Bestsellers of the 18th century. Bestsellers of the 18th century Epic novels written in the 19th century

1. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy

A novel about the tragic love of a married lady Anna Karenina and a brilliant officer Vronsky against the backdrop of the happy family life of nobles Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. A large-scale picture of the morals and life of the noble environment of St. Petersburg and Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, combining the philosophical reflections of the author’s alter ego Levin with advanced psychological sketches in Russian literature, as well as scenes from the life of peasants.

2. “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert

The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, a doctor's wife who lives beyond her means and starts extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of the emptiness and ordinariness of provincial life. Although the plot of the novel is quite simple and even banal, the true value of the novel lies in the details and forms of presentation of the plot. Flaubert as a writer was known for his desire to bring each work to perfection, always trying to find the right words.

3. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy

An epic novel by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, describing Russian society during the era of the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1812.

4. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Mark Twain

Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River. After some time, they are joined by the rogues Duke and King, who eventually sell Jim into slavery. Huck and Tom Sawyer, who has joined him, organize the release of the prisoner. Nevertheless, Huck frees Jim from captivity in earnest, and Tom does it simply out of interest - he knows that Jim’s mistress has already given him freedom.

5. Stories by A.P. Chekhov

Over 25 years of creativity, Chekhov created about 900 different works (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which became classics of world literature. Particular attention was paid to “The Steppe”, “A Boring Story”, “Duel”, “Ward No. 6”, “The Story of an Unknown Man”, “Men” (1897), “The Man in a Case” (1898), “In the Ravine” , “Children”, “Drama on the Hunt”; from the plays: “Ivanov”, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”.

6. "Middlemarch" George Eliot

Middlemarch is the name of the provincial town in and around which the novel takes place. Many characters inhabit its pages, and their destinies are intertwined by the will of the author: these are the bigot and pedant Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke, the talented doctor and scientist Lydgate and the bourgeois Rosamond Vincey, the bigot and hypocrite banker Bulstrode, Pastor Farebrother, the talented but poor Will Ladislav and many, a lot others. Unsuccessful marriages and happy marital unions, dubious enrichment and fuss over inheritance, political ambitions and ambitious intrigues. Middlemarch is a town where many human vices and virtues are manifested.

7. "Moby Dick" Herman Melville

Moby Dick by Herman Melville is considered the greatest American novel of the 19th century. At the center of this unique work, written contrary to the laws of the genre, is the pursuit of the White Whale. A fascinating plot, epic sea scenes, descriptions of bright human characters in harmonious combination with the most universal philosophical generalizations make this book a true masterpiece of world literature.

8. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

“The novel “Great Expectations” - one of Dickens’s last works, the pearl of his work - tells the life story of young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip in childhood. Pip's dreams of a career, love and prosperity in the “world of gentlemen” are shattered in an instant, as soon as he learns the terrible secret of his unknown patron, who is being pursued by the police. Money, stained with blood and marked with the seal of crime, as Pip is convinced, cannot bring happiness. And what is it, this happiness? And where will his dreams and great hopes lead the hero?

9. “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoevsky

The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a theory of the crime is ripening. Raskolnikov himself is very poor; he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own accommodation. His mother and sister are also poor; he soon learns that his sister (Dunya Raskolnikova) is ready to marry a man she does not love for money to help her family. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old pawnbroker and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use the stolen goods, he hides them. From this time on, the terrible life of a criminal begins.

The daughter of a wealthy landowner and a big dreamer, Emma tries to diversify her leisure time by organizing someone else's personal life. Confident that she will never get married, she acts as a matchmaker for her friends and acquaintances, but life gives her surprise after surprise.

XIX CENTURY

Russian novel of the 19th century.

The genre of the novel in Russia experienced its greatest flourishing in the 19th century, when its most equal types reached maturity: social, political, historical, philosophical, psychological, love, family, adventure, and fantasy. Mastering the achievements of other genres, the realistic novel of the 19th century. widely covers various spheres of life, critically reveals social problems, and delves deeply into the inner world of the characters. The psychological novel is successfully developing (“Crime and Punishment” by F. Dostoevsky, “Anna Karenina” by L. Tolstoy) and at the same time colossal epics are being created (“War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy).

Characteristic features of the Russian realistic novel of the 19th century:

Interest in modernity, the desire to recreate it for objectivity, reliability, accuracy;

Detailing of everyday life, surroundings, social environment;

Displaying life using typical characters and typical circumstances;

Social analysis;

“self-development” of heroes, whose actions are not random, but determined by character traits and circumstances;

Historicism, the principles of which were applied by romantics in the past, and by realists even to the present day.

Great contribution to the development of the novel genre in Russian literature of the 19th century. made by O. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”), M. Lermontov (“Hero of Our Time”), I. Turgenev and M. Saltykov-Shchedrin created wonderful examples of social (and I. Goncharov - everyday) novels, closely related to current social issues problems. L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky and other Russian realist writers became real masters of psychological analysis; they reflected in their works the intense spiritual search of their contemporaries. Russian realism of the mid-19th century, without losing its social urgency, turned to philosophical questions and put forward the eternal problems of human existence.

The very titles of some novels can tell the reader how different the same “Russian reality” will be for them. “Fathers and Sons”, “Crime and Punishment”, “War and Peace” are titles charged with conflict, and these conflicts are of an equal kind. In one case, there is a clash of generations, behind which there arises a historical difference in aspirations and beliefs. In another, the struggle is tragically transferred into the human soul. In the third, the formidable elements of life collide and involve not an individual, but entire nations.

The Russian novel plays a special role in the process of formation and development of this genre in world literature of the second half of the 19th century, primarily the novels of L. Tolstoy (“War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” “Resurrection”) and F. Dostoevsky (“ Crime and Punishment”, “The Idiot”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, etc.). In the work of these outstanding writers, one of the decisive qualities of the novel reaches its peak - its ability, through in-depth psychologism, to embody universal meaning in the private destinies and personal experiences of the heroes.

While remaining faithful to the traditions of the early Russian novel by A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov, the Russian novel of the 60s was enriched with new features in the work of every outstanding artist: features of the epic - in L. Tolstoy; with a huge philosophical and psychological scope - in F. Dostoevsky, whose heroes live in direct correlation with the whole world, with the past and future of humanity.

Man and the world in the depiction of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are in living and constant interaction. It is important for hero-seekers to understand the secret of the human personality, the basis of the universe. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky strive to identify the general laws that govern the private and public lives of people, and turn to moral problems that are revealed through the relationships of the characters. Internal monologues convey the characters’ experiences of their own actions and the actions of other people, thus revealing the hidden intentions and secrets of the characters’ souls.

Contemporaries and followers of L. Tolstoy were surprised and delighted by the unusual form of the novel “War and Peace”: a wide epic scope, an in-depth analysis of individual destinies, characters and relationships of people. When creating the Iliad of modern times, Tolstoy did not copy the experience of the ancient Greeks, in whose epic the life of an individual was dissolved in the flow of external events. Readers were amazed by the brightness of the characters in Tolstoy's novel and the richness of the principles of their depiction. The strength of Tolstoy's epic narrative lies in the fact that he expanded its scope, included the theme of the masses into the historical flow and showed their decisive role.

In his novels, F. Dostoevsky (like V. Shakespeare in tragedies) turns to the depiction of such a fact of life, which at its turning point reveals the highest mental tension of the hero - the explosion is prepared both by the character of the person himself and by the coincidence of social conditions. The writer’s works for the first time tell about an invisible person, rejected by society, as an individual who takes possession of eternal, epoch-making phenomena.

It can be said that L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky have a special place in the history of Russian realism. It was thanks to them that the Russian realistic novel acquired global significance. their psychological mastery and insight into the “dialectics of the soul” opened the way for the artistic quests of 20th-century writers. The novel by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky had a huge influence on the further development of the genre in world literature. Outstanding novelists of the 20th century - T. Mann, A. France, G. Rolland, K. Hamsun, J. Galsworthy, W. Faulkner, E. Hemingway and others - turned out to be direct followers of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

The nineteenth century is a special time for world literature. He gave us unsurpassed masterpieces of both domestic and foreign literature, which already captivated readers around the world and which continue to fascinate them today.

Below is a selection of the best romance novels of the 19th century.

Victor Hugo

Not the first, but one of the most famous love quadrangles in the history of literature. Gypsy Esmeralda has such a unique charm that three men fall in love with her at once, one of whom is the hunchback bell-ringer Quasimodo, although her heart is forever given to another.

Lev Tolstoy

Don Juan. George Gordon Byron

Byron's Don Juan is the writer's last work, a novel in verse that brought him worldwide fame. Without him, there would be no Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The name of the main character has become a household name by our time. This is a handsome, gallant and educated character, an insatiable seducer, whose only fault was that his unearthly beauty easily captivated women's hearts.

Charlotte Bronte

When it comes to classic love stories, Jane Eyre ranks and always will rank first. The story of the difficult relationship between the governess and Edward Rochester, filled with unimaginable plot twists, passions and inexpressible feelings, has attracted readers young and old at all times. And today this book occupies a worthy place in the home library of every self-respecting young lady.

Charles Dickens

This is a story about beautiful love that the main character literally carries throughout his entire life. Pip met Estella when they were both children. But from then on, the hope settled in his soul that his fate would be favorable to him. The novel by the great Charles Dickens is very vital, largely due to this it resonates in the hearts of many generations of readers.

The novel is the most flexible genre, open to constant change. Its flourishing in the era of realism reveals this primordial nature, since the realistic image is based on the material of the developing reality itself.

The dynamism of the novel structure manifests itself in a variety of ways, since the genre forms of the novel reflect moving time, solving certain ideological and artistic problems at each historical moment, embodying the author’s worldview, changing each time depending on the specific concept of the work.

In the process of progressive development at each stage, the novel realizes certain potentials of the genre. Therefore, each historically determined form of the novel is not only natural and unique, but also cannot be canceled by subsequent, even the most outstanding achievements of the genre. It is known that the very development of the novel cannot be considered as a story of simple, straightforward improvement and progress. The process of development of art is uneven. It is accompanied not only by achievements, but also by losses, and genre forms, once recognized as outdated, can be activated in other eras and, in a transformed form, serve new artistic purposes.

The Russian realistic novel, the classical form of which took shape in Eugene Onegin, arose at that critical historical era when the circumstances of Russian and pan-European life led writers to abandon the educational speculative approach to reality. Object of attention in a morally descriptive novel of the 18th century. was an individual, a private person pursuing his personal life goals, d whose actions were not subject to objective laws, but were carried out under the influence of chance. This understanding of personality determined the mechanical connection of the elements of the plot movement - the stringing of adventurous or satirical-moral-descriptive episodes onto the conventional thread of the adventures of the main character and the closed ending of the novel, in most cases successful in its content.

The prerequisites for the new image of the hero were laid in romanticism, in its understanding of the individual as a person-universum, a citizen of the universe, opposed to the impersonal real person of a bourgeois or serf society.

This discovery of the romantics, placed on the basis of a socio-historical understanding of human nature, led in the realistic novel to the creation of the image of a hero of time, the essence of which is a conflict with reality (spontaneous or conscious), with the existing forms of social existence, inspiration by extra-personal goals and interests . A new interpretation of the relationship between the individual and society contributed to the mutual enrichment of the intimate and public spheres of the hero’s life.

The revolution that has taken place radically changes the structure of the novel in the literature of realism; a holistic narrative arises in which nature, society, everyday life, events and episodes in the lives of the characters, their social and personal connections, the intimate sphere of life cease to be disparate elements of the plot and become dynamically interconnected links in the causal movement of the plot. The open ending of the novel appears, demonstrating the dependence of the resolution of personal conflict on the fate of social development . All these qualities were manifested in their entirety for the first time in Eugene Onegin. Historicism, which appears in this novel as a natural change of eras in the mental development of society, the dialectical relationship between character and circumstances, the significance of the heroine, who embodies spiritual tendencies not realized in the hero, the central role of the author - the organizer of the narrative and the bearer of positive values ​​in a more complete content than this presented in the heroes - all these traits were inherited and developed in the novel of the middleXIXcentury.

IN " Hero of our time" a new structure of the novel takes shape. The subject of the image becomes, first of all, the potential content of the spiritual world of the individual. In the image of Pechorin, those qualities that in Pushkin’s novel were distributed between the author and his characters are synthesized . The character of the hero is enlarged, this paves the way for the creation of social types of the novel of the 50s.

Lermontov's novel develops techniques for a multifaceted psychological portrayal of character (self-analysis, objective discovery of hidden spiritual properties through a direct reaction to the environment) and a multi-valued assessment of the hero.

Aestheticsnatural school introduces a more complex understanding of the principle of determinism. Reality becomes an independent subject of the image and is depicted in a more differentiated manner. The portrayal of character emphasizes the all-subordinating influence of social circumstances, the pressure of the century.

In the novelHerzen a system of causal interrelation of phenomena is established, revealing a specific manifestation of the law of objective necessity in the fate of the individual.

In the process of evolution of the “natural school”, attention is increasing writers to the positive natural inclinations of man, there appears a contrast between the natural and the social in man and a focus on psychological analysis. The emergence of autonomy of the spiritual principle is the key to a new restructuring in the novel structure, which in the 50s was reflected in the fact that the object of the image was the conscious opposition of the hero to the environment, reality, and in the post-reform novel - in the depiction of the hero’s spiritual life as a self-propelled flow.