100 best books of all time

World fiction is formed from the heritage of tens of thousands of books of all times and peoples. To get acquainted with the content of each of them is an impossible task even for geeks. Experts have found out that for a lifetime a person is able to read no more than a thousand books, including scientific literature. Do not waste your time on empty projects and tabloid novels, and then you will enjoy reading real masterpieces. Make a list of the 100 best books of all time and discover the great authors and their eternal ideas.

The relevance of ancient literature

American magazines often make ratings of the best films, games and books. Experts take into account the taste of each person and derive results that are impressive with romance, skepticism and realism.

Two great poems, written by Homer in the 8th century BC, arouse readers' interest even now. "Odyssey" - a tale of the adventures of the king of Ithaca, who was in captivity with the nymph Calypso for ten years, and then cunningly returned home. He made nine voyages: he visited the lotophagi and the cyclops, on the island of Aeolian, among the giant cannibals, the sorceress of Kirka, in the realm of the dead, at the sirens, between Scylla and Charybdis, on the island of Helios.

In the list of "100 best books of all time" in the eighth place with "Odyssey" is "Iliad". This is a heroic epic about the war between Troy and Sparta. The culprit of the conflict was Queen Elena, whom Paris stole with the help of Aphrodite. Odysseus himself appears in the poem: he devises the construction of a wooden Trojan horse, in which warriors hide and attack the city at night.

Why does everyone love Tolstoy?

The great Russian writer of the 19th century, Lev Nikolaevich is known as the author of the epic "War and Peace". It is this work that opens a list of the 100 best books of all time by Newsweek. The novel consists of four volumes, in which there are over one and a half thousand pages, but this figure does not frighten connoisseurs of literature. Tolstoy introduced into the narrative over 500 heroes, the main of which - the family of Rostov and Bolkonsk. In the novel, everyone will find interesting moments: a description of battle scenes of battle, secular balls, stories of love and betrayal.

"Anna Karenina" is Tolstoy's second most famous book, which earned a place on the list of Newsweek and BBC magazines. The novel has shot about thirty films all over the world. What is the secret of such success? Tolstoy depicts a typical unfortunate woman for the nineteenth century, married not for love and forced to seek happiness on the side.

Shakespeare's heritage

The name of the great English poet and playwright of the Renaissance appears in the rating of "100 best books of all time" four times. The list includes the tragedies "Hamlet", "King Lear", "Othello" and a collection of sonnets. It is curious that the poetic masterpieces of other authors were not included in the list.

The main conflict in the tragedies of Shakespeare is the eternal confrontation between good and evil. The author skillfully creates positive and negative images of the characters. In tragedies, Shakespeare does not teach the reader, but seeks to show the real properties of human nature.

People do not divide into races, these races are divided into people and nonhumans ...

Since recently, censorship in books has been introduced in American schools. Works on combating racism are on the list of 100 best books of all time, but representatives of the social movement believe that children do not need to cover this problem.

Until recently, the novel by writer Harper Lee "To Kill a Mockingbird" was read with pleasure by teenagers in many US schools, but today his study is being questioned. The book tells about the activities of attorney Atticus Finch, who defended the Negro. The poor fellow was a victim of deception: he was seduced by a white-skinned girl. Her father found her behind this occupation and brutally beat him, and blamed the negro. Atticus made enemies, but did not stop digressing from the truth and fought for it to the end, proving the innocence of a black guy.

Ralph Ellison's novel "The Invisible Man" tells about the hard life of a Negro who lives in America. A young man must constantly be in wanderings to avoid becoming a victim of racism.

"Lolita". Confessions of the writer

Outstanding ideas of Vladimir Nabokov were rejected in the Soviet Union, so the writer carried out his activities abroad. The famous novel "Lolita" is written in English and published in 1955 in Paris, and half a century later it entered the list of "100 best books of all time". Nabokov was afraid that the novel would not be understood, so he tried to burn the first version, but his wife saved the manuscript.

In many countries of Europe the book is banned until now. Experts argue that it promotes pedophilia, as the main characters of the book - a forty-year-old Humbert-Humbert and a twelve-year-old girl - experience a carnal attraction to each other. To get closer to Lolita, a man marries her mother, whom the car later shoots down.

A boy with a scar wins the world

English writer Joan Rowling gained fame after writing novels about Harry Potter. The boy lost his parents in infancy, and for his upbringing relatives are tyrants. One day Harry receives a letter by mail with an invitation to study at Hogwarts - the school of magic. Later, the boy learns that his parents were magicians, and the scar on his forehead he received from Volan de Mort. Soon, Potter meets with the black magician in person and twice defeats him.

To date, filmed 8 films on all books about the boy with a scar. The first four novels were included in the list of "100 best books of all time" (BBC). By 2004, for the first time in the history of mankind, Joan Rowling earned a billion dollars by writing books, and 10 years later she was ranked 13th in the ranking of the most influential women in the country.

What other authors are on the "100 best books of all time" list?

According to the BBC, in the ranking of masterpieces of world literature worthy to be 200 works of mostly foreign writers. The list was compiled more than ten years ago by a spectator vote. The first place deserved the novel "The Lord of the Rings", the next two - "Pride and Prejudice" and "Dark Beginnings". Closed five of the book "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird", "1984", "Winnie the Pooh and All-All-All", "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", and also "Dodge-22" entered the top ten.

Writer Terry Pratchett got on the list 15 times, Jacqueline Wilson - 14, Roald Dahl - 9, Charles Dickens - 7. Joan Rowling entered there four times, like Thomas Hardy; Stephen King - three times, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez - twice.

From Russian writers, American citizens singled out Leo Tolstoy with the novels "War and Peace" (20th place) and "Anna Karenina" (54th place); Fedor Dostoyevsky and his Crime and Punishment (60th place), Mikhail Bulgakov with the Master and Margarita (130th) and Vladimir Nabokov with Lolita (178th place).

Non-fiction

Living in America for a long time thought about what masterpieces worthy of being in the ranking of the 100 best books of all time. The list consists mainly of fiction, but it distinguishes two books of another genre, the content of which should be known to every self-respecting person. The Bible takes 41st place in the ranking of the journal Newsweek. Holy Scripture is revered not only by Christians and Jews, but also by representatives of other religious denominations. The authorship of the book is attributed to several authors who lived in the period from the 15th century BC to the first century of the new millennium.

"Capital" of Karl Marx takes the 30th place. The book is useful not only to economists, but also to other people who want to learn the basics of economic theory. The author develops the idea that capital is the basis of modern society, and without it development is inconceivable.