13 books that every young writer should read

In 1934 a young fellow named Arnold Samuelson just graduated from the school of journalism. He read a short story by Ernest Hemingway, who later became part of the fourth novel of the writer "To have and not to have." Samuelson liked this story so much that he went from his native Minnesota to Florida to meet with Hemingway and ask him for advice on how to become a writer. In 1935 he wrote an article dedicated to his conversation with the master, so that each reader could get acquainted with his useful experience. If you want to create a work worthy of attention, you should learn from the great writers of the past. The best of their work, according to Hemingway, - in this list.

"Madame Bovary", Gustave Flaubert

This refined novel is devoted to the life story of one of the most interesting heroines of world literature - Emma Bovary. She is unhappy with a devotee, an awkward provincial doctor. Emma tries to resist the boredom of her life, indulging in dreams of love. Nevertheless, her sensory desires only lead to misfortune and failure. Be sure to get acquainted with this incredible story, even if you do not plan to become a writer. This is a book worth reading to everyone.

Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy

This book is considered one of the greatest of all written in the whole history. This is Tolstoy's novel, which is a classic story of love and adultery against the background of the life of the high society of Moscow and St. Petersburg. The rich, complex narrative of the novel tells of the tragic love between Anna, a beautiful married woman, and Vronsky, a rich army officer. Tolstoy easily intertwines the lives of a dozen characters, creating an exciting canvas about the life of the late nineteenth century.

The "Dubliners", James Joyce

James Joyce's novel The Dubliners is a vivid portrait of Dublin in the early twentieth century. These are fifteen stories that make it possible to better understand the city in which Joyce was born. The novel conveys the subtleties of the speech of the Dubliners and, with a harsh realism, talks about their inner and outer life. If you like English literature and postmodernism, you should definitely get acquainted with this literary work. Usually everyone tries to read "Ulysses" of Joyce, but "Dublin" is no worse, although less known.

"The burden of human passion, Somerset Maugham

Published for the first time in 1915, this novel is a vivid depiction of the power of sexual attraction and the search for freedom by modern man. This is a classic upbringing novel, dedicated to the history of Philip Carey, a sensitive boy with a disability who becomes an orphan and is raised by his uncle and aunt. Philip dreams of adventure, at the age of eighteen he leaves home and goes to Paris to become an artist. Then he returns to London to study medicine, where he meets the attractive Mildred - and so begins a doomed to failure love story that will change the life of the hero.

"Red and black," Stendhal

Cute and ambitious Julien Sorel wants to rise above his humble peasant background and achieve in the lives of peaks, using pretense, according to the laws of which society lives. Julien immediately commits a crime - out of passion, principle or madness - and because of this, his fall also occurs. The novel "Red and Black" is a lively satirical picture about the French society after Waterloo, suffering from corruption, greed and boredom.

"War and Peace", Leo Tolstoy

Tolstoy's book is devoted to the life of five families fighting for life during the Napoleonic War. Among the many unforgettable characters, Prince Andrew Bolkonsky stands out, a proud, brave man who, contrary to the pretense of high society, goes to the front to achieve glory. He is seriously wounded in Austerlitz, as a result of which he understands the emptiness of the ideals he fought for. The scene of his death is considered one of the best in Russian literature.

"Buddenbrooks", Thomas Mann

This novel was first published in Germany in 1900, when Mann was only twenty-five. He became a classic of literature. This is a story about the lives of four generations of a wealthy bourgeois family in northern Germany. With incredible skill, Mann creates a picture of middle-class life (birth, baptism, marriage, divorce and death, success and decline). All these ordinary events, incredibly similar, change slightly when generations pass.

"Hail and Farewell", George Moore

This novel, which was not translated into Russian, is considered a masterpiece of Moore. He strongly influenced the views of the figures of the Irish literary Renaissance. In his amazing work, Moore talks about the theater and its collaborators, shares profound comments on literature and art, as well as on the social and religious life of his time.

The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky

When the cruel landowner Fyodor Karamazov is killed, the lives of his sons are irretrievably changed: Mitya is under suspicion because of constant rivalry with his father, the intellectual Ivan is experiencing psychological suffering that leads him to a breakdown, and spiritual Alyosha is trying to correct the problem of the family. In addition, in the novel there is a figure of Smerdyakov, half-brother.

The Enormous Room, Edward Cummings

This writer is not too well known to the Russian reader because of the lack of translations. This book is an autobiographical novel of the year 1922, devoted to the author's temporary imprisonment in France during the First World War. Cummings served as an ambulance driver during the war. At the end of August 1917, he and his friend were arrested by the French authorities for distributing anti-war leaflets. Cummings had an opportunity to escape, but he supported a friend and as a result also ended up in prison. His experience during his life in prison, he described in the book.

"Wuthering Heights", Emily Bronte

Lockwood, a new resident of the Skvortsov Manor, appears among the marshes in gloomy York. He happens to be at the Wuthering Heights estate, where he learns about a series of emotional events that happened several years earlier. Classics of the English novel was screened many times. If you want to have an idea of one of the most important books in the UK culture, you should definitely read this impressive novel by Emily Bronte.

"Long ago," William Hudson

William Henry Hudson was a writer, naturalist and ornithologist. He was born in Argentina and spent his youth studying the local flora and fauna, observing the nature and human experiences that are raging in the far country of South America. This is an interesting and unusual sample of literature, which is worth familiarizing to everyone.

"American", Henry James

This novel by Henry James is an unusual combination of social comedy and melodrama, dedicated to the adventures and failures of Christopher Newman, a good-natured but rather stupid American businessman who went on his first tour of Europe. Newman wants to find a new world that does not look like the simple and cruel reality of business in America. He gets acquainted with the beautiful and ugly sides of Europe and understands that nothing can be taken unambiguously. The focus is Newman's novel with a young widow from the aristocratic family of Paris.