If you could read only one book in your life, which one would you choose? This question can turn into a real torture for lovers of literature. Which novel best showed personal values, changed the worldview and remains a support at every stage of life - the answer is undoubtedly purely individual. However, there are classics with which most can agree. They are loved for the time they reproduce, the values ??they are taught, for their looks or just the beauty of their words.
"In Search of Lost Time", Marcel Proust
"In Search of Lost Time" follows the narrator's recollections of childhood and the experience of adult life in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries of aristocratic France, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning for the world. The novel essaypro review had a great influence on the literature of the twentieth century: some writers sought to imitate it, others - to parody. Today, Proust's literary monument ranks first in many lists of the best books and is the most revered novel of its time.
"One Hundred Years of Solitude", Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Marquez's novel is one of the most important works in contemporary Latin American literature. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the story of the Buendía dynasty, the inhabitants of Macondo, and combines fantastic and allegorical elements: for example, rains of yellow flowers, alchemy and religious phenomena with realism, history and incredible style. Marquez's novel became an important work of magical realism and one of the most famous Latin American novels of the twentieth century, which sold 47 million copies and translated into 46 languages.
"Lolita", Vladimir Nabokov
More than 60 years have passed since Lolita's novel was published, and it is still a controversial work that is debating whether it is a "love story" or a "pedophilia." However, the skillful manipulation of a complex play on words, idioms and descriptions of details does not call into question the skill of the author and makes "Lolita" one of the most outstanding books of the twentieth century.
"The Great Gatsby", Francis Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby is considered Fitzgerald's greatest work. He explores themes of decline, idealism, resistance to change, social upheaval, and excess, creating a portrait of the roaring twenties as a warning story about the American dream. This vivid depiction of the upper world of the United States in the 1920s is one of the greatest novels of twentieth-century American literature.
"Anna Karenina", Leo Tolstoy
This monumental work of the cult Russian writer is a critique of imperial Russian society and tells of the tragic love of Alexei Kirillovych Vronsky and Anna Karenina, now one of the most famous heroines in literature. A large picture of traditions and customs, philosophical reflections and masterful psychological sketches made this novel a legendary work.
"Over the abyss in life", Jerome Salinger
Golden Caulfield's three days and nights in New York contemplate the loss, childhood, and difficulties of growing up. In this novel, Salinger raises philosophical questions and talks about the acute perception of modern society and the rejection of established norms of morality. Despite the young age of the protagonist, his ideas resonate in both adolescent and adult audiences, so affect world culture.
