What to read from the classics? Tips, recommendations, opinions

Being an active reader, I will try to take on the role of assistant and sketch several ideas, compiling a list of the most recognized and most successful, from my point of view, works of both domestic and foreign literature. Most of these novels have already won, and continues to gain popularity, which means that these are the books that need to be read in order to discover and experience this magical, mysterious and so tempting world of literature.

1. What to read from the classics? Relevance of the issue.

Usually a similar question arises in those who suddenly realized the need for self-education or decided to fill their gaps from the school course on Russian literature.

This is where the main difficulty arises. Everyone wants to read something from the collection of world masterpieces. But is there such a thing as a literary masterpiece? Critics argue that it is impossible to unequivocally answer this question: someone likes Russian literature, but someone is foreign, someone reads historical novels to holes , and someone can not imagine an evening without an exciting love story.

Having visited one of the large second-hand bookshops in the capital, I asked the sellers which questions are most often asked by visitors. As it turned out, one of the most common appeals is the request to advise what to read from the classics.

It turns out, in fact, there are a lot of people who want to, the literature of such a plan is in demand, but low awareness sometimes discourages potential customers.

2. What to read from the classics? List of proposed literature.

First of all, let us dwell on novels. By the way, by the way, one should understand a more concise form of the exposition of events, than, for example, a story or a story. For this type of narrative is characterized by the presence of just one storyline, and the number of actors is very limited.

I would single out the following works:

1. Augustine "Treatises"
2. D. Swift "Gulliver's Travels"
3. F. Kafka "The Process"
4. M.de Montein "Full essay"
5. N. Hawthorne "The Letter of Scarlet"
6. G. Melville "Moby Dick"
7. R. Descartes "The First Principles of Philosophy"
8. C. Dickens "Oliver Twist"
9. G. Flaubert "Madame Bovary"
10. D. Austin "Pride and Prejudice"

If you do not know what to read from the classics, but prefer works that reveal everyday subjects that are very close to ordinary life, most likely, dramas are just the genre that suits you.

1. Aeschylus "Agamemnon"
2. Sophocles "The myth of Oedipus"
3. Euripides "Medea"
4. Aristophanes "Birds"
5. Aristotle "Poetics"
6. W. Shakespeare "Richard III", "Hamlet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream"
7. Moliere "Tartuffe"
8. U. Congreve "So do in the light"
9. Henryk Johan Ibsen "The Dollhouse"

Dreamers and romantics very often in verse they try to find answers to the questions posed for themselves. What to read from the classics in the poetic genre? Many things. But I would especially emphasize:

1. Homer "Iliad" and "Odyssey"
2. Horace "Ode"
3. Dante Alighieri "Hell"
4. W. Shakespeare's "Sonnets"
5. D. Milton "The Lost Paradise"
6. W. Wordsworth "Favorites"
7. S.T. Coleridge "Poems"

As for the works of our country, is there really nothing worthy of it? - Well, of course not! - If I were asked to answer the question what to read from Russian classics, I would, of course, recommend M. Bulgakov's "Masters and Margarita", M. Lermontov's "Mtsyri", verses and poems of A. Pushkin.

3. Reading masterpieces of world literature. What does this give us?

Is it worth to return to this area, or is it better and more correct to pay more attention to contemporary works? To answer this question unequivocally is very, very difficult.

Sometimes opinions are divided simply in a cardinal way.

For example, opponents of classical literature argue that it is already obsolete, lost its relevance, gradually becoming a kind of utopia. In turn, philologists and students of linguistic universities defend the masterpieces of the world epic, insisting that without studying the history, culture and subtleties of the language, it is impossible to understand and comprehend our world today.

Well, well ... Each side is right in its own way ... Probably everyone will agree that, say, the "Odyssey" of Homer is not the so-called tabloid fiction for a vacation or an empty pastime. It is difficult to read the work of such a plan and it should be done thoughtfully, slowly and without distraction, comprehending and memorizing the details. Not everyone is able to do this.

It is these books that can acquaint the reader with the world of both native and foreign literature, help to better understand the traditions, culture and mentality of peoples. And they will also discover all the charm and richness of the colors of the language of the narrative, thus replenishing the vocabulary of the reader.

Undoubtedly, reading all the books mentioned in this article may take several years, but in any case, of course, this will not be the time spent in vain.