"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!...
Shakespeare eclipsed all the playwrights of the Elizabethan era. This fate fell on Ben Johnson, the greatest contemporary of Shakespeare. Johnson's work could constitute an era in the history of English literature, but it could not compete with the brilliant creations of Shakespeare. Ben Johnson acted as the creator of everyday comedy - a comedy of morals, theoretically substantiating the need for reflection in the dramaturgy of modern life. He opposed the "high comedy" and bloody drama, the enemy of the heroic folk theater, the greatest representative of which was Shakespeare....
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....
The demonic handsome Nikolai Stavrogin and the son of home teacher Petrush Verkhovensky are simultaneously returning to the provincial city from abroad. After their arrival, strange things begin to happen: scandals, fires, killings. Political intrigues are being woven, rumors are spreading, a skeleton is found in every resident in the closet. Within a month, a quiet city turns into a hell of a funnel, most of the actors die, go crazy or run away. Dostoevsky concocts an anti-nihilistic pamphlet, and writes the gloomy and exciting tragedy of a world that has lost its harmony and meaning....
The novel about an all-consuming passion for the game. Wounded by their addictive position, the young teacher Alexei Ivanovich comes to the conclusion that money is everything, and the only way to gain it is by playing roulette. It gives a feeling of power, victory, good luck, and before this pleasure, even love recedes into the background....
In the work of this greatest of English poets of the late XIX century, poetry collections occupy a special place, it was they who brought the author worldwide fame (and at the same time the Nobel Prize in Literature for 1907). To this day, they remain an unsurpassed example of poetic creativity....
Finding himself on the brink of poverty after the death of his father, the young and largely naive Nicholas Nickleby, under the pressure of his cynical and pragmatic uncle, becomes a teacher in one of the notorious closed English schools... Even now, even the most trained reader is shocked by pictures of ruthless corporal punishment and humiliation of older students - teachers and younger students - elders. Closed schools, in which, according to most Victorian writers, forged the color of the British Empire, became a monstrous prison for the humanist Dickens, breaking children's destinies and...
A terrible anti-utopian pamphlet by Daniel Defoe, which shocked the contemporaries of the writer - and shocking even modern readers with his cold, almost ironic objectivity. The victims of the "black death" that fell upon England could be counted in the hundreds of thousands. However, the story of one person who survived the "Plague Year" affects us much more than dry numbers......
After the success of Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe wrote another story about adventures at sea. The result was this lesser-known work, which is a first-person account of pirate life. In response to a letter accusing him of the worst possible act, Captain Avery writes the answer, trying to justify himself. He considers it appropriate to provide a full account of the life of the captain of a pirate ship. And his letters show that he is just a romantic con man....
The satirical science fiction novel by Jonathan Swift, in which human and social vices are vividly and wittily ridiculed. The book has become a classic of moral and political satire, although its abridged alterations (and film adaptations) for children are especially popular. Shipwrecked, Lemuel Gulliver woke up thrown to an island inhabited by tiny little men, whose serious passions around growth and fashion seem ridiculous. His subsequent wanderings will lead Gulliver to Brobdingneg, the land of giants, to the philosophical guigngnms, to the vile yekha. During these journeys, Gulliver will...
