English literature. The most famous books of English writers Renaissance literature in England

It remains one of the most important sources of the earliest history of England until 731. Bede chose sources for his story carefully and critically.

For chronology, Bede's work "De sex aetatibus mundi" is important, in which he first introduced the chronology of Dionysius the Lesser before and after the birth of Christ, which was later adopted in most medieval chronicles.

Christian writers have left a large number of works in which biblical and legendary stories are processed; the writings of Caedmon differ between them, as well as those attributed to Cynewulf. We must also mention the translations of psalms, hymns, the processing of the works of Boethius in verse, and others.

Among the prose writings, the most ancient are collections of laws that date back to the 7th century. (Compare Schmid, "Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen. In der Ursprache mit Uebersetzungen u. s. w." (Leipz., 1832; 2nd ed. 1858). From historical writings we know Alfred's free translation of Orosius and Bede's church history, and also the Anglo-Saxon chronicle, containing the time up to 1164 and preserved in numerous lists.

To the field of theology belong: Alfred's translation of the work "Cura pastoralis", written by Gregory; Werfert's reworking of Gregory's Dialogue, then the rich collection of sermons by Ælfric, abbot of Ensgam, who lived at the end of the 10th and 11th centuries; further here belong translations of the Holy Scriptures in the West Saxon and North Umbrian dialects.

From the ancient collections of proverbs and sayings, once very popular among the Anglo-Saxons, some have also come down to us.

Tales and novels have been preserved in the form of a story about Apollonius of Tire, letters from Alexander the Great to Aristotle, etc.

The greatest English writer of the 14th century was Geoffrey Chaucer (-), author of the famous Canterbury Tales. Chaucer simultaneously ends the Anglo-Norman era and opens the history of new English literature.

To all the richness and variety of thoughts and feelings, the subtlety and complexity of spiritual experiences that characterize the previous era, he gave expression in English, completing the experience of the past and capturing the aspirations of the future. Among the English dialects, he established the dominance of the London dialect, the language spoken in this large trading center, where the residence of the king and both universities were located.

But not only he was the founder of the new English language. Chaucer did a common thing with his famous contemporary John Wyclif (-). Wyclif adjoins accusatory literature directed against the clergy, but he, the forerunner of the Reformation, goes further, translates the Bible into English, addresses the people in his struggle against the papacy. Wyclif and Chaucer, through their literary activity, arouse interest in the earthly nature of man, in personality.

In the next century, there is a great interest in living folk poetry, which already existed in the 13th and 14th centuries. But in the 15th century, this poetry shows a particularly active life, and the oldest examples of it, which have survived to our time, belong to this century. Ballads about Robin Hood were very popular.

The language of Shakespeare's first plays is the language common to plays of this period. This stylized language does not always allow the playwright to reveal his characters. Poetry is often overloaded with complex metaphors and sentences, and the language is more conducive to recitation of the text than live acting. For example, solemn speeches "Tita Andronicus", according to some critics, often slows down the action; character language "Two Veronians" seems unnatural.

Soon, however, Shakespeare begins to adapt the traditional style for his own purposes. Initial soliloquy from "Richard III" goes back to the self-talk of Vice, a traditional character in medieval drama. At the same time, Richard's flamboyant monologues would later develop into the monologues of Shakespeare's later plays. All pieces mark the transition from the traditional style to the new. Throughout his later career, Shakespeare combined them, and one of the most successful examples of mixing styles is "Romeo and Juliet ". By the mid-1590s, the time of creation "Romeo and Juliet", "Richard II" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", Shakespeare's style becomes more natural. Metaphors and figurative expressions are increasingly consistent with the needs of the drama.

The standard poetic form used by Shakespeare is blank verse, written in iambic pentameter.

The second half of the 16th century was the Renaissance of all kinds of arts and sciences in England, including poetry, which still largely followed Italian models. Philip Sidney began to reform English versification back in the 1570s-1580s, with his work giving rise to a whole galaxy of excellent poets who received the name "Elizabethian poets" in literary criticism: Edward de Vere, Fulk Greville, Michael Drayton, Samuel Daniel, John Davis - do not list all. But the true development of English poetry was in the work of Edmund Spenser, who, by his birth, was destined to reflect in his brilliant works the nature of this growth of the nation's self-consciousness and its religious conflict in the era of Queen Elizabeth I. respond with their creativity to all these spiritual needs of the English people, who have embarked on the path of development and prosperity. Spenser can be considered the founder of modern English poetry. In his works, English verse received a musicality that it had previously been deprived of. Spencer's lines are striking in their metrical diversity, retaining sonority, flexibility and plasticity in all works. Spenser's poetry is not only figurative and sublime, it is, above all, musical. Spencer's verse flows like a mountain stream, ringing with rhymes flowing into each other, striking with its alliterations, combinations of words and repetitions. Spencer's style and versification correspond to the ideal course of his thought. The poet did not try to improve the English language, but the old English words, combined with modern syntax and enclosed in meters inspired by Chaucerian rhythm, "make an amazingly beautiful impression."

The Tragic History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faust by Christopher Marlo

Marlowe brought great changes to English drama. Before him, bloody events and vulgar clownish episodes were chaotically piled up here. He was the first to make an attempt to give the drama an internal harmony and psychological unity. Marlowe transformed the poetic fabric of drama by introducing white verse, which existed before him only in its infancy. He began to deal with stressed syllables more freely than his predecessors: troche, dactyl, tribrach and sponde replace the iambic that dominated his predecessors. In this way, he brought tragedy closer to the classical drama of the Seneca type, then popular in English universities. Contemporaries were struck by the powerful, full of alliterative repetitions of Marlo's verse, which sounded fresh and unusual for the Elizabethan era. called his inspiration " beautiful madness, which by right and should take possession of the poet so that he can reach such heights.

The main characters of Marlo's works are fighters with great ambition and grandiose vitality. They pour out their souls in long monologues full of pathos, which Marlo introduced into the arsenal of Elizabethan drama techniques. The poet saw the true origins of the tragic not in external circumstances that determine the fate of the characters, but in internal spiritual contradictions that tear apart a gigantic personality that has risen above the ordinary and common norms:

Marlo's characters are ambiguous, they evoked horror and admiration in the audience at the same time. He rebels against the medieval humility of man before the forces of nature, against the humble acceptance of life's circumstances. Marlo's plays were designed to impress his contemporaries with unexpected theatrical effects. For example, in the finale of The Maltese Jew, a giant cauldron appears on the stage, where the main character is boiled alive. "Edward II" - the tragedy of a homosexual in a heterosexual society with numerous ambiguous passages in the spirit of Ovid - ends with the king dying from a red-hot poker stuck in the anus.

Along with men, women took an active part in the literary life of Victorian England.

After Dickens' death in 1870, the masters of the social novel with a positivist bent, led by George Eliot, come to the fore. Extreme pessimism permeates the cycle of novels by Thomas Hardy about the passions raging in the souls of the inhabitants of semi-patriarchal Wessex. George Meredith is a master of subtly psychologized prose comedy. An even more sophisticated psychologism distinguishes the writings of Henry James, who moved to England from across the ocean.

The earliest surviving Scottish play, written before the Reformation, dates from 1500 and is called Plow Play; it symbolically describes the death and replacement of the old ox. This and similar pieces were performed on the first Sunday after Epiphany, when they marked the beginning of the resumption of agricultural work. Under the influence of the Church, the content of such plays gradually began to be brought under a Christian basis, and later a complete ban was issued on the celebration of the May holiday, Yule and other holidays of pagan origin, and along with them, the plays performed on them were also banned.

Plays with biblical themes, however, were often performed without this prohibition. The earliest mention of such a play (its presentation was timed to coincide with the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ) dates back to 1440. But the dramaturgy based on biblical subjects, which flourished in the Late Middle Ages, disappeared during the 16th century as a result of the Reformation.

Plays of other genres - allegories or adaptations of ancient works - were very popular among the people and at court; even monarchs have played them. For example, at the wedding of Mary Stuart in 1558 in Edinburgh, a play was performed (which has not survived to this day) Triumph and Play (Scots Triumphe and Play).

After James VI became king of England and left Scotland in 1603, drama fell into decline. Between 1603 and 1700, only three plays are known to have been written in the country, of which two were staged.

Robert Burns (1759-1796; popularly known as The Bard, the Ayrshire Bard and Favorite Son of Scotland) is considered the "national bard" of Scotland and one of the most significant figures of British proto-romanticism. In his lyrics, he used elements from ancient, biblical and English literary genres, and also continued the traditions of the Scottish makars. He is mainly known as a poet who wrote in Scots (the founder of modern literary Scots), but he also knew English (mainly Scottish dialects of English): some of his works, for example, "Love and Liberty" (eng. Love and Liberty) were written in both languages.

In addition to his own poetry, he is famous for his variations of Scottish folk songs. His poem and song "Auld Lang Syne" (Russian. good old time) is sung at the meeting of Hogmanay (a traditional Scottish New Year's holiday); and "Scots wha hae" (rus. The Scots who made... listen)) has long been regarded as the unofficial anthem of Scotland.

Prior to the development of European Romanticism, Burns was little known outside of Scotland: before 1800, only three of his works were translated into European languages.

Walter Scott (1771-1832) was born in Edinburgh, but as a child he spent a lot of time on a farm near the ruins later immortalized by him in the ballad "Midvan's Evening" (Eng. The Eve of St John, 1808), in Roxburgshire, in areas where , according to legend, lived Thomas Learmonth.

Scott started out as a poet and translator from German. His first major work was the play The House of Poplar (Eng. The House of Aspen), proposed for production in 1800; after several rehearsals, work on the play was interrupted. So for a long time Scott published only lyrics, mostly transcriptions of German ballads (for example, The Fire King,).

Like Burns, Scott was interested in the history of Scottish culture, collected folk ballads, in particular, he published the collection Minstrel Songs from the Scottish Border (eng. The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1802) in three volumes. His first prose work, Waverley, or Sixty Years Ago (1814), is considered the first Scottish historical novel. After writing this novel, Scott almost completely switched from poetry to prose in his work.

Scott's writings, like Burns's poems, have become symbols of Scottish culture and contributed to its fame. Scott became the first English-speaking writer to achieve worldwide fame during his lifetime.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was famous during his lifetime, but throughout the 20th century he was mostly considered a second-rate writer (children's literature and horror literature). At the end of the 20th century, critics and readers again became interested in his books.

In addition to fiction itself, Stevenson was engaged in literary theory, literary and social criticism; he was a committed humanist. He studied the history and culture of the Pacific Islands.

Although he is best known as a prose writer, his lyrics are also known to readers around the world; his poem "Requiem" (eng. The Requiem), which also became his gravestone inscription, was translated into Samoan and became a pathetic song, still popular in Samoa.

Literature in the Welsh language originated quite early (probably by the 5th-6th century), and not only in Wales, but also in the south of Scotland, then inhabited by the Britons. Earliest monuments: the poetry of Aneirin, Taliesin, Llyvarch the Old (Wash. Cynfeirdd "first poets"), preserved in the Middle Welsh record. In addition, the existence of poetry in Wales is evidenced by a small poem "to the staff of St. Padarna", relating directly to the Old Welsh period. Of the monuments in Latin, one can note "On the death of Britain" by Gilda the Wise, as well as numerous lives.

The heyday of Welsh literature falls on the -XII century: it was then that the stories of the Mabinogion cycle, the authentic poems of Aneirin and Taliesin, were probably written down, the Arthurian cycle was born (partly under the influence of the Galfridian tradition), later traditions associated with the names of ancient bards appear ( the same Aneirin and Taliesin). Probably, the mythological epic and legends about national heroes, such as Cadwaladr, Arthur, Tristan, etc., existed earlier and were common to the British. Probably through

Nick Hornby is known not only as the author of such popular novels as "Hi-Fi", "My Boy", but also as a screenwriter. The writer's cinematic style makes him very popular in adapting books by various authors for film adaptation: "Brooklyn", "Education of the Senses", "Wild".

In the past, an ardent football fan, he even splashed out his obsession in the autobiographical novel Football Fever.

Culture is often a key theme in Hornby's books, in particular, the writer does not like it when pop culture is underestimated, considering it as narrow-minded. Also, the key themes of the works are often the relationship of the hero with himself and others, overcoming and searching for himself.

Nick Hornby now lives in Highbury, North London, within easy reach of the stadium of his favorite football team, Arsenal.

Doris Lessing (1919 - 2013)

After the second divorce in 1949, she moved with her son to London, where at first she rented an apartment for a couple with a woman of easy virtue.

The topics that worried Lessing, as often happens, changed during her life, and if in 1949-1956 she was primarily occupied with social issues and communist themes, then from 1956 to 1969 the works began to be of a psychological nature. In later works, the author was close to the postulates of the esoteric trend in Islam - Sufism. In particular, this was expressed in many of her science fiction works from the Canopus series.

In 2007, the writer was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

The world-wide success and love of millions of women brought the writer the novel "Bridget Jones's Diary", born from a column that Helen led in the Independent newspaper.

The plot of the "Diary" repeats in detail the plot of Jane Austen's novel "Pride and Prejudice", up to the name of the main male character - Mark Darcy.

They say that the writer was inspired by the 1995 series and especially by Colin Firth, as he migrated to the film adaptation of The Diary without any changes.

In the UK, Stephen is known as an esthete and a great original, driving around in his own cab. Stephen Fry incomparably combines two abilities: to be the standard of British style and to regularly shock the public. His bold statements about God put many into a stupor, which, however, does not affect his popularity in any way. He is openly gay - last year, 57-year-old Fry married a 27-year-old comedian.

Fry does not hide the fact that he used drugs and suffers from bipolar disorder, about which he even made a documentary.

It is not easy to define all areas of Fry's activity, he himself jokingly calls himself "a British actor, writer, king of dance, prince of swimming trunks and blogger." All of his books invariably become bestsellers, and interviews are sorted into quotes.

Stephen is considered a rare owner of a unique classic English accent, an entire book has been written about the art of "talking like Stephen Fry".

Julian Barnes has been called the "chameleon" of British literature. He perfectly knows how, without losing his individuality, to create works that are different from each other: eleven novels, four of which are detective stories written under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh, a collection of short stories, a collection of essays, a collection of articles and reviews.

The writer was repeatedly accused of Francophonie, especially after the publication of the book "Flaubert's Parrot", a kind of mixture of a biography of the writer and a scientific treatise on the role of the author in general. The writer's craving for everything French is partly due to the fact that he grew up in the family of a French teacher.

His novel A History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters became a real event in literature. Written in the genre of dystopia, the novel seeks answers to a number of philosophical questions about the essence of man, his past, present and future.

A favorite of children and adults around the world, the restless Paddington bear was "born" in 1958, when Michael Bond realized at the last moment before Christmas that he forgot to buy a gift for his wife. Out of hopelessness, the author, who had already written many plays and stories by that time, bought his wife a toy bear in a blue cloak.

In 2014, based on his books, a film was made, where London became one of the characters in the story. He appears before us as if through the eyes of a small guest from dense Peru: at first rainy and inhospitable, and then sunny and beautiful. You can recognize Notting Hill, Portobello Road, the streets near Maida Vale Station, Paddington Station and the Natural History Museum in the painting.

It is interesting that now the writer lives in London just not far from Paddington station.

Rowling went from welfare to the author of the best-selling series of books in history in just five years, which became the basis for films, which, in turn, are recognized as the second highest-grossing franchise.

According to Rowling herself, the idea for the book came to her while traveling by train from Manchester to London in 1990. .

Neil Gaiman has been called one of today's premier storytellers. Hollywood producers are lining up for the film rights to his books.

He also wrote scripts himself more than once. His famous novel Neverwhere was born from just such a script for a mini-series filmed on the BBC in 1996. Although, of course, the opposite is more often the case.

Scary Tales of the Nile are also loved because they blur the lines between intellectual and entertainment literature.

The writer is a laureate of prestigious awards, many of Ian's works have been filmed.

The first works of the writer were distinguished by cruelty and great attention to the theme of violence, for which the author was awarded the nickname Ian Creepy (Ian Macabre). He has also been called the black wizard of modern British prose and a world-class expert on all forms of violence.

In further work, all these themes remained, but seemed to fade into the background, passing like a red thread through the fate of the characters, while not lingering in the frame themselves.

The writer's childhood passed on the run: he was born in Czechoslovakia into an intelligent Jewish family. Because of her nationality, his mother moved to Singapore and then to India. Almost all of the writer's relatives died during the Second World War, and the mother, having married a British military man for the second time, raised her children as real Englishmen.

Stoppard's fame came with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, a reimagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet, which turned into a comedy under Tom's pen.

The playwright has a lot to do with Russia. He was here in 1977, working on a report on dissidents who were kept in psychiatric hospitals. "It was cold. Moscow seemed gloomy to me, ”the author shares his memories.

The writer also visited Moscow during the staging of a performance based on his play at the RAMT Theater in 2007. The theme of the 8-hour performance is the development of Russian political thought of the 19th century with its main characters: Herzen, Chaadaev, Turgenev, Belinsky, Bakunin.

Everyone knows the plot of the novel by Daniel Defoe. However, the book contains many other interesting details about the organization of Robinson's life on the island, his biography, and inner experiences. If you ask a person who has not read the book to describe the character of Robinson, he is unlikely to cope with this task.

In the mass consciousness, Crusoe is an intelligent character without character, feelings and history. In the novel, the image of the protagonist is revealed, which allows you to look at the plot from a different angle.

Why you need to read

To get acquainted with one of the most famous adventure novels and find out who Robinson Crusoe really was.

Swift does not openly challenge society. Like a true Englishman, he does it correctly and witty. His satire is so subtle that Gulliver's Travels can be read like a normal fairy tale.

Why you need to read

For children, Swift's novel is a fun and unusual adventure story. Adults need to read it to get acquainted with one of the most famous artistic satires.

This novel, although artistically not the most outstanding, is definitely a landmark in the history of literature. After all, in many respects he predetermined the development of the scientific genre.

But it's not just an entertaining read. It raises the problems of relations between the creator and creation, God and man. Who is responsible for creating a being that is destined to suffer?

Why you need to read

To get acquainted with one of the main works of science fiction, as well as to feel the difficult problems that are often lost in film adaptations.

It is difficult to single out the best play by Shakespeare. There are at least five of them: Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. The unique style and deep understanding of life's contradictions made Shakespeare's works an immortal classic, relevant at all times.

Why you need to read

To begin to understand poetry, literature and life. And also to find the answer to the question, what is still better: to be or not to be?

The main theme of English literature in the early 19th century was social criticism. Thackeray in his novel denounces his contemporary society with the ideals of success and material enrichment. To be in society means to be sinful - this is approximately Thackeray's conclusion regarding his social environment.

After all, the successes and joys of yesterday lose their meaning when a well-known (albeit unknown) tomorrow dawns ahead, which we all will have to think about sooner or later.

Why you need to read

To learn to relate more easily to the life and opinions of others. After all, everyone in society is infected with "fair ambitions" that have no real value.

The language of the novel is beautiful, and the dialogues are the epitome of English wit. Oscar Wilde is a subtle psychologist, which is why his characters turned out to be so complex and multifaceted.

This book is about human vice, cynicism, the difference between the beauty of the soul and the body. If you think about it, to some extent each of us is Dorian Gray. Only we do not have a mirror on which sins would be imprinted.

Why you need to read

To enjoy the amazing language of the UK's wittiest writer, to see how much the moral image can not match the external, and also to become a little better. Wilde's work is a spiritual portrait not only of his era, but of all mankind.

The ancient Greek myth about a sculptor who fell in love with his creation acquires a new, socially significant sound in the play by Bernard Shaw. What should a work feel for its author if this work is a person? How can it refer to the creator - the one who made it in accordance with his ideals?

Why you need to read

This is the most famous play of Bernard Shaw. It is often staged in theaters. According to many critics, "Pygmalion" is a landmark work of English drama.

A universally recognized masterpiece of English literature, familiar to many from cartoons. At the mention of Mowgli, who does not have Kaa's long hissing in his head: "Man-cub ..."?

Why you need to read

In adulthood, hardly anyone will take up The Jungle Book. A person has only one childhood to enjoy the creation of Kipling and appreciate it. So be sure to introduce your children to the classics! They will be grateful to you.

And again the Soviet cartoon comes to mind. It's really good, and the dialogue in it is almost entirely taken from the book. However, the images of the characters and the general mood of the narrative in the original source are different.

Stevenson's novel is realistic and rather harsh in places. But this is a good adventure work that every child and adult will read with pleasure. Boarding, sea wolves, wooden legs - the marine theme attracts and attracts.

Why you need to read

Because it's fun and exciting. In addition, the novel is disassembled into quotes, which everyone must know.

Interest in the deductive abilities of the great detective is still great today thanks to the huge number of film adaptations. A lot of people are only from films and are familiar with the classic detective story. But there are many screen adaptations, and there is only one collection of stories, but what a one!

Why you need to read

H. G. Wells was in many ways a pioneer in the science fiction genre. Before him, people were not at enmity with, he was the first to write about time travel. Without The Time Machine, we would not have seen either the movie Back to the Future or the cult TV series Doctor Who.

They say that all life is a dream, and besides, a nasty, miserable, short dream, although you won’t dream another one anyway.

Why you need to read

To look at the origins of many of the sci-fi ideas that have become popular in modern culture.

Truly admirable. It is based on the works of a galaxy of outstanding masters. No country in the world has given birth to so many outstanding masters of the word as Britain. There are many English classics, the list goes on and on: William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray, Daphne Du Maurier, George Orwell, John Tolkien. Are you familiar with their works?

Already in the 16th century, the Briton William Shakespeare earned the fame of the best playwright in the world. It is curious that until now the plays of the “spear-shaking” Englishman (this is how his surname is literally translated) are staged in theaters more often than the works of other authors. His tragedies "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth" are universal values. Getting acquainted with his creative heritage, we recommend that you MUST read the philosophical tragedy "Hamlet" - about the meaning of life and moral principles. For four hundred years she has led the repertoires of the most famous theaters. There is an opinion that the English classic writers began with Shakespeare.

She became famous thanks to the classic love story Pride and Prejudice, which introduces us to the daughter of an impoverished nobleman, Elizabeth, who has a rich inner world, pride and an ironic look at her surroundings. She finds her happiness in love for the aristocrat Darcy. Paradoxically, this book with a fairly simple plot and a happy ending is one of the most beloved in Britain. It traditionally outstrips the works of many serious novelists in popularity. For that alone, it's worth reading. Like this writer, many English classics came to literature precisely at the beginning of the 18th century.

He glorified himself with his works as a deep and genuine connoisseur of the life of ordinary Britons in the 18th century. His characters are invariably penetrating and convincing. The novel "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" shows the tragic fate of a simple decent woman. She commits the murder of a scoundrel nobleman who breaks her life in order to free herself from his persecution and find happiness. Using the example of Thomas Hardy, the reader can see that the English classics had a deep mind and a systematic view of the society around them, saw its flaws more clearly than others, and, having ill-wishers, nevertheless courageously presented their creations for the assessment of the whole society.

She showed in her largely autobiographical novel "Jane Eyre" an emerging new morality - the principles of an educated, active, decent person who wants to serve society. The writer creates an amazingly holistic, deep image of the governess Jane Eyre, who goes towards her love for Mr. Rochester even at the cost of sacrificial service. Bronte, inspired by her example, was followed by other English classics, not from the nobility, calling on society for social justice, for an end to all discrimination against a person.

Possessed, according to the Russian classic F.M. Dostoevsky, who considered himself his student, "the instinct of universal humanity." The great talent of the writer did the seemingly impossible: he became famous even in his early youth thanks to his first novel, The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club, followed by the following - Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and others, who gained unprecedented fame for the writer put him on a par with Shakespeare.

William Thackeray is an innovator in the style of writing the novel. None of the classics before him turned bright, textured depicted negative characters into the central images of his work. Moreover, as in life, often something individually positive was inherent in their characters. His outstanding work - "Vanity Fair" - is written in a unique spirit of intellectual pessimism, mixed with subtle humor.

With her “Rebecca” in 1938, she did the impossible: she wrote the novel at a key moment when it seemed that English literature was running out of steam, that everything that was possible had already been written, that the English classics were “ended”. Having not received worthy works for a long time, the English reading audience was interested, delighted with the unique, unpredictable plot of her novel. The introductory phrase of this book has become winged. Be sure to read this book by one of the world's best masters of creating psychological images!

George Orwell will amaze you with the merciless truth. He wrote his famous novel "1984" as a powerful universal denunciatory tool against all dictatorships: present and future. His creative method is borrowed from another great Englishman - Swift.

The novel "1984" is a parody of a dictatorship society that has finally trampled on universal human values. He denounced and called to account for the inhumanity of the ugly model of socialism, which in fact becomes the dictatorship of the leaders. An extremely sincere and uncompromising person, he endured poverty and deprivation, having passed away early - at 46 years old.

Is it possible not to love Professor's "Lord of the Rings"? This real miraculous and surprisingly harmonious temple of the epic of England? The work brings its readers deep humanistic and it is no accident that Frodo destroys the ring on March 25 - the day of the Ascension. The creative and competent writer showed insight: all his life he was indifferent to politics and parties, passionately loved "good old England", was a classic British tradesman.

This list goes on and on. I beg your pardon, dear readers who mustered up the courage to read this article, that it did not include, due to limited volume, the worthy Walter Scott, Ethel Lilian Voynich, Daniel Defoe, Lewis Carroll, James Aldridge, Bernard Shaw and, believe me, many, many others. English classical literature is a huge, most interesting layer of achievements of human culture and spirit. Do not deny yourself the pleasure of getting to know her.

English literature has a number of specific features that are generated by the unique culture, social and political development of the country. This is in the 19th century. determined the problems of literature and the forms that it took. The novelists of England, namely, the novel is primarily developing at this stage, were looking for their heroes not among bankers, aristocrats, those who aspired to make a career, as in France, - small owners became their heroes, as in J. Eliot (“The Mill on the Floss"), and even workers, like E. Gaskell ("Mary Barton") or C. Dickens ("Hard Times").
But social protest in English literature, in contrast to French literature, manifests itself differently. The year 1641, when the king was executed and a constitutional monarchy was established, changed the state system of the country. The theme of forced regime change is absent from English literature, as there are no new Dantons or Cromwells, although the extremism of hungry workers sometimes leads to assassination attempts on those in power. For English political life, the problems of unemployment and electoral reform, the "Corn Laws", which give rise to the hunger of the poor and the wealth of the owners of estates, become relevant. Rebellious moods are carried in the poetry of the Chartists. One of the first places in this series is occupied by the poems of T. Good, in particular, those quoted in the introductory chapter; The verses of K. J. Rossetti are devoted to the difficult situation of the workers.
Judicial reform, like the reform of the education system, is particularly relevant for English society. As E. Sayo wrote: “Until 1832, in England, it never occurred to anyone to organize a state system of royal education.” The theme of the school, as well as the theme of personality education, has become one of the central ones in English literature. The genre of the "novel of education" developed especially intensively in England.
Discoveries in the field of science give birth to a new type of thinking. "Fundamentals of Geology" (1830-1833) by C. Lyell, as well as "Rudiments of Creation" (1844) by R. Chambers, testified to the continuity of the development of the animal and plant world. Ch. Darwin's book "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" (1859) made a revolution in the minds of not only the British, because its conclusions contradicted the Bible.
The teachings of the economists I. Bentham, D. Mill, J. S. Mill, J. B. Say aimed to explain the laws of society.
A. Smith was the first to draw attention to the fact that the basis of the country's well-being is not the stock of money, but the products of human labor. The question of the working man was on the agenda. It was solved in different ways, sometimes under the influence of the socialists A.K. Saint-Simon and C. Fourier. Of particular importance were the works of Robert Owen (1771 - 1858), who, in his work "A New Look at Society, or Experiments on the Principles of Education of Human Character" (1813-1816), based on the belief in the possibility of improving the human personality, assumed that the rich would come to aid to the poor and create conditions capable of destroying such a sharp division of classes.
The desire of the oppressed masses to achieve a change in their position leads to the drafting of the Charter. The English word charter gave its name to the political workers' movement in the first half of the century. The Charter was written with the participation of Owen's followers, and the peak of Chartism was 1848. It was then that the confrontation between the rich and the poor sometimes takes on especially acute forms: in the novel Mary Barton, the strikers decide to kill the owner. The extreme tension of the situation is reflected in Dickens' novel Hard Times. The literature of England at this stage included unemployment and workhouses (“Oliver Twist” by Dickens), nicknamed prisons for the poor (tramps were forcibly placed there, and vagrancy was punishable by law - remember poor Joe from Bleak House!), schools where children are beaten , but they do not teach, and if they do teach, then what is very far from life (“Nicholas Nickleby” by Dickens, “Jane Eyre” by S. Bronte).
The problems of unemployment and hunger gave rise to the problem of overpopulation, surplus workers. The priest T. R. Malthus, out of the most noble motives, came to the conclusion that it was necessary to reduce the birth rate in the families of the poor, and for those who could not get a job at home, he offered to move to the colonies. However, his ideas were met with indignation by most of the society (The Bells and Bleak House by C. Dickens).
One more feature of English life should be noted, without which the style of English realism would not be fully understood. The 19th century is a century of discoveries by archaeologists who restored the past on the basis of the objects they discovered, G. Schliemann above all. Troy and Babylon received their second birth in this century. Attention to the material world first acquired special significance in the work of W. Scott, but the novels of the period under study (primarily Charles Dickens) are inconceivable without descriptions of the space in which the characters live: it becomes a means of characterizing a person.
The period from 1837 to 1902 in England is called Victorian, because in these long years the country was ruled by Queen Victoria. The literature of Victorianism was distinguished by the desire to safely resolve conflicts, although in the works themselves life situations remained extremely tense; Victorianism is characterized by the belief in the inviolability of moral laws.
Origins of 19th century realism should be sought in the work of writers of the previous century. The works of G. Fielding "The History of Jonathan Wilde the Great" and "The History of Tom Jones, the Foundling" reproduced real pictures of everyday life, forced to see the hidden ulcers of the world. The comic beginning of his work was primarily developed by Dickens, as well as by E. Trollope. "Humphrey Clinker's Journey" by T. Smollett, where comic scenes are no less significant, opened up the possibility of polyphony, and therefore polysemy, requiring the reader to think, because the narration on behalf of several characters created a "voluminous" picture, depriving it of moral one-linearity.
The psychologism of S. Richardson's novels is developed in the works of J. Austen, and then in the works of S. Bronte, J. Eliot, E. Trollope, late Dickens and Thackeray. At the same time, one must take into account the influence of the social orientation of the novels of W. Godwin, who depicted the life of people from the very bottom of society.
V. Scott, who drew attention to the connection of the individual with its time, considered it necessary to convey the character of the character by describing the objective world surrounding him, also laid the foundations for the next stage of English literature. Romantic literature, using complex philosophical symbolism (S.T. Coleridge, P.B. Shelley), more deeply revealed the ideas of the work. Romantic contrasts, unusual situations and characters also had a noticeable impact on the literature of the 1830s and 1860s.
One of the features of English literature is that among its writers there are many talented women: the Bronte sisters, J. Eliot, E. Gaskell. This creates a specific tone, manifested in special attention to female psychology, to family and family relations, where the theme of love, its joys, mistakes and sacrifices occupies a considerable place, although the most acute social contradictions attract the attention of women writers no less than men.
Connections of the creative consciousness of writers and artists of England in the 1830s - 1860s. help to more fully imagine the life of the country.
They go through a number of significant stages, revealing the evolution of art, subject to changes in public interests.
John Constable (1776-1837) in the 1830s looking for new ways: he depicts the cathedral in Salisbury from different points, anticipating the discoveries of the Impressionists.
William Turner (1775-1851), not without the influence of the industrial revolution of the middle of the century, creates the painting “Rain, steam and speed” (1844), introducing a steam locomotive rushing over a bridge into a landscape with blurry forms. Previously, only ships could appear in his paintings.
Man and his spiritual life back in the 18th century. found their embodiment in portraiture. Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) preserved on their canvases the spiritual image of the English of that time. At the end of the century, Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) became one of the most famous portrait masters, who developed the traditions of his famous predecessors and experienced some influence of romanticism: the faces of the English in his paintings help to understand the life of the country on the verge of centuries.
William Hogarth (1697-1764) was a master caricature. The broken lines in his paintings convey the lack of harmony in the life of society and the tragic essence of being an individual. Its tradition was developed by Thomas Rowlandson (1756 - 1827) and James Gillray (1757-1815). Without taking into account this trend in English art, it is difficult to imagine illustrators of Dickens' novels (J. Cruikshank, first of all), and even satirical figures created by the writer himself.
The novels of English writers introduce the reader into the world of ordinary people, so genre painting is of particular interest. The painting by David Wilkie (1785 - 1841) "The First Earrings" (1835) is devoid of social content: an elderly lady in glasses pierces her ear to a pretty young girl. The girl is scared and at the same time she understands that this is already an entry into such a tempting "adult" life.
The purpose of genre painting was seen as satisfying the needs of the philistines and the bourgeois, but it conveys that everyday life that became the content of the works of the English realists.
Within the framework of Victorianism, the so-called "medieval revival" is developing, which is essentially associated with post-romanticism. But unlike the art of romanticism at this stage, the Middle Ages, while remaining an ideal time, for they were seen as the basis of spirituality, are also perceived as a period of the highest development of art, filled with a high spirit. The early Renaissance, pre-Raphaelian, seems to be free from canons, and Raphael is recognized as the pinnacle of the Renaissance - his followers see only the use of his discoveries. The "Medieval Renaissance" was reflected in painting and poetry.
The most significant phenomenon in art was the emergence of a group of Pre-Raphaelites. In 1848, the students of the Royal Academy of Arts, the youngest of whom was 19 and the eldest 21 years old, abandoned the canons of the Academy and founded their own union. Seven people entered it: they were not alien to mysticism, and the number seven acquired a special meaning for them. The name of the union is associated with the name of Raphael Santi (1483-1520), but Sandro Botticelli (1444-1510), the author of the Annunciation, was among those who, according to the Pre-Raphaelites, created genuine masterpieces. They were especially close to the ideas of the early Renaissance about the “anthropomorphism of the world around man” and “the cosmic nature of man in the original, Greek meaning of this word, that is, his divine beauty as an expression of the absolute harmony of the external and internal, bodily and spiritual, beautiful and good”1. Petrarch's idea that "love is an all-encompassing, pure, youthful feeling, naturally and very humanly idealizing a woman", became one of the postulates of the Pre-Raphaelites.
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) were the instigators of the movement. In their work, the Pre-Raphaelites wanted to convey the truth of feelings, the individual movements of the soul.
Following Constable in some way, the Pre-Raphaelites believed that every bush, every leaf, no matter how far it was located from the foreground of the picture, should be written with the utmost accuracy. They were looking for opportunities to capture an unusual play of light in their paintings, they tried to convey on their canvases all the bright colors of life, so they sometimes turned to the exotic of the East, chivalrous times. But the Pre-Raphaelites faced not only purely artistic tasks: they were convinced that art should evoke high feelings, educate a person. Therefore, in their paintings there were often biblical stories or open moralizing in genre scenes. Allegory and symbol, as in the early Renaissance, created the deep meanings of the works.
For the first time, the Pre-Raphaelites made themselves known at an exhibition in 1849. The first paintings by John Everett Millais (182^-1896) and W. H. Hunt, largely thematically associated with romanticism, were met calmly. The scandal arose after the appearance of paintings by Milles "Christ in the parental home" and Rossetti's "Annunciation"


(both 1850). Artists were accused of simplifying and reducing the pathos of the Gospel text. The painting by Milles depicts the workshop of the carpenter Joseph, with a tool in dirty hands, he leaned over his work table, under which shavings are lying, and little Jesus in a nightgown, with a sleepy face, clung to Mary, gently, humanly, kissing his barely awake child . The Annunciation introduces the viewer into a poor house, where Mary sits in a nightgown on a bed covered with a simple white sheet, and an angel brings her news of her chosen one. On the face of the girl, fear and self-absorption. This is not a canonical image of the Virgin Mary, but a picture from the life of an ordinary person who discovers his unusual path. Even Charles Dickens was outraged by such a simplification of biblical stories. Only the intercession of the most prominent and authoritative critic D. Ruskin made society see the significance of a new type of art.
The exhibition of 1852, where Hunt's paintings "The Hired Shepherd" and Milles's "Ophelia" were presented, forced to recognize the emergence of a new trend in painting.
The Hired Shepherd (1851) by Hunt opens a series of Pre-Raphaelite genre paintings in which edification is conveyed almost with allegorical unambiguity. In Shame Awakened (1853), he depicts a young man reclining in an armchair, and a woman, frightened and alarmed, who breaks out of his arms. On the carpet, a black cat is about to catch a bird, a soiled glove is lying nearby, a part of a painting with the title “Woman Caught in Adultery” is visible on the wall. Both works are distinguished by a bright festive color. So, in the painting “Shame Awakened”, all the details, down to the button on the cuff on the man’s sleeve or the hairs of the cat’s whiskers, are written out very clearly. The picture is overloaded with pieces of furniture that help to understand the social position of the characters and the nature of their interests.

On the first of them, Jesus Christ is depicted with a lantern in his hands near a simple house. The artist has departed from the canon. Night lighting creates a special effect: the light comes from the face of Christ, the lantern in the hand enhances the symbolic meaning of the image. In the spirit of the Pre-Raphaelites, the artist pays special attention to the play of light spots, carefully recreates each leaf of a climbing plant and each bend of its trunk; the clothes of the protagonist are written out in the same detail.
D. G. Rossetti. Annunciation
In 1854, Hunt took a trip to the Holy Land, where he borrowed the plot of the second picture. It was customary among the Jews to take two goats on a certain day, one of which was sacrificed, and the other was driven into the wilderness. It was he who was called the "scapegoat" - with him, abandoned to die on the deserted shore of the Dead Sea, the sins of the people who performed this ritual act were forgiven. Hunt's pose of a goat, the expression of his eyes, which can rather be called human, the lying skeletons of previously dead animals, the lifelessness of water and mountains around create a symbolic meaning of the picture, which was supposed to turn the thought and feeling of the viewer to the suffering of Christ for the sins of people, to ingratitude and cruelty crucified him.
D.E. Millais was made famous by "Ophelia" (1852), which he wrote with Elizabeth Siddell, forcing the girl to lie in a cold bath,

to more accurately convey all the shades on the face of the drowning Ophelia. Loyalty to nature was also observed in how clearly each leaf and blade of grass was written out, how the clothes of Ophelia flowed when she fell into the water, and in the fact that the artist depicted a robin, about which Shakespeare's heroine sang. The overload with secondary details, fidelity to nature and the unity of the model with it, so characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelites, manifested themselves especially strongly in this picture; she became, as it were, the standard of this trend.
Millee spoke with his paintings about the burning problems of his contemporaries. "Trust Me" is a statement of the girl's right to full trust in her moral principles from her father. The picture can be attributed to the number of genre paintings with special attention to the details of everyday life and furnishings.
The connection between the first seven members of the fraternity fell apart by 1852, each of them went his own way. In 1857 a new group of seven was formed; it included William Morris (1834-1896), a connoisseur of culture and art, an artist, a book designer, a patron of applied arts, a preacher of the ideas of socialism. A universal figure in its own way, he created a workshop where the new members of the circle, Edward Burne-Jones (1833 - 1896), Ford Madox Brown (1821 - 1893), and also D. G. Rossetti, who, after criticism of his first paintings, more did not exhibit, but continued his activities as an artist, although his poems were becoming increasingly important.
F. M. Brown, who sympathized with the socialists, created the painting "Labor" (1852-1865), where he found a place for workers of various industries.

professions, philosophers, and even a pamphlet handing out lady. A special place in Brown's work is occupied by "Farewell to England" (1852 - 1855): the theme of the emigration of the destitute, who have lost hope, who rush to the colony, found its tragic embodiment here. All the grief, all the torment of these people are embodied in the poses and expression of the eyes of the two central fiіur - men and women. The fact that the poor have gathered on a long and unknown journey is evidenced by the clothes of the characters and their luggage. This theme will appear more than once in Dickens, but the objective world is written out in Brown no less carefully than in the novels of this writer.
Gradually, the Pre-Raphaelite rebellion lost its sharpness, the technique of their painting approached the requirements that the members of the Academy sought - Millee himself became one of them.
Thus, English painting of the middle of the century is in contact both thematically (modern man and his concerns) and aesthetically with the realistic course of this period: there is the same desire to “fit” a person into the world around him, depicted with all the details inherent in him, as in literature. (but in the second case, it is primarily the world of the city, at home). Ways of conveying reality - allegorical and symbolic, sometimes edifying, the world of the Middle Ages and its legends, which attracted the Pre-Raphaelites - will be reflected in the poetry of the post-romantics.