The best literature of the 20th century. Literature (best novels of the twentieth century)

Today I want to talk about the twenty best, or “main” novels of the past twentieth century, a time when literature reached its heyday, its peak, and, having overcome it, began to decline.

We may never read such perfect works again. The important thing, however, is that they remain forever, and we can again and again experience the joy of touching great art, immersing ourselves in worlds created by the human imagination, the creator of often more interesting universes than our reality. I had few criteria when compiling this list: first of all, the depth of the concept and the timeless eternity of the problems raised, the “authenticity” and interestingness of the world created by the narrator, the stylistic skill of the writer, the perfection of his literary style, and, finally, in last resort, “interestingness” (although it is at its best in all these things, and it is almost impossible to tear yourself away from them, but the fascination of the plot is only a consequence of them).

Of course it's not full list- some things that are required reading were not included in it for various reasons: either I did not have time to read them yet, or “not my thing,” or I simply did not want to expand this list indefinitely. But nevertheless, I will mention, in anticipation of it, a few more works that it would be unfair to pass over in silence. These are “Ulysses” by James Joyce, “The Magus” by John Fowles, “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel García Márquez, “The Catcher in the Rye” by Sallinger, “In Search of Lost Time” - Marcel Proust’s seven-volume epic, as well as other novels not mentioned here Kafka, Beckett, Frisch, Kobo Abe, Cortazar...

What follows is a master list with brief notes for each novel. They are compiled without a single plan, in an eclectic style, with quotes from translators’ notes, critical articles, and are intended only to give a slight hint of the mood to read these works.

"The Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann(1924)

The key philosophical novel of German, and indeed all world literature of the 20th century. The best way to describe it is in the words of Thomas Mann himself: “This is a novel about time (Zeitroman) in a double sense: historically, because it tries to recreate the inner world of the post-war era in Europe, but also because time itself is the subject of this novel. After all, time is not only the experience of the novel hero, here we are talking about time from the inside, about time itself. The book itself is what it talks about: after all, when it endlessly describes the hermetic fascination of the young hero of the novel, it also strives with the help of artistic techniques eliminate time, trying to give completeness to every moment of the narrative and thus create a magical moment, “nunc stans”.

(from the Introduction to The Magic Mountain for Princeton University students, 1939)

"The Castle" by Franz Kafka(1926)

Franz Kafka began work on this work on January 22, 1922, but already on September 11 of the same year, in a letter to his friend Max Brod, he announced that he was stopping work on the novel and was not going to return to it. Only after Kafka's death, thanks to the fact that Max Brod did not fulfill his will and did not burn all the remaining manuscripts, the text of the unfinished novel, one of the main novels of the century, and, perhaps, in its own way, key texts in the history of mankind, came to us. The combination of all the styles that became leading in the 20th century - modernism, magical realism, existentialism, in their unusually concentrated form, the unsurpassed talent of Kafka as a storyteller, multi-layered symbolism - all this makes the novel a kind of sacred text, in which between the words there are precisely appears nothing, a deity that does not exist, the meaninglessness of this world given to us.

"Journey to the End of the Night" Louis-Ferdinand Celine(1932)

"Journey to the End of the Night" is a turning point in French literature of the 20th century. This novel caused a scandal when it appeared in France in 1932 with the frankness of the confession of a disillusioned intellectual, written in the first person, and Céline's text made a complete break with the past aesthetics of French literature. The intensity of the aesthetics of violence, which is still to a greater extent appeared in Selina's subsequent books, amazed his first readers, and still amazes us. "Journey to the End of the Night" forces us to reconsider the concept of literature, and in any case, the relationship of literature with morality, inherited by France from the Age of Enlightenment and exploded by Céline with disconcerting immediacy. But even if we leave aside the question of a break with the past and the aesthetics of violence, this book is, above all and indisputably, a true work of art. One of the strongest and most characteristic novels of the first half of the century in Western Europe. As for artistic discoveries In the genre of the novel, Céline's book is not inferior in importance to either Proust or Joyce.

"Tatar Desert" by Dino Buzzati(1940)

This novel by the classic of Italian literature Dino Buzzati has become a cult classic, turning into one of the symbols of modern literature. The themes of the novel are a sense of one's own duty, and the meaninglessness of this duty (closeness to Kafka); a crushing and anxious feeling of waiting for something to give meaning to existence; the conflict between the search for the foundations of being and the elusive reality, which is not only hostile to man, but also eludes him; the existence of indeterminate evil in the world; the irreversible passage of time and the inevitability of death - elevate it to one of the most significant novels of the 20th century.

"Abbot S." Georges Bataille(1950)

This scandalous novel, published in a small number of copies, provoked harsh attacks from critics. No wonder - Bataille always explored the human psyche, the mystical and opaque sides of life radically, and therefore he always seemed like a blasphemer to the uninitiated masses. Like “Heavenly Blue,” written earlier but published later, this work certainly belongs to the “not for everyone” reading section.

The End of a Novel by Graham Greene(1951)

There are places in the human heart

which do not yet exist, and suffering enters

in them so that they may find life.

Leon Blois.

This is the epigraph that begins Graham Greene's novel, which I think is his most important work, although, unfortunately, little-known in comparison with his many much more faded political, espionage and adventure books. The novel was published only in IL in 1992, many years later it was published in the “Illuminator” series and instantly became a bibliographic rarity.

"Molloy" Samuel Beckett(1951)

The novel became the first part of a trilogy (“Molloy”, “Malon Dies”, “Nameless”), after which Beckett finally came to fame and recognition. He wrote this novel in a non-native language, French, and later translated it into English himself. For about twenty years, the Russian translation existed in samizdat (In the USSR, Beckett’s name could be mentioned, and was mentioned only in a negative sense). Finally, in 1994, this magnificent samizdat translation of the trilogy was published in the St. Petersburg publishing house of Chernyshev. Reading this gloomy text, absurd in form, you see with your own eyes how a genius pushes the boundaries of the universe, our consciousness and awareness of ourselves, the world, and God.

"Stiller" Max Frisch(1954)

This novel by Max Frisch, which became a key philosophical understanding a man of his “I” in the 20th century is an illustration of the illusory nature of our existence, the insubstantiality of the “I” (Bergman’s film “Persona” was made on this topic, but in a completely different vein). Stiller is the Hamlet of our time, but Hamlet is “dislocated,” just as the entire modern world is dislocated. The hero's attempt to renounce his role imposed on him by society is unsuccessful - the hero makes a journey in a vicious circle and returns to the starting point. " You can talk about everything, but not about your authentic life - this impossibility dooms us to remain the way those around us see and perceive us” (“Stiller”).

"Lord of the Flies" William Golding(1954)

The novel was conceived by Golding as a parody of "Coral island" R. M. Ballantyne (1858 g.) - an adventure story in the genre Robinsonades, where optimistic imperial visions are glorified Victorian England. The novel's path to publication was difficult - the manuscript was rejected by twenty-one publishers before Faber & Faber agreed to release it with the condition that the author remove the first few pages describing the horrors of nuclear war. Immediately after its release, the novel did not attract attention (in USA for 1955 sold less than three thousand copies), but a few years later it became bestseller and by the early 60s it was introduced into the curriculum of many colleges and schools. In 1963, the famous director Peter Brook shot a magnificent film of the same name. The novel Lord of the Flies is considered one of the most important works of Western literature of the 20th century. On the listThe Times "The Best 60 Books of the Past 60 years" it ranks as the best novel of 1954. This cruel work finally removes modern reader rose-colored glasses that you want to wear when considering human nature.

"The Golden Temple" by Yukio Mishima(1956)

The novel The Golden Temple, written in 1956, can be called Mishima's aesthetic manifesto. The Golden Temple is considered not only a masterpiece of the writer’s work, but also the most widely read work of Japanese literature in the world. The work is based on a real event - in 1950, a novice of a Buddhist monastery, in a fit of madness, burned down the Kinkakuji Temple - the most famous of architectural monuments ancient Japanese capital Kyoto. Mishima, who always believed that death makes the Beautiful even more perfect, could not help but be shocked by this event. This is how the idea of ​​the novel “The Golden Temple” was born - a deep, according to Dostoevsky, research, an attempt to substantiate the possibility of life without the Beautiful, an attempt to save ourselves by destroying and removing Beauty from the world.

"Heavenly Blue" Georges Bataille(1957)

This novel, according to Philip Sollers, “the key book of the entire modern world,” was published only 20 years after it was written. Bataille wrote it before the First World War, and the oppressive atmosphere of premonition of the catastrophe of the Western world is very well felt in it. But unlike many books on this topic, Bataille always goes beyond the visible, real world- the book is about something completely different... The novel is not for everyone, and it is unlikely that it will appear among the twenty main novels of the 20th century on any other list.

"The End of the Road" John Barth(1958)

“The End of the Journey” is probably Barthes’s “blackest” novel, built entirely on provocation, on a rather cynical and frighteningly frank study of the nature of man, as if being dissected on an anatomical table in a morgue. The existence of people in his world is “laughter in a funhouse,” laughter as such, which has nothing to do with humor or gentle irony. Laughter in which the world mocks a person. Why is it funny? The same thing that makes it scary. When a gap arises between the vision of the world and the true, unnamable essence, when the black (for us, colorblind) eye of God looks into this gap, then it’s funny. Or scary. Or funny and scary at the same time. (I will add that not everyone can read this novel - the reader is simply physically repelled by this brilliant, but such a peculiarly harsh and difficult text).

Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar(1963)

The novel, considered a kind of standard of magical realism, a philosophical “text within a text”, “ new novel"in the Latin American style, and in general, a thing-in-itself that you will return to throughout your life. This impeccable stylistically, written in a lyrical and poetic manner, main novel I recommend Cortazar, who has absorbed the whole universe, in the translation by L. Sinyanskaya.

“I’ll call myself Gantenbein” Max Frisch(1964)

The social and philosophical novel of the late Max Frisch is an excellent example literary game. Its plot breaks up into separate stories that multiply before our eyes. Even the narrator splits into two different images, personifying possible options his existence. The author does not allow us to “see” the fates of his heroes until their natural end - it’s not so much about them, but about the true essence of man as such, hidden behind the “invisible”, in the “possible”, only part of which comes to the surface and finds real embodiment in reality. What will remain of fate, life, connections, the role that a person is accustomed to playing if we begin to “play in history”, unwind the cocoon of psychology, psyche, habits, beliefs, prejudices? What will remain of the person himself? Who is he now?

"Don Juan" Gonzalo Torrente Ballester(1965)

Unfortunately, this one of the leading Spanish writers of the past century is practically unknown to us. Torrente Ballester (1910 - 1999) wrote many wonderful novels, but only one was translated into Russian, and the publication became a bibliographic rarity almost immediately (the wonderful “Illuminator” series). The writer’s novels are distinguished by a modern style, where mythology and reality are intertwined, history and reality coexist, and the heroes travel through time. Ballester destroys old myths and creates new ones - this is how modern literature works. He himself called his novel “ funny story for scholars,” but it seems to me that everything is much deeper. I don’t know how it is in the original, but in the Russian translation the style is so perfect that it’s impossible to tear yourself away from the story, and it’s a pity when the novel ends (I’ve re-read it more than once).

"Secret Date" Kobo Abe(1977)

Kobo Abe calls Gogol and Dostoevsky, the two main writers of Russian literature, his teachers. And Abe himself can rightfully be called the “Japanese Gogol” - in his novels, reality is surprisingly combined with fantasy, phantasmagoria, sleep, delirium and strange visions. With the help of mysterious, mysterious, fascinating and eerie detective stories, he explores dark sides the human psyche and the facets of our civilization, his view is pessimistic, but metaphorically accurate.

"Temp" Camille Burnikel(1977)

Camille Bournickel is one of the most brilliant French writers of the twentieth century. His works have been repeatedly awarded prestigious literary awards.

The pinnacle of Burnikel's work is the novel Tempo, written hot on the heels of the sensation caused by the departure of the famous chess player Fischer, and received the same year Big bonus French Academy. But this is only the outer outline of the work. Can we choose our destiny, refuse fame, genius, calling imposed on us by others, and follow our own path, completely invisible in the hustle and bustle of everyday life? The subtlest nuances of style create in the novel a special mood of slight sadness and reflection on one’s purpose in life (to me this mood is a little reminiscent of the state that occurs when watching Antonioni’s films and, especially, Bertolucci’s “Under the Cover of Heaven”).

"Justice" Friedrich Durrenmatt(1985)

Dürrenmatt began writing this novel a long time ago, during his famous works“The Judge and His Executioner”, “Suspicion”, “Promise”, “Accident”, “A Visit from the Old Lady”. He returned to it much later, and published, in my opinion, the most significant, mature, stylistically verified work, simply and mercilessly telling about the society of the performance, which by that time the Western world had finally turned into.

"Immortality" Milan Kundera(1990)

In “Immortality,” Kundera’s most thoughtful, “theatrical” and at the same time most mysterious novel, which became a bestseller of intellectual prose, Goethe talks with Hemingway, Bettina von Arnim seeks eternity, insisting on her unearthly feeling for the great Goethe, a woman who has lived in a happy marriage for twenty years named Agnes understands that she would like to remain alone after death, and an elderly lady in a swimsuit easily and flirtatiously throws out her hand in greeting with the gesture of a young beautiful woman - all this is observed by the author through time and space. Kundera writes his philosophically mature continuation-arrangement of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” no longer about being, but about non-existence, death and immortality, about possible existence on the other side of this world. The author no longer examines the body, but the human soul, trying to understand whether it is immortal. “Death is the silent birds in the treetops,” he says, following Goethe. But what's behind it?..

"Autumn in St. Petersburg" Joseph M. Coetzee(1994)

“Autumn in St. Petersburg” is a literary fiction, a novel about Dostoevsky, who secretly came from abroad to St. Petersburg to clarify the circumstances of the suicide (or murder) of his adopted son. Trying to understand what happened, Dostoevsky meets people who strangely resemble the characters of his past and future works. Coetzee manages to penetrate no less deeply than Dostoevsky himself (which is surprising!) into the psychology of his characters, although he does this, of course, in his own way. One of the advantages of the novel is the accuracy of the reconstruction of Dostoevsky's world and Petersburg. Coetzee's highly polished writing style (who, by the way, soon won the Nobel Prize) makes this novel one of the most beautiful works of the twentieth century.

P. S. Top five: “The Magic Mountain” by Thomas Mann, “Journey to the End of the Night” by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, “Abbé S.” Georges Bataille, Stiller by Max Frisch, Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar.

Several periods can be distinguished in Russian literature of the 20th century. The first two decades were called the “Silver Age”: this was an era of rapid development of literary trends, the emergence of a whole galaxy brilliant Masters Words. The literature of this period exposed the deep contradictions that arose in the society of that time. Writers were no longer satisfied with the classical canons; the search for new forms and new ideas began. Universal human values ​​come to the fore, philosophical topics about the meaning of life, about morality, about spirituality. More and more religious themes began to appear.

Three main literary trends were clearly identified: realism, modernism and the Russian avant-garde. The principles of romanticism are also being revived, this is especially clearly represented in the works of V. Korolenko and A. Green.

In the 1930s, a “great turning point” emerged: thousands of members of the intelligentsia were subjected to repression, and the existence of severe censorship slowed down the development of literary processes.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War A new direction appeared in Russian literature - military. Initially, genres close to journalism were popular - features, essays, reports. Later, monumental paintings would appear that captured all the horrors of war and the fight against fascism. These are works by L. Andreev, F. Abramov, V. Astafiev, Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov.

The second half of the 20th century is characterized by diversity and inconsistency. This is largely due to the fact that the development of literature was largely determined by the ruling structures. That is why there is such unevenness: now ideological dominance, now complete emancipation, now the commanding cry of censorship, now relaxation.

Russian writers of the 20th century

M. Gorky- one of the most significant writers and thinkers of the beginning of the century. Recognized as the founder of such a literary movement as socialist realism. His works became a “school of excellence” for writers of the new era. And Gorky’s work had a huge influence on the development of world culture. His novels and stories were translated into many languages ​​and became a bridge connecting the Russian revolution and world culture.

Selected works:

L.N.Andreev. The work of this writer is one of the first “swallows” of emigrant Russian literature. Andreev’s creativity fits harmoniously into the concept critical realism, which exposed the tragedy of social injustice. But, having joined the ranks of the white emigration, Andreev for a long time was forgotten. Although the significance of his work had a great influence on the development of the concept of realistic art.

Selected work:

A.I. Kuprin. The name of this greatest writer is undeservedly ranked lower than the names of L. Tolstoy or M. Gorky. At the same time, Kuprin’s work is a vivid example of original art, truly Russian, intelligent art. The main themes in his works: love, features of Russian capitalism, problems of the Russian army. Following Pushkin and Dostoevsky, A. Kuprin pays great attention to the topic " little man"The writer also wrote many stories specifically for children.

Selected works:

K.G.Paustovsky- an amazing writer who managed to remain original, to remain true to himself. There is no revolutionary pathos, loud slogans or socialist ideas in his works. Paustovsky's main merit is that all his stories and novels seem to be standards of landscape, lyrical prose.

Selected works:

M.A. Sholokhov- a great Russian writer whose contribution to the development of world literature can hardly be overestimated. Sholokhov, following L. Tolstoy, creates amazing monumental canvases of Russian life in the most turning points history. Sholokhov also entered the history of Russian literature as a singer native land- Using the example of life in the Don region, the writer was able to show the full depth of historical processes.

Biography:

Selected works:

A.T. Tvardovsky — the brightest representative literature Soviet era, literature socialist realism. His work raised the most pressing problems: collectivization, repression, excesses of the idea of ​​socialism. As the editor-in-chief of the New World magazine, A. Tvardovsky revealed to the world the names of many “forbidden” writers. It is in his light hand A. Solzhenitsyn began to be published.

A. Tvardovsky himself remained in the history of literature as the author of the most lyrical drama about the war - the poem "Vasily Terkin".

Selected work:

B.L.Pasternak is one of the few Russian writers to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. Also known as a poet and translator.

Selected work:

M.A. Bulgakov... In world literature, perhaps, there is no more discussed writer than M. A. Bulgakov. The brilliant prose writer and playwright left many mysteries for future generations. His work harmoniously intertwined the ideas of humanism and religion, ruthless satire and compassion for man, the tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia and unbridled patriotism.

Selected works:

V.P. Astafiev- Russian writer in whose work the main themes were two: war and the Russian village. Moreover, all his stories and novels are realism in its most vivid embodiment.

Selected work:

- one of the most massive figures in Russian Soviet literature, and, perhaps, the most famous Turkic-language writer. His works depict the most different periods Soviet history. But Aitmatov’s main merit is that he, like no one else, was able to colorfully and vividly embody the beauty of his native land on the pages.

Selected work:

With the collapse of the USSR, Russian literature entered a completely new stage of its development. Strict censorship and ideological orientation have become a thing of the past. The newfound freedom of speech became the starting point for the emergence of a whole galaxy of writers of a new generation and new directions: postmodernism, magical realism, avant-garde and others.

"To Kill a Mockingbird". Harper Lee

It must have been extremely easy to write a novel about the rape trial of a white woman by a black man, set in the deeply racist South of the United States of America, from the point of view of a little girl, full of too much simple solutions and cinematic sentiments. But, fortunately, this is not about Harper Lee's novel " To Kill a Mockingbird" The little girl is the inquisitive and insightful Scout, and her father, who defends the accused, is the immortal Atticus Finch, who has become a bastion of justice for a tired and exhausted town. Behind all this follow, not simple or sentimental, but classic complexities of moral principles, and an endlessly renewable source of wisdom in the natural kingdom of human decency.

"1984". George Orwell, 1949

"Nineteen Eighty-Four", George Orwell

The time is 13:00, the date does not matter, the year is not mentioned. Winston Smith, an official in the Ministry of Truth, toils day and night in the service of Big Brother, the distant, falsely benign ruler of this grimly familiar dystopia. Orwell's novel is an outline of all the possible ways in which a nation can be humiliated by a government: spiritually, physically, intellectually, through encirclement, torture, surveillance and censorship, to the point where the government can manipulate reality at will. When a beautiful female resistance member persuades Smith to rebel, 1984 becomes something more—a strange, tragic, and deeply sad love story. That the novel is as prophetic as it is pessimistic was Orwell's triumph and the century's misfortune.

"The Lord of the Rings". John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, 1954

"The Lord of the Rings", John Ronald Reuel Tolkien Tolkien

When a home Catholic pipe smoking professor from Oxford named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien sat down to write a novel, no one could have imagined that his wild imagination would create an entire continent inhabited by elves, gnomes, orcs, wizards and walking trees. Tolkien called on his deep knowledge of ancient languages ​​and mythology, as well as his harrowing memories of the Battle of the Somme, to create a 20th-century tale of magic and heroism, misty mountains and mystical forests, virtue and temptation, where a tiny dwarf-like hobbit, Frodo, goes on an adventure to destroy the One Ring, an evil artifact that could cause the death of all of Middle-earth. Being the founding text modern style fantasy, The Lord of the Rings also conveys an extremely bleak longing for a pre-industrial England lost forever in the muddy trenches of the First World War.

The Catcher in the Rye." Jerome David Salinger, 1951

"The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

No matter how many school teachers foreign literature did not try to “domesticate” the novel Jerome Selinger « Catcher in the Rye"in the classroom, he will never lose his satirical edge in his life. When Holden Caulfield finds out he's been expelled from yet another private school, he escapes in the middle of the night and heads to New York for a few days, meeting girls, remembering his late brother, wondering where the ducks go in winter, before telling sad news for parents. Time passes in the throes of complete indifference to the joys of life, changing the boy who has just matured. It is a constant reminder of the sweetness of childhood, the hypocrisy of the adult world, and the strange space in between.

"The Great Gatsby". Francis Scott Fitzgerald, 1925

"The Great Gatsby", F. Scott Fitzgerald

There's no better party than Jazz Age multimillionaire Jay Gatsby. Nobody has bigger house, or a bigger swimming pool, and no one drives a longer, shinier, more luxurious car. His silk shirts alone make women cry. But who is he? Where is he from? How did he make his fortune? And why does he stand on his pier every night, holding out his hand towards the green lantern that glows on the other side of the bay, opposite his magnificent mansion? "The Great Gatsby" Reveals the empty, tragic heart of a man who achieved everything through his own efforts. This is not just a gripping read about a great loss. This is one of the most quintessentially American novels ever written.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." JK Rowling, 1997

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", J. K. Rowling

The adventures of a young wizard and his friends and their relationship with the forces of growing up and evil have managed to sell more than 350 million books in 65 languages. The Harry Potter phenomenon has its ill-wishers, but the success of books in special covers “for adults”, which allow you to read the novel on the subway and trains without embarrassment, speaks for itself...

"The Little Prince". Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943

"Le Petit Prince", Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

50 years before the appearance of "Harry Potter" and even 10 years before the writing of " Catcher in the Rye", there was "The Little Prince", pamphlet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, directed against adults and their rational thinking. The work is imbued with extreme tenderness, poetry and some simple but deep human wisdom. The naivety, which is noticeable at first glance, actually hides amazing, subtle humor, as well as sadness and touching.

"The Grapes of Wrath" John Steinbeck, 1938

"The Grapes of Wrath", John Steinbeck

Before the storms of the Dust Bowl had calmed, Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about a family of impoverished Okies, the Joads, who travel west in pursuit of a mirage of the good life, from their ruined Midwestern farm to California. The Joads find only the bitterness, poverty and oppression of the migrating farm workers living in the Hoover Towns, but their unstoppable strength in the face of the disasters of an entire continent makes Steinbeck's epic much more than a tale of unfortunate events. The book is a written record of the times as well as an enduring monument to human perseverance.

"451 degrees Fahrenheit." Ray Bradbury, 1953

"Fahrenheit 451", Ray Bradbury

A classic of world science fiction, Ray Bradbury’s novel “Fahrenheit 451” (the ignition temperature of paper), about firefighters starting fires instead of putting them out, about books forbidden to read, and about people who have almost forgotten what it means to be human...

"One Hundred Years of Solitude." Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 1967

“Cien años de soledad”, Gabriel García Marquez

Novel Gabriel Garcia Marquez « One Hundred Years of Solitude"is the greatest work, most characteristic of the direction of magical realism. This passionate, humorous story of Macondo and his family, the Buendia family, has the appeal of myth.

"Brave New World" Aldous Huxley, 1932

"Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley

A classic example of science fiction, ranked alongside George Orwell's 1984. Back in 1932, Aldous Huxley managed to predict such modern phenomena as cloning, growing embryos in test tubes, totalitarianism, neo-fascism and its artificial compulsory happiness, materialistic globalization and soft ideology.

"Gone with the Wind." Margaret Mitchell, 1936

"Gone with the Wind", Margaret Mitchell

It's one of the best-selling books of all time, but that's not what makes the book's sugar cocktail impressive Margaret Mitchell so great. Powerful, original and comprehensive historical novel about the courageous Scarlett O'Hara, the roguish Rhett Butler and the romantic, infinitely beautiful Ashley Ulkes, in a world destroyed by the cataclysm of the Civil War. Like quintessence English novel is Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, so the quintessentially American novel is Gone with the Wind " The book is extremely readable because love stories have never been more triangular. But it is also a distinctive take on one of America's core mythologies—the disappearance, in blood and dust, of the great old South.

"Lord of the Flies." William Golding, 1954

"Lord of the Flies" by William Golding

If the novel had been written in the 19th century, it would have been about a joyful, whimsical and fantastical Neverland created by boys. But in Golding's version, the children's ostentatious purity quickly disappears in the absence of adults, turning the boys into two warring tribes, one led by the righteous Ralph and his asthmatic sidekick Piggy, the second under the leadership of the former choir leader, Jack. Golding tracks the fall of this new Eden with ruthless, meticulous care and total psychological clarity. And in the process, he mercilessly exposes the myths and clichés about childhood innocence.

"Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade." Kurt Vonnegut, 1969

“Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death”, Kurt Vonnegut

Vonnegut may still be a cult writer, but he deserves full canon honors for his kaleidoscopic puzzle about Billy Pilgrim, a man who "flew out of time." Pilgrim jumps helplessly from decade to decade, living episodes of his life without any sequence, not excluding him own death, his capture by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, and his traumatic service in World War II, where he survived the bombing of Dresden. " Slaughterhouse Five is a cynical novel, but beneath the bitterness of its dark humor lies a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the heinous crimes of the 20th century.

"Lolita". Vladimir Nabokov, 1955

"Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov

The novel was born in agony. Nabokov practically burned the manuscript halfway through completion, and his first publisher was a French publishing house specializing in pornographic literature. But "Lolita" turned into the greatest bestseller, most unlike American classics. Main character named Humbert Humbert is a pedophile. He is a highly cultured and endearingly ironic man who hates himself as only a human being can hate, but he loves, and only can love, pretty little girls, whom he calls “nymphets.” "Lolita" is the story of Humbert's affair with a 12-year-old girl named Dolores Haze. Their story is as disgusting and unacceptable as one can imagine, but Humbert's voice, an endlessly resourceful stream of angry, understandable curses, elevates it to the level of a tragic, twisted epic.

"Over the Cuckoo's Nest." Ken Kesey, 1962

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", Ken Kesey

When Kesey decided to take on the task of describing hypocrisy, cruelty and forced obedience modern life, he dug into his personal experiences as a research subject in a mental hospital. In "Cuckoo's Nest," violent patient Randle Patrick McMurphy battles cold, unfriendly, power-mad sister Mildred Ratched in an attempt to free, or at least breathe some life into, the downtrodden and frightened patients she puts on airs in front of. observes the silent, stony-faced narrator, Chief Bromden. Containing these two allegories of individualism and heartbreaking psychological drama, the novel “ Over the cuckoo's nest” manages to lift the mood without giving the slightest chance to excessive sentimentality.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Douglas Adams, 1979

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy", Douglas Adams

Originally broadcast on Radio 4, this quotable comedy about the misadventures of an Englishman and his alien friend is a prime example of how science fiction can be clever and funny at the same time.

"Stranger." Albert Camus, 1942

"L"Étranger", Albert Camus

Everyone remembers how at school they diligently forced us to read and understand the works of Albert Camus. At that time it was almost impossible to do this, and coercion could cause rejection French writer for life. But the story “The Outsider” is really worth re-reading now. The scorched despair of Camus's intelligent humanism and his clear manner of presentation are simply inimitable.

"American tragedy." Theodore Dreiser, 1925

"An American Tragedy" by Theodore Dreiser

Clyde Griffiths is an ambitious young man. He is in love with a rich girl, but he has impregnated a poor girl, Roberta Alden, who works with him in his uncle's factory. One day he takes Roberta for a boat ride on the lake with the intention of killing her. From now on, his fate is sealed. But by this moment, Dreiser had already made it clear that Clyde’s fate was predetermined even before this by the cruelty and cynicism of society. Dreiser's usual criticism, line by line, makes him the weakest American short story writer. He uses a plumbing approach to his writing style, artfully connecting each sentence. But by the end of the work, he will line them up into a powerful aqueduct, releasing some very significant meaning through it.

"The Old Man and the Sea" Ernest Hemingway, 1952

"The Old Man and the Sea", Ernest Hemingway

It is no longer worth explaining to anyone that the story “The Old Man and the Sea” is a modern classic that brought Ernest Hemingway Nobel Prize. And the main idea in the story of a simple fisherman Santiago, embodying the difficult story of a man forced every day to fight for life and at the same time trying to coexist in harmony with the world, has long become popular, serving as the motto of many admirers of literature, and not only: “Man is not created to endure defeat. Man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated.”

33 best books according to users of Goodreads - the most authoritative online portal for book lovers. Yesterday, Book Day was celebrated all over the world. Therefore, we invite you to pay attention to the list that includes best works, published in the twentieth century. We remember some of the books presented since school days, others are not so well known in Russia, but will undoubtedly bring a lot of aesthetic pleasure. The overall user rating of the Goodreads portal includes 4,560 books and takes into account the votes of more than 30,000 users and regular readers of the site. Among them are eminent critics, publicists and modern writers, have earned the right to publication. In honor of this symbolic date, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the list of reading preferences abroad and remember best quotes from your favorite books.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Author of the book: Harper Lee “Courage is when you know in advance that you have lost, and yet you get down to business and, despite everything in the world, go to the end. You win very rarely, but sometimes you still win.”

1984

Author of the book: George Orwell "If you are in the minority - and even in singular"That doesn't mean you're crazy"

Lord of the Rings

Author of the book: John Ronald Reuel Tolkien "Many of the living deserve to die. And others perish, although they deserve a long life. Can you reward them? So do not rush to hand out death sentences. Even the wisest cannot foresee everything."

Catcher in the Rye

Author of the book: Jerome David Salinger “If a beautiful girl comes to a date, who will be upset that she is late? Nobody!”

The Great Gatsby

Author of the book: Francis Scott Fitzgerald “If you suddenly want to judge someone, remember that not all people in the world have the advantages that you had.”

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

Author of the book: JK Rowling “Truth is the most beautiful, but at the same time the most dangerous thing. And therefore it must be approached with great caution.”

Anne Frank's Diary

Author of the book: Anne Frank “You recognize a person only after a real quarrel. Only then does he show his true character”

The Little Prince

Author of the book: Antoine de Saint-Exupery "It is much more difficult to judge yourself than others. If you can judge yourself correctly, then you are truly wise"

The Grapes of Wrath

Author of the book: John Steinbeck "Anyone can despair. But to control yourself, you need to be human"

451 degrees Fahrenheit

Author of the book: Ray Bradbury "There are crimes worse than burning books. For example, not reading them"

One Hundred Years of Solitude

Author of the book: Gabriel García Márquez “A prosperous old age is the ability to come to terms with your loneliness”

O brave new world

Author of the book: Aldous Huxley “In its natural form, happiness always looks pathetic next to the flowery embellishments of unhappiness. And, of course, stability is much less colorful than instability. And contentment is completely devoid of the romance of battles with evil fate, there is no colorful struggle with temptation, no halo disastrous doubts and passions. Happiness is devoid of grandiose effects."

Gone with the Wind

Author of the book: Margaret Mitchell "A man cannot move forward if his soul is corroded by the pain of memories"

Lord of the Flies

Author of the book: William Golding “If a face changes completely depending on whether it is illuminated from above or from below, what is the face worth? And what is everything worth then?”

Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade

Author of the book: Kurt Vonnegut "One of the most important consequences of war is that people eventually become disillusioned with heroism."

Lolita

Author of the book: Vladimir Nabokov “Lolita, the light of my life, the fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-li-ta: the tip of the tongue takes three steps down the sky, so that on the third it will bump against the teeth. Lo. Li .Ta"

Over the cuckoo's nest

Author of the book: Ken Kesey “You are never truly strong until you learn to see the funny side of everything.”

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Author of the book: Douglas Adams “This planet has - or rather, had - one problem: most of the people living on it did nothing but suffer, because they did not find happiness in life. Many solutions were born, but almost all of them came down to the redistribution of small green pieces of paper - which in itself is very strange, since some people, even small green pieces of paper, did not experience any suffering, because they were not looking for happiness"

A crack in time

Author of the book: Madeleine Langl “One thing I know for sure is that you don’t have to understand what’s what to understand what’s going on.”

The Handmaid's Tale

Author of the book: Margaret Atwood "No one dies from lack of sex. They die from lack of love"

Memoirs of a Geisha

Author of the book: Arthur Golden “Sometimes we get into trouble only because we imagine the world as we picture it in our imagination, and not as it really is.”

Outsider

Author of the book: Albert Camus “And then I saw a string of faces opposite. They were all looking at me, and I realized that these were the jury. But I did not distinguish them, they were somehow the same. It seemed to me that I had entered a tram, in front of me There are passengers sitting in a row - faceless strangers - and everyone is staring at me and trying to spot something to laugh at."

Chronicles of Narnia

Author of the book: Clive Staples Lewis “What you see and hear depends on what kind of person you are and where you look from!”

Charlotte's Web

Book Author: Alvin Brooks White "If this is what we call freedom, I'd rather stay in the barn!"

A tree grows in Brooklyn

Author of the book: Betty Smith "The ability to forgive is a great gift. Moreover, it costs nothing."

Ender's Game

Author of the book: Orson Scott Card “With real understanding, which allows you to defeat the enemy, comes love for him. Apparently, it is impossible to get to know someone, to delve into his desires and faith, without loving how he loves himself. And in this very moment of love ... - You win"

Night

Author of the book: Elie Wiesel "I blessed God for creating dirt in His endless and wonderful world"

The old man and the sea

Author of the book: Ernest Hemingway “Man is not made to suffer defeat. Man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated.”

Atlas Shrugged

Author of the book: Ayn Rand "In my opinion, there is only one form of human failure - the loss of purpose"

Generous tree

Author of the book: Shel Silverstein "And the Apple Tree Was Happy"

Ship Hill

Author of the book: Richard Adams “Animals do not behave like people. They fight when they have to fight, and they kill when they have to kill. But they will never use all their natural resourcefulness and cleverness only to invent new way cripple the life of another living being. They never lose their feelings self-esteem and animality"

Under a glass cover

Author of the book: Sylvia Plath “From somewhere far away I will see a person who seems perfect to me, but as soon as he comes closer, I will begin to discover one flaw in him after another and in the end I will decide that he is no good at all.”

Prayer for Owen Meany

Author of the book: John Irving “When a loved one dies unexpectedly, you don’t lose him right away. It happens gradually, step by step, over a long time - so the letters stop coming, then the familiar smell evaporates from the pillows, and then from the wardrobe and boxes. Gradually you accumulate in your consciousness some disappearing parts of this person; and then the day comes when you notice: something special has disappeared, and you have a nagging feeling that this person is no more and will never be; , and it turns out that something else has disappeared..." The Goodreads website was founded in 2006. The purpose of creating the site is to enable people to find and use books that they need and are interested in. Since the portal's existence, 395 million books have been placed in its catalogs and more than 20,000 book clubs have been created.

With the help of literature, a person finds himself in a completely different world, fairy world or into the world of detectives and investigations or fantastic adventures! Let us, today, look at ten of the greatest writers of the 20th century who won the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

Camus has no equal in philosophical aesthetics. His most popular books are considered to be: “The Rebel Man”, “The Myth of Sisyphus”; they brought the writer worldwide fame. In his books, the hero reflects on life, on its sedateness and rebellion, on defeat and victory, on gain and loss. The reader, together with the author, reflects on the futility of existence and the joy of life.

In his books, Frisch wrote about people who live in their own world and try to build a bridge to reality, making attempts to find solid support and ground under their feet. Frisch's works are calm and measured, like life in Switzerland. And the main action takes place in the heads of the writer’s characters.

Isaac wrote in Yiddish, a dying language. There's definitely some writerly touch and rock to it. Bashevis-Singer is a Nobel Prize winner. His books have been translated into dozens of languages. And his stories about love and friendship, betrayal and loyalty have many similarities with the life of modern Jews, but differ from their history.

Borges is a genius of mysticism, puzzle and detective work. Monstrous labyrinths, huge libraries and a hero who wanders through them in search of reality...

A great American humanist in the sense of literature! “A man will endure, no matter what happens” is Faulkner’s main credo, he constantly repeated it and always adhered to it. In his books this is really true, no one ever gives up, everyone goes to the end!

Master short stories and aphorisms. A deeply unhappy person who committed suicide. He himself did not recognize himself as a great writer and did not strive to be famous. Ryunosuke has said more than once that he doesn’t have any special technologies or anything extraordinary, he just lives and feels. Be that as it may, readers recognized him. The writer became the founder of modern Japanese literature, widely known in the West.

Kafka didn't write much, but he is one of the most popular writers, for sure, because his stories are very exciting and interesting. His heroes ordinary people who live an ordinary life, but notice something absolutely extraordinary and fantastic. They are so carried away by this that it is already difficult for them to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

Undoubtedly, the book “Ulysses” is the most famous book of the 20th century. This book is about an ordinary Dubliner who, in 24 hours, walked through almost the entire Homeric Odysseus. Surprisingly, they didn’t call Joyce a maniac, a hermit, a fugitive, an exile, etc. The writer’s life alone is the most interesting book How could such a person write something mediocre?

“Man Without Qualities” is a book about each of us, the most famous book by Robert Musil. Agree, we often have periods in our lives when we simply watch how someone makes a revolution, makes a coup, creates history with their own hands. But is observation and inaction really supposed to be a virtue, while rebellion and protest will lead to disaster? Yes, that’s how Musil would answer... This book is about the tragedy of existence and an ironic attitude towards it.

This German writer The books “Buddenbrooks”, “The Magic Mountain”, “Joseph and His Brothers” and “Doctor Faustus” brought fame. Mann is a writer who has captivated readers who enjoy complex and intricate literature. He leads us along unexplored paths, first to one gorge, then to another huge abyss. A person reading his works longs to reach the end and gain clarity, but in the end comes to another cliff...

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