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Top best literary works. The best books of all time - rating

Top best literary works. The best books of all time - rating

13.02.2019

The jury of 'The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books', led by a New York Times columnist, included such famous writers as: Jonathan Franzen, recognized by the Times magazine as the best American novelist, author of the novel "The Emperor's Children" Claire Mesud, Joyce Carol Oates, famous American novelist, and many others. The writers compiled lists of the top 10 novels and writers by reviewing 544 titles. The novels were scored from 1 to 10.

Ten the greatest writers of all time, according to total points scored:

1. Leo Tolstoy - 327

One of the most widely known Russian writers and thinkers, revered as one of the world's greatest writers. Member of the defense of Sevastopol.
The writer, recognized during his lifetime as the head of Russian literature, whose work marked new stage in the development of Russian and world realism, becoming a kind of bridge between the traditions of classical novel XIX century and literature of the 20th century.
The most famous works of Tolstoy, such as the novels "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection", autobiographical trilogy“Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”, novels “Cossacks”, “The Death of Ivan Ilyich”, “Kreutzer Sonata”, “Hadji Murad”, a series of essays “Sevastopol Tales”, dramas “The Living Corpse” and “The Power of Darkness ”, autobiographical religious and philosophical works “Confession” and “What is my faith?” and etc.

2. William Shakespeare - 293

English poet and playwright, often considered the greatest writer in the English language and one of the best playwrights in the world. Often referred to as the national poet of England. The works that have come down to us, including some written jointly with other authors, consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, 4 poems and 3 epitaphs. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into every major language and are staged more often than the works of other playwrights.
Most of Shakespeare's works were written between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mostly comedies and chronicles, in which Shakespeare excelled. Then came a period of tragedies in his work, including the works of "Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" and "Macbeth", which are considered among the best in the English language. At the end of his work, Shakespeare wrote several tragicomedies, and also collaborated with other writers.

3. James Joyce - 194

Irish writer and poet, a representative of modernism, Joyce greatly influenced world culture. He remains one of the most widely read English-language prose writers today. In 1998, Modern Library published a list of the "100 best novels The newest library”, which includes all three James Joyce novels: Ulysses (number 1 on the list), A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (number 3) and Finnegans Wake (number 77). In 1999, Time magazine included the writer in the list of "100 heroes and idols of the 20th century", saying that Joyce brought about a whole revolution. Ulysses has been called "demonstrating and summing up everything modern movement[modernism]."

4. Vladimir Nabokov - 190

Russian and American writer, poet, translator and entomologist.

Nabokov's works are characterized by a complex literary technique, deep analysis emotional state characters combined with an unpredictable, sometimes almost thriller plot. Among the most famous examples of Nabokov's work are the novels Mashenka, Luzhin's Defense, Invitation to Execution, and The Gift. The writer gained fame among the general public after the publication scandalous romance"Lolita", on which several adaptations were subsequently made (1962, 1997).

5. Fyodor Dostoevsky - 177

One of the most significant and famous Russian writers and thinkers in the world. Dostoevsky's work had a great influence on Russian and world culture. literary heritage the writer is differently evaluated both at home and abroad. In the West, where Dostoevsky's novels have enjoyed popularity since the early 20th century, his work has had a significant impact on such generally liberal movements as existentialism, expressionism, and surrealism. Many people see him as the forerunner of existentialism. literary critics. However, abroad, Dostoevsky is usually regarded, first of all, as an outstanding writer and psychologist, while his ideology is ignored or almost completely rejected.

Closer to mid-February, it seems that even love vibes are in the air. And if you have not felt this mood yet, the gray sky and the cold wind spoil all the romance - will help you best classic about love!

Antoine Francois Prevost, The Story of the Chevalier de Grieux and Manon Lescaut (1731)

This story takes place in the scenery of Regency France after death. Louis XIV. The story is told on behalf of a seventeen-year-old boy, a graduate of the Faculty of Philosophy in northern France. Having successfully passed the exams, he is going to return to his father's house, but by chance he meets an attractive and mysterious girl. This is Manon Lesko, who was brought to the city by her parents to give to the monastery. Cupid's arrow pierces the heart of the young gentleman, and he, forgetting everything, persuades Manon to run away with him. Thus begins the eternal and beautiful love story of the Chevalier de Grieux and Manon Lescaut, which will inspire entire generations of readers, writers, artists, musicians, directors.

Author love story- Abbé Prevost, whose life tossed between monastic seclusion and secular society. His fate is complex, interesting, his love for a girl of a different faith - forbidden and passionate - formed the basis of a fascinating and scandalous (for its era) book.

"Manon Lescaut" is the first novel where, against the background of a reliable image of material and everyday realities, a subtle and penetrating psychological picture heroes. The fresh, winged prose of Abbé Prevost is unlike all previous French literature.

This is a story that tells about several years in the life of de Grieux, during which the impulsive, sensitive, thirsty for love and freedom young man manages to turn into a man with great experience and a difficult fate. The beautiful Manon also grows up: her spontaneity and frivolity is replaced by a depth of feelings and a wise outlook on life.

“Despite the cruelest fate, I found my happiness in her eyes and in firm confidence in her feelings. Truly I have lost everything that other people honor and cherish; but I owned the heart of Manon, the only good that I honored.

A novel about clean and eternal love, which arises from the air, but the strength and purity of this feeling is enough to change the heroes and their destinies. But will this power be enough to change the life around?

Emily Bronte "Wuthering Heights" (1847)

Debuting in the same year, each of the Bronte sisters presented their novel to the world: Charlotte - "Jane Eyre", Emily - "Wuthering Heights", Ann - "Agnes Grey". Charlotte's novel made a sensation (it, like any book of the most famous Bronte, could be in this top), but after the death of the sisters, it was recognized that Wuthering Heights is one of the best works that time.

The most mystical and reserved of the sisters, Emily Bronte, has created a poignant novel about madness and hatred, about strength and love. Contemporaries considered him too rude, but they could not help but fall under his magical influence.

The story of generations of two families unfolds against the picturesque backdrop of the Yorkshire fields, where the mad wind and inhuman passions rule. Central characters- freedom-loving Catherine and impulsive Heathcliff, obsessed with each other. Their complex characters, different social status, exceptional destinies - all together form a canon. love story. But this book is more than just an early Victorian love story. According to modernist Virginia Woolf, "The idea that the manifestations of human nature are based on forces that elevate it and raise it to the foot of greatness, and puts Emily Brontë's novel in a special, prominent place among similar novels."

Thanks to " Wuthering Pass"The beautiful fields of Yorkshire became a nature reserve, and we inherited, for example, such masterpieces as the film of the same name with Juliette Binoche, the popular ballad "It's All Coming Back to Me Now" performed by Celine Dion, as well as touching quotes:

What doesn't remind you of her? I can’t even look under my feet, so that her face does not appear here on the floor slabs! It is in every cloud, in every tree - it fills the air at night, during the day it appears in the outlines of objects - her image is everywhere around me! The most ordinary faces, male and female, my own features, all tease me with semblance. The whole world is a terrible freak show, where everything reminds me that she existed and that I lost her.

Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina" (1877)

There is a well-known legend about how it was discussed in the circle of writers that there are no good love stories in literature. Tolstoy started up at these words and accepted the challenge, saying that he would write good romance about love in three months. And he did write. True, for four years.

But that, as they say, is history. And Anna Karenina is a novel that is included in the school curriculum. Such school reading. And so, every decent graduate at the exit learns that "All happy families similar to each other…”, and in the Oblonsky house "everything is mixed..."

Meanwhile, Anna Karenina is a truly great book about great love. Today it is generally accepted (thanks, including to the cinema) that this is a novel about the pure and passionate love of Karenina and Vronsky, which became Anna's salvation from her boring tyrant husband and her own death.

But for the author himself, this is, first of all, family romance, a novel about love, which, having connected the two halves, develops into something more: a family, children. This, according to Tolstoy, is the main purpose of a woman. Because there is nothing more important, and most importantly, more difficult than raising a child, maintaining a real strong family. This idea in the novel is personified by the union of Levin and Kitty. This family, which Tolstoy wrote off in many ways from his union with Sofya Andreevna, becomes a reflection of the ideal union of a man and a woman.

The Karenins, on the other hand, are an “unhappy family,” and Tolstoy devoted his book to an analysis of the causes of this misfortune. However, the author does not indulge in moralizing, accusing the sinful Anna of destroying a decent family. Leo Tolstoy, "a connoisseur of human souls", creates complex work where there is no right or wrong. There is a society that influences the heroes, there are heroes who choose their own path, and there are feelings that the heroes do not always understand, but which they give themselves to in full.

On this I round off my literary analysis because much has already been written about this and better. I’ll just express my thought: be sure to reread the texts from the school curriculum. And not only from school.

Reshad Nuri Gyuntekin "King - songbird" (1922)

The question is which works Turkish literature have become world classics, can be confusing. The novel "The Songbird" deserves such recognition. Reshad Nuri Guntekin wrote this book at the age of 33, it became one of his first novels. These circumstances make one even more surprised at the skill with which the writer portrayed the psychology of a young woman, the social problems of provincial Turkey.

Fragrant and original book captures from the first lines. This diary entries beautiful Feride, who remembers her life and her love. When this book first came to me (and it was during my puberty), the tattered cover showed off "Chalikushu - a singing bird." Even now this translation of the name seems to me more colorful and sonorous. Chalykushu is the nickname of the restless Feride. As the heroine writes in her diary: “... my real name, Feride, became official and was used very rarely, like a festive outfit. I liked the name Chalykush, it even helped me out. As soon as someone complained about my tricks, I just shrugged my shoulders, as if saying: “I have nothing to do with it ... What do you want from Chalykushu? ..”.

Chalykushu lost her parents early. She is sent to be raised by relatives, where she falls in love with her aunt's son, Kamran. Their relationship is not easy, but young people are drawn to each other. Suddenly, Feride learns that her chosen one is already in love with another. In feelings, the impulsive Chalykushu fluttered out of the family nest towards real life, which met her with a hurricane of events ...

I remember how, after reading a book, I wrote quotes in my diary, realizing every word. It is interesting that you change over time, but the book remains the same poignant, touching and naive. But it seems that in our 21st century independent women, gadgets and social networks A little naivete doesn't hurt:

“A person lives and is tied by invisible threads to the people who surround him. Separation sets in, the threads stretch and break like the strings of a violin, making dull sounds. And every time the threads break at the heart, a person experiences the most acute pain.

David Herbert Lawrence Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

Provocative, scandalous, frank. Banned for over thirty years after first publication. The inveterate English bourgeoisie did not tolerate the description of sex scenes and the "immoral" behavior of the main character. In 1960, a high-profile trial took place, during which the novel "Lady Chatterley's Lover" was rehabilitated and allowed for publication when the author was no longer alive.

Today the novel and its story line hardly seem so provocative to us. Young Constance marries the Baronet Chatterley. After their marriage, Clifford Chatterley is sent to Flanders, where he receives multiple wounds during the battle. He is permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Connie's married life (as her husband affectionately calls her) has changed, but she continues to love her husband, caring for him. However, Clifford understands that it is hard for a young girl to spend all her nights alone. He allows her to have a lover, the main thing is that the candidate is worthy.

“If a man has no brains, he is a fool; if there is no heart, he is a villain; if there is no bile, he is a rag. If a man is not able to explode, like a tightly stretched spring, there is no masculine nature in him. This is not a man, but a good boy.

During one of the walks in the forest, Connie meets a new gamekeeper. It is he who will teach the girl not only the art of love, but also awaken real deep feelings in her.

David Herbert Lawrence - classic English Literature, the author of the equally famous books “Sons and Lovers”, “Women in Love”, “Rainbow”, also wrote essays, poems, plays, travel prose. He created three versions of Lady Chatterley's Lover. The last version, which satisfied the author, was published. This novel brought him fame, but Lawrence's liberalism and the proclamation of freedom moral choice the person sung in the novel could be appreciated only many years later.

Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind (1936)

Aphorism "When a woman can't cry, it's scary", and the image itself strong woman belong to the pen of the American writer Margaret Mitchell, who became famous thanks to a single novel. There is hardly a person who has not heard about the bestseller Gone with the Wind.

“Gone with the Wind” is the story of the civil war between the northern and southern states of America in the 60s, during which cities and destinies collapsed, but something new and beautiful could not but be born. This is the story of the growing up of young Scarlett O'Hara, who is forced to take responsibility for the family, learn to manage her feelings and achieve simple female happiness.

This is that successful love story when, in addition to the main and rather superficial theme, it gives something else. The book grows with the reader: open in different time, it will be perceived each time in a new way. One thing remains unchanged in it: the anthem of love, life and humanity. And unexpected and open final inspired several writers to create sequels to the love story, the most famous being Alexander Ripley's Scarlett or Donald McCaig's Rhett Butler's People.

Boris Pasternak "Doctor Zhivago" (1957)

A complex symbolist novel by Pasternak, written in no less complex and rich language. A number of researchers point to the autobiographical nature of the work, but the events or characters described bear little resemblance to the real life of the author. Nevertheless, this is a kind of "spiritual autobiography", which Pasternak characterized as follows: “I am currently writing a long novel in prose about a man who constitutes a kind of resultant between Blok and me (and Mayakovsky and Yesenin, perhaps). He will die in 1929. From him there will be a book of poems, which is one of the chapters of the second part. The time embraced by the novel is 1903-1945.

The main theme of the novel is reflections on the future of the country and the fate of the generation to which the author belonged. Historical events play an important role for the heroes of the novel, it is the whirlpool of a complex political situation that determines their lives.

Main actors The books are the doctor and poet Yuri Zhivago and Lara Antipova, the hero's lover. Throughout the novel, their paths accidentally crossed and separated, seemingly forever. What really captivates in this novel is the inexplicable and immense love that the characters carried through their whole lives.

This love story culminates in several winter days in the snow-covered estate of Varykino. It is here that the main explanations of the characters take place, here Zhivago writes his best poems dedicated to Lara. But even in this abandoned house, they can not hide from the noise of war. Larisa is forced to leave in order to save the life of herself and her children. And Zhivago, going mad with loss, writes in his notebook:

From the threshold a man looks

Not recognizing at home.

Her departure was like an escape

There are signs of destruction everywhere.

Chaos is everywhere in the rooms.

He measures ruin

Doesn't notice because of tears

And a migraine attack.

There is some noise in my ears in the morning.

Is he in memory or dreaming?

And why does he mind

All the thought of the sea climbs? ..

"Doctor Zhivago" is a novel marked by Nobel Prize, a novel whose fate, like the fate of the author, turned out to be tragic, a novel that is still alive today, like the memory of Boris Pasternak, is a must-read.

John Fowles "The French Lieutenant's Mistress" (1969)

One of Fowles' masterpieces, which is a shaky interweaving of postmodernism, realism, the Victorian novel, psychology, allusions to Dickens, Hardy and other contemporaries. The novel, which is the central work of English literature of the 20th century, is also considered one of the main books about love.

The canvas of the story, like any plot of a love story, looks simple and predictable. But Fowles is a postmodernist, influenced by existentialism and passionate about historical sciences, created a mystical and deep love story from this story.

An aristocrat, a wealthy young man named Charles Smithson, along with his chosen one, meet Sarah Woodruff on the seashore - once "the mistress of the French lieutenant", and now - a maid who avoids people. Sarah appears reclusive, but Charles manages to connect with her. During one of the walks, Sara opens up to the hero, talking about her life.

“Even your own past does not seem to you to be something real - you dress it up, try to whitewash or denigrate it, you edit it, patch it up somehow ... In a word, turn it into fiction and put away on the shelf - this is your book, your novelized autobiography. We are all running from reality. This is the main distinguishing feature homo sapiens".

A difficult but special relationship is established between the characters, which will develop into a strong and fatal feeling.

The variability of the endings of the novel is not only one of the main techniques postmodern literature, but also reflects the idea that in love, as in life, everything is possible.

And for lovers acting Meryl Streep: A 1981 film of the same name directed by Karel Reisch starring Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep. The film, which received several film awards, has become a classic. But watching it, like any film based on a literary work, is better after reading the book itself.

Colin McCullough "The Thorn Birds" (1977)

Colleen McCullough wrote more than ten novels in her lifetime, historical cycle"Lords of Rome", a series of detective stories. But she was able to occupy a prominent place in Australian literature and thanks to just one novel - "The Thorn Birds".

seven parts fascinating history big family. Several generations of the Cleary clan who move to Australia to settle here and from simple poor farmers to become a prominent and successful family. The central characters of this saga are Maggie Cleary and Ralph de Bricassar. Their story, which unites all the chapters of the novel, tells about eternal struggle duty and feeling, reason and passion. What will the heroes choose? Or will they have to stand up different sides and defend your choice?

Each of the parts of the novel is dedicated to one of the members of the Cleary family and subsequent generations. In the fifty years during which the action of the novel takes place, not only surrounding reality but also life ideals. So Maggie's daughter - Fia, whose story opens in the last part of the book, no longer seeks to create a family, to continue her kind. So the fate of the Cleary family is in jeopardy.

The Thorn Birds is a finely crafted, filigree work about life itself. Colin McCullough managed to reflect the complex overflows of the human soul, the thirst for love that lives in every woman, the passionate nature and inner strength men. Ideal reading on long winter evenings under a blanket or hot days on a summer veranda.

“There is a legend about a bird that sings only once in its entire life, but it is the most beautiful in the world. One day she leaves her nest and flies to look for a thorn bush and will not rest until she finds it. Among the thorny branches she sings a song and throws herself at the longest, sharpest thorn. And, rising above the inexpressible torment, it sings so, dying, that both the lark and the nightingale would envy this jubilant song. The only, incomparable song, and it comes at the cost of life. But the whole world freezes, listening, and God himself smiles in heaven. For all the best is bought only at the cost of great suffering ... At least, so the legend says.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez Love in the Time of Plague (1985)

I wonder when the famous expression appeared that love is a disease? However, it is this truth that becomes the impetus for understanding the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which proclaims that "... the symptoms of love and the plague are the same". And the most important thought of this novel is contained in another quote: “If you meet your true love, then she will not go anywhere from you - not in a week, not in a month, not in a year.”

This happened to the heroes of the novel "Love in the Time of Plague", the plot of which revolves around a girl named Fermina Daza. In her youth, Florentino Arisa was in love with her, but, considering his love only a temporary hobby, she marries Juvenal Urbino. Urbino's profession is a doctor, and his life's work is the fight against cholera. However, Fermina and Florentino are destined to be together. When Urbino dies, the feelings of longtime lovers flare up with new force, painted in more mature and deep tones.

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Anna Karenina. Lev Tolstoy

The greatest love story of all time. A story that has not left the stage, filmed countless times - and still has not lost the boundless charm of passion - a destructive, destructive, blind passion - but all the more bewitching with its grandeur.