brevenge on the giant white whale, the killer of whalers, known as Moby Dick.
3. “The Great Gatsby” – Francis Scott Fitzgerald (“The Great Gatsby” – F. Scott Fitzgerald)
The novel takes place near New York, on the “gold coast” of Long Island, among the villas of the rich. In the 1920s, following the chaos of World War I, American society entered an unprecedented period of prosperity: in the “Roaring 20s,” the US economy developed rapidly.
At the same time, Prohibition made many bootleggers millionaires and gave a significant impetus to the development of organized crime. While Fitzgerald admires the rich and their charm, he also decries the unrestricted materialism and lack of morality in America at the time.
4. “The Grapes of Wrath” – John Steinbeck
The novel takes place during the Great Depression. A poor family of tenant farmers, the Joads, are forced to leave their Oklahoma home due to drought, economic hardship and changing farming practices. Agriculture. In an almost hopeless situation, they head to California along with thousands of other Okie families, hoping to find a means of livelihood there.
5. “Ulysses” – James Joyce (“Ulysses” – James Joyce)
The novel tells the story of one day (June 16, 1904, currently celebrated as Bloomsday, “Bloom's Day”) of a Dublin man and a Jew by nationality, Leopold Bloom.
6. “Lolita” – Vladimir Nabokov (“Lolita” – Vladimir Nabokov)
Lolita is the most famous of all Nabokov's novels. The theme of the novel was unthinkable for its time - the story of an adult man who became passionately interested in a twelve-year-old girl.
7. “The Sound and the Fury” – William Faulkner
The main storyline tells of the decline of one of the oldest and most influential families of the American South - the Compsons. Over the course of the approximately 30 years described in the novel, the family faces financial ruin, loses respect in the city, and many family members end their lives tragically.
8. “To the Lighthouse” – Virginia Woolf (“To The Lighthouse” – Virginia Woolf)
The novel centers on two visits by the Ramsay family to their rented apartment. Vacation home on the Isle of Skye in Scotland in 1910 and 1920. To the Lighthouse follows and expands on the modernist literary tradition of Marcel Proust and James Joyce, where plot fades into the background in favor of philosophical introspection.
9. “Anna Karenina” – Leo Tolstoy
“Anna Karenina” is a novel by Leo Tolstoy about the tragic love of the married lady Anna Karenina and the brilliant officer Vronsky against the backdrop of the happy family life of the nobles Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya.
10. “War and Peace” – Leo Tolstoy
“War and Peace” is an epic novel describing Russian society during the era of the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1812.
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11. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” – Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River.
12. “1984” – George Orwell (“1984” – George Orwell)
The novel "1984", along with such works as "We" by Yevgeny Ivanovich Zamyatin (1920), "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley (1932) and "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury (1953), is considered one of the most famous works in the dystopian genre.
13. “The Catcher in the Rye” – J.D. Salinger
The novel, on behalf of a 16-year-old boy named Holden, tells in a very frank form about his heightened perception of American reality and rejection of the general canons and morality of modern society.
14. “Invisible Man” – Ralph Ellison (“Invisible Man” – Ralph Ellison)
The Invisible Man is the only completed novel by Ralph Ellison, an African-American writer, literary critic, and literary scholar. The novel is about the search for identity and place in society.
15. “Catch-22” – Joseph Heller (“Catch-22” – Joseph Heller)
1944 On the islet of Pianosa in the Tyrrhenian Sea, a US Air Force bomber regiment (flying North American B-25 Mitchell bombers) is stationed, in which Captain Yossarian, the main character of the novel, and his colleagues serve.
The command of the air regiment over and over again increases the rate of combat sorties, thereby extending the service of pilots who have flown their quota, after which they have the right to return home. Thus, it becomes almost impossible to fly off the norm.
16. “Midnight’s Children” – Salman Rushdie (“Midnight’s Children” – Salman Rushdie)
A multi-faceted, fantastic, “magical” narrative covers the history of India (partly Pakistan) from 1910 to 1976. Political events, presented vividly and biasedly, do not exhaust the whimsical reality of the novel.
17. “On the Road” – Jack Kerouac (“On the Road” – Jack Kerouac)
Book considered the most important example literature of the Beat Generation, tells the story of the travels of Jack Kerouac and his close friend Neal Cassady across the United States of America and Mexico.
18. “In Search of Lost Time” – Marcel Proust (“À la recherche du temps perdu” – Marcel Proust)
In Search of Lost Time is the magnum opus of the French modernist writer Marcel Proust, a semi-autobiographical cycle of seven novels. Published in France between 1913 and 1927.
19. “Pale Fire” – Vladimir Nabokov (“Pale Fire” – Vladimir Nabokov)
“Pale Fire” is a novel by V. V. Nabokov, written in English in the USA and first published in 1962. The novel, conceived before moving to the United States (the passages “Ultima Thule” and “Solus Rex” were written in Russian in 1939), is structured as a 999-line poem with commentary replete with literary allusions.
20. “Madame Bovary” – Gustave Flaubert (“Madame Bovary” – Gustave Flaubert)
The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife who lives beyond her means and starts extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of the emptiness and ordinariness of provincial life.
21. “Middlemarch” – George Eliot (“Middlemarch” – George Eliot)
Middlemarch is the name of the provincial town in and around which the novel takes place. Many characters inhabit its pages, and their destinies are intertwined by the will of the author.
22. “Great Expectations” – Charles Dickens
The hero of the novel “Great Expectations,” the young man Philip Pirrip, strives to become a “true gentleman” and achieve a position in society, but disappointment awaits him. Money stained with blood cannot bring happiness, and the “world of gentlemen” on which Philip had placed so many hopes turned out to be hostile and cruel.
23. “Emma” – Jane Austen (“Emma” – Jane Austen)
The daughter of a wealthy landowner and a big dreamer, Emma tries to diversify her leisure time by organizing someone else's personal life. Confident that she will never get married, she acts as a matchmaker for her friends and acquaintances, but life gives her surprise after surprise.
24. “And Destruction Came” – Chinua Achebe (“Things Fall Apart” – Chinua Achebe)
"And Came Destruction" is the story of a tribal warrior who cannot adapt to a new society under the colonial regime. The book has been translated into 45 languages and is today the most widely read and translated book by an African writer among his contemporaries.
25. “Pride and Prejudice” – Jane Austen
Young girls dreaming of marriage, respectable mothers who do not shine with intelligence, selfish beauties who think that they are allowed to control the destinies of other people - this is the world of the heroes of Jane Austen, an English writer who was significantly ahead of her time and ranked among the classics of world literature by subsequent generations.
26. “Wuthering Heights” – Emily Brontë (“Wuthering Heights” – Emily Brontë)
“Wuthering Heights” is a story full of love and hatred of the fatal passion of Heathcliff, the adopted son of the owner of the Wuthering Heights estate, for the owner’s daughter Catherine.
27. “Nostromo” – Joseph Conrad (“Nostromo” – Joseph Conrad)
The novel tells the story of the liberation struggle of the fictional South American state of Costaguana. The author is occupied with the problem of imperialism and its corrupting effect even on the best people, which is the main character of the novel, the sailor Nostromo.
28. “The Brothers Karamazov” - F. M. Dostoevsky
"The Brothers Karamazov" - last novel F. M. Dostoevsky. Three brothers, Ivan, Alexey (Alyosha) and Dmitry (Mitya), “are busy resolving questions about the root causes and ultimate goals of existence,” and each of them makes his own choice, trying in his own way to answer the question about God and the immortality of the soul.
29. “To Kill a Mockingbird” – Harper Lee (“To Kill a Mockingbird” – Harper Lee)
The novel depicts the events of the 30s of the 20th century, the period of the Great Depression, which took place in the state of Alabama. The narration is told from the perspective of a child, but the severity of interracial conflicts social problems this does not lose its power.
30. “The Process” – Franz Kafka (“Der Prozess” – Franz Kafka)
“The Trial” is a unique book by Franz Kafka, which actually “created” his name for the culture of world postmodern theater and cinema of the second half of the 20th century, or rather, “wove” this name into the idea of postmodern absurdism.
31. “Slaughterhouse-Five” – Kurt Vonnegut (“Slaughterhouse-Five” – Kurt Vonnegut)
Slaughterhouse-Five is an autobiographical novel by Kurt Vonnegut about the bombing of Dresden during World War II.
32. “Mrs. Dalloway” – Virginia Woolf (“Mrs Dalloway” – Virginia Woolf)
The novel tells the story of one day in the life of the fictional heroine Clarissa Dalloway, a society woman in post-war England. One of the most famous novels of the writer.
33. “Jane Eyre” – Charlotte Brontë (“Jane Eyre” – Charlotte Brontë)
The book tells about the difficult fate of an orphan with a strong, independent character, about her childhood, growing up, searching for her path and overcoming the obstacles that stand in her way.
34. “The Lord of the Rings” – J. R. R. Tolkien
“The Lord of the Rings” is an epic novel by the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien, the most famous work of the fantasy genre.
35. “A Passage to India” – Edward Forster (“A Passage to India” – E.M. Forster)
At the center of “A Passage to India” is the relationship between the Indian Aziz and the Englishman Fielding. The twists and turns of the plot, exciting in themselves, help to make these relationships stand out more clearly and reveal themselves to their extreme potential.
36. “All the King's Men” – Robert Penn Warren (“All the King's Men” – Robert Penn Warren)
The main character of the novel is politician Willie Stark. A born leader who rose from the bottom of society sincerely believed that he could make the world a better place. However, the truth of life revealed to him turns him into a cruel, unprincipled politician. His motto: “Good can only be made from evil, because there is simply nothing else to make from it.”
37. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
Brave New World is a dystopian satirical novel set in London in the distant future (circa the 26th century of the Christian era, specifically in the year 2541). People all over the Earth live in a single state, whose society is a consumer society, the symbol of the consumer god is Henry Ford, and instead of the sign of the cross, people “sign themselves with the sign T.”
38. “As I Lay Dying” – William Faulkner (“As I Lay Dying” – William Faulkner)
W. Faulkner's novel “As I Lay Dying” is unique. There is no author's speech at all, the book is torn into a chain of monologues, sometimes long, sometimes short, and sometimes even fitting into one or two phrases, and they are led by fourteen characters - mainly the Bundrens, and next to them their neighbors, the same poor farmers.
39. “The Big Sleep” – Raymond Chandler
The Deep Sleep is the first in a series of novels about private detective Philip Marlowe. Classic hardboiled detective.
40. “Stories” – Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
A collection of stories by a classic of world literature.
41. “Crime and Punishment” - F. M. Dostoevsky
“Crime and Punishment” is considered one of the most philosophical books in the world, which “poses the problems of good and evil, freedom and necessity, crime and moral responsibility, revolution, socialism, philosophy of history and the state.”
42. “Molloy,” “Malone Dies,” and “Nameless” – Samuel Beckett (“Molloy,” “Malone Dies,” “The Unnamable” – Samuel Beckett)
“Molla”, “Malon Dies” and “Nameless” are three works that make up a trilogy and represent a separate milestone in creative biography Beckett.
43. “The Stranger” – Albert Camus (“L"Étranger” – Albert Camus)
The story is narrated by a 30-year-old Frenchman. His name remains unknown, but his last name is mentioned in passing - Meursault. Three key events in his life are described - the death of his mother, the murder of a local resident and trial, as well as a brief relationship with a girl.
44. “The Tin Drum” – Günter Grass (“Die Blechtrommel” – Günter Grass)
The Tin Drum is Günter Grass's first novel. It was this work, which reflected the history of Germany in the 20th century in a grotesque form, that brought its author world fame.
45. “Sons and Lovers” – David Herbert Lawrence (“Sons and Lovers” – D. H. Lawrence)
The book describes life young man named Paul Morel, born into a coal miner's family in the small town of Bestwood, Nottinghamshire. The love of children for their mother runs through the novel as a red thread. Paul is most attached to her: unlike his brothers and sister, he will never be able to leave his mother’s house until her death.
46. “The Golden Notebook” – Doris Lessing
The story of Anna Wolf, a talented writer and committed feminist, who, teetering on the brink of madness, writes down all her thoughts and experiences in four multi-colored notebooks: black, red, yellow and blue. But over time, a fifth, golden notebook also appears, the entries in which become a real revelation for the heroine and help her find a way out of the impasse.
47. “The Magic Mountain” – Thomas Mann (“Der Zauberberg” – Thomas Mann)
Immediately after its release, The Magic Mountain received recognition as the key philosophical novel of German literature of the new century. It is generally accepted that, using the example of the closed microcosm of a sanatorium, Mann gave a panorama of the ideological life of European society on the eve of World War.
48. “Beloved” – Toni Morrison (“Beloved” – Toni Morrison)
Beloved, Toni Morrison's most famous novel, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize and then a Nobel Prize. The book is based on real events that took place in Ohio in the 80s of the nineteenth century: the story of a black slave who kills her daughter, saving her from slavery.
49. “Blood Meridian” – Cormac McCarthy (“Blood Meridian” – Cormac McCarthy)
Booker winner John Banville called the novel "a sort of mixture of Dante's Inferno, The Iliad and Moby Dick." The protagonist of Blood Meridian, a fourteen-year-old teenager from Tennessee known only as “the kid,” becomes the hero of a new epic based on real events and circumstances of the Texas-Mexico borderlands of the mid-19th century, where the market for Indian scalps was booming.
50. “The Man Without Qualities” – Robert Musil (“Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften” – Robert Musil)
An ironic panorama of Austria-Hungary on the eve of the First World War, a partly autobiographical “novel of ideas” written by one of the most brilliant European intellectuals of the first half of the 20th century, is a phenomenon grandiose in concept and execution.
51. “The Sun Also Rises” – Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises is a novel by Ernest Hemingway, written in 1926. Based on real events that happened in the author's life.
52. “Gone With the Wind” – Margaret Mitchell (“Gone With the Wind” – Margaret Mitchell)
A novel by American writer Margaret Mitchell, the events of which take place in the southern states of the United States in the 1860s, during (and after) the Civil War. The novel was published on June 30, 1936 and became one of the most famous bestsellers in American literature.
53. “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” – Lewis Carroll (“Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” – Louis Carroll)
“Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” is a fairy tale written by the English mathematician, poet and writer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into an imaginary world inhabited by strange, anthropomorphic creatures.
54. “Heart of Darkness” – Joseph Conrad (“Heart of Darkness” – Joseph Conrad)
“Heart of Darkness” is an adventure story by English writer Joseph Conrad, published in 1902. The story is told from the perspective of the main character, the sailor Marlow, who recalls his journey to Central Africa.
55. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” – Ernest Hemingway
The novel tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American fighter of the International Brigades, sent behind Franco guerrilla lines during the Spanish Civil War. As a demolition expert, he is tasked with blowing up a bridge to prevent Franco reinforcements from approaching Segovia.
56. “An American Tragedy” – Theodore Dreiser (“An American Tragedy” Theodore Dreiser)
In the novel “An American Tragedy,” Dreiser depicts the tragedy of Clive Griffiths - a young man who has tasted all the charm of the life of the rich, so eager to establish himself in their society that he commits a crime for this.
57. “The Adventures of Augie March” – Saul Bellow
An exciting, touching, multifaceted, full of philosophical meaning story of a boy who was destined to grow up, make discoveries, love and seek his place in the world during the most dramatic moments of history.
58. “The Call of the Wild” – Jack London (“The Call of the Wild” – Jack London)
The novel takes place in Yukon, Canada during the Gold Rush. The main character, the dog Beck (a cross between a Scottish Sheepdog and a St. Bernard), brought from a shepherd's ranch in California, finds himself in the harsh reality of life as a sled dog. The novel tells the story of Beck's struggles to survive despite the harsh treatment of his owners, other dogs, and the cruelty of nature.
59. “American Pastoral” – Philip Roth (“American Pastoral” – Philip Roth)
The main character - Swede Leivou - married the beautiful Miss New Jersey, inherited his father's factory and became the owner old mansion in Old Rimrock. It would seem that dreams have come true, but one day the leafy American happiness suddenly turns to dust...
60. “Deliverance” – James Dickey
The four embark on a journey into the wilderness and desolation of the Appalachian Mountains. They go down the river in two boats. Their intentions are simply to relax, unwind and see picturesque places... But they did not know that they would be ambushed by illiterate local mountaineers, thugs and sadists.
61. “Lucky Jim” – Kingsley Amis (“Lucky Jim” – Kingsley Amis)
A young teacher on probation at a provincial university.
The only “living soul” in a world of dull snobbery and meaningless rules of behavior.
Jim Dixon is sick of this, but he wants to get into the state! So, you have to be like everyone else. But one day love invades Jim's life, and all his conformist endeavors go to hell overnight...
62. “Tropic of Cancer” – Henry Miller (“Tropic of Cancer” – Henry Miller)
The novel takes place in the 1930s in France (mainly Paris). The novel describes the life of struggling writer Henry Miller in Paris.
63. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Strange, scary tale boys who, by the will of fate, find themselves on a desert island. Boys who played with cruelty, hunting, war. Book about secret corners human soul and desire for power.
64. “Under the Volcano” – Malcolm Lowry
"At the Foot of the Volcano" is a novel that takes place in a small Mexican town over the course of one November day 1939 – All Souls' Day. This day is the last in the life of Geoffrey Fermin, a former British consul who finds refuge from life in continuous drunkenness. Ex-wife Fermina Yvonne, his half-brother Hugh and friend, film director Laruelle, are trying to save the consul, persuade him to stop drinking and start life again...
65. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
A fragment of the film based on the book Brideshead Revisited.
The novel, published at the end of the Second World War, subtly captures the characters of the passing era of prosperity of the English aristocracy. The protagonist of the novel, the young artist Charles Ryder, meets Sebastian Flyte, a representative of a famous aristocratic family, while studying at Oxford. After his arrival in Brideshead, the Flight family estate, Charles finds himself in the whirlpool of bohemian life, and throughout next years his fate is inextricably linked with this family.
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