Les Classiques

لقد جاء عام 1984 ومضى، لكن رؤية جورج أورويل النبوئية الكابوسية التي صاغها عام 1949 للعالم الذي كنا نصير إليه تبدو اليوم أكثر راهنية من أي وقت مضى. لا تزال «1984» الكلاسيكية الحديثة العظيمة في أدب «اليوتوبيا السلبية» — رواية أصيلة على نحو مدهش ومقلقة، تخلق عالماً خيالياً مقنعاً تماماً، من الجملة الأولى إلى الكلمات الأربع الأخيرة. ولا يستطيع أحد إنكار سطوة الرواية على مخيلات أجيال كاملة، أو قوة تحذيراتها — وهي قوة يبدو أنها تزداد، لا تضعف، مع مرور الزمن.

В дневника си носителят на Нобелова награда Джон Стайнбек нарича „На изток от рая“ „първата книга“ и наистина тя притежава първичната сила и простота на мита. Развиващ се сред плодородните земеделски земи на калифорнийската долина Салинас, този мащабен и често жесток роман проследява преплетените съдби на две семейства — Траск и Хамилтън, — чиито поколения безпомощно пресъздават грехопадението на Адам и Ева и отровното съперничество между Каин и Авел. Адам Траск идва в Калифорния от Изтока, за да обработва земя и да отгледа семейството си върху новата плодородна земя. Но раждането на близнаците му, Кал и Арън, довежда съпругата му до ръба на лудостта и Адам остава сам да отгледа момчетата си до зряла възраст. Едното момче процъфтява, подхранвано от любовта на всички около него; другото израства в самота, обгърнато от загадъчен мрак. Публикуван за първи път през 1952 г., „На изток от рая“ е творбата, в която Стайнбек създава най-завладяващите си герои и изследва най-трайните си теми: загадката на идентичността, необяснимостта на любовта и убийствените последици от липсата ѝ. Шедьовър от по-късните години на Стайнбек, „На изток от рая“ е силен и изключително амбициозен роман, който едновременно е семейна сага и съвременен преразказ на Книгата Битие.

Un món feliç és una novel·la distòpica de l'autor anglès Aldous Huxley, escrita el 1931 i publicada el 1932. Ambientada en gran part en un futurista Estat Mundial, habitat per ciutadans modificats genèticament i una jerarquia social basada en la intel·ligència, la novel·la anticipa enormes avenços científics en la tecnologia reproductiva, l'aprenentatge durant el son, la manipulació psicològica i el condicionament clàssic, que es combinen per crear una societat distòpica que només és qüestionada per un únic individu: el protagonista de la història.

Wegen eines Verbrechens, das er nicht begangen hat, wird Edmond Dantès ins Gefängnis geworfen und in der düsteren Festung If eingekerkert. Dort erfährt er von einem großen Schatz, der auf der Insel Monte Christo verborgen liegt, und fasst den Entschluss, nicht nur zu entkommen, sondern auch den Schatz zu heben und damit die Vernichtung der drei Männer zu planen, die für seine Inhaftierung verantwortlich sind. Dumas’ epische Geschichte von Leid und Vergeltung, inspiriert von einem realen Fall ungerechtfertigter Inhaftierung, war ein großer Publikumserfolg, als sie in den 1840er Jahren erstmals als Fortsetzungsroman erschien. Robin Buss’ lebendige englische Übersetzung ist vollständig und ungekürzt und bleibt dem Stil von Dumas’ Original treu. Diese Ausgabe enthält eine Einleitung, erläuternde Anmerkungen und Hinweise zur weiterführenden Lektüre.

In diesem schwindelerregend reichen Ideenroman nutzt Mann ein Sanatorium in den Schweizer Alpen, eine Gemeinschaft, die sich ausschließlich der Krankheit verschrieben hat, als Mikrokosmos für Europa, das in den Jahren vor 1914 bereits die ersten Symptome seiner eigenen unheilbaren Irrationalität zeigte. Der Zauberberg ist ein monumentales Werk der Gelehrsamkeit und Ironie, der sexuellen Spannung und intellektuellen Gärung, ein Buch, das inmitten des Todes vor Leben pulsiert.

The Brothers Karamazov is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, and an exploration of erotic rivalry in a series of triangular love affairs involving the “wicked and sentimental” Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov and his three sons―the impulsive and sensual Dmitri; the coldly rational Ivan; and the healthy, red-cheeked young novice Alyosha. Through the gripping events of their story, Dostoevsky portrays the whole of Russian life, is social and spiritual striving, in what was both the golden age and a tragic turning point in Russian culture. This award-winning translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky remains true to the verbal inventiveness of Dostoevsky’s prose, preserving the multiple voices, the humor, and the surprising modernity of the original. It is an achievement worthy of Dostoevsky’s last and greatest novel.

Una història de dues ciutats és la gran novel·la històrica de Charles Dickens, ambientada en els violents trasbalsos de la Revolució Francesa. La més famosa i potser la més popular de les seves obres, condensa un esdeveniment d'una complexitat immensa a l'escala d'una història familiar, amb un repartiment de personatges que inclou una ogressa assedegada de sang i un antiheroi tan versemblantment defectuós com qualsevol de la ficció moderna. Tot i ser la menys típica de les novel·les de l'autor, Una història de dues ciutats encara posa en relleu molts dels seus temes perdurables: l'empresonament, la injustícia, l'anarquia social, la resurrecció i la renúncia que afavoreix la renovació.

Victor Hugo's tale of injustice, heroism and love follows the fortunes of Jean Valjean, an escaped convict determined to put his criminal past behind him. But his attempts to become a respected member of the community are constantly put under threat: by his own conscience, when, owing to a case of mistaken identity, another man is arrested in his place; and by the relentless investigations of the dogged Inspector Javert. It is not simply for himself that Valjean must stay free, however, for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine, driven to prostitution by poverty.

Sixty years after its original publication, Ray Bradbury’s internationally acclaimed novel Fahrenheit 451 stands as a classic of world literature set in a bleak, dystopian future. Today its message has grown more relevant than ever before. Guy Montag is a fireman. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden. Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, who spends all day with her television “family.” But when he meets an eccentric young neighbor, Clarisse, who introduces him to a past where people didn’t live in fear and to a present where one sees the world through the ideas in books instead of the mindless chatter of television, Montag begins to question everything he has ever known.

Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for murder and rape. Native Son tells the story of this young black man caught in a downward spiral after he kills a young white woman in a brief moment of panic. Set in Chicago in the 1930s, Wright's powerful novel is an unsparing reflection on the poverty and feelings of hopelessness experienced by people in inner cities across the country and of what it means to be black in America.

عند فجر الحرب العالمية القادمة، تتحطم طائرة في جزيرة مجهولة، فتترك مجموعة من تلاميذ المدارس عالقين هناك. في البداية، ومن دون إشراف بالغين، تكون حريتهم شيئًا يستحق الاحتفال؛ فبعيدًا إلى هذا الحد عن الحضارة، يستطيع الفتيان فعل أي شيء يريدونه. أي شيء. يحاولون أن يشكّلوا مجتمعهم الخاص، لكنهم يفشلون أمام الرعب والخطيئة والشر. ومع انهيار النظام، وتعالي عواءات غريبة في الليل، وبدء الرعب في بسط حكمه، يبدو أمل المغامرة بعيدًا عن الواقع بقدر بُعد الأمل في إنقاذهم. وُصفت «أمير الذباب» بأنها حكاية رمزية، واستعارة، وأسطورة، وحكاية أخلاقية، ومحاكاة ساخرة، وأطروحة سياسية، بل وحتى رؤيا لنهاية العالم؛ وربما تكون روايتنا الأكثر رسوخًا في الذاكرة عن «نهاية البراءة، وظلام قلب الإنسان».

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers. First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics.

A simple story of a "strong man" whose life is dominated by fear and anger, Things Fall Apart is written with remarkable economy and subtle irony. Uniquely and richly African, at the same time it reveals Achebe's keen awareness of the human qualities common to men of all times and places.

Maurice is heartbroken over unrequited love, which opened his heart and mind to his own sexual identity. In order to be true to himself, he goes against the grain of society’s often unspoken rules of class, wealth, and politics. Forster understood that his homage to same-sex love, if published when he completed it in 1914, would probably end his career. Thus, Maurice languished in a drawer for fifty-seven years, the author requesting it be published only after his death (along with his stories about homosexuality later collected in The Life to Come). Since its release in 1971, Maurice has been widely read and praised. It has been, and continues to be, adapted for major stage productions, including the 1987 Oscar-nominated film adaptation starring Hugh Grant and James Wilby.

Einer der leidenschaftlichsten und gefühlvollsten Romane, die je geschrieben wurden: Sturmhöhe erzählt von der Beziehung zwischen Catherine Earnshaw und Heathcliff, dem Waisenjungen, den ihr Vater adoptierte und als sie Kinder waren nach Wuthering Heights brachte. Während Catherine eine tiefe Bindung zu Heathcliff entwickelt, verachtet ihr Bruder Hindley ihn als Rivalen. Heathcliff wird zwischen seiner Liebe zu Catherine und der Wut und Demütigung, die er erleidet, zerrissen. Schließlich hält er es nicht länger aus und verlässt die Heights in der Gewalt eines Sommersturms für drei Jahre. Während seiner Abwesenheit hat Catherine geheiratet, doch ihr gequältes Herz gehört für immer Heathcliff, der nun bereit ist, seine tyrannische Rache zu nehmen. Mit seiner Freiheit von gesellschaftlichen Konventionen und seiner unvergleichlichen emotionalen Intensität ist Sturmhöhe ein höchst originelles und zutiefst tragisches Werk.

„Сега, когато бях завършил, красотата на мечтата изчезна и сърцето ми бе изпълнено със спиращ дъха ужас и отвращение...“ Обсебен от създаването на самия живот, Виктор Франкенщайн ограбва гробища, за да се сдобие с материала, от който да сътвори ново същество, което съживява с електричество. Но неговото нескопосано създание, отхвърлено от Франкенщайн и лишено от човешка близост, се заема да унищожи своя създател и всичко, което му е скъпо. Смразяващият готически разказ на Мери Шели е замислен, когато тя е едва на осемнадесет години и живее с любимия си Пърси Шели край вилата на Байрон на Женевското езеро. Той ще се превърне в най-известното в света произведение на хорър литературата и остава опустошително изследване на границите на човешкото творчество. Въз основа на третото издание от 1831 г., този том съдържа всички промени, които Мери Шели прави по разказа си, както и нейния увод от 1831 г. и предговора на Пърси Биш Шели към първото издание. Това преработено издание включва като приложения подбрано съпоставяне на текстовете от 1818 и 1831 г., заедно с „Фрагмент“ от лорд Байрон и „Вампирът: разказ“ от д-р Джон Полидори.

Virginia Woolf's Orlando 'The longest and most charming love letter in literature', playfully constructs the figure of Orlando as the fictional embodiment of Woolf's close friend and lover, Vita Sackville-West. Spanning three centuries, the novel opens as Orlando, a young nobleman in Elizabeth's England, awaits a visit from the Queen and traces his experience with first love as England under James I lies locked in the embrace of the Great Frost. At the midpoint of the novel, Orlando, now an ambassador in Constantinople, awakes to find that he is now a woman, and the novel indulges in farce and irony to consider the roles of women in the 18th and 19th centuries. As the novel ends in 1928, a year consonant with full suffrage for women. Orlando, now a wife and mother, stands poised at the brink of a future that holds new hope and promise for women.