"Madame Bovary" is a great novel by the French writer Gustave Flaubert. The main character, Emma Bovary, suffers from the inability to fulfill her dreams of a brilliant, secular life full of romantic passions. Instead, she is forced to eke out the monotonous existence of the wife of a poor provincial doctor. The painful atmosphere of the outback strangles Emma, ​​but all her attempts to escape beyond the bounds of a gloomy world are doomed to failure: a boring husband cannot satisfy his wife's requests, and her outwardly romantic and attractive lovers are actually egocentric and cruel. Is...

South Wind is the most famous book of the English writer Norman Douglas (1868–1952), which has survived more than two dozen reprints in its homeland and translated into many languages. The novel takes place on the fictional island of Nepent, whose name means a medicine that relieves pain and suffering or “bliss”, but it is here that the heroes will face difficult trials......

Charles Perrault (1628-1703) - famous French storyteller, poet and critic. The tales of Charles Perrault are familiar to everyone since childhood. Who has not heard the fairy tale for children about the resourceful Cat in boots, about the bold Little Red Riding Hood, about the beautiful Sleeping Beauty, about the strong Boy-s-finger and about the kind Cinderella! As well as beautiful tales Sorceress, Bluebeard, Rike with a crest, Donkey skin and Gingerbread house. For more than three hundred years, all the children of the world love and know these tales....

Laura is the daughter of Dr. Nesbit. She plans to marry Grant Adams, a reporter with the newspaper. To make him jealous, Laura flirts with Tom VanDorn, an unscrupulous lawyer. Grant's heart is broken and he seeks comfort from the man-devourer Margaret Muller....

"It was five o'clock on a June afternoon, but the hall was so dark that she had to grope her way. Wanhope was a large, old-fashioned manor-house, a plain brick front unbroken except in the middle, where its corniced roof was carried down by steps to an immense gateway of weathered stone, carved with the escutcheon of the family and their Motto: FORTIS ET FIDELIS. Wistarias rambled over both sides, wreathing the stone window-frames in their grape-like clusters of lilac bloom, and flagstones running from end to end, shallow, and so worn that a delicate growth of stonecrop fringed them, shelved...

Visiting the seaside for a relaxing holiday with his wife, Hereward Musgrave overhears the conversation of three psychiatrists discussing an infamous murder case. The killer, he overhears the celebrated Dr. Byam say, was a madman and almost certainly passed his insanity to his daughter. But what is Mr. Musgrave’s horror when he realizes that the woman they are discussing is his new bride! And, a worse horror yet – Dr. Byam’s diagnosis of her psychotic nature seems to be verified when he is found dead the following day, stabbed through the heart!...

The novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" is the most significant work of the great French writer of the Renaissance Francois Rabelais. The first book of this novel, "The Tale of the Horrifying Life of the Great Gargantua, Pantagruel's Father," was published almost five hundred years ago. Four more books were added to it, and a whole dynasty of glutton-giants, who love life with all its joys, gradually lined up: King Granguzier, his son Gargantua and son of Gargantua Pantagruel. And since then, people have been reading, laughing to tears or thinking about this great novel, and saying the phrases:...

The books of Louise Alcott have become widely known around the world. Her most famous novel, “Little Women,” was filmed more than a dozen times and served as the basis for the creation of the trilogy of the same name, some of which were also filmed. The same applies to some other books by Alcott, which, although they have not gained world fame, served as the basis for numerous film adaptations....

One of the most famous comedians in world literature, O. Henry created a unique panorama of American life at the turn of the XIX – XX centuries, in grotesque situations conveyed the contrasts and paradoxes of his era, which opened up space for people with business acumen, whom the game of chance then raises to the pinnacle of success then overthrows to the very bottom of life....

This is a book of folk stories, a testament to the Russian people. The stories are full of biblical references and instructive pathos, and also allow you to plunge into the life of a Russian village at the end of the century before last. Tolstoy’s folk tales are a testament to the Russian people, full of love and hope....