Throughout the history of world literature, a great many masterpieces have been created that can turn a person's world upside down. Each of these works is special, containing answers to many of the most important questions. Here are 10 books everyone should read.
Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"
The novel, on which Mikhail Afanasyevich worked for more than ten years, is read and re-read all over the world. The author was able to skillfully reveal not just a few storylines: love, historical and fantastic, but also raise such eternal questions as the meaning and price of human life, Evil and Good, death and immortality, and many others. Starting reading from the very first words, each of us, at any age, plunges headlong into the world of the Master, Margarita, Pontius Pilate, Woland and other heroes of the novel, discovering more and more of its facets.
George Orwell "1984"
Can there be anything worse and worse than total lack of freedom? It is this question that permeates every line of George Orwell's most famous dystopian novel. This work, whose name has already become a household name, is a brilliant satire that mercilessly denounces every form of totalitarianism. Every day, a person surrounded by political propaganda, lies and terror loses his identity and individuality, plunging into a life full of fear and limitations.
William Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet"
The immortal work of the great playwright and poet is one of the must-reads both in school years and in adulthood. The story of love and enmity between two ancient families, the Montagues and the Capulets, leaves an indelible mark on the soul of everyone. The main characters teach us kindness, selflessness and purity, inherent only in young romantics. The tragic story has become a classic, and the names of the heroes have become common nouns. "Romeo and Juliet" is a work that can revive faith in beauty, in love - a feeling that knows no misfortune, and even death.
Homer The Iliad
The real name of the creator of the legendary poem of the 8th-7th centuries. BC, which is the source of ideas, plots, characters in all areas of art, is hidden in the fog of myths. The story of the battle for Troy and the return of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, told by him in the smallest detail, for a long time raised doubts among researchers with its authenticity. However, after excavations in Troy, a culture was discovered that corresponded to that described in the Iliad. Thus, covered with age-old secrets and legends, the ancient Greek poem becomes that literary and, in many respects, historical school that every person must go through in his life.
Erich Maria Remarque "Arc de Triomphe"
This work is one of the most beautiful and saddest European novels of the 20th century. Its action develops in Paris, where the main character, the German surgeon Ravik, who survived the horrors of the First World War and is accustomed to fear and hatred, falls in love with an Italian actress who does not think about love and lives only in every minute victories. The born passion between two people who have lost themselves, doomed to tragedy in advance, gives each of them a particle of warmth that they will never be able to feel again.
Fyodor Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Having created a fundamentally new novel in world literature, called polyphonic, the author revealed in the work many themes that are most important for every person: crime and punishment, love and sacrifice, freedom and pride. An analysis of the psychological process of realizing and accepting guilt for a crime committed - that's what Dostoevsky wanted to say. This novel should be read several times - the deep psychologism of the characters contributes to a better understanding of not only the meaning of the novel, but also one's own life.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The novel by the Colombian writer is the personification of magical realism, in the plot of which reality and fictional reality, everyday life and fabulous elements coexist. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is one of the greatest books of the 20th century, a whimsical story of the city of Macondo, lost somewhere in the jungle, and the line of the Buendia family, from creation to decline. The novel will take you to a very real parallel world, where miracles are commonplace, which you should not even pay attention to, men are strong and courageous, and women are proud and incredibly beautiful.
The Catcher in the Rye by Jerome David Salinger
The only novel by an American writer became a turning point in the history of world literature, and the name of the main character, Holden Caulfield, became a code for many generations of young rebels. The book tells the personal perception of life by the 16-year-old hero himself: his rejection of modern American reality, established social canons and morality of modern society. This young man is the prototype of each of us at that age when we believed that we could change the world and go against all existing laws.
Alexander Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"
The novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" is one of the most significant works of Russian literature. From the encyclopedia of Russian life (as Belinsky rightly called the novel), one could learn almost everything about the era: the style of dress, the manner of behavior of people from high society, interests and moral attitudes. In the reflections of the characters, their emotions, hidden under the shell of education and imposed values, we recognize ourselves. This novel is required reading in school years and at a more conscious age.
Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina"
"All happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way" - this is how one of the most famous and brilliant novels in the treasury of Russian literature begins. This is a book about eternal values: about family, love and faith, about human dignity, and the issues raised in it have been and remain relevant. A story about a conscious choice that every person must make, about an irreconcilable conflict between duty and feeling - a novel for centuries, for all times and for all generations.