The Ministry of Education and Science is completing work on creating a list of books required for extracurricular reading by Russian schoolchildren. The idea of ​​such a list was proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the article “Russia: the national question,” which was published in January of this year. St. Petersburg State University, commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Science, compiled a recommended list, which included more than two hundred works. As a result of online voting, one hundred books on the history, culture and literature of the peoples of the Russian Federation were selected, familiarity with which, according to the project coordinators, should contribute to the national self-identification of the younger generation and the preservation of the national cultural canon.

“In some leading American universities in the 20s of the last century, a movement for the study of the Western cultural canon developed. Every self-respecting student had to read one hundred books according to a specially compiled list. In some US universities this tradition continues today. Our nation has always been a reading nation. Let's conduct a survey of our cultural authorities and create a list of one hundred books that every graduate of a Russian school should read. Don’t memorize it at school, but read it yourself. And let's make the final exam an essay on the topics we read. Or, at least, we will give young people the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and their worldview at Olympiads and competitions.”

V.V. Putin, “Russia: the national question”

Authoritative opinion

The idea of ​​​​creating a list of books recommended for independent reading was instantly picked up not only by cultural officials - the possible composition of the list was widely discussed by writers, film directors, film and theater actors. Most cultural figures turned their gaze towards the classics - the names of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Goncharov, Gogol, Chekhov, Bulgakov, and poets of the Silver Age were most often heard. Among the 2000-year-old writers, we remembered Dmitry Bykov, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Zakhar Prilepin, and Alexey Ivanov.

Contemporaries themselves also actively joined the discussion. Perm writer and screenwriter Alexey Ivanov recommended adding books by Vladislav Krapivin, Denis Dragunsky, “The Catcher in the Rye” by Salinger, adventure novels by Dumas, and science fiction by Orhan Pamuk to the list. Dmitry Bykov would certainly include Emile Zola on his list. “It needs to be read - especially for us, especially now, because the picture of life in the second empire is extremely similar to post-Soviet Russia,” the writer emphasized.

List and anti-list

Despite the fact that the majority of representatives of the writing community reacted positively to the idea of ​​​​creating a single mandatory list of literature, there were also those who did not find this idea successful. “Supernatsbest” laureate Zakhar Prilepin noted that it would be more interesting for him to talk about the literature that modern schoolchildren should not read: “With all due respect to Solzhenitsyn, I believe that “The Gulag Archipelago” should be excluded from the list of school curriculum and the list of recommended literature, like any other literature, that unambiguously negatively illuminates the mythology of the country and unambiguously interprets the history of the 20th century, as well as any other century. Books that positively highlight the activities of the party and government of our time should not be on the list. But, thank God, they haven’t written anything like this yet.”

The widow of the writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who heads his foundation, called the idea of ​​​​creating a common list of recommended literature absurd for everyone. From her point of view, the volume of compulsory literature must be provided by the school curriculum, and everything beyond this should be provided by the family. And the musician Andrei Makarevich cited the example of his school literature teacher, who believed that any person of average intellectual development should know by heart a hundred poems, no matter which ones - from “A Christmas tree was born in the forest...” to the works of Mayakovsky or Brodsky. “The important thing is that a person knows these hundred verses, which means that he already has a fairly developed head and has some kind of aesthetic consciousness,” argues Makarevich. “And if a person reads a hundred books, then not everything will be a garbage dump - something will turn out to be important.”

New concept

After the formation of the list began, many questions arose. How can epic and short story be considered on equal terms? Is it possible to list several works by the same author, or should each writer be represented by just one text? Should we include only works of fiction in the list or make room for historical and popular science publications? And, perhaps, the main question: how will these hundred books for additional reading correlate with the list of literature that is mandatory included in the school curriculum?

Representatives of government bodies, the scientific and library communities had to look for answers to these and many other questions: each of the regions of the country proposed its own version of the list, and the creation of a single list was entrusted to experts from St. Petersburg State University. They excluded works that were included in the list of required literature and eliminated foreign and regional authors. The rest will be decided by online voting. At the same time, in the final list it is necessary to maintain a balance between modern literature and classical, domestic and foreign, to ensure a variety of aesthetic and life experiences that readers will draw from these books, as well as genre and stylistic diversity, which is necessary for the development of linguistic flair.

During the implementation of the project, the concept of the list itself underwent changes: the Ministry of Education decided not to limit itself to 100 books - in each region they will be supplemented by 30 regional titles, and for high school students they will include another 20 additional books chosen by schoolchildren independently. As a result, the final list can be expanded to 150 works.

"Golden Shelf"

The idea of ​​creating a compulsory book list itself is not new: Leo Tolstoy even compiled a “Circle of Reading” - books that every person living in Russia should read. And Joseph Brodsky, during his teaching career at the American college Mount Holyoke, prepared for his students a “List of books that everyone should read.”

Today, compiling lists of required literature can be considered a tradition: they regularly appear on various websites dedicated to books and reading. Many media outlets, both domestic and foreign, also consider it necessary to present their version of the “golden hundred” to the attention of the public. There are dozens of versions of these lists for every genre and age category. And each of them inevitably bears the imprint of the personal assessment of the compilers, who have not only the necessary literary taste for this, but also their own predilections. In this sense, the creation of an absolutely universal list, even for a limited category of readers, seems to be as exciting as it is utopian.

We will be able to find out exactly what the compilers selected from the millions of literary heritage created by humanity over many centuries: the project should be implemented before the end of 2012.

1. Francois Rabelais. "Gargantua and Pantagruel" (1532-1553).

2. Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. “The cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” (1605-1615).

3. Daniel Defoe. "The Life and Wonderful Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" (1719).

4. Jonathan Swift. "The Travels of Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships" (1726).

5. Abbot Prevost. "The History of the Chevalier des Grieux and Manon Lescaut" (1731).

6. Johann Wolfgang Goethe. “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (1774).

7. Laurence Stern. "The Life and Beliefs of Tristram Shandy" (1759-1767).

8. Choderlos de Laclos. "Dangerous Liaisons" (1782).

9. Marquis de Sade. "120 days of Sodom" (1785).

10. Jan Potocki. "Manuscript Found in Zaragoza" (1804).

11. Mary Shelley. "Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus" (1818).

12. Charles Maturin. "Melmoth the Wanderer" (1820).

13. Honore de Balzac. "Shagreen Skin" (1831).

14. Victor Hugo. "Notre Dame Cathedral" (1831).

15. Stendhal. "Red and Black" (1830-1831).

16. Alexander Pushkin. "Eugene Onegin" (1823-1833).

17. Alfred de Musset. “Confession of the Son of the Century” (1836).

18. Charles Dickens. "Posthumous Notes of the Pickwick Club" (1837).

19. Mikhail Lermontov. "Hero of Our Time" (1840).

20. Nikolai Gogol. “Dead Souls” (1842).

21. Alexandre Dumas. "The Three Musketeers" (1844).

22. William Thackeray. "Vanity Fair" (1846).

23. Herman Melville. "Moby Dick" (1851).

24. Gustave Flaubert. "Madame Bovary" (1856).

25. Ivan Goncharov. "Oblomov" (1859).

26. Ivan Turgenev. "Fathers and Sons" (1862).

28. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Crime and Punishment" (1866).

29. Leo Tolstoy. "War and Peace" (1867-1869).

30. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "The Idiot" (1868-1869).

31. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. "Venus in Furs" (1870).

32. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "Demons" (1871-1872).

33. Mark Twain. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876)/"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884).

34. Leo Tolstoy. "Anna Karenina" (1878).

35. Fyodor Dostoevsky. "The Brothers Karamazov" (1879-1880)

36. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin. “Gentlemen Golovlevs” (1880-1883).

37. Oscar Wilde. "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1891)

38. Herbert Wells. "The Time Machine" (1895).

39. Bram Stoker. "Dracula" (1897).

40. Jack London. "The Sea Wolf" (1904)

41. Fedor Sologub. "The Little Demon" (1905).

42. Andrey Bely. "Petersburg" (1913-1914).

43. Gustav Meyrink. "Golem" (1914).

44. Evgeny Zamyatin. "We" (1921).

45. James Joyce. "Ulysses" (1922).

46. ​​Ilya Ehrenburg. "The Extraordinary Adventures of Julio Jurenito" (1922).

47. Jaroslav Hasek. “The adventures of the good soldier Schweik during the World War” (1921-1923).

48. Mikhail Bulgakov. "The White Guard" (1924).

49. Thomas Mann. "The Magic Mountain" (1924).

50. Franz Kafka. "The Trial" (1925).

51. Francis Scott Fitzgerald. "The Great Gatsby" (1925).

52. Alexander Green. "Running on the Waves" (1928).

53. Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov. "Twelve Chairs" (1928).

54. Andrey Platonov. "Chevengur" (1927-1929).

55. William Faulkner. "The Sound and the Fury" (1929).

56. Ernest Hemingway. "Farewell to arms!" (1929).

57. Louis Ferdinand Celine. "Journey to the End of Night" (1932).

58. Aldous Huxley. "Brave New World" (1932).

59. Lao She. “Notes about Cat City” (1933).

60. Henry Miller. "Tropic of Cancer" (1934).

61. Maxim Gorky. “The Life of Klim Samgin” (1925-1936).

62. Margaret Mitchell. "Gone with the Wind" (1936).

63. Erich Maria Remarque. "Three Comrades" (1936-1937).

64. Vladimir Nabokov. "The Gift" (1938-1939).

65. Mikhail Bulgakov. "The Master and Margarita" (1929-1940).

66. Mikhail Sholokhov. "Quiet Don" (1927-1940).

67. Robert Musil. "Man without properties" (1930-1943).

68. Hermann Hesse. "The Glass Bead Game" (1943).

69. Veniamin Kaverin. "Two Captains" (1938-1944).

70. Boris Vian. "Foam of Days" (1946).

71. Thomas Mann. "Doctor Faustus" (1947).

72. Albert Camus. "The Plague" (1947).

73. George Orwell. "1984" (1949).

74. Jerome D. Salinger. "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951).

75. Ray Bradbury. "Fahrenheit 451" (1953).

76. John R. R. Tolkien. "The Lord of the Rings" (1954-1955).

77. Vladimir Nabokov. "Lolita" (1955; 1967, Russian version).

78. Boris Pasternak. "Doctor Zhivago" (1945-1955).

79. Jack Kerouac. "On the Road" (1957).

80. William Burroughs. "Naked Lunch" (1959).

81. Witold Gombrowicz. "Pornography" (1960).

82. Kobo Abe. "Woman in the Sands" (1962).

83. Julio Cortazar. "Hopscotch" (1963).

84. Nikolay Nosov. "Dunno on the Moon" (1964-1965).

85. John Fowles. "The Magus" (1965).

86. Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" (1967)

87. Philip K. Dick. “Do Robots Dream of Electric Sheep” (1968).

88. Yuri Mamleev. "Connecting Rods" (1968).

89. Alexander Solzhenitsyn. “In the First Circle” (1968).

90. Kurt Vonnegut. "Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade" (1969).

91. Venedikt Erofeev. "Moscow - Petushki" (1970).

92. Sasha Sokolov. "School for Fools" (1976).

93. Andrey Bitov. "Pushkin House" (1971).

94. Eduard Limonov. “It’s me, Eddie” (1979).

95. Vasily Aksenov. "Island of Crimea" (1979).

96. Milan Kundera. “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (1984).

97. Vladimir Voinovich. "Moscow 2042" (1987).

98. Vladimir Sorokin. "Roman" (1994).

99. Victor Pelevin. "Chapaev and Emptiness" (1996).

100. Vladimir Sorokin. "Blue Lard" (1999).

You may not have read all the books on this list, because at first glance they are so different. But try reading something that is unfamiliar to you. We guarantee that it will not leave you indifferent.

Books help develop character and teach, no matter how trivial it may be, what is good and beautiful. In addition, reading books can distract and captivate a person, giving him unforgettable moments in life. You can while away your free time by reading, spending it, which is most attractive, with considerable benefit. Today there are millions of books in the world - even in a lifetime they cannot be read by one person. Are there any books that are a must read? Various researchers and organizations have compiled their lists of books that you need to read in your life.

1. “Life on loan.” This sentimental work by Erich Maria Remarque is one of the writer's most famous. Those who are unfamiliar with the work of this author should begin their acquaintance with this book. Many people reread “Life on Borrow” more than a dozen times, finding something new in this work each time.

What is the book about? There are two main characters here - a guy who is a racer who risks his life every day, and a girl who is terminally ill with tuberculosis. At the same time, both of them believe only in the best - that is why the ending of the book is ironic and insanely absurd, and every page is filled with tragedy.

2. “Lolita”. This novel by Vladimir Nabokov cannot leave anyone indifferent. It captivates with its provocative sincerity and longing. People are still debating what it was - crazy love or perversion. Everyone needs to read this confession in order to form their own opinion about the behavior of men.

What is the book about? About the love and relationship of an adult forty-year-old man and a thirteen-year-old teenage girl.

3. “The Master and Margarita”. This immortal novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, which is extremely relevant today, is very difficult to understand, as it relates to philosophical reading. It is easy and quick to read, but many “grow up” to it at a more mature age.

What is the book about? Mysticism about love and power, about an unrecognized genius and his muse, about how the Devil once again suffered defeat over the human soul and about the fact that God exists, but in everyone’s soul.

4. “Demons.” Fyodor Dostoevsky does not write light fiction at all. But this work is quite a serious product, which should only be “tasted” by a prepared reader.

What is the book about? We all have demons hiding in our souls. The terrible act that the main character committed in his youth haunts him throughout his life, embodied in the ghost of a murdered girl.

5. “Tender is the night.” This is one of the main novels of Francis S. Fitzgerald, where there is love and a love triangle, and also a strong weakness or a weak strength, whichever is closer to you.

What is the book about? Dear and beautiful life on the Cote d'Azur - it would seem, live and be happy, but what to do if you don’t have the most important thing - happiness?

6. “Dear friend.” The classic of French literature Guy de Maupassant gained fame as an esthete, and his works are strong and, as they say, “tasty” - critics claim that this is his best work.

What is the book about? About gigolos. More precisely, about one stupid, greedy, illiterate, but terribly handsome man with whom an intelligent and talented woman falls in love.

7. “Loneliness on the Internet.” Books by modern authors, like Janusz Wisniewski, are closer to the younger generation, especially since they are based on things that are very close to perception.

What is the book about? About modern life, which young people spend in front of a computer monitor, about love and loneliness, about how important it is to have a loved one in the world.

8. “Gone with the Wind.” The book, which was conceived by Margaret Mitchell as a novel about love and war, became a bestseller - it still occupies a leading position in the ratings.

What is the book about? About a strong woman who, after a series of tragic events that unfolded against the backdrop of the war between North and South, was able not to lose herself, but to get back on her feet. There is love and betrayal, resourcefulness and self-interest, family values ​​and patriots who are ready to do anything for their idea.

9. “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Many people know and love the fairy tales of Oscar Wilde, but this mystical work is rightfully considered the best in the writer’s list.

What is the book about? The selfish young man does not want to grow old and lose his beauty - the artist paints his portrait, where he hides Dorian’s soul. Now it is the portrait that is aging, not the young man.

10. “Easy breathing.” This work is considered the most famous by Ivan Bunin, although the legend is as old as the world - the relationship between a man and a woman is not always cloudless.

What is the book about? About a frivolous attitude to life - the first love of a high school student and an officer, then the first intimacy, which ends rather sadly.

11. “Scarlet Sails”. The most famous work of Alexander Greene is a symbol of dreams come true, a beautiful fairy tale about a handsome prince.

What is the book about? Since childhood, a poor girl living in a fishing village is sure that a prince will come for her, and his ship will definitely have scarlet sails. And if you love, is it really difficult to create a miracle for the person you love most?

12. “Diary in the letters of Anne Frank.” In Amsterdam, a monument was erected to this girl in honor of the Jews who died during the war. Anne Frank was a real-life 15-year-old girl who kept a diary during the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam. Today, the “Diary...” is a real document that has been translated into many languages ​​of the world.

What is the book about? Thoughts of a teenager during the war - what does a girl dream about when her familiar world is destroyed?

13. “The Catcher in the Rye.” A controversial and rebellious work by Jerome D. Salinger, which is recommended for reading in adolescence.
What is the book about? The growing up of a teenager who, due to his age, is endowed with youthful maximalism and idealism. Many see themselves in the main character: just as vulnerable and sensitive, touchy and unbridled, often confused and lost.

14. “Transformation.” Franz Kafka himself is a complex and sometimes gloomy writer, but reading at least one of his works is certainly worth it, especially since this short story is a complete allegory that borders on the absurd.

What is the book about? One day the main character wakes up in the morning, and he is not a person, but a disgusting centipede, which even his relatives do not want to look at, let alone communicate - complete loneliness in all its forms, the illusion of love and the ugliness of the soul.

15. “Jane Eyre.” It is believed that this is the only so-called “women's novel” written in Victorian England that is worth reading for men too. All other works are just pathetic attempts to repeat the success of Charlotte Brontë. At the time, the novel created a real sensation.

What is the book about? About a governess who, although poor and ugly, has an iron will and a strong character. Despite her love for a man - she, by the way, is also the first to admit this, the girl prefers independence and does everything possible to have equal rights with men. This is a story of strong and uncompromising love - real “debauchery” for the time when the novel was written.

44 "Cold Blooded Murder" Truman Capote

On November 14, 1959, two young men, Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickok, killed a family of four in the village of Holcomb, Kansas, thinking that their house was holding their savings. The murdered Clutter family was in good standing in the village, so residents helped the police find the killers. Smith and Hickok were captured on December 30, 1959 in Las Vegas. The suspects tried to justify themselves as temporary insanity, which led to the death of the Clutter family, but the excuse was refuted by the doctors who examined them. Smith and Hickok were hanged on April 14, 1965, in Lansing, Kansas, after five years on death row.

43 " The Teachings of Don Juan: The Way of Knowledge of the Yaqui Indians» Carlos Castaneda

The book begins with the author, an anthropology student at the University of California, meeting the Indian Don Juan in the summer of 1960 at a bus stop in Arizona. The reason for our acquaintance was an interest in medicinal plants, especially peyote. It later turned out that don Juan is a native of Mexico (Sonora), belongs to the Yaqui tribe and was born in 1891. After a year of dating, Don Juan told Carlos that he had secret knowledge and he chose Carlos as his student. Don Juan intrigues his student with a story about mysterious diablero- sorcerers.

42 "Animal Farm" George Orwell

This is a satirical story with a very big message. Although it was first published back in 1945, Orwell's allegorical tale of a group of pigs taking control of a farm and attempting to form a new society creates haunting comparisons with political struggles around the world today.

41 "Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka

The main character of the story, Gregor Samsa, a simple traveling salesman, wakes up in the morning and discovers that he has turned into a huge, disgusting insect. In Kafka's typical manner, the cause of the metamorphosis and the events preceding it are not revealed. The reader, like the heroes of the story, are simply presented with a fact - the transformation has taken place. The hero remains sane and aware of what is happening. In an unusual position, he cannot get out of bed, does not open the door, although his family members - his mother, father and sister - persistently ask him to do so.

40 "A Tale of Two Cities" Charles Dickens

London, 1775. An elderly bank employee, Jarvis Lorris, informs 17-year-old Lucie Manette that her father was not dead at all (as she believed), but from the moment of her birth was kept in the Bastille under the slander of the evil Marquis of Evremonde. Now he is freed and lives in Paris with his former servant, Defarge. Lorrie and Lucy go to France to take the unfortunate man home.

39 "Naked and Dead" Norman Mailer

38 "Deliverance" James Dickey

After reading this novel, many people will probably never want to go canoeing in Georgia. A realistic look at violence, survival and psychology. And the subsequent life, which was changed forever by the injury.

37 "Prince of Tides" Pat Conroy

Tom Wingo comes to New York to help his twin sister Savannah, a talented poet. Trying to solve her problems, he looks for an answer in the complex history of their unusual family, filled with dramatic events and upheavals. Tom relives his childhood years, assessing them from the perspective of a mature person...
The novel “The Prince of Tides” is a real saga about pain and joy, about sensitivity and alienation, about childhood fears and about the ghosts of adult life.

36 "Brave New World" Aldous Huxley

The novel takes place in London in the distant future (around the 26th century of the Christian era, namely in 2541). People all over the Earth live in a single state, whose society is a consumer society. A new chronology begins - the Era of T - with the advent of the Ford T. Consumption has been elevated to a cult, the symbol of the consumer god is Henry Ford, and instead of the sign of the cross, people “sign themselves with the sign of T.”

35 "A Brief History of Time" Stephen Hawking

The book talks about the emergence of the Universe, the nature of space and time, black holes, superstring theory and some mathematical problems, but on the pages of the publication you can find only one formula - E=mc². The book has remained a bestseller since its publication to this day, as it is written in lively language and is intended for the ordinary reader.

34 "Les Miserables" Victor Hugo

1815 Former convict Jean Valjean, an outcast with a grudge against all humanity after his 19-year sentence for stealing a loaf of bread, ends up with the Catholic Bishop of Digne, Miriel, who changes his life. The bishop treated him as a person worthy of respect, and moreover, when Valjean stole silverware from him, he forgave him and did not hand him over to the authorities, and even gave him, in addition, silver candlesticks, which Jean Valjean then kept for a long time with blessed trepidation. The first and only creature who took pity on him, a convict, shocked Valjean so much that he changed his life very dramatically: under a false name, he founded a factory for the production of small items made of black glass, thanks to which the welfare of the whole town grew, and then became its mayor.

Having stumbled on his way, he becomes the desired prey of the French police and is forced to hide. Inspector Javert of the Paris police department considers his capture his life's work.

After the death of Fantine, the woman for whose fate Jean Valjean considered himself responsible, the only person close to him remains her daughter Cosette. For the sake of the girl’s happiness, Jean Valjean is ready to do anything...

33 "Lord of the Flies" William Golding

During wartime, a group of children evacuated from England are stranded on a desert island as a result of a plane crash. Among them, two leaders stand out: Ralph and Jack Meridew. The first on the island managed to meet Piggy, a fat, asthmatic, but sensible and shrewd boy with glasses; the second is the head of the church choir and the unquestioned authority among the choristers. After the election, which Ralph won, Jack and his choir members proclaim themselves hunters.

32 "Tropic of Cancer" Henry Miller

The novel takes place in the 1930s in France (mainly Paris). The novel describes the life of a struggling writer - Henry Miller in Paris. Combining fictional and autobiographical episodes, in some chapters the author directly references his real-life friends, colleagues and places where he worked; others are written as stream of consciousness. The novel, like many of Miller's works, is written in the first person, and often moves from the present to the past and back again. The novel contains many episodes describing the narrator's sexual adventures, but this is not the main thing for the author.

31 "When I was dying" William Faulkner

Statistically built as a chain of monologues of the characters, sometimes long, sometimes in one or two sentences. The author's text is completely missing. The plot of the novel is the funeral of an old farmer whom the family took to a neighboring town to be buried; the action takes about ten days.

30 "451 degrees Fahrenheit" Ray Bradbury

The novel tells the story of a totalitarian society in which literature is banned, and firefighters must burn all banned books they find, along with the homes of the owners. The owners of the books are subject to arrest, one of them is even sent to an insane asylum. The author depicted people who have lost touch with each other, with nature, with the intellectual heritage of humanity. People rush to or from work, never talking about what they think or feel, talking only about meaningless and empty things, admiring only material values. At home, they surround themselves with interactive television, projected directly onto the walls (which have built-in picture tubes), and fill their free time with watching television programs, endless and stupid series.

29 "Anna Karenina" Leo Tolstoy

The novel begins with two phrases that have long become textbook: “All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Everything was mixed up in the Oblonskys’ house.”

Stiva Oblonsky’s sister, the noble St. Petersburg lady Anna Karenina, comes to Moscow to visit the Oblonskys...

28 "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" Lewis Carroll

The tale tells of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into an imaginary world inhabited by strange, anthropomorphic creatures. The fairy tale enjoys steady popularity among both children and adults. The book is considered one of the best examples of literature in the absurd genre.

27 "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River. After some time, they are joined by the rogues Duke and King, who eventually sell Jim into slavery. Huck and Tom Sawyer, who has joined him, organize the release of the prisoner. But, if Huck seriously frees Jim from captivity, then Tom does it just for fun - he knows that Jim’s mistress has already given him freedom.

26 "Tender is the Night" Francis Scott Fitzgerald

The action takes place in Europe. A young talented American psychiatrist, Dick Diver, working during World War I in a clinic in Switzerland, falls in love with a patient named Nicole and marries her. Nicole came from a very wealthy family, and her relatives were not optimistic about the marriage. For a long time after Nicole's discharge from the hospital, Dick has to combine two roles - husband and doctor. He built a mansion on the banks of the Riviera, where the couple led a secluded life. Soon they had children. Dick himself was a very lively and active, intelligent man with a bunch of friends who often visited him at his house. In the late 20s, eighteen-year-old American actress Rosemary arrives at a hotel near the Divers' house.

25 "The Catcher in the Rye" Jerome Salinger

The novel is written from the perspective of sixteen-year-old Holden Caulfield, who is being treated in a clinic: he tells about the story that happened to him last winter and preceding his illness. The events it narrates unfold in the pre-Christmas days of December 1949. The young man's memories begin from the day he left the Pansy closed school, from where he was expelled for poor academic performance.

24 "To Kill a Mockingbird" Harper Lee

The main story takes place three years after the peak of the Great Depression in the fictional "life-weary" town of Maycomb, Alabama. The main character is six-year-old Jean Louise Finch, who lives with her older brother Jim and their father Atticus, an elderly lawyer. Jim and Jean meet a boy named Dill, who comes to Maycomb every summer to visit his aunt. Three children are afraid of their neighbor, the reclusive Scarecrow Radley. The adults of Maycomb are hesitant to talk about the Scarecrow, and for years few have seen him. The children excite each other's imaginations with rumors about his appearance and the reasons for his seclusion. They fantasize about how to get him out of the house. After two summer vacations with Dill, Jean and Jim discovered that someone had left them small gifts in a tree near the Radley house. Several times the mysterious Scarecrow shows signs of attention to the children, but, to their disappointment, he never appears in person.

23 "Gone with the Wind" Margaret Mitchell

The novel covers events that took place over 12 years, from 1861 to 1873. This is the story of the civil war between the northern industrial and southern agricultural states of America. The political and economic situation in the country was such that it was not profitable for northerners to keep slaves to work in factories; they needed civilian workers, while for southerners slaves were ideally suited to work in the fields. As a result, in response to demands from the North for the abolition of slavery, the southern states tried to form their own state. This is how the war began. Young Scarlett O'Hara, half Irish, half French, has a rare gift - to charm men. She is sure that everyone is crazy about her, especially Ashley Wilkes. But soon the beauty suffers her first disappointment: Ashley is engaged to her cousin Melanie, who seems to Scarlett to be a loser and ugly.

22 "Love in the Time of Cholera" Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The main character of the novel is Fermina Daza. She rejects the proposal of her childhood friend Florentino Ariza, realizing that their youthful love was just a naive episode in her life. At the age of 21 (the deadline she set for herself for marriage), she marries Juvenal Urbino. Urbino is a doctor, he is absorbed in science and ideas to combat cholera. He is a very rational person, his whole life is clearly organized. Urbino's love is contrasted with the love of Arisa, who is full of old-fashioned romanticism. Fermina learns that Urbino was not as devoted a husband as he seemed. He honestly confesses to her about the affair he had already during their marriage. After Urbino dies, the love between Fermina and Arisa flares up with renewed vigor when they are no longer young people. But this is not that naive youthful love, but the love of mature people who have experienced the life of people. They take a cruise on a ship owned by Arisa and fall in love. To avoid unnecessary stops for customs checks, they hung a flag indicating the presence of disease on the ship (hence the title of the novel). However, they are not allowed back with such a flag, and the lovers go on a new cruise.

21 "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" Douglas Adams

The novel tells the adventures of the unlucky Englishman Arthur Dent, who, with his friend Ford Prefect (a native of a small planet somewhere near Betelgeuse, who works in the editorial office of the Hitchhiker's Guide) avoids death when the Earth is destroyed by a race of Vogon bureaucrats. Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford's relative and President of the Galaxy, accidentally saves Dent and Ford from death in outer space. Also on board Zaphod's improbability-powered ship, the Heart of Gold, are the depressed robot Marvin and Trillian, aka Trisha McMillan, whom Arthur once met at a party. She, as Arthur soon realizes, is the only surviving Earthling besides himself. The heroes are looking for the legendary planet Magrathea and trying to find a question that matches the Final Answer.

20 "Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade" Kurt Vonnegut

Autobiographical novel about the bombing of Dresden during World War II.

19 "The Count of Monte Cristo" Alexandra Dumas

An adventure novel, a classic of French literature, written in 1844-45. The writer came up with the name of his hero during a trip to the Mediterranean Sea, when he saw the island of Montecristo and heard the legend about the countless treasures buried there. The author just slightly changed the name of the island. The novel takes place in 1815-29 and 1838.

The novel centers on two visits by the Ramsay family to a rented country house on the Isle of Skye in Scotland in 1910 and 1920.

17 "On the Road" Jack Kerouac

The novel is autobiographical and is a fictional account of the travel of two friends - Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) and Dean Moriarty (Neal Cassady) - across the United States and Mexico. The book consists of five parts, narrated from the perspective of Sal Paradise.

16 "The Divine Comedy" Dante

In the introductory song, Dante tells how, having reached the middle of his life, he once got lost in a dense forest and how the poet Virgil, having delivered him from three wild animals that blocked his path, invited Dante to travel through the afterlife. Having learned that Virgil was sent to Beatrice (Dante’s beloved), Dante surrenders to the poet’s leadership without trepidation. Having passed the threshold of hell, inhabited by the souls of insignificant, indecisive people, they enter the first circle of hell, the so-called limb...

15 "The Hobbit, or There and Back Again" John R.R. Tolkien

The main character of the book, the hobbit Bilbo, living the life of a peaceful man in the street, accustomed to the comforts of his home (“hobby hole,” as he calls it), suddenly finds himself involved in an adventurous adventure - a hike by a group of dwarves to the Lonely Mountain. In the past, the mines under the mountain housed a rich kingdom of dwarves, but it was ravaged by a dragon named Smaug, who turned the dungeons into his lair. The goal of the campaign is the huge treasures of the Undermountain Kingdom, which are claimed by the leader of the dwarf squad - Thorin Oakenshield, who is a descendant of the last king of the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain.

14 "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.

13 "Heart of Darkness" Joseph Conrad

The story is told from the perspective of the main character, the sailor Marlow, who recalls his trip to Central Africa. On the instructions of the “Company” (not named in the text, but apparently the Belgian company of the Free Congo is implied), he must arrive at a remote station to take with him one of the company’s agents named Kurtz, who is collecting ivory. The bulk of the book is occupied by Marlow's first-person account of his journey along a tropical river, among territories completely unknown to Europeans. His story is full of objectively conveyed, but no less terrible details of both the life of the aborigines and the orders imposed in the distant colony.

12 "Dracula" Bram Stoker

A young lawyer from London named Jonathan Harker goes to Transylvania to sell real estate to an aristocrat from there named Dracula.

Harker sells the abandoned abbey to the count, but Dracula turns out to be an immortal vampire who needs new possessions. Leaving Harker to his three vampire brides to deal with, the count leaves the castle in a box with his native land.

11 "A Clockwork Orange" Anthony Burgess

10 "Moby Dick, or the White 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.

9 "A Brief History of Almost Everything" Bill Bryson

Bryson describes in accessible terms the size of the universe, atoms and subatomic particles. He then explores the history of geology and biology, looking at life from its origins to modern humans, while detailing the development of Homo sapiens. He goes on to consider the possibility of an Earth collision with a meteorite, pondering the capabilities of humans to detect such a meteorite before impact and the damage such an impact could cause. He also highlights the most devastating disasters in the planet's history, including Krakatoa and Yellowstone Park. Also mentioned in the book is Claire Patterson, an American geochemist who measured the age of the Earth.

8 "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 flee their Oklahoma home due to drought, economic hardship, and changing farming practices. In an almost hopeless situation, they head to California along with thousands of other Okie families, hoping to find a means of subsistence there.

7 "Lolita" Vladimir Nabokov

The story is told from the perspective of the main character, who calls himself Humbert Humbert (in his own words, this is a pseudonym). Humbert is attracted to very young girls, and girls of a special appearance and make-up - he calls them “nymphets” and attributes to them a certain inner “demonicity”. He sees the root of this unhealthy passion in his childhood crush on a girl named

Annabel Lee, from whom he was forever separated by adults (soon after their separation, Annabelle died of illness). Humbert dreams of a relationship with a “nymphet”, but does not dare to fulfill his dreams for fear of the law; he has to make do with the services of young prostitutes, and subsequently marries a younger woman who looks like a girl.

6 "Crime and Punishment" Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a theory of the crime is ripening. Raskolnikov himself is very poor; he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own accommodation. His mother and sister are also poor; he soon learns that his sister (Dunya Raskolnikova) is ready to marry a man she does not love for money to help her family. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old pawnbroker and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use the stolen goods, he hides them. From this time on, the terrible life of a criminal begins. Subtle psychologism and understanding of an action are colorfully conveyed by Dostoevsky.

5 "Process" Franz Kafka

On the morning of his thirtieth birthday, Josef K. is arrested, but no reason is given, by two employees of a certain organization. However, Josef continues to lead his life as before, since the organization is not afraid of his escape. He is invited to court, visited at home and at work, and persecuted. All this time he is trying to find out the reason for his arrest, but he will not get the truth from the bureaucracy around him.

4 "Farewell to arms!" Ernest Hemingway

American architect Frederick Henry volunteers for the First World War in Italy. He serves as the commander of the transport department of the medical unit with the rank of lieutenant. Here, Frederick meets hospital nurse Catherine Barkley, and they develop mutual feelings for each other. Shortly after a series of Allied defeats and retreats, Frederick is forced to desert to avoid being ludicrously accused of espionage by the Italian field gendarmerie due to his American accent. Together with Catherine, he flees to neutral Switzerland, where, it seems to them, there is salvation from the cruelty of the world and senseless murders. But the apparent happiness turns out to be short-lived - Katherine, who became pregnant from her relationship with Frederick back in Italy, dies during childbirth in a Swiss hospital.

3 "Ulysses" James Joyce

The novel tells the story of one day of a Dublin man and a Jew by nationality, Leopold Bloom. Leo Bloom spends this day in the publishing house, on the streets and in cafes of Dublin, at the funeral of his friend, on the shore of the bay, in the maternity hospital, where he meets Stephen Dedalus, a young teacher at the local school, in a brothel and, finally, in his own home , where he brings the heavily drunk Daedalus, who has lost his home, late at night. The main intrigue of the novel is the betrayal of Bloom's wife, which Bloom knows about, but does not take any measures against her.

2 "1984" George Orwell

The main character, Winston Smith, lives in London, works in the Ministry of Truth and is a member of the external party. He does not share party slogans and ideology and deep down he strongly doubts the party, the surrounding reality and, in general, everything that can be doubted. In order to “let off steam” and not do a reckless act, he buys a diary in which he tries to express all his doubts. In public, he tries to pretend to be an adherent of party ideas. However, he fears that the girl Julia, who works in the same ministry, is spying on him and wants to expose him. At the same time, he believes that a high-ranking employee of their ministry, a member of the internal party, a certain O’Brien, also does not share the opinion of the party and is an underground revolutionary.

1 "The Great Gatsby" Francis Scott Fitzgerald

The story is told in the first person: Nick Carraway begins his story with advice that his wealthy father once gave him, who asked him not to judge other people who did not have his advantages. Following this advice became Nick's habit, with the exception of Gatsby. Nick leaves New York, where a story that has not yet been told to readers took place, to return to his native Midwest. Thus, the following story is a retrospective.

Nick begins his story with a memory of how he rented a house in West Egg on Long Island, where, unlike East Egg, not noble, but no less rich people lived. Nick visits the luxurious estate of Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Daisy was Nick's second cousin, and her husband, Tom, once played football at Yale (where he knew Nick briefly) and now enjoys wealth. Tom is portrayed by Nick as an arrogant man with racist views and a powerful physique, and Daisy as a charming but dim-witted woman, the mother of a three-year-old daughter. In this house, Nick meets Jordan Baker, Daisy's friend and a very famous golfer. Jordan tells Nick that Tom has a mistress in New York.

To meet the latter, Myrtle Wilson, the wife of the unsuspecting auto mechanic George, Tom rents an apartment in the city. Tom invites Nick there, where he also meets Katherine, Myrtle's sister, and the McKee couple, Myrtle's friends. The night ends with general drinking and a broken nose from Myrtle, who annoyed Tom by mentioning Daisy's name. Nick leaves the chaos with Mr. McKee.

Unexpectedly, Nick finds himself next door to Jay Gatsby, a very rich man known for hosting lavish, gay parties at his giant estate that are attended by hundreds of people every Saturday. Soon Gatsby's driver brings Nick a formal invitation to one of these parties. Gatsby is a mysterious man, with many rumors circulating about the size and source of his enormous wealth. None of the guests Nick meets even knows what Gatsby looks like. During the party, a man recognizes Nick, and it turns out that they are fellow soldiers. Subsequently, it turns out that Nick's fellow soldier is Mr. Gatsby himself. Soon a friendship begins between them.

A must-read classic. Part 1

Classics cannot always be relevant. Any text, as Eco wrote, can be interpreted and can be used. In the first case, you accept the game conditions set by the author. You interpret the text from the point of view of the conditions and time in which it was created. Explore it in order to understand its essence and nature. And when used, you are free to give your assessment of what is happening: criticize the characters, discuss their actions, etc. The use case is closer to me. Interpretation is more for literary monuments. That's why they are not relevant. But you can find benefits in them too - language, syllable: all this will help you speak and write better, formulate your thoughts more competently.

I need to grow up to many books. Not age-wise, but spiritually, and this is not the same thing. Even to many books from the school curriculum. Many books may be recommended to you, but any reading will be of no use until we study the classics. Our list contains only a small fraction of those classic works that are strictly required reading. But still we will try to offer you the best.

"Faust", Johann Goethe

Fools are content with
That they see meaning in every word.

The title of the book is so firmly connected with its author that many are sure that Goethe’s Faust is the name of the main character of the work, or even its title.

It is worth reading if only to know what one of the most quoted, respected, praised and referenced novels in human history is. Those who love motivation should like it, there’s more than enough of it here. This, my dear, is not just a story about how the charming Satan acquired the soul from the poor and hard-working Faust. This is a novel about people who rebelled against vegetation in reality in the name of freedom of action and thought. About people called to transform the world through joint free and reasonable work.

And this is also a treasure trove of quotes and wise sayings, in addition to the winged one: “Stop, just a moment, you’re wonderful!” And if you try to understand this not the simplest book, then in return it will give you the deep wisdom of the centuries, accumulated by Mr. Goethe and poured out in a stream of ink onto the white pages.

"The Divine Comedy", Dante Alighieri

There is that power that is called reason.
And you can weigh it on the scales
Good and evil.

It is an unthinkable crime against humanity to claim that The Divine Comedy is outdated, irrelevant and boring reading. It is boring for narrow-minded people, outdated for the ignorant, irrelevant for the stupid. Alighieri wrote an immortal opus named after the triumph of life not so that some idiot, seeing many letters, would begin to vilify his life’s work.

It doesn’t matter whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, an atheist or a believer, everyone should read this work. And an atheist even more so. Not in order to figure out which circle of Hell you will end up in, but in order to learn to distinguish between bad and good, kind and evil, worthy from vile. The stories of students, real and not so real, make you think about life. Not to come to God, but to understand yourself.

You can even describe this masterpiece as a review of a computer game. “The plot is interesting, the world is carefully thought out to the smallest detail.” And at the same time you can study the history of Italy during its most interesting period. How I love this work!

“If you want to throw yourself out of the window,” said Schweik. - So go into the room, I opened the window. I would not advise you to jump from the kitchen, because you will fall into the garden right on the roses, break all the bushes, and you will have to pay for it. And from that window you will fall perfectly onto the sidewalk and, if you are lucky, break your neck. If you're unlucky, you'll only break your ribs, arms and legs, and you'll have to pay for hospital treatment.

Josef Schweik is a separate layer of literary heroes who left the pages of books and took on a life of their own. He doesn't need literary history - he is a walking joke himself. There are few such heroes, except maybe him, Don Quixote, and... And, perhaps, that’s all. No one has such anecdotal significance. Therefore, some perceive “Schweik” as an easy, simple story. Yes, it is written in a masterpiece of satirical language, sometimes rude, sometimes ridiculous. And yet, this is an incredibly accurate and sometimes even offensive satire, exposing the war, the military leadership and, of course, idiots from society.

Hasek, a personality as epic as he is crazy, created the same hero. And despite the title of “idiot”, thanks to his merciless mockery of the nonsense reigning around him, Josef Schweik, smoking a pipe, drinking beer and telling one story more beautiful than the other, begins to seem like a completely normal person. So if suddenly you are considered an idiot, read this masterpiece, maybe you are really out of your mind? And what are the exact quotes here: from the topical: “The spirit of a power alien to the people was wafting from the walls of the police department,” to the vital: “The trouble is, when a person suddenly starts philosophizing, it always smells like delirium tremens.” They can be collected, inserted as a commentary on any news, and they will always be, as they say, on point.

"Childhood", Maxim Gorky

Dying is not great wisdom, if only you knew how to live!

Tolstoy's "Childhood" could be here, but this is not his main work, there are others, more important and sensitive, which characterize the count and life better. You can read them anyway. But with Gorky it’s completely the opposite: without reading childhood, you won’t understand either the author himself or life. The sad autobiographical narrative of the first years of Gorky's life, which you successfully skipped in high school, explains many things much better. It’s even strange: the book’s actions take place at the end of the 19th century, but life, people and human bastardism have not changed. It is these things that Gorky, from the position of a wise, gray-haired man, writes about. And it’s impossible to tear yourself away, and you can’t argue with the author’s opinion.

Unfortunately, the image of the Bolshevik writer alienates modern readers from him, but in vain. “Old Woman Izergil” is one of the best folklore works in history, “At the Lower Depths” is social, “Makar Chudra” sounds funny, and, of course, the wonderful “Childhood”, which you need to read for yourself, and not out of respect for the school program and the man after whom streets and airplanes were named.

"Crime and Punishment", Fyodor Dostoevsky

Poverty is not a vice, it is the truth. I know that drunkenness is not a virtue, and this is even more so. But poverty, dear sir, poverty is a vice, sir. In poverty you still retain your nobility of innate feelings, but in poverty, no one ever does.

An absolutely expected piece on this list, isn't it? And it is precisely because of this “expectation”, because of his fame, because of the awe that the author’s name evokes, that it is worth reading. Because Dostoevsky became fashionable. And it’s disgusting that many people try to love and read him, although what they read does not evoke any emotions in them. Therefore, you must independently study the most iconic work of the master and form your attitude towards it without regard to fashion and universal veneration.

Well, of course, not only for this. The book is really interesting and good. The author plunges into the psychological process of a crime, like Jacques-If Cousteau into the bosom of another sea, and fishes out pictures from there that make one understand the criminal rather than condemn him. And what colorful and unfortunate heroes are everywhere, it’s hard to even call them minor.

But from the standpoint of personal opinion, many aspects can be argued, and this is right, this is good: when a book gives rise to controversy, it means that it is obligatory.

"The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha", Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

All women are like that,” said Don Quixote. - A distinctive feature of their nature is to despise those who love them and love those who despise them.

Pay attention to the quote. It was written 200 years before the same idea was expressed in poetic form by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin for his “Eugene Onegin”. In the novel of wisdom itself, even with a spoon, the main thing is to discern it in time.

Cervantes wrote a unique work that has everything: laugh, write out aphorisms, and think. Not everyone will be impressed by the noticeably outdated style, not everyone will be pleased by the scale of the work, but those who are eager to find out why the name of the main character has become a household name, and why the name of Cervantes is woven into world culture with golden threads, may begin to look at some things from a different angle.

A novel about the adventures of a completely sick man, written by a writer going crazy, is considered by many as a parody of chivalric novels that had gone out of fashion by that time. But in fact, the great genius laughs at a society that has completely lost its nobility, and the last worthy person turned out to be the crazy old man Alonso Quijano, who had read these same novels and set off on a journey on a decrepit nag, taking with him the peasant Sancho Panzo - the only “voice of reason” in their well-coordinated team.

Every name is a common noun, every phrase is an aphorism. Over the 400 years of its existence, the novel has not lost its popularity, spawning a bunch of imitators and proudly bearing the title of the best novel in the history of literature. Yes, we all came out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” but first we came out of Cervantes’s Rocinante.

"Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov

We are not sex fiends! We do not rape, as brave soldiers do. We are unfortunate, meek, well-bred people with dog eyes, who have adapted enough to restrain our impulses in the presence of adults, but are ready to give many, many years of our lives for one opportunity to touch a nymphet.

A novel that revolutionized world literature and made Nabokov a favorite author of both the intelligentsia and poorly educated degenerates who have not read the book, but they really like the idea itself: a sexual relationship between a man and a little girl.

But in fact, Nabokov wrote about great love, which due to certain circumstances, namely the minority of the object of love, was condemned by society. When an adult guy starts cohabiting with a non-grown girl, it doesn’t end well. The child grows up, she becomes bored, and the damned Lolya ceases to value “love at first sight, at last sight, at eternal sight” in anything.

And, of course, some compliments to Bunin’s former heir. Nabokov writes about a taboo topic frankly, but without obvious vulgarity. The beautiful, rich language of the classical Russian writer describes even the most slippery fragments of an erotic nature as if we are talking about the unrequited love of two adults.

Read a novel that greatly influenced the American literary school and slightly opened the doors of what was prohibited in popular literature.

"Night in Lisbon", Erich Maria Remarque

The world never seems so beautiful as in the moment when you say goodbye to it, when you are deprived of freedom.

“All Quiet on the Western Front”, “Three Comrades” - these are, of course, legendary novels and classic to the point of stupor, but this story touches no less, to the very heart. It is about the war, even if it is not written from the point of view of a soldier. It's about loss, even if not in combat. It's about the loss of what is most precious, it's about powerlessness in the face of tragedy.

You need to grow up to it, you need to be prepared for it, because behind the easy title, which is more suitable for a love story, lies a drama the likes of which the world has never seen. It is about love, but this love was crushed and swallowed up by a war that burned out everything in the human soul. The desperate confession of a man who has lost everything discourages even the most fierce cynic. You don’t even want to think about how you would live if, God forbid, you were in the narrator’s place.

The novel itself is structured as a story within a story, where the unfortunate man, against the backdrop of the turmoil of calm Lisbon, tells his story to Ludwig Kern (whoever has read “Love Thy Neighbor” knows this hero). This confession was supposed to be payment for tickets on a boat with refugees, but it became something more. With his style, Remarque is able to turn even a fairy tale about a kolobok into a bestseller about tired people and a lost generation. But here he outdid himself.

"The Golden Calf", Ilya Ilf, Evgeny Petrov

Women love: young, politically literate, long-legged...

Some will be indignant: they say, why the hell did we include the imperishable Ilf and Petrov in the lists of classics, and not Gogol or Chekhov? After all, against the backdrop of, say, “The Cherry Orchard,” on which even Americans stage plays like “The Golden Calf” and “12 Chairs,” seem like easy reading.

Well, you can argue with the latter, because if the novel is not known abroad as well as The Inspector General, this does not mean that it is worse. It’s just that the realities of the NEP are difficult to explain to the Palestinians. A story that is disseminated with quotes (such as “A car is not a luxury, but a means of transportation”) - is it really not a classic? This is a classic squared, cubed! Ideal, easy, understandable to everyone, even a 12-year-old child (at this age your humble servant first became acquainted with this reading), where every phrase is an aphorism, where even serious moments are presented as ironically as possible. In some sense, this is the history of the country, and in some sense, it is a diagnosis of society, and, as often happens, the types and characters described in abundance have not disappeared in our time.

Ilf and Petrov, talented journalists, communicate with the reader extremely ironically and intelligently, choosing such turns of speech that one gets the impression that you are at the performance of a stand-up comedian, in a cozy conversation making fun of the Kareikas, Benders, Panikovskys and Shura Balaganovs.

"The Decameron", Giovanni Boccaccio

Who is talking about what, but we are talking about our beloved Renaissance. Well, where would we be without him, if such masterpieces were written in the 14th century! And, surprisingly, this epoch-making work is very easy to read. It is clear that the ornate style that was fashionable at that time is fully present (sorry, this is not the laconic Dovlatov), ​​but the book is still very easy to read. And most importantly, it is interesting even after all this time.

For some reason, many people think that the word “decameron” sounds somehow dramatic and carries a negative connotation, but in fact the name is translated from Greek as “ten days,” that is, ten days. And all these ten days, beautiful young people who fled out of town from the plague tell each other delightful stories, and, as usual, one story is more beautiful than the other.

While reading, you begin to enjoy the freedom and relaxedness of the heroes of Boccaccio’s short stories. There are no limits, they live and enjoy life. And that's great!

For some reason, it’s even difficult to explain why, I want to return to the Decameron again and again. The impressions from reading it are as wonderful as the memory of first love, the first glass of beer, the first time in prison. And the stories that these beautiful young people tell, collected from the urban folklore of Florence, mythology and popular fairy tales of the time, are truly interesting. And when, almost 700 years after the writing of these short stories, you read “50 Shades of Gray,” you wonder where humanity took a wrong turn?