Literature (the best novels of the twentieth century). Russian literature of the 20th century The most famous works of the 20th century

33 best books by users of Goodreads - the most authoritative Internet portal for book lovers.

Book Day was celebrated all over the world yesterday. Therefore, we suggest that you pay attention to the list, which included best works published in the twentieth century. We remember some of the books presented from school, while others are not so well known in Russia, but they will undoubtedly bring a lot of aesthetic pleasure.

The overall rating of users of the Goodreads portal includes 4560 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 that have earned the right to publish.

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

“Courage is when you know in advance that you have lost, and yet you get down to business and in spite of everything in the world you go to the end. You rarely win, but sometimes you still win. "

1984

"If you are in the minority - and even in the singular - it does not mean that you are insane"

Lord of the Rings

“Many of the living deserve to die. 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 "

Over Abyss in the Rye

“If a girl comes on a date beautiful - who will be upset that she is late? No one!"

The Great Gatsby

"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

“Truth is the most beautiful, but at the same time the most dangerous thing. That is why it is necessary to approach it with great caution "

Anne Frank's diary

“You only recognize a person after a real quarrel. Only then does he show his true character "

The little Prince

“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

“Everyone can despair. But in order to master yourself, you need to be human. "

451 degrees Fahrenheit

“There are worse crimes than burning books. For example, don't read them "

One Hundred Years of Solitude

"A prosperous old age is the ability to come to terms with your loneliness"

Brave new world

“In its natural form, happiness always looks miserable 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, there is no halo of disastrous doubts and passions. Happiness is devoid of grandiose effects "

Gone With the Wind

"A person cannot move forward if his soul is corroded by the pain of memories."

Lord of the Flies

“If the face completely changes from above or from below to illuminate it, - what is the face worth? And what is it all worth then? "

Slaughterhouse Five, or the Children's Crusade

"One of the most important consequences of war is that people end up disillusioned with heroism."

Lolita

“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 palate to push against the teeth on the third. Lo. Lee. Ta "

Over the cuckoo's nest

"You are not really strong until you learn to see the funny side in everything."

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“This planet has - or rather, it was - one problem: most of the people living on it did nothing but suffer, because they did not find happiness in life. Many decisions were born, but almost all of them boiled down to the redistribution of small green scraps of paper - which in itself is very strange, since someone, but small green scraps of paper did not experience any suffering, because they were not looking for happiness "

A crack in time

"I know one thing for sure: it is not necessary to understand what's what to understand what's going on."

The Handmaid's Tale

“Nobody dies from lack of sex. Die of lack of love "

Memoirs of a Geisha

"Sometimes we run into trouble just because we imagine the world as we draw it in our imagination, and not as it really is."

Outsider

“And then I saw a string of faces opposite. They all looked at me, and I realized that they were the jury. But I did not distinguish between them, they were somehow the same. It seemed to me that I entered the tram, in front of me passengers were sitting in a row - faceless strangers - and everyone was staring at me and trying to notice what to laugh at "

The Chronicles of Narnia

“What kind of person you are and where you look from depends on what you see and hear!”

Charlotte's Web

"If this is what is called freedom, then it would be better if I stayed in the barn!"

The tree grows in Brooklyn

“The ability to forgive is a great gift. Moreover, it costs nothing. "

Ender `s game

“Along with real understanding, which allows you to defeat the enemy, comes love for him. Apparently, it is impossible to recognize someone, to delve into his desires and faith, without falling in love with how he loves himself. And in this very moment of love ...
- You win. "

Night

"I blessed God for creating dirt in His endless and wonderful world."

The Old Man and the Sea

“Man is not created to suffer defeat. A person can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated. "

Atlas Shrugged

"In my opinion, there is only one form of human fall - the loss of purpose."

Generous tree

"And the apple tree was happy"

Ship hill

“Animals don't behave like humans. They fight when it is necessary to fight, and they kill when it is necessary to kill. But they will never wrap up all their natural resourcefulness and sharpness just to invent a new way to cripple the life of another living creature. They never lose their self-esteem and animality. "

Under a glass cover

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

Prayer for Owen Meany

“When a loved one dies unexpectedly, you do not lose him immediately. This happens gradually, step by step, over a long period of time - this is how the letters stop arriving - the familiar smell disappeared from the pillows, and then from the wardrobe and drawers. Gradually, you accumulate in your consciousness some disappearing particles of this person; and then the day comes when you notice: something special has disappeared, and the aching feeling that this person is no longer and never will be; and then another day comes, and it turns out that something else has disappeared ... "

Goodreads was founded in 2006. The purpose of creating a site is to enable people to find and use books that they need and are interested in. During the existence of the portal, 395 million books have been placed in its catalogs and more than 20,000 book clubs have been created.

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

Perhaps we will never again read such perfect works. The important thing, however, is that they stayed forever, and we can again and again experience the joy of touching the great art, plunge into the worlds created by human imagination, the creator of often more interesting universes than our reality. When compiling this list, I had few criteria: first of all, the depth of the intention 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, last of all, “Interestingness” (although it is in all these things at its best, and it is almost impossible to break away from them, but the fascination of the plot is only a consequence of them).

Of course it is not full list- some things that must be read were not included in it for various reasons: either I had not yet had time to read them, or “not mine,” or I simply didn’t want to expand this list indefinitely. But nevertheless, I will mention, anticipating 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, Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, In Search of Lost Time - a seven-volume epic by Marcel Proust, as well as other novels not mentioned here Kafka, Beckett, Frisha, Kobo Abe, Cortazara ...

What follows is a master list with short notes for each novel. They are composed 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 Thomas Mann(1924)

Key philosophical novel German, and indeed all world literature of the 20th century. It would be best to say about him in the words of Thomas Mann himself: “This is a novel about time (Zeitroman) in a double sense: in the historical sense, 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 within, about time itself. The book itself is what it talks about: after all, when it endlessly describes the hermetic charm of the young hero of the novel, it also seeks to eliminate time with the help of artistic techniques, 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 students at Princeton University, 1939)

"The Castle" 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 said that he was stopping work on the novel and was not going to return to it. Only after the death of Kafka, thanks to the fact that Max Brod did not fulfill his will and did not burn all the remaining manuscripts, did the text of the unfinished novel, one of the main novels of the century, and, possibly, key texts in the history of mankind, come to us. The combination of all 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 words just and emerges nothing, the deity that does not exist, the nonsense of this world given to us.

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

A Journey to the End of the Night is a landmark work in 20th century French literature. This novel caused a scandal at the time of its appearance in France in 1932 by the frankness of the confession of a disbelieving intellectual, written in the first person, and Celine's text made a complete break with the past aesthetics of French literature. The intensity of the aesthetics of violence, which manifested itself even more in the subsequent books of Seline, amazed his first readers, and amazes us to this day. "Journey to the End of the Night" forces us to reconsider the concept of literature, and in any case, the relationship between literature and morality, inherited by France from the age of the Enlightenment and blown up by Celine with discouraging spontaneity. But even leaving aside the question of the break with the past and the aesthetics of violence, this book is, above all and indisputably, a genuine 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, Celine's book is not inferior in importance to either Proust or Joyce.

"Tatar desert" by Dino Buzzati(1940 g.)

This novel by the classic of Italian literature Dino Buzzati has become a cult, becoming one of the symbols of modern literature. The themes of the novel are a sense of one's own duty, and the senselessness of this duty (closeness to Kafka); an overwhelming and anxious feeling of expectation of something that will 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; existence in the world of undefined evil; the irreversible run of time and the inevitability of death make him one of the most significant novels of the 20th century.

"Abbot S." Georges Bataille(1950 g.)

This scandalous novel, printed in a small number of copies, provoked sharp criticism. No wonder - Bataille always investigated the human psyche, the mystical and opaque aspects of life radically, and therefore to the uninitiated masses always seemed a blasphemer. Like "Heavenly Blue", written earlier, but published later, this work, of course, belongs to the section of reading "not for everyone."

The End of a Novel by Graham Greene(1951)

There are places in the human heart

which are not yet, and suffering enters

in them so that they may find life.

Leon Blois.

This epigraph begins the novel by Graham Greene, I think his most important work, although, unfortunately, little-known, in comparison with his many much 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", "Malone dies", "Nameless"), after which Beckett finally came to fame and recognition. He wrote this novel in a non-native French language, and later he translated it into English. 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 excellent samizdat translation of the trilogy was published by Chernyshev's St. Petersburg publishing house. Reading this dark, absurd text, 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.

"Stilller" Max Frisch(1954)

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

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 robinsonade where the optimistic imperial views of Victorian England are celebrated. The novel had a difficult road to light - the manuscript was rejected by twenty-one publishers before Faber & Faber agreed to release it, on the condition that the author removed the first few pages describing the horrors of nuclear war. Immediately after its release, the novel did not attract attention (in USA during 1955 year less than three thousand copies were sold), but after a few years it became bestseller and by the early 60s was introduced into the curriculum of many colleges and schools. In 1963, the famous film director Peter Brook filmed a magnificent film of the same name. The Lord of the Flies novel is considered one of the most important works of Western literature of the 20th century. In the listThe Times "The Best 60 Books of the Past 60 years" it ranks as Best Novel of 1954. This cruel work finally removes from modern reader rose-colored glasses that you so want to wear when considering human nature.

"Golden Temple" Yukio Mishima(1956)

The novel 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 the architectural monuments of the ancient Japanese capital of Kyoto. Mishima, who always believed that death makes the Beautiful even more perfect, could not but shake 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 be saved by destroying and removing Beauty from the world.

"Heavenly Blue" Georges Bataille(1957)

This novel, as defined by Philippe Sollers, “ key book Total modern world”, Came out only 20 years after it was written. Bataille wrote it before the First World War, and the oppressive atmosphere of foreboding 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 - a book about something completely different ... The novel is far from for everyone, and it is unlikely that it will appear among the twenty major novels of the 20th century in some other list.

"End of the Road" John Barth(1958)

"The End of the Road" is probably the most "black" novel by Bart, entirely built on provocation, on a rather cynical and frighteningly frank study of human nature, as if being opened on an anatomical table in a morgue. The existence of people in his world is “laughter in the laughter room,” laughter as such, which has nothing to do with humor or mild irony. Laughter in which the world mocks a person. Why is it funny? From the same, which is why it is scary. When there is a gap between the vision of the world and the true essence that cannot be named, when the black (for us, color-blind) eyes of God looks into this gap - then it's funny. Or scary. Or funny and scary at once. (I will add that not everyone can read this novel - the reader is simply physically repulsed by this ingenious, but such a peculiarly rigidly difficult text).

"The Game of Classics" by Julio Cortazar(1963)

A novel considered to be a kind of standard of magical realism, a philosophical "text in a text", " new romance"In the Latin American manner, and in general, a thing-in-itself, to which you will return all your life. This impeccable stylistically, written in a lyric-poetic manner, main novel Cortazar, which has absorbed the whole universe, I recommend in translation by L. Sinyanskaya.

"I'll Call Myself Gantenbein" by Max Frisch(1964)

The socio-philosophical novel of the late Max Frisch is an excellent example of literary game... Its plot splits into separate stories, which multiply before our eyes. Even the narrator splits into two different images, personifying the possible options for his existence. The author does not allow to “finish” the fate of his heroes to 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 a 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 used to playing if we start “playing in history”, unwinding the cocoon of psychology, psyche, habits, beliefs, prejudices? What will be left 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 (a wonderful series "Illuminator"). The novels of the writer are distinguished modern style where mythology and reality are intertwined, history and reality coexist, and heroes travel through time. Ballester destroys old myths and creates new ones - this is how modern literature works. He himself called his novel "a funny story for polymaths", but it seems to me that everything is much deeper. I don’t know how in the original, but in the Russian translation the style is so perfect that it’s impossible to tear yourself away from the narration, and it’s a pity when the novel ends (I reread it more than once).

"Secret Date" by Kobo Abe(1977 g.)

Kobo Abe names Gogol and Dostoevsky as his teachers, two of the main writers of Russian literature. And Abe himself can rightfully be called the "Japanese Gogol" - in his novels, the reality amazingly combined with fantasy, phantasmagoria, sleep, delirium and strange visions. He explores dark sides human psyche and the facets of our civilization, his view is pessimistic, but metaphorically accurate.

"Temp" Camille Burnickel(1977 g.)

Camille Burnickel is one of the brightest French writers twentieth century. His works have been awarded prestigious literary prizes more than once.

The pinnacle of Burnickel's creativity is the novel Temp, written hot on the heels of the sensation produced by the departure of the famous chess player Fischer, and won the same year the Grand Prize of the French Academy. But this is only the outer outline of the work. Can we choose our own destiny, abandon the fame, genius, vocation imposed on us by others, and go our own way, completely invisible in the hustle and bustle of everyday life? The subtlest nuances of style create in the novel a special mood of light sadness and reflections on one's purpose in life (this mood reminds me a little of the state that covers when watching Antonioni's films and, especially, "Under the Cover of Heaven" by Bertolucci).

"Justice" Friedrich Dürrenmatt(1985)

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

"Immortality" Milan Kundera(1990)

In Immortality, the most thoughtful, theatrical and at the same time the most mysterious novel by Kundera, which has become 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 by the name of Agnes, she understands that she would like to remain alone after death, and an elderly lady in a bathing suit easily and coquettishly throws out her hand in greeting with a gesture of a young beautiful woman - all this through time and space is observed by the author. Kundera writes his philosophically mature extension-transposition of “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” no longer about being, but about non-being, 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 after Goethe. But what is behind her? ..

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

Autumn in Petersburg is a literary fiction, a novel about Dostoevsky, who secretly came from abroad to Petersburg to clarify the circumstances of the suicide (or murder) of his adopted son. Trying to understand what happened, Dostoevsky meets with people strangely reminiscent of the characters in his past and future works. Coetzee manages, no less deeply than Dostoevsky himself (which is surprising!), To penetrate into the psychology of his characters, although he does it, of course, in his own way. One of the novel's merits is the accuracy of Dostoevsky's recreation of the world and St. Petersburg. Coetzee's writing style verified to perfection (soon, by the way, received Nobel prize) makes this novel one of the finest works of the twentieth century.

P. S. Top Five: "Magic Mountain" by Thomas Mann, "Journey to the End of the Night" by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, "Abbot S." Georges Bataille, "Stilller" by Max Frisch, "Game of the Classics" by Julio Cortazar.

Anna Karenina. Lev Tolstoy

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

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The Master and Margarita. Michael Bulgakov

This is the most mysterious novel in history. domestic literature XX century This is a novel that is almost officially called "The Gospel of Satan." This is “The Master and Margarita”. A book that can be read and re-read dozens, hundreds of times, but most importantly, which is still impossible to understand. So, which pages of The Master and Margarita are dictated by the Forces of Light?

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Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë

A mystery novel, included in the top ten best novels of all times and peoples! The story of a stormy, truly demonic passion that has excited the imagination of readers for more than one and a half hundred years. Katie gave her heart to her cousin, but ambition and lust for wealth push her into the arms of a rich man. Forbidden attraction turns into a curse for secret lovers, and one day.

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Eugene Onegin. Alexander Pushkin

“Have you read Onegin? What can you say about Onegin? These are the questions that are repeated incessantly in the circle of writers and Russian readers ", - noted after the publication of the second chapter of the novel, the writer, an enterprising publisher and, by the way, the hero of Pushkin's epigrams Faddey Bul-garin. For a long time ONEGIN is not accepted to evaluate. In the words of the same Bulgarin, he “was written in the poems of Pushkin. That's enough. "

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The cathedral Notre dame de paris... Victor Hugo

A story that has survived the centuries, has become a canon and has given its heroes the glory of common nouns. A story of love and tragedy. The love of those to whom love was not given and was not allowed - by religious dignity, physical weakness or someone else's evil will. The gypsy Esmeralda and the deaf hunchback-bell ringer Quasimodo, the priest Frollo and the captain of the royal archers Phoebus de Chateauper, the beautiful Fleur-de-Lys and the poet Gringoire.

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Gone With the Wind. Margaret Mitchell

The great saga of Civil war in the USA and about the fate of the wayward and ready to go over the heads Scarlett O'Hara was first published more than 70 years ago and does not become outdated to this day. This is the only novel by Margaret Mitchell for which she received a Pulitzer Prize. A story about a woman who is not ashamed to be equal to neither an unconditional feminist, nor a convinced supporter of housebuilding.

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Romeo and Juliet. William Shakespeare

This is the highest tragedy of love that a human genius can create. A tragedy that was filmed and filmed. A tragedy that does not leave the stage to this day - to this day it sounds as if it was written yesterday. Years and centuries go by. But one thing remains and will forever remain unchanged: "There is no story sadder in the world than the story of Romeo and Juliet ..."

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The Great Gatsby. Francis Fitzgerald

“The Great Gatsby” is not only the pinnacle of Fitzgerald's work, but also one of the highest achievements in world prose of the 20th century. Although the action of the novel takes place in the “turbulent” twenties of the last century, when fortunes were made literally out of nothing and yesterday's criminals became millionaires overnight, this book lives out of time, because, telling about the broken destinies of the generation of the “age of jazz”.

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Three Musketeers. Alexandr Duma

The most famous historical adventure novel by Alexandre Dumas tells the story of the adventures of the Gascon d'Artagnan and his Musketeer friends at the court of King Louis XIII.

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Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandr Duma

The book features one of the most gripping adventure novels by the classic French Literature XIX century by Alexandre Dumas.

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Triumphal Arch. Erich Remarque

One of the most beautiful and tragic love novels in the history of European literature. The story of a refugee from Nazi Germany, Dr. Ravik, and the beautiful Joan Madou entangled in the "unbearable lightness of being" takes place in pre-war Paris. And the alarming time in which these two had a chance to meet and fall in love with each other became one of the main characters of the Arc de Triomphe.

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The man who laughs. Victor Hugo

Gwynplaine is a lord by birth, as a child he was sold to gangsters-comprachikos, who made a fairground jester out of the child, carving a mask of “eternal laughter” on his face (at the courts of the European nobility of that time there was a fashion for cripples and freaks who amused the owners). Despite all trials, Gwynplaine retained his best human qualities and his love.

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Martin Eden. Jack London

A simple sailor, in whom it is easy to recognize the author himself, goes a long, full of hardship path to literary immortality ... By chance, finding himself in a secular society, Martin Eden is doubly happy and surprised ... and the creative gift awakened in him, and the divine image of the young Ruth Morse, is not similar to all the people he knew before ... From now on, two goals relentlessly stand before him.

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Sister Carrie. Theodore Dreiser

The publication of Theodor Dreiser's first novel was so difficult that it caused its creator to become severely depressed. But further destiny the novel “Sister Carrie” turned out to be happy: it was translated into many foreign languages, reprinted in millions of copies. New and new generations of readers are happy to immerse themselves in the vicissitudes of the fate of Caroline Mieber.

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American tragedy. Theodore Dreiser

The novel "American Tragedy" is the pinnacle of the work of an outstanding American writer Theodore Dreiser. He said: “Nobody creates tragedies - life creates them. Writers only portray them. ” Dreiser managed to portray the tragedy of Clive Griffiths so talentedly that his story does not leave indifferent even the modern reader.

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Les Miserables. Victor Hugo

Jean Valjean, Cosette, Gavroche - the names of the heroes of the novel have long become household names, the number of its readers for a century and a half since the publication of the book does not decrease, the novel does not lose popularity. A kaleidoscope of faces from all walks of life in French society first half of the XIX centuries, bright, memorable characters, sentimentality and realism, tense, exciting plot.

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Adventures of the gallant soldier Švejk. Yaroslav Hasek

Great, original and bully romance. A book that can be perceived both as a "soldier's story" and as classic directly related to the traditions of the Renaissance. This is a sparkling text, at which you laugh to tears, and a powerful call to "lay down arms", and one of the most objective historical evidence in satirical literature.

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Iliad. Homer

The attractiveness of Homer's poems is not only in the fact that their author introduces us into a world separated from modernity by tens of centuries and yet extraordinarily real thanks to the poet's genius, who preserved in his poems the beating of contemporary life. Homer's immortality lies in the fact that his brilliant creations contain inexhaustible reserves of universal human values ​​- reason, goodness and beauty.

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St. John's wort. James cooper

Cooper was able to find and describe in his books that originality and unexpected brightness of the recently discovered continent, which managed to fascinate the entire modern Europe. Each new novel of the writer was eagerly awaited. The exciting adventures of the fearless and noble hunter and tracker Natty Bumpo captivated both young and adult readers.

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Doctor Zhivago. Boris Pasternak

The novel "Doctor Zhivago" is one of the outstanding works of Russian literature, throughout years remained closed to wide range readers in our country who knew about him only from scandalous and unscrupulous party criticism.

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Don Quixote. Miguel Cervantes

What do the names of Amadis of Gaul, Pal-Merin of England, Don Belyanis the Greek, Tyrant the White tell us today? But it was precisely how a parody of the novels about these knights was created “ Cunning hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha ”by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. And this parody has survived the parodied genre for centuries. Don Quixote was recognized as the best novel in the history of world literature.

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Ivanhoe. Walter Scott

"Ivanhoe" - key piece in the cycle of novels by W. Scott, which take us to medieval England. The young knight Ivanhoe, who secretly returned from the Crusade to his homeland and bequeathed by his father's will, will have to defend his honor and love of the beautiful lady Rowena ... King Richard the Lionheart and the legendary robber Robin Hood will come to his aid.

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Headless horseman. Reed Mine

The plot of the novel is built so skillfully that it keeps you in suspense until the very last page. It is no coincidence that the fascinating story of the noble mustanger Maurice Gerald and his beloved, the beautiful Louise Poindexter, investigating the sinister mystery of the headless horseman, whose figure, when he appears, terrifies the inhabitants of the savannah, is extremely fond of the readers of Europe and Russia.

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Dear friend. Guy de Maupassant

The novel "Dear Friend" has become one of the symbols of the era. This is Maupassant's most powerful novel. Through the story of Georges Duroy, making his way upward, the true morals of high French society are revealed, the spirit of corruption prevailing in all its spheres contributes to the fact that an ordinary and immoral person, such as the hero of Maupassant, easily achieves success and wealth.

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Dead Souls. Nikolay Gogol

The release of the first volume of "Dead Souls" by N. Gogol in 1842 caused a stormy controversy among his contemporaries, splitting society into admirers and opponents of the poem. “… Talking about“ Dead souls"- you can talk a lot about Russia ..." - this judgment of P. Vyazemsky explained the main reason for the disputes. The author's question is still relevant: "Rus, where are you rushing, give me an answer?"

With the help of literature, a person falls into a completely different, fairy world or to the world of detectives and investigations or fantastic adventures! Let's go with you, today we will consider ten greatest writers XX century, which captured the hearts of millions of readers around the world.

Camus has no equal in philosophical aesthetics. The most popular of his books are: "The Rebellious 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 being 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, make attempts to find solid support and ground under their feet. Frisch's writings are calm and measured, like life in Switzerland. And the main action takes place in the heads of the characters of the writer.

Isaac worked in Yiddish, the language that dies. Undoubtedly, there is some kind of writing approach and rock in this. Bashevis-Singer is a Nobel Prize winner. His books have been translated into dozens of languages. And his stories of love and friendship, betrayal and loyalty in many ways echo the life of modern Jews, but differ from their history.

Borges is a genius of mystery, puzzle and detective. Monstrous labyrinths, huge libraries and a hero who does something that wanders through them in search of reality ...

Great American humanist in the sense of literature! “A man will withstand whatever happens” - Faulkner's main credo, he constantly repeated it and always adhered to. In his books it really is, no one ever gives up, everyone goes to the end!

Master of short stories and aphorisms. 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 does not have special technologies and something extraordinary, he just lives and feels. Anyway, it was recognized by the readers. The writer became the founder of modern Japanese literature, widely known in the West.

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

Ulysses is undoubtedly the most famous book of the 20th century. This book is about an ordinary Dubliner, who in 24 hours passed, almost that of the entire Homeric Odyssey. Surprisingly, how was Joyce called, and a maniac, and a hermit, a fugitive, an exile, etc. interesting book, how could such a person write something mediocre.

“A Man Without Properties” is a book about each of us, the most famous book by Robert Musil. You must admit that we often have periods in our life when we simply observe how someone makes a revolution, makes coups, makes history with their own hands. But should observation and inaction be a virtue, and rebellion and protest will lead to disaster? Yes, that's what Musil would answer ... This book is about the tragedy of being and an ironic attitude towards it.

This German writer fame was brought by the books "Buddenbrooks", "The Magic Mountain", "Joseph and His Brothers" and "Doctor Faustus". Mann is a writer who has made a reader fall in love with him who enjoys complex and confusing literature. By uncharted paths, he leads us 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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The best books of the 20th century are known to many lovers of good literature. Many of these masterpieces have become iconic for a long time. They raise serious issues and give incredible emotions to every reader. All the mentioned works are worthy of the first place in the list, as they are required reading.

Reflections with a touch of satire

Among best books The 20th century novel "The Catcher in the Rye" is marked by a high-quality story about a person's growing up. The main character author Jerome Selinger named Holden Caulfield was once again expelled from an elite private school. This news made him run away in the middle of the night. So he got to New York, where he tried to indulge in the joys of life. He understands that his parents will have to upset again, and because of such reflections, the guy does not manage to feel all the delights of the big city. Holden begins to grow up in the throes of doubt amid memories of a carefree childhood. He cares about the evil world of adults, and the transition between these states is too painful.

Legendary fantasy

In the best books of the 20th century, it is impossible not to include the legendary creation of John Tolkien called "The Lord of the Rings". It is this work that is considered the main one in the genre of classical fantasy. No one would have thought that the author would be able to create such a detailed universe with his own races and a huge number of characters. The author based his books on mythology different nations, ancient beliefs and personal experience of participation in the First World War. Thus was born the story of the little hobbit Frodo, who, by the will of fate, must become the savior of the world called Middle-earth. To do this, he will, in the company of loyal friends, go from the green Shire to the stronghold of evil Mordor, in order to destroy the main artifact there - the Ring of Omnipotence. On the way, a wide variety of adventures await him, while the story is about others interesting characters... The world is on the brink of destruction, and all hope lies in a few brave heroes.

Philosophy in simplicity

Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, with its beautiful story, deserves to be included in the list of the best books of the 20th century. The story is told on behalf of Nick Kerraway, who moved to New York after World War I to work on the stock exchanges. He learns about the mysterious Mr. Jay Gatsby, who lives next door. He has a beautiful villa with a huge living space, where the noisiest parties in the entire metropolis are constantly held. Lovers of entertainment from all over New York come here, but no one knows about Jay's personality. A wide variety of legends circulate about him, and once the owner of the villa is shown to Nick. Before him appears a successful and good-natured man who also took part in the last war. Only in the course of the narration, the philosophy of the work shows a person who has achieved everything, who has never been able to know happiness in life, although he fully deserved it.

Fairy tale for adults and children

One of the most popular books

The first book about the "boy who survived" is deservedly included in the 100 best books of the 20th century. The work "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" marked the beginning of the creation of a new popular universe, which now has millions of fans. History captivated children and adults with its simplicity, style and attention to detail. It all starts with the fact that an ordinary guy named Harry receives an invitation to study at the Hogwarts School of Wizardry. In the world of magic, he is a real legend, because he managed to survive after the deadly spell of the most powerful dark sorcerer. The first year of study brought acquaintance with friends and finding their true home. This epic continued in the present century until the writing of the seventh part. The work captures from the very first minutes, and it is incredibly difficult to break away from reading it.

Iconic science fiction

The work "Fahrenheit 451" occupies a special place in the 20th century. The author Ray Bradbury was able to perfectly show a totalitarian society where popular culture is the main one. The introduction indicates that the temperature in the title of this masterpiece denotes the required degree for burning paper. In such a society, the presence of books that make the reader think about something is not allowed. To prevent this from happening, special fire brigades were founded to confiscate such literature and burn it. The story is told on behalf of an employee of a similar service. Increasingly, he wonders why they have to make fires from valuable books instead of putting out fires. Through the thoughts of the protagonist and the images of the people around him, the author demonstrates the vices of the present world. Individuals who have forgotten what it means to be human are found at every turn, and the protagonist's wife is a vivid example of this. Classic science fiction is a must-read for every person.

Depressive prophecy

The 20th century could be spearheaded by George Orwell's 1984, if judged by the quality of the dystopia and the prophetic outlook on the future. The English writer seemed to be looking through the veil of time in the middle of the last century and was able to show the state of the world today. He does not talk about specific time dates, but creates a powerful atmosphere of total control. The main character named Winston Smith works in the Ministry of Truth in order to serve people only the "right" material. The figure of the Big Brother, who is the ruler of this state, hangs over the entire community. Everyone remembers and knows about him, even though few have seen him. Through the eyes of the protagonist, the viewer learns all the methods of pressure exerted by the authorities on the people. Everything comes to a paradox, when people are forced to believe in a fictional reality, although before their eyes there is a completely different picture. The main character decides to join the uprising because of love, but even she has no place in such a world.

Human strength

Many people know that persistence in achieving certain goals can help them overcome any difficulty. It was this idea that became the main one in John Steinbeck's masterpiece "The Grapes of Wrath", which entered the top of the best books of the 20th century. The plot tells the story of the Jood family, preparing to travel to the west of the country in search of better life... Their small fortune forces them to do this, although no one wants to leave a farm in California, which no longer brings income. After leaving, they were in even greater trouble than in their native region. They faced poverty, misery and the bitterness of common workers at Hoover Towns. Even this failed to break the iron strength along with the desire for a better life of the main characters. They overcome any obstacles and set an example for all the people around them. Thanks to this, Steinbeck was able to show that a person's perseverance can be highly appreciated. The work did not turn into a demonstration of a series of unfortunate events, and this attracts many readers.

An ode to the power of the human spirit

With his novel "The Old Man and the Sea" he almost made a revolution in literature. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for this creation, and it deservedly entered the list of the best books of the 20th century. The story is based on the bad luck of the ordinary fisherman Santiago, who for almost three months was unable to catch anything when going to sea. Everyone around him began to avoid him, because they considered him too unlucky. Only his loyal friend Manolin continues to go out with him in search of prey in the open waters, although his father does not allow the guy to do this. On the 85th day, Santiago was lucky - a huge marlin fell for the bait. From this moment, the old man begins to struggle with the animal, which does not want to become prey. The main character is weighed down by the fate of a man who fights for his existence every day. At the same time, he likes the world around him, his harmony, and he does not want to violate it. His expression that a person can be destroyed, but not defeated in any way, became winged immediately after the release of the novel.

Love under the pressure of society

Theodore Dreiser had a unique style of writing his masterpieces. It may seem to the reader that deep philosophy is simply not present in the context, but at the end of the story, everything changes. The finale makes it clear that each part of the piece is located where it should be. A striking example of this is "American Tragedy" - a work that was included in the list of the best foreign books of the 20th century. In the center of the plot is the fate of a guy named Clyde Griffiths. He is in love with a rich girl, and marriage with her will also help him satisfy powerful ambitions. Only at this time the poor girl Robert Alden announces to him that she is expecting a child from him. They work together in a factory, and Clyde cannot allow this fact to be made public. Under the pretext of riding a boat on the lake, the hero decides to kill her, and from that moment his life goes downhill.

Life views of an unusual person

In the list of the best books of the 20th century, The Outsider by Albert Camus is one of the most difficult to comprehend. It may seem to many that the plot describes the fate of an evil person, and everything ended logically, but the author laid a deeper subtext. The protagonist is a Frenchman named Meursault who lives in colonial Algeria. The author does not focus on his personality, but rather shows his actions. First, the text describes the death of the mother, then - the murder of a resident in the city by the hands of the central character. The final part of the book is the trial of the guilty. With all his actions, Meursault shows that human life means nothing to him, because even at the funeral of his own mother, he did not shed a tear. Albert Camus in this book showed his corporate style of criticism of intelligent humanism, which attracted the attention of society.

A novel with a difficult history

If we talk about the best books in Russia of the 20th century, then the first is to mention the masterpiece "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov. The author worked on his work for a long time, and in the middle of the way he burned his creation. Later it was published in France, and it was taken up by an agency that specialized in materials for adults. As a result, the narrative produced the effect of a bomb explosion and became a worthy alternative to the American classics. The main character, Humbert, has an unhealthy passion for little girls. He can only love them, for which he hates himself with all his heart. A man is able to think soberly, is not devoid of irony and is far from stupid, but he cannot do anything with his desire. The story tells of his relationship with a twelve-year-old girl, Dolores Haze. The plot is revealed through the main character, his manner of speaking and tragic reflections on his actions with love for the child. This work was included in the list of the best Russian books of the 20th century for its innovation and frank history.

A truly wonderful world

If you look for the best books in the history of the 20th century, you will find that they came out in different periods for all a hundred years. The novel "Brave New World" from famous writer Aldous Huxley is one of this number and is considered a classic of the "1984" level, although it shows a completely different world. The author talks about a community in 26th century London that is completely focused on consumption. For them new era came with the emergence of the Ford T., which was the first car produced in a million copies. Henry Ford was elevated to the cult of a deity, and people began to grow in incubators. At the production stage, they are distributed among castes, and after that they are endowed with the necessary knowledge. Representatives of the lower categories are artificially made less developed to do the dirty work. In such a society lives main character Lenina Crown, a human production nurse. Views of the world from the person of this character will make you think about the pursuit of the ideal and the real world of mankind more than once.

One of the strangest romances

If you gather and walk through the history of the 20th century in Russia, many works can be called the best books, but none of them can compare with the masterpiece "The Master and Margarita". Mikhail Bulgakov wrote this novel in pain and even burned the first versions with different names. Nevertheless, the work was destined to be born and make a splash with its unusual style. The author leads the storyline in the time period of the 20th century and at the same time tells about the fate of Jesus Christ. It all starts with two writers who argued about God. Suddenly, a gray-haired man of elderly years intervenes in their conversation, who predicts one of them will have his head cut off. Within a few minutes, he falls into a rut, and a tram runs over his neck. Further developments the reader will be presented with such a wide picture that it will be simply impossible to stop reading.

Best detectives

Among the best books of detective stories of the 20th century, readers may especially like the work of Agatha Christie entitled "Ten Little Indians". The story tells of a gloomy mansion where ten people with a criminal past have gathered. They are tormented not only by conscience, but by the knowledge of imminent death. Every day, according to the counting-book about negroes, there are one fewer of them, and no one can expose the murderer. This is a classic plot of blind justice that borders on revenge. The criminals decided to repent, but their killer is not interested. With a sophisticated method, he decided to eliminate them one by one, so that in the allotted hours everyone would feel fear.