Today we are reading William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel “Vanity Fair”.

William Makepeace Thackeray was an English author, novelist and satirist of 19th century. He gained international fame and popularity for his novel «Vanity Fair».

It was first published in 1847. This novel satirizes society in early 19th-century Britain.

Today we are reading Daniel Defoe’s novel “Robinson Crusoe”.

Today we are reading Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Old Man and the Sea”.

Ernest Hemingway, in full Ernest Miller Hemingway, (born July 21, 1899, Cicero (now in Oak Park), Illinois, U.S. - died July 2, 1961, Ketchum, Idaho), American novelist and short-story writer. He was noted both for the intense masculinity of his writing and for his adventurous and widely publicized life. His succinct and lucid prose style exerted a powerful influence on American and British fiction in the 20th century.

Today we are reading Charlotte Brontë’s novel “Jane Eyre”. In this early Victorian novel Charlotte Brontë manages to relate, expertly, what it means to be a human being. Charlotte Bronte's classic novel “Jane Eyre” is narrated by the title character.

Today we are reading Mark Twain’s novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and its sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884), the latter often called "The Great American Novel".

Today we are reading Charles Dickens’s novel “Old Curiosity Shop”.

A symbol of Victorian culture, dreamer and humanist,  innovator and subtle stylist, romantic and realist, poet and reporter, preacher of active kindness and belief in miracles, creator of the tradition of Christmas prose and the greatest of literary mysteries – “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”. All this is Dickens.

Today we are reading Jack London’s novel “Martin Eden”.

Jack London (John Griffith Chaney, 1876-1916) spent his childhood in poverty. At the age of ten he was a newspaper boy, later he tried many jobs. From personal experience he learned the hardships of life.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) created 2 collections of fairy-tales –“The Happy Prince” and “Pomegranate House”.

Today we are reading Oscar Wilde’s fairy-tale “The Happy Prince”.

Feat of self-sacrifice as the highest manifestation of altruism is the leitmotif of Wilde's tales. The statue of the Happy Prince asks the Swallow to rip off the leaves of gold from him, peck out his eyes from the sapphire and give the poor. The disfigured Happy Prince is sent to be melted down and a dead Swallow is found at his feet. He sacrificed himself for the people, and Swallow died from the cold, sacrificing himself for the Prince.

Today we are reading Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The book is mainly based on the author’s recollections of her own childhood. Nelle Harper Lee (1926–1975) was born in Alabama. After she had received a degree from Alabama University she practiced law.

Чтение художественного текста на языке автора, безусловно, имеет огромные преимущества. Читатель напрямую, без посредников общается с писателем. Он видит и воспринимает именно то, что автор хотел сказать и сказал в своем произведении. Чтение текста в переводе – это уже несколько другой процесс и с другим результатом. Замечательно, когда переводчик по уровню своего таланта сопоставим с автором. Гораздо хуже, когда  перевод слабый. Но, даже если перевод великолепный, это уже текст, над которым поработало, как минимум, два человека, каждый из которых – творческая личность.   

Сегодня читаем книгу Льюиса Кэрролла «Приключения Алисы в Стране чудес» на языке автора и в русском переводе Владимира Набокова «Аня в стране чудес».