Зарубежная классическая проза
6404 кн.
The Charles River divides Boston and Cambridge, and the Red Line ties the cities together, traveling through an expanse of class and cultures along its route. When an unlikely combination of riders share an afternoon train, they are surprised to discover what's common in their American experience. Part of the prestigious Open Door Series, originally designed for adult literacy in Ireland, these books confirm the truth that a story doesn't have to be...
| Автор | Loretta Welch |
Introduced by John Burns. This is the world of universal future war. Faced with the threat of bombs, bacteriological warfare and poison gas, a married couple whose pacifism compels them to opt out of ‘civilisation’, take to the hills to live as fugitives in the wild. Plainly and simply told, Wild Harbour charts the practical difficulties, the successes and failures of living rough in the beautiful hills of remote Speyside. In this respect the book belongs to a tradition of Scottish fiction...
| Автор | Ian MacPherson |
Two pairs of young lovers fall asleep in an ancient Athenian forest and wake to find themselves in the middle of a good deed gone wrong. A Midsummer Night's Dream conjures up a fairyland inhabited by well-intentioned sprites whose magic leads to farcical confusion. The mirthful tangle of mistaken identities and misplaced affections develops and resolves in the glorious poetry of England's greatest playwright.Shakespeare's fantastical comedy has enchanted audiences since its debut...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Mark Twain's inimitable blend of humor, satire and masterly storytelling earned him a secure place in the front rank of American writers. This collection of eight stories and sketches, among them the celebrated classic «The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,» shows the great humorist at the top of his form.Also included here are «Journalism in Tennessee,» in which a novice newspaperman is shown the «correct way» to report a news story; «About Barbers,» a delightful account of every...
| Автор | Mark Twain |
A traveling salesman awakens from troubled slumbers to find himself transformed into a giant insect. Franz Kafka's matter-of-fact tone brings an air of absolute truth to his fantastic narrative, which chronicles the effects of this monstrous conversion upon the protagonist's business and family life. Interpretations of Kafka's acclaimed 1915 novella range from religious allegory to psychoanalytic case history. All agree upon its status as a landmark work of twentieth-century...
| Автор | Franz Kafka |
What dark deed from the past haunts Major Heatherstone? Why does he live like a hermit at Cloomber Hall, forbidding his children to venture beyond the estate grounds? Why is he plagued by the sound of a tolling bell, and why does his paranoia rise to frantic levels each year on the fifth of October? With the sudden appearance of three shipwrecked Buddhist monks, the answers to these questions follow close behind. Arthur Conan Doyle's Gothic thriller unfolds in his native Scotland, in a...
| Автор | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
"A powerful rendition, an incomparable tale." — The New York Times"Definitely a book to preserve and cherish." — Chicago Sun"The first complete English edition, brilliantly translated. Throughout it retains the beauty and sense of fatality that have made it one of legendary literature's most fascinating tales." — TimeThis immortal tale from the Age of Chivalry concerns the doomed love between a knight and a princess — one of the great romances of...
| Автор | Группа авторов |
The unique boundaries of the short story have attracted a majority of the prominent writers in the German language since the genre attained its modern form and became widely read around the turn of the 19th century.This collection, featuring stories by eight of the form's most successful practitioners, includes Arthur Schnitzler's «Lieutenant Gustl,» considered to be the first purely interior monologue in European literature; Heinrich von Kleist's «Earthquake in Chile,» a highly...
| Автор | Группа авторов |
One of the towering figures of Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoyevsky depicted with remarkable insight the depth and complexity of the human soul. In this literary classic, he focuses on Prince Myshkin — a nobleman whose gentle, child-like nature, and refusal to be offended by anything has earned him the nickname of «the idiot.»Returning to Russia from Switzerland, where he underwent medical treatment for a number of years, Myshkin learns of his benefactor's death, finds himself...
| Автор | Fyodor Dostoyevsky |
A young beauty defies bigotry to marry a heroic warrior of a different race, but a false friend poisons her husband's mind with jealousy, «the green-eyed monster.» This gripping drama of romance and treachery unfolds amid the Renaissance splendor of Venice and Cyprus, centering on a soldier's plot to exact revenge by exploiting the weaknesses of others. An eloquent tale of betrayal and racism, Shakespeare's seventeenth-century tragedy continues to resonate for today's...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
One of the most universally studied of the English classics, Beowulf is considered the finest heroic poem in Old English. Written ten centuries ago, it celebrates the character and exploits of Beowulf, a young nobleman of the Geats, a people of southern Sweden.Beowulf first rescues the royal house of Denmark from two marauding monsters, then returns to rule his people for 50 years, ultimately losing life in a battle to defend the Geats from a dragon's rampage. The poem combines mythical...
| Автор | Группа авторов |
One of the major works of fiction written during the twentieth century, D. H. Lawrence's last novel is an erotic celebration of life. Described by <I>The</I> <I>New York Times</I> as «our time's most significant romance,» the controversial book was banned, burned, and the subject of a landmark obscenity trial. Printed privately in Florence in 1928, it was not published in Great Britain until 1960, after having long scandalized society with its sexually...
| Автор | D. H. Lawrence |
Praised by critics and studied by scholars, Jane Austen's novels endure because of their popularity with readers. The author's witty and astute observations elevate her tales of parties, gossip, and romance into matters of captivating drama, offering an evocative portrait of everyday life in the towns and countryside of Regency England. Austen's premature death at the age of forty-two curtailed her legacy, and her devotees have eagerly read and re-read her handful of books. This...
| Автор | Джейн Остин |
Undoubtedly the best-known detective in literature, Sherlock Holmes was the creation of British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), who endowed his super sleuth with an extraordinary facility for solving crimes. Drawing on his remarkable powers of observation and deduction, coupled with an encyclopedic knowledge of crimes and criminals, Holmes seeks out his prey in the London underworld, where no evildoer is safe from his keen wits and tenacious pursuit.Reprinted from a standard...
| Автор | Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
Preoccupied with death, and repressed in many areas of their lives, Victorians seem to have found an emotional outlet in ghost stories, eerie tales, and a fascination with the macabre. Writers of the era fed this appetite with a continuing feast of stories steeped in terror and the supernatural. This unique collection gathers together 21 of these Victorian-era spine-tinglers, but unlike most anthologies, which feature the same tired tales, this volume contains 21 outstanding, but neglected...
| Автор | Группа авторов |
Ambition overpowers loyalty in this drama of a Scottish noble's rise to power. Goaded by his scheming wife, Macbeth realizes too late that «blood will have blood,» as each monstrous crime demands the reinforcement of another, sending him further and further down the path to his own destruction. Shakespeare's drama of treason and doom features a fast-paced plot, tumultuous action, and a cast of compelling characters, including a trio of fortune-telling witches. A definitive survey, this...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
A charismatic politician's assassination leads to a civil war in Shakespeare's drama of ancient Rome. Written in 1599 about an event from more than 2,000 years ago, this historical play continues to captivate modern audiences with its memorable characters, poetic speeches, and profound examination of the conflicting claims of ambition, ethics, and loyalty. With its compelling insights into history and human nature, Julius Caesar often serves as an introduction to the works of...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
The melancholy Dane's grief for his dead father and suspicion of his ambitious uncle drive him to acts of insanity and violence — and to articulate some of the most quoted speeches in the English language. In addition to its gilded rhetoric, Shakespeare's revenge drama offers an enthralling plot, rich character studies, and other psychologically complex aspects that invite and reward closer examination. Shakespeare's most popular play with modern audiences, Hamlet is not...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Even those who have never read or seen Romeo and Juliet recognize the star-crossed lovers' names as symbols of forbidden romance. Shakespeare's enduring drama takes place during a sultry Italian summer, in a city already boiling with the enmity between two families. Tensions rise further when an irresistible passion develops between members of opposite sides and the play's mood alternates between hope and despair. Romeo and Juliet was among the author's most popular plays...
| Автор | Уильям Шекспир |
Among the country's greatest artistic contributions, 20th-century Russian literature was revolutionary in its approach to realism, injecting characters with human weaknesses familiar to all. It also provided fodder for other such important concepts as existentialism and even passive resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy, and practiced resistance, which was rooted in the works of Tolstoy and practiced successfully by Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The 12 powerful short stories...
| Автор | Группа авторов |
A ferryboat captain in search of a notorious ivory trader ventures into an African jungle, where he discovers a dark side of the human condition. In this burning indictment of colonialism, Joseph Conrad drew upon his own shipboard experiences in the region formerly known as the Belgian Congo. His novella explores the potential for evil that lurks behind the illusion of civilized restraint.No student of modern fiction can afford to neglect Heart of Darkness or to overlook its narrative and...
| Автор | Джозеф Конрад |
A parody of traveler’s tales and a satire of human nature, “Gulliver’s Travels” is Jonathan Swift’s most famous work which was first published in 1726. An immensely popular tale ever since its original publication, “Gulliver’s Travels” is the story of its titular character, Lemuel Gulliver, a man who loves to travel. A series of four journeys are detailed in which Gulliver finds himself in a number of amusing and precarious situations. In the first voyage, Gulliver is imprisoned by a race of...
| Автор | Jonathan Swift |
First published in 1902, Owen Wister’s “The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains” is a genre-defining work, arguably the first western novel, in which the life of the cowboy of the Old West is romanticized. A highly fictionalized account of the Johnson County War, a dispute in 1890s Wyoming between large cattle ranchers and smaller operators over land use, Wister’s novel is the story of a tall and handsome cowboy known only as the Virginian. At the outset of the novel we meet the Virginian...
| Автор | Owen Wister |
First published in 1814, “Mansfield Park” is Jane Austen’s third published novel, the story of Fanny Price, an impoverished young girl who at the age of ten is sent away by her overburdened family to be raised by her wealthy aunt and uncle, Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram, at their estate, the titular Mansfield Park. This classic coming of age story follows the young lives of Fanny and her four cousins, Tom, Edmund, Maria, and Julia. When Sir Thomas incurs a large debt he is forced to rent out the...
| Автор | Джейн Остин |