The pinnacle of the work of the English writer, journalist and graphic artist William Makepeace Thackeray was the novel Vanity Fair. All characters of the novel - positive and negative - are involved, according to the author, in the "eternal circle of grief and suffering." Saturated with events, rich in subtle observations of everyday life of its time, imbued with irony and sarcasm, the novel "Vanity Fair" took pride of place in the list of masterpieces of world literature....
The idea of evil has never been in the shadow of history. Christianity, which became the very foundation of European civilization, placed the opposition of good and evil at the epicenter of the intellectual reflection of European society. It is no secret that the Christian God was thought to be the personification of good, while evil in the European consciousness was embodied in the defective and ghostly nature of the devil and his demons. At the sunset of the Middle Ages, the ever-lasting idea of evil acquired a special sound in public consciousness in connection with the well-known...
Hydrogenation of organic substances was first developed in 1897. In 1907, a German chemist, Edwin Kuno Kaiser, moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, the hometown of the Procter & Gamble soap maker. Shortly after arrival, Kaiser entered into a commercial deal with Procter & Gamble and submitted two cotton oil hydrogenation technologies to the company for the purpose of creating raw materials for soap production. But, since the product looked like lard outwardly, Procter & Gamble began selling it in June 1911 as a cooking oil called “Crisco,” which is an acronym for crystallized cottonseed oil....
Baldwin grew up in a family of a stepfather, a priest and was the oldest of nine children. Baldwin never knew his own father and partially suffered from this, which was reflected in some of his works. In his youth, Baldwin is going to follow in the footsteps of his stepfather and helps him in the church. But the older the future writer becomes, the more distinctly he understands that his stepfather’s sermons diverge from what is happening on the streets of Harlem, and, most importantly, with the behavior of the stepfather himself at home. After leaving school in the Bronx, Baldwin moved to...
Daniel and Peachy arrived from Britain to India to undergo military service, but the soldiers had their own plans for life. Fraudulent friends intend to leave for the country called Kafiristan to become its rulers, and take possession of the treasures of the whole country hidden in the bowels of the mountains....
The tragedy "Macbeth", like many of Shakespeare’s dramatic works, was created on the basis of the legend of the tyrant king, the image of which the author so masterfully embodied. However, researchers of Shakespeare and historians have come to the conclusion that the pathos and plot of the work contradicts historical facts. During the reign of the Scottish King Macbeth, bard poets belonging to opposition circles created a story about a killer ruler, which served as the source for the play....
This book aims to furnish a concise and connected account of human progress during ancient, medieval, and early modern times. It should meet the requirements of those high schools and preparatory schools where ancient history, as a separate discipline, is being supplanted by a more extended course introductory to the study of recent times and contemporary problems. Such a course was first outlined by the Regents of the University of the State of New York in their _Syllabus for Secondary Schools_, issued in 1910....
Nicholas Rowe, an English playwright, poet laureate, studied law at Middle Temple, became a barrister, received an inheritance after his father's death, and engaged in literary work. His most significant dramatic works are Ambitious Stepmother; Tamerlane; Fair penitent; Jane Shore and Lady Jane Gray. In some of his plays, Rowe combined a heroic drama with family tragedy. In the center of the action is usually the heroine, whose distress makes the viewer feel sorry and sympathy. Rowe was one of the first editors of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s prepared plays saw the light of day in 1709. Rowe...
The novel "Hero of Our Time" was first published in 1840. Then no one could have imagined that the author’s life would end so soon, and many contemporaries predicted Mikhail Yuryevich a great future precisely as a prose writer. Gogol, in particular, remarked: "Lermontov the prose writer will be higher than Lermontov the poet." With his novel “The Hero of Our Time” Lermontov greatly expanded the scope of the literary tradition. Unusual was the composition of the work, consisting of five independent stories. A peculiar chronology of events and a constantly changing circle of heroes attracted...
The ruthless Dictator of Mekin has already subjugated twenty-two helpless planets. Now he wants Kandar's unconditional surrender - or he will blast it out of existence!...
First published in 1894, the “Jungle Book” remains one of the most beloved among children and adults around the world. These classic stories about the boy Mowgli, raised by a wolf pack, give indelible lessons not so much about the laws of the jungle, but about the needs of the soul and heart. Originally from magical and mysterious India, these stories of people and animals living side by side are addressed to both children and adults. In addition to the boy Mowgli, you will meet with the brown and sleepy bear Balu, with the cunning black panther Bagheera, with the python Kaa, who raised...
If there is at least one dubious detail in the case, the famous detective will check it until he gets to the bottom of the truth. So, in the novel `One, two - a buckle fastener ', he doubts the guilt of a man whom the police suspect of several murders. In the novel `Elephants Can Remember, 'there is an endless debate with the writer Ariadne Oliver, in the process of which he finds out the details of the crime. And in the collection of stories `Poirot leads the investigation`, the tireless detective brilliantly investigates a series of crimes....
Maupassant became famous in 1880 after the release of the short story "Pyshka". The writer considered Tolstoy and Turgenev to be his teachers in literary mastery. The most famous works of the writer, “Life” and “Dear Friend”, are filled with the subtle psychologism and realism that Maupassant strove for. The word artist spoke in detail about the life, way of life and mores of people. Maupassant was excited by completely different social classes and types, their problems and experiences, which he revealed with all honesty, without embellishment....
The adventures of the unlucky, good-natured English traveling across the Thames, about which Jerome wrote in his famous novel Three in a Boat, Not Counting a Dog, translated into almost all the languages of the world and repeatedly filmed, became well known even in the most remote corners of the planet. It was originally planned that the book would be a guide covering local history as the route followed. At first, Jerome was going to name the book "The Story of the Thames." “I was not even going to write a ridiculous book at first,” he admitted in his memoirs. The book was supposed to focus...
