Класична зарубіжна проза

«Загадкова історія Бенджаміна Баттона» з перших рядків приголомшує читача: 1860 року в Балтиморі народилася дитина, яка має вигляд 70-річного чоловіка і може гово­рити. Коли «хлопчику» виповнюється 12 років, стає зро­зумілим,  що він росте «навпаки»...

Бак був звичайним домашнім псом з каліфорнійського ранчо. Доки його не викрали і не продали. Тепер він змушений забути про своє колишнє безтурботне життя та почати боротьбу за виживання. У холодній клітці, далеко від дому, кочуючи з місця на місце, він буде брати участь у жорстоких собачих боях, коритись «закону палиці», проте не втратить найважливіше — жагу до свободи. Бак почне шлях, яким його веде поклик пращурів…

У романі «Енн із Інглсайду» Енн і Гілберт із п’ятьма дітьми живуть у містечку Глен Сент Мері. Подружжя разом уже п’ятнадцять років. Діти зростають, знаходять друзів, пізнають радість і горе, правду та брехню. Життя постійно випробовує Енн, адже їй треба бути і доброю матір’ю, і мудрою жінкою, і гостинною сусідкою. Вона вкотре знаходить силу, любов та підтримку у своїх найрідніших.

«Остання красуня Півдня» — це новела, в якій автор написав про себе й про трагічну любов. У творі «Буремний рейс» розповідається про те, що довіра може зникнути через дрібниці. А величезна кришталева чаша стає символом невезіння в новелі «Кришталева чаша».

Molly Gibson, a young and naive girl, the only daughter of a widowed doctor living in a provincial English town in the 1830s. Mr. Gibson decides to remarry. For the sake of her father, Molly does everything to get along with her stepmother. Molly finds an ally in her stepsister Cynthia. The two girls are complete opposites. But Cynthia and her mother conceal a secret from their past.

The Financier is a novel by Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945), based on a true story. It is the first part of the «Trilogy of Desire.» Frank Cowperwood, the son of a banker, starts his own business. He married a wealthy widow. Over time, Cowperwood began to misuse municipal funds with the help of the city treasurer. When the Great Chicago Fire causes a stock market crash, he goes bankrupt, and his fraud is exposed. Frank has an affair with Aileen Butler, the daughter of one of his business partners. Aileen promises to wait for him after his imprisonment.

The Buccaneers (1937), Edith Wharton’s last novel, was left unfinished.
The novel is set in the 1870s. Several wealthy American families have ambitions to gain even higher social status by marrying off their daughters to aristocrats. The money of the young women’s parents is very attractive to impoverished but titled Englishmen to maintain their version of wealth.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a British writer, who created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Holmes and Dr. Watson. This novel, as well as The Sign of the Four and 12short stories about the adventures of the world’s most famous detective, were included in the first volume of the illustrated four-volume set.

The Professor is the first novel by English writer Charlotte Brontë’s (1816–1855). Young William Crimsworth is forced to look for work. After an unsuccessful experience as a clerk, and following a friend’s advice, William takes up teaching English. He unexpectedly falls in love with one of his students.

Tarzan was born into the family of the British Lord Greystoke, who, together with his wife, was abandoned in the wild jungles of Africa by sea-robbers who had thrown them off a ship. His parents died when the boy was an infant, and he grew up among apes. Human intelligence helped the boy not only to win in battles with predators, but also to lead the tribe of big monkeys.

The Strange High House in the Mist is a collection of several mystical stories by the American writer H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937). In the story of the same name, Thomas Olney is intrigued by a strange house on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Local residents are afraid of this place, which no one visits. With great difficulty, Olney climbs the rock, approaches the house and meets the mysterious man who lives there.

Agnes Grey (1847) by English writer Anne Brontë is the story of a governess. The novel is based on the author’s own five-year experience. Like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the work describes the difficult lives of poor girls who are forced to work for other families.

American writer Robert E. Howard created his famous fictional hero Conan the Barbarian in 1932. This character attracts with his strength, intelligence, wit, and lust for life.

The Invisible Man is a science fiction novel by the English writer H. G. Wells (1866–1946). A stranger appeared in an English village during a snowstorm. No one saw his face, it was hidden under medical bandages. But one day a stranger took off the bandages and... he was left without a head!

Gone with the Wind is a novel by the American writer Margaret Mitchell (1900–1949).

It is the story of the sailor Ishmael about the obsessive pursuit of Ahab, the captain of the whaling ship Pequod, after a white sperm whale. The dramatic conflict between man and nature has captivated readers of this epic saga for the second century in a row.

David Herbert Lawrence (1885–1930) in the semi-auto-biographical novel Sons and Lovers (1913) touched on the topic of ambiguous relationships with parents.

Tess of the d’Urbervilles — a novel by the English writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), first published in 1891. One day, the head of the Darbeyfield family learns that their family comes from the ancient knightly family d’Urberville. He quits his job and spends most of his time in local pubs. Tess, the eldest daughter, becomes the support of the family.

Nineteen-year-old Margaret Hale lives in London. Her life is turned upside down when her family moves to Milton Northern. It is a cotton-manufacturing town, which is at the centre of a workers’ revolution. At first, Margaret is hostile to John Thornton, a wealthy manufacturer; but over time, she begins to admire the way he rose from poverty. After a series of dramatic events, Thornton unexpectedly makes his declaration of love to her, but Margaret does not accept it, although she begins to realize the depth of Thornton’s personality.

Tender Is the Night (1934) is the last novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The action of the novel takes place on the French Riviera, where a glamorous couple, Dick and Nicole Diver, rent a villa and invite friends. Dick is a promising young psychiatrist, and Nicole was his patient. One of the guests, Rosemary, is delighted with the Divers, but senses that something is wrong with the couple. The other guests witness Nicole’s nervous breakdown....

The Brangwen sisters, Ursula and Gudrun, are the main characters of D.H. Lawrence’s novel Women in Love (1920). Ursula is a schoolteacher, and Gudrun is an artist.

The second volume of the four-volume illustrated books by Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) includes the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles and 12 short stories. The legend of the fearsome, diabolical hound that haunts the Baskervilles has turned into a terrifying reality. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to save the last descendant of this family—Sir Henry.

The Gothic novel The Mysteries of Udolpho by the English writer Anne Radcliffe (1764–1823) is set in the 16th century in Southern France and Northern Italy.
In the second part of the novel, Emily, now an orphan, is forced to live with her aunt, Madame Cheron. The aunt marries Montoni, a nobleman from Italy. He wants his friend Count Morano to become Emily’s husband. Finding Morano almost broke, Montoni takes Emily and her aunt to his castle, Udolfo. Montoni is trying to force his wife to transfer the property to him. Madame Cheron dies. Emily manages to escape...

The White Company is a historical novel by the Scottish writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), which tells about the adventures of the main character, a young squire, as well as English archers.

The mysterious murder that Sherlock Holmes investigates in the novel The Valley of Fear is connected with ancient events in a distant land. The victim of the persecution manages to happily avoid death, but on his way there is a genius of the criminal world Professor Moriarty.

The novel «Mansfield Park», the third published novel of Jane Austen (1775–1817), belongs to the mature period of her work.

The wealthy Vanstone family from the novel No name has two daughters—Norah and Magdalen. Suddenly, their parents die in a train accident. It suddenly turns out that the daughters are illegitimate, they have no name, no rights, no property. All the property is inherited by an uncle, who refuses to provide any support to the orphaned nieces.

The Forsyte Saga brought the English writer John Galsworthy (1867–1933) the Nobel Prize in Literature (1932).