What can you read from Russian classics? The best works of classical world literature that are worth reading for the soul

Surely many people believe that classical works, by their definition, are long, boring, have been written for many years, and therefore are not always understandable to modern reader. This is a common mistake. After all, in fact, classics are everything that is not subject to time. The themes revealed in such works are relevant for any century. And if a 19th century author wrote such a book now, it would again become a bestseller. We bring to your attention the best classic ones. They captivated millions of readers. And even those who claim that they are dissatisfied with the author’s creation, believe me, did not remain indifferent.

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The novel consists of two different but intertwined parts. The first one is set in modern Moscow, the second one is in ancient Jerusalem. Each part is filled with events and characters - historical, fictional, as well as scary and amazing creatures.

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What forces move people? They are the result of actions individuals- kings, generals - or such a feeling as patriotism, or there is a third force that determines the direction of history. The main characters are painfully searching for the answer to this question.

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The novel is based on the experience that Dostoevsky received in hard labor. Student Raskolnikov, who has vegetated in poverty for several months, is convinced that a humane goal will justify the most terrible act, even the murder of a greedy and useless old money-lender.

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A novel that was ahead of its time and came out long before such a thing appeared. cultural phenomenon like postmodernism. The main characters of the work - 4 sons born from different mothers - symbolize those irrepressible elements that can lead to the death of Russia.

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Should I stay with my husband, who has always been indifferent to her? inner world and never loved her, or give yourself with all your heart to the one who made her feel happy? Throughout the entire novel, the heroine, the young aristocrat Anna, is tormented by this choice.

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The poor young prince returns home to Russia by train. On the way, he meets the son of one of the rich merchants, who is obsessed with a passion for one girl, a kept woman. In a metropolitan society obsessed with money, power and manipulation, the prince finds himself an outsider.

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Despite the title, the work itself has nothing to do with the mysticism that is mainly inherent in the work of this writer. In the tradition of “harsh” realism, the life of landowners in the Russian province is described, where a former official comes to carry out his scam.

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A young St. Petersburg rake, fed up with love and social entertainment, leaves for the village, where he strikes up a friendship with a poet who is in love with one of the daughters of a local nobleman. The second daughter falls in love with the rake, but he does not respond to her feelings.

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A famous Moscow surgeon decides to conduct a very risky experiment on a stray dog ​​in his large apartment, where he receives patients. As a result, the animal began to turn into a human. But at the same time he acquired all human vices.

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People come to the provincial town who, it would seem, cannot be connected by anything. But they know each other, since they belong to the same revolutionary organization. Their goal is to create a political riot. Everything goes according to plan, but one revolutionary decides to quit the game.

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Cult work XIX century. At the center of the story is a student who does not accept traditional public morality and opposes everything old and non-progressive. For him, only scientific knowledge is valuable, which can explain everything. Except love.

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He was a doctor by profession, a writer by vocation, whose talent was fully revealed when creating short humorous stories. They quickly became classics around the world. In them, in an accessible language - the language of humor - human vices are revealed.

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This work is on a par with Gogol's poem. In it, the main character is also a young adventurer who is ready to promise everyone something that, in principle, cannot be done. And all for the sake of a treasure that several other people know about. And no one is going to share it.

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After a three-year separation, young Alexander returns to the house of his beloved Sophia to propose to her. However, she refuses him and says that she now loves someone else. The rejected lover begins to blame the society in which Sophia grew up.

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What should a real nobleman do if the life of a young noble girl depends on him? Sacrifice yourself, but not lose your honor. This is what guides the young officer when the fortress in which he serves is attacked by the impostor king.

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Terrible poverty and hopelessness are strangling the old resident of Cuba. One day, as usual, he goes to sea, not hoping for a big catch. But this time he catches a large prey on his hook, with which the fisherman fights for several days, not giving it the opportunity to escape.

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Ragin selflessly serves as a doctor. However, his zeal is fading; he sees no point in changing the life around him, because it is impossible to cure the madness that reigns around him. The doctor begins to visit the ward daily where the mentally ill are kept.

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What is more destructive - to do nothing and just indulge in dreams about how to live, or to get off the couch and start implementing your plans? The young and lazy landowner Ilya Ilyich initially occupied the first position, but after he fell in love, he woke up from his sleepy state.

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Write magnificent works maybe not only about life big city, but also about the life of a small Ukrainian farm. During the day, the usual rules apply here, and at night power passes to supernatural forces, which can both help and at the same time destroy.

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A talented surgeon settles illegally in Paris, but is not prevented from practicing medicine. Before moving, he lived in Germany, from which he fled, but at the same time allowed his beloved to die. In a new place, he quickly begins another romance.

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A Russian tutor goes on a trip with the family in which he serves. At the same time, he is secretly in love with the girl Polina. And so that she understands all his nobility, he begins to play roulette in the hope of getting big money. And he succeeds, but the girl does not accept the winnings.

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The world of family comfort, nobility and true patriotism is breaking under the onslaught of social catastrophe in Russia. The escaped Russian officers settled in Ukraine and hoped that they would not fall under the rule of the Bolsheviks. But one day the city's defenses weaken and the enemy goes on the offensive.

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A series of small works written in different artistic styles. Here you can find a romantic duelist and sentimental stories about eternal love, and a harsh picture of reality in which money rules, and because of it a person can lose the most important thing.

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What Pushkin failed to do in his time, Dostoevsky did. The work is entirely a correspondence between a poor official and a young girl who also has a small income. But at the same time, the heroes are not poor in soul.

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A story about the invincibility and perseverance of a man who does not want to be someone's faithful soldier. For the sake of freedom, Hadji Murat goes over to the side of the imperial troops, but does this in order to save not himself, but his family, which is captured by the enemy.

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In these seven works, the author takes us through the streets of St. Petersburg, which was built with the help of strength and ingenuity on swampy terrain. Beneath its harmonious façade lies deception and violence. The inhabitants are confused by the city itself, giving them false dreams.

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This collection short stories- the first major work that won the author recognition. It is based on personal observations while hunting on his mother's estate, where Turgenev learned about the mistreatment of peasants and the injustice of the Russian system.

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Main character- the son of a landowner whose property was confiscated by a corrupt and treacherous general. After the death of his father, the hero becomes a criminal. To achieve the ultimate goal - revenge - he resorts to more cunning means: he seduces the daughter of his enemy.

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This classic novel written about the war from the perspective of a young German soldier. The hero is only 18 years old, and under the pressure of his family, friends and society, he enlists in military service and goes to the front. There he witnesses such horrors that he dares not tell anyone about.

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Mischievous and energetic, Tom enjoys childhood pranks and games with his friends. One day, at the city cemetery, he witnesses a murder committed by a local tramp. The hero makes a vow that he will never talk about it, and so begins his journey into adulthood.

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The story of a pathetic St. Petersburg official whose expensive overcoat was stolen. No one wants to help him return the item, which eventually makes the hero seriously ill. Even during the author’s lifetime, critics adequately appreciated the work from which all Russian realism was born.

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The novel is on a par with another work of the author - “The Call of the Wild”. Most of White Fang is also written from the point of view of the dog whose name appears in the title. This allows the author to show how animals see their world and how they see humans.

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The novel tells the story of 19-year-old Arkady, the illegitimate son of a landowner and a maid, as he struggles to improve his situation and “become a Rothschild,” despite the fact that Russia remains tied to its old value system.

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The novel is about how the hero, who is very broken and disillusioned due to a failed marriage, returns to his estate and finds his love again - only to lose her. This reflects main topic: a person is not destined to experience happiness except something ephemeral.

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A dark and engrossing tale that follows the struggle of an indecisive, alienated hero in a world of relative values. The innovative work introduced moral, religious, political and social topics, which dominate the author's later masterpieces.

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The narrator arrives in Sevastopol, which is under siege, and makes a detailed inspection of the city. As a result, the reader has the opportunity to study all the features of military life. We find ourselves at a dressing station, where horror reigns, and at the most dangerous bastion.

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The work is partly based on life experience author who took part in the war in the Caucasus. A nobleman, disillusioned with his privileged life, enlists in the army to escape superficiality Everyday life. A hero in search of a full life. 38.$
First social novel author who is partly artistic introductory remarks for those who belonged to a previous era, but lived in times when political and social movements. This era has already been forgotten, but it is worth remembering.

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One of the greatest and most successful dramatic works. A Russian aristocrat and her family return to their estate to oversee the public auction of their house and huge garden for debt. The old masters are losing in the struggle to new trends in life.

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The hero was sentenced to death on charges of murdering his wife, but was subsequently exiled to Siberian penal servitude for 10 years. Life in prison is hard for him - he is an intellectual and experiences the anger of other prisoners. Gradually he overcomes his disgust and experiences a spiritual awakening.

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On the eve of his wedding, a young aristocrat learns that his bride was having an affair with the king. This was a blow to his pride, so he renounces everything worldly and becomes a monk. This is how they pass long years humility and doubt. Until he decides to become a hermit.

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The editor falls into the hands of a manuscript that tells about a young and depraved man who worked as a forensic investigator. It becomes one of the "corners" in love triangle, in which a married couple is involved. The story ends with the murder of his wife.

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A work banned until 1988, in which, through the fate of one military doctor, the story of a people who perished in the turmoil of the revolution is told. From the general madness, the hero, together with his family, flees into the interior of the country, where he meets someone whom he does not want to let go.

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The main character, like all his friends, is a war veteran. He is a poet at heart, but he works for a friend who runs a small tombstone manufacturing business. This money is not enough, and he gets Additional income, giving private lessons and playing the organ at a local mental hospital.

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In someone else's war, Frederic falls in love with a nurse and tries to seduce her, after which their relationship begins. But one day the hero is wounded by a fragment of a mortar shell, and he is sent to a Milan hospital. There, far from the war, he heals - both physically and mentally.

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During breakfast, the barber discovers in his bread human nose. With horror, he recognizes him as the nose of a regular visitor who holds the rank of collegiate assessor. In turn, the injured official discovers the loss and submits an absurd advertisement to the newspaper.

47.
The main character, a boy, seeking independence and freedom, escapes from his alcoholic father by faking his own death. And so begins his journey through the south of the country. He meets a runaway slave and they float down the Mississippi River together.

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The plot of the poem is based on the events that actually took place in St. Petersburg in 1824. The political, historical and existential questions that the author articulates with dazzling force and brevity continue to be the subject of controversy among critics.

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To save his beloved, who was forcibly taken away by an evil sorcerer, the warrior Ruslan will have to go on an epic and dangerous journey, encountering many fantastic and terrible creatures. This is a dramatic and witty retelling of Russian folklore.

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The most famous play describes a family of aristocrats who have difficulty finding any meaning in their lives. Three sisters and their brother live in a remote province, but they struggle to return to the sophisticated Moscow where they grew up. The play captures the decline of the “masters of life.”

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The hero is obsessed with an all-consuming love for one princess, who is unlikely to know about his existence. One day socialite receives an expensive bracelet for his birthday. The husband finds a secret admirer and asks him to stop compromising a decent woman.

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In this classic literary representation gambling the author explores the nature of obsession. Secret and otherworldly clues alternate with the story of the passionate Herman, who wants to make his fortune at the card table. The secret of success is known to one old woman.

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Muscovite Gurov is married and has a daughter and two sons. However, he is not happy in family life and often cheats on his wife. While vacationing in Yalta, he sees a young lady walking along the embankment with her small dog, and is constantly looking for opportunities to get to know her.

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This collection is in some ways the culmination of the work he did throughout his life. The stories were written on the eve of a terrible world war in the context of collapsing Russian culture. The action of each work concentrates on a love theme.

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The story is told from the point of view of an anonymous narrator who recalls his youth, in particular his time in a small town west of the Rhine. Critics consider the hero to be a classic “superfluous person” - indecisive and undecided of his place in life.

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The four laconic plays, later known as "Little Tragedies", were written at a time of heightened creative strength, and their influence cannot be overestimated. Being the author's adaptation of plays by Western European authors, "Tragedies" offers readers current problems.

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This story takes place in Europe, in a hedonistic society during the Roaring Twenties. A rich girl with schizophrenia falls in love with her psychiatrist. As a result, a whole saga unfolds about troubled marriages, love affairs, duels and incest.

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Some scholars identify three poems in the work of this author, which embody one original idea. One of them is, of course, “Mtsyri”. The main character is a 17-year-old monk who was forcibly taken away from his village as a child, and one day he escapes.

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A completely young mongrel runs away from his permanent owner and finds a new one. He turns out to be an artist who performs in a circus with acts in which animals participate. Therefore, a separate number is immediately invented for the smart little dog.

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In this story, among its many themes, such as Europeanized Russian society, adultery and provincial life, the theme of a woman comes to the fore, or rather, the planning of a murder by a woman. The title of the work contains a reference to Shakespeare's play.

61. Leo Tolstoy - Fake coupon
Schoolboy Mitya desperately needs money - he needs to repay his debt. Depressed by this situation, he follows the evil advice of his friend, who showed him how to change the denomination of a banknote. This act sets off a chain of events that affects the lives of dozens of other people.

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Proust's most important work, known for its length and theme of involuntary memories. The novel began to take shape back in 1909. The author continued to work on it until his last illness, which forced me to stop working.

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The lengthy poem tells the story of seven peasants who set out to ask various groups of the village population if they were happy. But wherever they went, they were always given an unsatisfactory answer. Of the planned 7-8 parts, the author wrote only half.

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The story is about the sad life of a young girl who lived in extreme poverty and suddenly became an orphan, but she is adopted rich family. When she meets her new stepsister, Katya, she instantly falls in love with her and the two soon become inseparable.

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Main character - classic hero Hemingway: a violent guy, an underground liquor dealer who smuggles weapons and transports people from Cuba to the Florida Keys. He risks his life, dodges the Coast Guard's bullets and manages to outsmart them.

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While traveling on a train, one of the passengers overhears a conversation going on in the compartment. When one woman argues that marriage should be based on true love, he asks her: what is love? In his opinion, love quickly turns into hatred, and tells its own story.

67. Leo Tolstoy - Notes of a Marker
The narrator is a simple marker, a person who keeps score and places the balls on the billiard table. If the game turns out well and the players are not stingy, then he gets a good reward. But one day a very gambling young man appears at the club.

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The main character is looking for peace in Polesie, which should invigorate him. But in the end he ends up with unbearable boredom. But one day, having lost his way, he comes across a hut where an old woman and her beautiful granddaughter are waiting for him. After such a magical meeting, the hero becomes a frequent visitor here.

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The focus is on the janitor tall and powerful physique. He falls in love with a young washerwoman and wants to marry her. But the lady decides differently: the girl goes to the always drunk shoemaker. The hero finds his solace in caring for a small dog.

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One evening, three sisters shared their dreams with each other: what they would do if they became the wives of the king. But only the third sister’s pleas were heard - Tsar Saltan took her in marriage and ordered her to give birth to an heir by a certain date. But envious sisters begin to play dirty tricks.

Photo – pixabay.com

1. Remember the pillar of Russian literature

Pushkin and Lermontov? Ugh, corny! We finally grow up when we forget school grievances and reread "War and Peace" by Leo Tolstoy- an incredibly large-scale and deep reflection on the hidden springs of history, Napoleon, Kutuzov, as well as love and the motives of human actions.

+1 : Continue with " Anna Karenina" Confusion of feelings, a scandal in a noble family and the opportunity to understand whether Leo Tolstoy was a misogynist.

2. Look at people who don't change over time

IN "The Master and Margarita" by Mikhail Bulgakov satirical scenes of the adventures of Satan and his retinue in Soviet Moscow are interspersed with the story of the arrest and execution of Christ. There is also room for the love of the titular Master and Margarita. The novel hooks you in such a way that you then want to re-read it again and again.

+1 : « dog's heart “- Bulgakov’s story about how Professor Preobrazhensky conducts an experiment on the yard yard Sharik and turns him into a person. In post-revolutionary Moscow, the resulting semi-criminal element instantly found a place.

Still from the film “Anna Karenina” (2012)

3. Get into the deep jungle of psychology

"Crime and Punishment" by Fyodor Dostoevsky considered a classic psychological novel. Student Raskolnikov kills the old pawnbroker to prove that he is a “superman.” Pangs of conscience ruin the lives of him and those around him.

+1 : Novel Oscar Wilde « The Picture of Dorian Grey"will show how easy it is to slide downhill, ruining your own soul. The main character falls under the spell of a vicious friend, and his whole nasty essence is reflected in the portrait, keeping him young.

4. Be horrified by perverted individuals

"Perfume" by Patrick Suskind tells about a young man who, not having his own scent, decides to take it away from others. A frightening yet compelling combination of the beautiful and the disgusting in a superbly written text.

+1 : IN "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov the hero does everything to seduce a 12-year-old girl. The excellent language of the book did not make it any less controversial - there were many attempts to ban the novel due to its obscene content.

Still from the film “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (2006)

5. Believe in love with a happy ending

In the book Jane Austen "Pride and Prejudice" Elizabeth Bennett and Mark Darcy will be able to cope with their negative impulses and look at each other with an open mind. Dear old England, subtle irony, interesting characters and current topics for all time.

+1 : "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë shows strong female character and a vivid confrontation between independent individuals who cannot decide to love. Touching, sad, heartfelt and with an unpleasant secret in the attic of the family house.

6. Understand the moral of the story

Fairy tale parable « A little prince» Antoine de Saint-Exupéry will teach many important things about friendship and love, loyalty and duty, beauty and intolerance of evil. “We are responsible for those we have tamed,” remember?

+1 : Book Richard Bach's "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" about a seagull learning life and the art of flight, reads like a hymn to self-improvement and self-sacrifice, a manifesto of boundless spiritual freedom.

Still from the TV series “Jane Eyre” (2006)

7. Hate war and its consequences

"Three Comrades" by Erich Maria Remarque talks about the friendship of three men and tragic love one of them. The characters are likable, action-packed, and the story is perfectly wrapped up with a mood that's very similar to John Green's bestseller The Fault in Our Stars.

+1 : The filth and inhumanity of war are perfectly shown in the novel Ernest Hemingway "For Whom the Bell Tolls". All life is a combination of love, courage, self-sacrifice, moral duty and the value of other people's existence.

8. Immerse yourself in a dystopia

In the book Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451" Firemen burn books so the government can keep society under control. Scary world, interesting thoughts, intriguing story and a strong ending.

+1 : U George Orwell we will recommend " Barnyard "(after all, you couldn’t have still not read his “1984”?). In a humorous fable, a modest farm gradually turns into totalitarian society. These pigs are scary to watch.

Look for the continuation of the list tomorrow.

Until new books!

Classic Literature Foundation in different times filled with outstanding geniuses of their peoples and their era. We love them for the opportunity to plunge into the world of the distant past, so classic literature remains popular at all times.

Classical literature: general characteristics

It happens that a certain mood makes us pay attention to classic books, because the most famous works often the best. Not in vain, because it was these best works that inspired others famous authors- representatives of subsequent popular generations in literature. Golden classic, an eternal series of books, will be a salvation for those who are not seduced by modern literary works, because it was the authors from this list of classics who were genre pioneers long before the postmodern era arrived, and literary world flared up with all the genre diversity that was difficult to even imagine in the conventional 19th century. Nevertheless, all this became possible precisely thanks to the classics, as evidenced by numerous reviews.

Books of world classics: list

As you know, classical works are not just books, but also markers of an era, which are considered exemplary examples of how the best writers saw their literary heritage. In addition, most often the problems of classical works resonate with the worldview of an entire generation, which makes the mass reader love these books with all his soul. This is also the reason that these books are often included in school curriculum different countries, because such works help to understand what a whole cross-section of society was thinking and breathing in a specific time frame.

This list contains just some of the best examples of classic literature. But if you are wondering what to read from the literature included in the golden fund of world culture, then here you will definitely find something for yourself.

(Russian) is a broad concept, and everyone puts their own meaning into it. If you ask readers what associations it evokes in them, the answers will be different. For some, this is the basis of the library collection, others will say that works of classical Russian literature are a kind of example with high artistic merit. For schoolchildren, this is everything that is studied at school. And they will all be absolutely right in their own way. So what is classical literature? Russian literature, today we'll talk only about her. We will talk about foreign classics in another article.

Russian literature

There is a generally accepted periodization of formation and development Russian literature. Its history is divided into the following time periods:

What works are called classics?

Many readers are sure that classical literature (Russian) is Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy - that is, the works of those writers who lived in the 19th century. It's not like that at all. It can be classic from both the Middle Ages and the 20th century. By what canons and principles can one determine whether a novel or story is a classic? Firstly, classic must have high artistic value and be a model for others. Secondly, it must have worldwide recognition, it must be included in the fund of world culture.

And you need to be able to distinguish between the concepts of classical and popular literature. A classic is something that has stood the test of time, and oh popular work They can forget quite quickly. If its relevance remains for decades, perhaps it will also become a classic over time.

Origins of Russian classical literature

At the end of the 18th century, the newly established nobility of Russia split into two opposing camps: conservatives and reformers. This split was due to different attitudes towards the changes that took place in life: Peter’s reforms, understanding of the tasks of the Enlightenment, the painful peasant issue, attitude towards power. This struggle of extremes led to the rise of spirituality and self-awareness, which gave birth to Russian classics. We can say that it was forged during the dramatic processes in the country.

Classical literature (Russian), born in the complex and contradictory 18th century, was finally formed in XIX century. Its main features: national identity, maturity, self-awareness.

Russian classical literature of the 19th century

The growth of national consciousness played a major role in the development of culture at that time. More and more educational institutions are opening, strengthening public importance literature, writers are beginning to pay a lot of attention native language. It made me think even more about what was happening in the country.

Karamzin's influence on the development of 19th-century literature

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, the greatest Russian historian, writer and journalist, was the most influential figure in Russian culture of the 18th-19th centuries. His historical stories and the monumental “History of the Russian State” had a huge influence on the work of subsequent writers and poets: Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Griboyedov. He is one of the great reformers of the Russian language. Karamzin put it into use a large number of new words, without which we cannot imagine modern speech today.

Russian classical literature: list of the best works

Select and list the best literary works- a difficult task, since each reader has his own preferences and tastes. A novel that will be a masterpiece for one may seem boring and uninteresting to another. How to create a list of classic Russian literature that would satisfy the majority of readers? One way is to conduct surveys. Based on them, one can draw conclusions about which work the readers themselves consider the best of the proposed options. These types of information collection methods are conducted regularly, although the data may change slightly over time.

List of the best creations of Russian classics, according to versions literary magazines and Internet portals, looks like this:

Under no circumstances should this list be considered a reference. In some ratings and polls, the first place may not be Bulgakov, but Leo Tolstoy or Alexander Pushkin, and some of the listed writers may not be at all. Ratings are an extremely subjective thing. It’s better to make a list of your favorite classics for yourself and focus on it.

The meaning of Russian classical literature

The creators of Russian classics have always had great social responsibility. They never acted as moralizers and did not give ready-made answers in their works. Writers put before the reader difficult task and made him think about her decision. They raised serious social and public problems in their works, which still affect us today. great importance. Therefore, Russian classics remain just as relevant today.