Interesting facts about literature. All the most interesting things about literature, books, newspapers, magazines and writers - the most interesting facts

Which literary character Was Dumas invented only to increase the fee?

When Alexandre Dumas wrote " Three Musketeers” in the format of a serial in one of the newspapers, the contract with the publisher stipulated line-by-line payment for the manuscript. To increase the fee, Dumas invented a servant of Athos named Grimaud, who spoke and answered all questions exclusively in monosyllables, in most cases “yes” or “no.” The continuation of the book, entitled “Twenty Years Later,” was paid by the word, and Grimaud became a little more talkative.

Which Kipling characters changed gender in the Russian translation?

In the original Jungle Book, Bagheera is a male character. Russian translators changed Bagheera's gender, most likely because the word “panther” is feminine. The same transformation occurred with another Kipling character: the cat became, in the Russian translation, “The cat that walks by itself.”

Which writer got the stone that lay on Gogol's first grave?

Initially, on Gogol’s grave in the monastery cemetery there was a stone nicknamed Golgotha ​​because of its resemblance to Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, during reburial in another place they decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And that same stone was subsequently placed on Bulgakov’s grave by his wife. In this regard, Bulgakov’s phrase, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime, is noteworthy: “Teacher, cover me with your overcoat.”

Which famous English-language literary dystopia contains many words of Russian origin?

In dystopia " A Clockwork Orange“Anthony Burgess put into the mouths of the teenage heroes a slang he invented called Nadsat. Most of Nadsat's words had Russian origin- for example, droog (friend), litso (face), viddy (see). The word Nadsat itself is formed from the ending of the Russian numerals from 11 to 19, its meaning is the same as that of the word teenager (“teenager”). Translators of the novel into Russian faced the difficulty of how to adequately convey this slang. In one version of the translation such words were replaced in English words, written in Cyrillic (men, face, etc.). In another version, the jargon words were left in their original form in Latin letters.

Which writer, at the end of his life, acknowledged the harm caused to nature by his own work?

Peter Benchley, author of the novel Jaws, later filmed by Steven Spielberg, in last years life became an ardent defender of sharks and the marine ecosystem as a whole. He wrote several works in which he criticized the negative attitude towards sharks, inflated in mass consciousness thanks in part to Jaws.

Which words from Pushkin's poem "Monument" were cut out by censors in 1949?

In 1949, Pushkin's 150th anniversary was celebrated. A report on his life and work was given on the radio by Konstantin Simonov. In one Kazakh town, people gathered at the loudspeaker big number Kalmyks deported here from their historical homeland. Somewhere in the middle of the report, they lost all interest in him and left the square. The thing was that while reading Pushkin’s “Monument,” Simonov stopped reading right at the moment when he was supposed to say: “And a friend of the steppes, the Kalmyk.” This meant that the Kalmyks were still in disgrace and censorship excluded any mention of them even in such harmless cases.

James Barrie created the character of Peter Pan - the boy who will never grow up - for a reason. This hero became a dedication to the author’s older brother, who died the day before he turned 14 years old, and forever remained young in the memory of his mother.

Who is awarded the Ig Nobel Prize and for what?

At the beginning of October of each year, when the Nobel Prize laureates are named, a parody Ig Nobel Prize is awarded in parallel for achievements that cannot be reproduced or there is no point in doing so. In 2009, among the laureates were veterinarians who proved that a cow with any name gives more milk than a nameless one. The Literature Prize went to the Irish police for issuing fifty traffic fines to a certain Prawo Jazdy, which means “driving license” in Polish. And in 2002, the Gazprom company received a prize in the field of economics for its application of the mathematical concept of imaginary numbers in business.

Who did the old woman from the fairy tale about the Goldfish by the Brothers Grimm want to become?

The basis for Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish” was the Brothers Grimm fairy tale “The Fisherman and His Wife.” Pushkin’s old woman finds herself broke after she wanted to become the mistress of the sea, and her German “colleague” at this stage became the Pope. And only after the desire to become the Lord God I was left with nothing.

How did cabin boy Richard Parker repeat the sad fate of his literary namesake?

In Edgar Poe's 1838 story The Narrative of the Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym, there is an episode where the ship is caught in a storm and four sailors are saved on a raft. Having no food, they decide to eat one of them by lot - and that victim is Richard Parker. In 1884, a real yacht sank, and four people on one boat also survived. They hardly read that story, but in the end they ate the cabin boy, whose name was Richard Parker.

Why Isaev is not real name Stirlitz?

Stirlitz’s real name is not Maxim Maksimovich Isaev, but Vsevolod Vladimirovich Vladimirov. Isaev is the first operational pseudonym of the intelligence officer, introduced by Yulian Semyonov in the first novel “Diamonds for the Dictatorship of the Proletariat,” and Stirlitz is already the second pseudonym. This is not reflected in the film “Seventeen Moments of Spring”.

What insect actually is the dragonfly from Krylov's fable?

In Krylov’s fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant” there are the lines: “The jumping dragonfly sang the red summer.” However, it is known that the dragonfly does not make sounds. The fact is that at that time the word “dragonfly” served as a general name for several types of insects. And the hero of the fable is actually a grasshopper.

What violent scenes were removed from folk tales Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm?

Most of the fairy tales known to us by Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm and other storytellers arose among the people in the Middle Ages, and their original plots are sometimes distinguished by cruelty and naturalness of everyday scenes. For example, in the tale of Sleeping Beauty, the foreign king does not kiss her, but rapes her. The wolf eats not only the grandmother, but half the village in addition, and before eating Little Red Riding Hood, he first raped her. Our folklore could not bear this, and this detail disappeared. Little Red Riding Hood then lures him into a pit of boiling tar. In the fairy tale about Cinderella, the sisters still manage to try on the shoe, for which one of them cuts off her toe, the other her heel, but then they are exposed by the singing of pigeons.

What topic in Soviet science fiction was so hackneyed that stories on it were not accepted by magazines for publication?

Subject Tunguska meteorite was very popular among Soviet science fiction writers, especially beginners. In the 1980s, the literary magazine “Ural Pathfinder” even had to write a separate clause in the requirements for publications: “Works that reveal the secret of the Tunguska meteorite will not be considered.”

Why do we have a tradition of signing the spines of books from bottom to top, while Europeans do the opposite?

IN Western Europe and America, book spines are signed from top to bottom. This tradition goes back to the times when there were few books: if the book is lying on the table (or in a small stack), the reader should be able to easily read the title. And in Eastern Europe and Russia has adopted the tradition of signing spines from bottom to top, because it is more convenient to read when books are on a shelf.

Where did the expression “no brainer” come from?

The source of the expression “It’s a no brainer” is a poem by Mayakovsky (“It’s even a no brainer - / This Petya was a bourgeois”). It became widespread first in the Strugatskys’ story “The Country of Crimson Clouds”, and then in Soviet boarding schools for gifted children. They recruited teenagers who had two years left to study (classes A, B, C, D, E) or one year (classes E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs.” When they came to the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning school year the expression “no brainer” was very relevant.

Which book was imprisoned in the Bastille?

The prisoners of the Bastille were not only people. Once upon a time, the famous French Encyclopedia compiled by Diderot and D'Alembert was imprisoned. The book was accused of harming religion and public morality.

What did Lenin's phrase about the cook and the state actually sound like?

“Any cook is capable of ruling the state,” Lenin never said. This phrase was attributed to him, taken from Mayakovsky’s poem “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”. In fact, he wrote this: “We are not utopians. We know that any laborer and any cook are not capable of immediately entering into government... We demand that training government controlled was carried out by class-conscious workers and soldiers and should be started immediately.”

Which science fiction writer wrote reviews of non-existent books?

Polish science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem wrote a collection of short stories called Absolute Emptiness. All the stories are united by the fact that they are reviews of non-existent books written by fictitious authors.

How did Leo Tolstoy feel about his novels?

Leo Tolstoy was skeptical about his novels, including War and Peace. In 1871, he sent Fet a letter: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” An entry in his diary in 1908 reads: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”

What is the meaning of the word peace in War and Peace?

In the title of Leo Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" the word world is used as an antonym to war (pre-revolutionary "peace"), and not in the meaning " the world"(pre-revolutionary "mir"). All lifetime editions of the novel were published under the title “War and Peace,” and Tolstoy himself wrote the title of the novel in French as “La guerre et la paix.” However, due to typographical errors in different editions, different time, where the word was written as “mir”, debates about the true meaning of the novel’s title are still raging.

Which writer encouraged readers to use their own punctuation?

The American extravagant writer Timothy Dexter wrote a book in 1802 with a very peculiar language and the absence of any punctuation. In response to reader outcry, in the second edition of the book he added a special page with punctuation marks, asking readers to arrange them in the text to their liking.

Why didn’t poets like Mayakovsky for writing poetry with a ladder?

When Mayakovsky introduced his famous poetic “ladder” into use, fellow poets accused him of cheating - after all, poets were then paid by the number of lines, and Mayakovsky received 2-3 times more for poems of similar length.

What pessimist died of laughter?

The Cuban poet Julian del Casal, whose poems were distinguished by deep pessimism, died of laughter. He was having dinner with friends, one of whom told a joke. The poet began to have an attack of uncontrollable laughter, which caused aortic dissection, bleeding and sudden death.

What was the name of the city where Anna Karenina threw herself under a train?

In the novel by Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina threw herself under a train at the Obiralovka station near Moscow. IN Soviet time this village became a city and was renamed Zheleznodorozhny.

Where a radio drama was mistaken for a real Martian invasion?

On October 30, 1938, a radio dramatization of H. G. Wells's War of the Worlds was broadcast in New Jersey as a parody of a radio report from the scene. Of the six million people who listened to the broadcast, one million believed in the reality of what was happening. Mass panic arose, tens of thousands of people abandoned their homes (especially after President Roosevelt’s alleged call to remain calm), the roads were clogged with refugees. Telephone lines were paralyzed: thousands of people reported allegedly seeing Martian ships. It subsequently took authorities six weeks to convince the population that the attack had not occurred.

What is the real name of Korney Chukovsky?

Korney Chukovsky's real name was Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov.

Who preserved Kafka's works for the whole world?

Franz Kafka published only a few short stories during his lifetime. Being seriously ill, he asked his friend Max Brod to burn all his works after his death, including several unfinished novels. Brod did not fulfill this request, but, on the contrary, ensured the publication of the works that brought Kafka worldwide fame.

How long did Robinson Crusoe spend in Russia?

The novel about the adventures of Robinson Crusoe has a sequel in which the hero is shipwrecked off the coast South-East Asia and is forced to get to Europe through all of Russia. In particular, he waits out the winter in Tobolsk for 8 months. There he teaches English literacy to local children. He eats crackers and drinks kvass. Poor…

When did the prologue “By the Lukomorye have a green oak” appear?

Prologue “There is a green oak near the Lukomorye.” Pushkin wrote the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” for its second edition, released 8 years after the first publication.

What book did the writer ask to sell for exactly the same price as a bottle of vodka?

When the poem “Moscow - Petushki” was published as a separate book, at the request of the author Venedikt Erofeev, the price was set at 3 rubles 62 kopecks. This is how much a bottle of vodka cost at the time the poem was written.

The first official publication of Venedikt Erofeev’s poem “Moscow - Cockerels” in the USSR took place in the magazine “Sobriety and Culture”.

Who came up with the name Svetlana?

The name Svetlana is not originally Slavic. It was invented and first used by the poet Vostokov in the romance “Svetlana and Mstislav”, and gained wide popularity after the publication of Zhukovsky’s ballad “Svetlana” in 1813.

Why was Winnie the Pooh named so?

Winnie the Pooh got the first part of his name from one of the real toys of Christopher Robin, the son of the writer Milne. The toy was named after a female bear at the London Zoo named Winnipeg, who came there from Canada. The second part - Pooh - was borrowed from the name of the swan of acquaintances of the Milne family.

Where did the expression “things smell like kerosene” come from?

Koltsov’s 1924 feuilleton talked about a major scam uncovered during the transfer of an oil concession in California. The most senior US officials were involved in the scam. It was here that the expression “things smell like kerosene” was used for the first time.

Where did the expression “let's go back to our sheep” come from?

In medieval French comedy A rich clothier sues a shepherd who stole his sheep. During the meeting, the clothier forgets about the shepherd and showers reproaches on his lawyer, who did not pay him for six cubits of cloth. The judge interrupts the speech with the words: “Let's return to our sheep,” which have become winged.

Which writer wrote a story about a religious feat based on a story about a campaign for vodka?

In Leskov's story, an Old Believer walks from one bank of the river to the other along the chains of an unfinished bridge during a stormy ice drift in order to return an icon confiscated from the Old Believers from the monastery. According to the author, the plot is based on real events, only a mason appears there, and he went not for the icon, but for cheaper vodka.

Who valued books more than people?

In 267, the Goths sacked Athens and killed many of the inhabitants, but did not burn the books.

How did Bernard Shaw react to receiving the Nobel Prize?

In 1925 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Bernard Shaw, who called the event "a token of gratitude for the relief he has given the world by not publishing anything this year."

How were books protected in libraries before?

Historical fact: in Europe, until the 18th century, all library books were chained to shelves. So that they don't take it away.

Why did Daria Dontsova get a D in her essay?

Daria Dontsova, a well-known detective, is the daughter of the famous Soviet writer Arkady Vasiliev. She was familiar with V. Kataev, the author of the book “The Lonely Sail Whitens.” When it was necessary to write an essay on this work, Dasha turned to him for help - and as a result she received a bad mark with the words: “Kataev didn’t think about this at all when he wrote the book.”

In the 1970s, American publishers considered it undesirable for authors to publish more than one book per year. Stephen King, who wanted to be published more, began writing some works under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. In 1984, a bookstore clerk suspected the resemblance literary styles authors and discovered a record in the Library of Congress that King was the author of one of Bachman's novels, notifying King's publishers of his discovery. The writer himself called this seller and offered to write an exposing article, agreeing to an interview. It resulted in a press release announcing the death of Richard Bachman from “alias cancer.”

The literary heritage of Sherlock Holmes is not limited to the stories and tales of Arthur Conan Doyle. Only officially published works about the brilliant detective from writers different levels fames number in the hundreds. Among these authors are Conan Doyle's son Adrian, Isaac Asimov and Neil Gaiman, Mark Twain and Stephen King, Boris Akunin and Sergei Lukyanenko.

When the first Harry Potter book was published, the publisher insisted on writing JK Rowling's name on the cover only with initials - such a trick was supposed to not scare boys away from buying it, most of them not book lovers female authors. And since the writer did not have a middle name from birth, she chose the name of her grandmother Kathleen for her initials, and since then she has been known in the West as J. K. Rowling.

Victor Hugo, while on vacation in 1862, wanted to know about the reaction of readers to the newly published novel “Les Miserables” and sent his publisher a telegram consisting of one character “?”. He sent a telegram in response, also with one sign - “!”. This was probably the shortest correspondence in history.

The famous phrase “We all came from Gogol's overcoat”, which is used to express the humanistic traditions of Russian literature. The authorship of this expression is often attributed to Dostoevsky, but in fact the first person to say it was the French critic Eugene Vogüe, who discussed the origins of Dostoevsky’s work. Fyodor Mikhailovich himself cited this quote in a conversation with another French writer, who understood it as the writer’s own words and published them in this light in his work.

One of the most famous representatives of the Scottish Lermont family is the poet, singer and seer Thomas Lermont, also known as Thomas the Rhymer, who lived in the 13th century. Although it cannot be said with certainty whether he was a real person or simply a hero of legends, his image has had noticeable influence on Scottish and other culture. The captured lieutenant Georg Lermont enlisted in Russia in the 17th century, converted to Orthodoxy and became Lermontov, and his descendants include the poet Mikhail Lermontov. An ancestor of George Byron named Gordon was married to Margaret Learmont in the 16th century, which gave the poet reason to count Thomas the Rhymer among his family tree. Finally, Byron's poetry and moral world had a noticeable influence on Lermontov's work, and one can speak of their kinship not only in a literary sense, but also (hypothetically) in a literal sense.

The first manuscript " Strange story Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Stevenson was burned by his wife. Biographers have two versions of why she did this: some say that she considered such a plot unworthy of a writer, others that she was unhappy with the incomplete disclosure of the topic of split personality. Nevertheless, Stevenson, suffering from tuberculosis, re-wrote this novella in three days, which became one of his most commercially successful works and allowed his family to get out of debt.

During Soviet times, it was very difficult to gain access to religious literature. Korney Chukovsky in the 1960s requested permission to publish biblical legends adapted for children famous writers and writers under their editorship. The project was approved with a caveat: God and Jews should not be mentioned in the book, so they came up with the pseudonym “Magician Yahweh” for God. Despite this, the entire circulation of the book " Tower of Babel and other ancient legends”, published by the publishing house “Children’s Literature” in 1968, was destroyed, and the book was reprinted only in 1990.

IN famous song From Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island" it is sung: "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest. Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum!” It is logical to assume that “Yo-ho-ho” is the laughter of pirates, but this is not so. This exclamation was used by English sailors when they needed to simultaneously make efforts together in some work - in Russian it corresponds to the phrase “One, two, took it!”

Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina begins with the phrase: “Everything happy families are similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Based on this aphorism, the so-called Anna Karenina principle was derived, which is used to describe systems in various sciences. For example, Jared Diamond uses it to explain why so few animals have been domesticated by humans - successful domestication requires the coincidence of several factors, and the absence of one of them makes domestication impossible. Economists use Anna Karenina's principle when talking about adapting systems to external environment and their behavior during a crisis: all well-adapted systems have the same features, and all unadapted systems fail to cope with adaptation, each in its own way.

His first book, Harry Potter and philosopher's Stone» JK Rowling graduated in 1995. The literary agent who agreed to represent her sent the manuscript to 12 publishing houses, but it was rejected by all of them. Only a year later, the manuscript was accepted by the small London publishing house Bloomsbury, although its editor-in-chief, even after approving the book, was sure that Rowling would not earn much from children's books, and advised her to find a permanent job.

The source of the plot for Gogol's play "The Inspector General" was real case in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province, and Pushkin told the author about this incident. It was Pushkin who advised Gogol to continue writing the work when he more than once wanted to give up this work.

From 1912 to 1948 medals Olympic Games were awarded not only to athletes, but also to artists. Back at the end of the 19th century, Pierre de Coubertin, proposing to revive the Olympics, expressed the idea that competition should be both in sports disciplines and in various fields of art, and the works should be related to sports. There were five main medal categories: architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. However, after the 1948 Olympics, it became clear that almost all participants in such competitions were professionals earning money through art, and it was decided to replace such competitions simply with cultural exhibitions.

2. "Fahrenheit 451" - Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury once “invented” the most popular headphone format today - the so-called “droplets”. In the acclaimed book “Fahrenheit 451,” he wrote: “In her ears, miniature “Shells” are tightly inserted, tiny, thimble-sized, bushing radios, and an electronic ocean of sounds - music and voices, music and voices - washes the shores of her in waves. waking brain." He wrote the novel in 1950, you yourself understand what kind of headphones there were at that time!

3. "The Inspector General" - N.V. Gogol
The source of the plot for Gogol’s play “The Inspector General” was a real incident in the city of Ustyuzhna, Novgorod province, and Pushkin told the author about this incident. These great classics were good friends. It was Pushkin who advised Gogol to continue writing the work when he more than once wanted to give up this work. Throughout the time he was writing The Inspector General, Gogol often wrote to Pushkin about his work and told him what stage it was at. By the way, Pushkin, who was present at the first reading of the play, was completely delighted with it.
In the translation of the play into Persian, the mayor's wife was replaced with a second daughter, since courtship married woman in Iran is punishable by death.

4. "The Master and Margarita" - Mikhail Bulgakov
The first edition of the novel contained (now almost completely lost) detailed description will accept Woland, 15 handwritten pages long, as well as the opening of the first “Yershalaim” chapter detailed description meeting of the Sanhedrin at which Yeshua was condemned.
In one of the editions the novel was called “Satan”.
Woland's name in the early editions of the novel was Astaroth. However, this name was later replaced, apparently due to the fact that the name "Astaroth" is associated with a specific demon of the same name, different from Satan.
The Variety Theater does not exist in Moscow and never has existed. But now several theaters sometimes compete for the title.
According to the writer’s widow, Elena Sergeevna, last words Bulgakov about the novel “The Master and Margarita” before his death were: “So that they know... So that they know.”

5. "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" - Arthur Conan Doyle
At the time the Sherlock Holmes stories were written, the house with the address 221b Baker Street did not exist. When the house appeared, a flood of letters fell to this address. One of the rooms in this building is considered the room of the great detective. Subsequently, the address 221b Baker Street was officially assigned to the house in which the Sherlock Holmes Museum is located. Moreover, to do this, they even had to break the numbering order of the houses on the street.
In the first version of the novel there was no Holmes at all; instead, Ormond Sacker investigated the crime. Then Doyle nevertheless removed Sacker and inserted Sherlock Holmes into the book, but in the second version the detective’s name was not Sherlock, but Sheringford. The writer borrowed the surname from his beloved American writer and doctor Oliver Holmes. At first Doyle planned to give deductive method, for which Holmes became famous, to the doctor Watson - and this is how the surname Watson sounds in English - but then he changed his mind and endowed Sherlock Holmes with the amazing ability to investigate crimes.

6. "1984" - George Orwell
The famous formula “Twice two equals five,” which George Orwell repeatedly emphasized in his dystopian novel “1984,” came to his mind when he heard the Soviet slogan “Five-Year Plan in Four Years!”
Most of the features of Orwell's totalitarian society are from his prototypes - Soviet Union during the dictatorship of Stalin and Hitler's Germany. The personality cult of Big Brother, a black-haired, black-mustachioed middle-aged man, is identified by most commentators with the cult of Stalin in the USSR.
Orwell depicted a dark future for humanity in his novel. A society in which there is no right to free thought, the search for truth, or personal life, doomed to rot. Attempts to describe the evil that comes with the power of totalitarianism and censorship ended with a ban on the book.

7. "The Three Musketeers" - Alexandre Dumas
When Alexandre Dumas wrote “The Three Musketeers” in serial format in one of the newspapers, the contract with the publisher stipulated line-by-line payment for the manuscript. To increase the fee, Dumas invented a servant of Athos named Grimaud, who spoke and answered all questions exclusively in monosyllables, in most cases “yes” or “no.” The continuation of the book, entitled “Twenty Years Later,” was paid by the word, and Grimaud became a little more talkative.
Dumas, who constantly used the work of literary blacks, worked on The Three Musketeers together with Auguste Macquet (1813-1886). The same author helped him when creating “The Count of Monte Cristo”, “Black Tulip”, “The Queen’s Necklace”. Macke later filed a lawsuit and demanded recognition of 18 novels he co-wrote with Dumas as his own works. But the court recognized that his work was nothing more than preparatory.

8. “Woe from Wit” - Alexander Griboyedov
In the 19th century, actresses refused to play Sophia in “Woe from Wit” with the words: “I am a decent woman and I don’t play in pornographic scenes!” They considered such a scene to be a night conversation with Molchalin, who was not yet the heroine’s husband.

9. "Kolobok"
The fairy tale “Kolobok” is known not only in Russia, but also far beyond its borders. The plot of “Kolobok” has analogues in the tales of many other peoples: from eastern Uzbek and Tatar, to western - English, German and Scandinavian. According to the Aarne-Thompson plot classifier , the fairy tale belongs to the 2025 type - “the runaway pancake.” Since the 19th century, in world culture, the most common “colleague” of Kolobok can be called the Gingerbread Man from the USA (in the picture below). He first appeared in print in 1875. Since then, it has been one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon fairy tales. By the way, although according to the tale, he was running away from other animals and beasts, the American was also eaten by a fox. Our Kolobok appeared in print a little earlier than the American one - in 1873, but some researchers. claim that the tale of the kolobok was part of Slavic folklore from the 2nd-3rd centuries AD

10. "Cathedral" Notre Dame of Paris" - Victor Hugo
Before the novel was published, the Cathedral in France was not so famous; they even wanted to demolish it. The novel was written by Hugo with the goal of featuring the Gothic cathedral of Paris, which at that time was about to be demolished or modernized, as the main character. He wrote in the preface: “One of my main goals is to inspire the nation with a love for our architecture.”
Following the publication of the novel, a movement for the preservation and restoration of Gothic monuments developed in France and then throughout Europe.

• In the comedy A.S. Griboyedov " Woe from mind » interjection “Ah!” used 54 times, and the exclamation “Oh!” appears on the pages of the work 6 times.
• Prologue “Near the Lukomorye there is a green oak...” of the poem “Ruslan and Ludmila"Pushkin wrote for its second edition, which was released 8 years after the first publication.
• In the novel "Eugene Onegin" “There are lines: “He settled in that quiet room, // Where the village old-timer // For forty years, he was quarreling with the housekeeper, // He looked out the window and crushed flies.” Word fly in this context it is not used in its literal meaning, but as a metaphor for alcohol. There is also another metaphor used to refer to a drunk person - “ under attack ", where the word fly is used in the same sense.
• Pushkin wrote more than 70 epigraphs to his works, Gogol used at least 20, and Turgenev used almost the same number.
• The name of the main character of Pushkin's story "Queen of Spades » unknown. In the work, the author used his last name Hermann (precisely with two n). This German surname, which is quite common in Germany. And the name Herman (with one n) began to dominate in the work after Tchaikovsky removed one when staging the opera “The Queen of Spades.” n , turning the surname Hermann into the name Hermann.
• In Krylov's fable "Dragonfly and ant“There are lines: “The jumping dragonfly sang red summer.” However, it is known that the dragonfly cannot make sounds. The fact is that at that time the word “dragonfly” served as a general name for several types of insects. And the hero of the fable is actually a grasshopper.
• Korney Chukovsky's real name was Nikolai Vasilyevich Korneychukov.
• Initially, on Gogol’s grave in the monastery cemetery there was a stone nicknamed Golgotha ​​because of its resemblance to Mount Jerusalem. When they decided to destroy the cemetery, during the reburial it was decided to install a bust of Gogol on the grave. And that same stone was subsequently placed on Bulgakov’s grave by his wife. In this regard, Bulgakov’s phrase, which he repeatedly addressed to Gogol during his lifetime, is noteworthy: “Teacher, cover me with your overcoat».
• Dostoevsky made extensive use of the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places of his novel "Crime and Punishment" As the writer admitted, he compiled a description of the yard in which Raskolnikov hides the things he stole from the pawnbroker’s apartment from personal experience- when one day, while walking around the city, Dostoevsky turned into a deserted courtyard.
• When Mayakovsky introduced his famous poetic “ladder” into use, fellow poets accused him of cheating - after all, poets were then paid by the number of lines, and Mayakovsky received 2-3 times more for poems of similar length.
• Prototype main character novel " Anna Karenina » Leo Tolstoy served as M.A. Hartung is the daughter of A.S. Pushkin: not by character, not by life, but by appearance. The author himself admitted this.
• Daria Dontsova, whose father was Soviet writer Arkady Vasiliev, grew up surrounded by the creative intelligentsia. Once at school she was asked to write an essay on the topic: “What was Valentin Petrovich Kataev thinking about when he wrote the story”The lonely sail is white"?", and Dontsova asked Kataev himself to help her. As a result, Daria received a bad grade, and the literature teacher wrote in her notebook: “Kataev was not thinking about this at all!”
• The basis for " Tales of the Fisherman and the Fish» A.S. Pushkin was inspired by the fairy tale of the Brothers Grimm “The Fisherman and His Wife”. Pushkin’s old woman finds herself broke after she wanted to become the mistress of the sea, and her German “colleague” at this stage became the Pope. And only after the desire to become the Lord God I was left with nothing.
• Leo Tolstoy was skeptical about his novels, including " War and Peace " In 1871, he sent Fet a letter: “How happy I am... that I will never write verbose rubbish like “War” again.” An entry in his diary in 1908 reads: “People love me for those trifles - “War and Peace”, etc., which seem very important to them.”
• In the 19th century, actresses refused to play Sophia in the comedy " Woe from mind ” with the words: “I am a decent woman and I don’t play in pornographic scenes!” They considered such a scene to be a night conversation with Molchalin, who was not yet the heroine’s husband.
• In Edgar Poe's story "The Tale of the Adventures of Arthur Gordon Pym"There is an episode from 1838 when a ship gets caught in a storm and four sailors are saved on a raft. Having no food, they decide to eat one of them by lot - and that victim is Richard Parker. In 1884, a real yacht sank, and four people on one boat also survived. They hardly read that story, but in the end they ate the cabin boy.
• Baron Munchausenwas a very real historical figure. In his youth, he left Germany for Russia to serve as a page. He then began a career in the army and rose to the rank of captain, after which he went back to Germany. There he became famous for telling extraordinary stories about his service in Russia: for example, entering St. Petersburg on a wolf harnessed to a sleigh, a horse cut in half in Ochakovo, fur coats going crazy or Cherry tree, grown on the head of a deer. These stories, as well as completely new ones attributed to the baron by other authors, led to the emergence of Munchausen as a literary character.

But the gap is minimal. When asked what you read for last week, 39 percent of respondents honestly admitted: news in in social networks and in the media. Option " fiction"chose every third (34 percent), and 30 percent chose professional and scientific literature.

The most active readers were young people aged 18 to 24 years. They are the main consumers of news on social networks and blogs (56 percent). This is in contrast to the more conservative older generation, which habitually trusts traditional media (43 percent). Young people also proved that they read more books (38 percent versus 32 percent in the older age group).

What are the benefits of reading books? It would seem a stupid question - we read for the sake of knowledge or for pleasure. In fact, beyond these obvious benefits, reading has side “bonuses”. We talk about them within joint project MSPU and ChTD “How we read.”

We are accustomed to perceiving reading as an activity, but it is also a neurophysiological process. Reading has certain consequences for our body, just like physical exercise or, for example, like a cup of aromatic tea. Why not take advantage of the possible effects intentionally, using reading as training or, conversely, relaxation?

If we forget most of what we read, what is the point of reading? What do books give us and what is the intellectual harvest that we reap in the process of reading?

Writer Charles Chu reflects on this topic. In his article, he explains why it's normal to "forget" and gives tips on how to improve your reading skills.

I write a lot about reading, and one of the most common questions I hear is what's the point of reading if you end up forgetting it all?

Paul Graham, essayist and founder of the business incubator Y Combinator, asks the same question in his essay "How Do You Know":

“I read Villehardouin's chronicle of the Fourth Crusade two, maybe even three times. And yet, if I were to put down on paper everything I remember, it would hardly amount to more than a page. Multiply this by several hundred, and you can imagine the feeling of anxiety that covers me when I look at my bookshelves. What is the use of reading all these books if so little remains in your memory?

Maybe if I move my finger, I'll remember more...

Many of us are familiar with this near-existential fear of “losing” all the wisdom that we managed to glean from the books we read. But there is no reason to be afraid.

Firstly, if you like to read, then memory should not bother you at all. If I read purely for pleasure, should I worry about short memory? After all, you can enjoy it again and again wonderful book– so what better gift could a book lover have than forgetfulness?

However, many people read books for other reasons. For example, we want to extract something from a text we read. Much has already been written about methods of remembering what you read (write it down, make connections, take notes, memorize it... longing...). But Paul Graham, it seems to me, has something new and interesting to say about this. Let's get a look.

A copy of the Greek Parthenon appeared in Germany with hundreds of thousands of books that were banned at various times.

Argentine artist Marta Minujín invented and, together with her assistants, built a copy of the Greek Parthenon in Kassel, Germany, using 100 thousand copies of books that were banned in the construction. different countries peace.

The temple was built within international exhibition contemporary art Documenta 14. According to the artist, it symbolizes resistance to political repression.

The books, sent specifically for the installation, were attached to a steel structure and wrapped in plastic. In total, about 170 different works were used, including “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, “On Western Front without change" by Remarque and "Doctor Zhivago" by Pasternak.

One of the most famous banned books, Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, was not used in the installation. Minuchin emphasized her stance against Nazi censorship by installing her installation on the site where they burned about two thousand books in 1933.

Why Bunin looked for ham at night, how much lemonade Pushkin drank, and why Nabokov needed lined cards.

Writers and poets are unattainable luminaries for us. But even they were earthly people- they thought about pressing problems, loved and hated someone, and sometimes did quite strange things.

Bunin and ham

“Bunin has a complicated relationship and scores to settle with ham. Even before the war, a doctor once ordered him to eat ham with his morning breakfast. The Buninas never kept servants, and Vera Nikolaevna, in order not to have to go shopping for ham early in the morning, decided to buy it in the evening. But Bunin woke up at night, went to the kitchen and ate ham. This went on for about a week, Vera Nikolaevna began to hide the ham in the most unexpected places - either in a saucepan or in a bookcase. But Bunin constantly found it and ate it. Somehow she managed to hide it so that he couldn't find it. But no sense came of it.

Did the unprecedented frosts take you by surprise? Cars don't start, down jackets don't help. How to escape the cold? The classics have the answer - read books. Maybe stories about the suffering of Akaki Akakievich in a leaky overcoat or about the hardships of the French who had frostbitten feet near Moscow will not warm you up on the way to work, but they will definitely tell you how to survive the cold.

"The Captain's Daughter", Alexander Pushkin

During testing, the algorithm learned to correctly identify the genre in 21.9% of cases. “This shows that classifying books based on cover design is possible, although very challenging task"say the authors.

Some genres were easier to recognize than others. For example, a neural network can recognize books about tourism and computer technology relatively easily because designers use typical images for books in these genres. The program also easily recognizes a cookbook if there is a picture of food on the cover, but has difficulty if instead, for example, there is a portrait of a chef on the cover.

The algorithm often classifies biographies and memoirs as related genres. historical literature, confuses children's books with comics and graphic novels, and hardly distinguishes medical literature from other scientific literature.

The study has a significant flaw: the scientists did not compare the results of the machine with the results of a person. In particular, it would be useful to know how accurately users of the Mechanical Turk platform on Amazon can determine the genre of a book by its cover.