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

1. "Ten Little Indians" - Agatha Christie
The works of Agatha Christie “Ten Little Indians,” which she herself considered her best work, are published very few places under its original title. Basically, the novel is called “And There Were None” - after the last phrase from the famous rhyme:
“The last little black man looked tired,
He went and hanged himself, and there was no one left.”
The founders of this tradition were the Americans - they could not publish the novel under that title for reasons of political correctness, and the title “Ten African Americans” somehow did not sound right. Throughout the text, including in the counting rhyme, the little Indians were replaced with little Indians. And in some countries, little soldiers and even little sailors began to die in the counting rhyme.

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 know 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 real case 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, telling 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) a detailed description of Woland's signs, 15 in length handwritten pages, as well as a detailed description of the meeting of the Sanhedrin, at which Yeshua was condemned, which opened the first “Yershalaim” chapter.
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 the 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 solve crimes.

6. "1984" - George Orwell
The famous formula “Twice two equals five,” which George Orwell repeatedly emphasized in the 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 privacy is doomed to decay. 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 " 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.
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 sued and demanded that the 18 novels he co-wrote with Dumas be recognized as his own works. But the court recognized that his work was nothing more than preparatory.

8. “Woe from Wit” - Alexander Griboedov
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 fairy 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 type 2025 - “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 and Since then, it has been one of the most famous Anglo-Saxon fairy tales. By the way, although according to the fairy 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 has been part of Slavic folklore since 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 using the Gothic cathedral of Paris as the main character, which at that time was going to be demolished or modernized. 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.

The main character of Pushkin's story " Queen of Spades"The name is not Herman. His name is generally unknown, and Hermann (precisely with two n) is the surname of the hero, German by origin, which is quite common in Germany. But in the opera “The Queen of Spades” Tchaikovsky removed one n, turning the surname Hermann into the name Hermann.

How were Dostoevsky’s real walks around St. Petersburg reflected in the novel “Crime and Punishment”?

Dostoevsky made extensive use of the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places in 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 to relieve himself.

Where and when did Baron Munchausen live?

Baron Munchausen was very real historical figure. In his youth, he left the German town of Bodenwerder 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 a cherry tree growing 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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 for the number of lines, and Mayakovsky received 2-3 times more for poems of similar length.

When did the prologue “Near the Lukomorye green oak...” appear?

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

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.

In the comedy A.S. Griboyedov “Woe from Wit” interjection"Oh!"used 54 times, and the exclamation"Oh!"appears on the pages of the work 6 times.

In the novel “Eugene Onegin” there are the lines: “He settled in that chamber, // Where the village old-timer // For forty years, he was quarreling with the housekeeper, // He looked out the window and crushed flies.” The word fly in this context is not used in direct meaning, but for the metaphor of alcohol. There is also another metaphor used to designate a drunk person - “under the fly”, where the word fly is used in the same sense.

Did you know that one of the ancestors of M.Yu. Lermontov was a legendary Scottish mystic poet? The poet always knew that his father, Yuri Petrovich Lermontov, traced his family back to the Scottish officer Georg Lermont. He served as a mercenary in the Polish army, and in 1613, while defending the White Fortress, he was captured and went over to the side of Russia, where he became the ancestor of numerous descendants. But about his most famous ancestor - Thomas Learmonth, a poet of ancient Scotland who lived in the 13th century, M.Yu. Lermontov most likely had no idea. Only a few poems by Thomas Learmonth have survived to this day, often framed as predictions; many more legends about him have survived. It is said that on the ancient Eildon Hill, where, according to legend, King Arthur and his knights rest, there stood the Eildon Oak, which contained the entrance to the kingdom of fairies. In his youth, Thomas fell in love with a fairy, and she took him to her kingdom for 7 years. There he received his prophetic gift, and, upon returning, prophesied about the outcome of wars, about the fate of kings and cities, and then again went to his fairy - forever.

The fictional author of the “immortal” aphorisms, Kozma Prutkov, was not only perceived by many readers as a genuine person, but also managed to pass on his literary talent to inheritance. In 1854, the first poems of Kozma Prutkov were published in the Literary Jumble. Soon his sayings: “If you want to be happy, be happy,” or “Look at the root” were on everyone’s lips. To the “fathers” of this character A.K. Tolstoy, his cousins, the Zhemchuzhnikov brothers, and Pyotr Ershov even had to create his biography, from which it follows that Kozma Prutkov was born on April 11, 1801 near Solvychegodsk, was the director of the Assay Office with the rank of actual state councilor, and with his wife Antonida Proklevetanova had 10 children.20 years after his “death” (with the consent of his creators, he died in January 1863) it was published “ Complete collection works of Kozma Prutkov" with a portrait of the author, and in the 1910s his great-niece Angelika Safyanova, and also with great literary ambitions!

Literature is the most interesting topic that connects almost all people and nations. Each country has its favorite writers, fashion magazines, and news newspapers. But there are also books and writers who have become legends. They belong to the world, they are read all over the world, they are translated.

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Gone with the Wind is Margaret Mitchell's only book. After working as a journalist and remarrying, she became a housewife and really missed old job, then she began to write this book. Work on the book took about 10 years.

IN Western Europe And in 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 the spines from bottom to top, because it is more convenient to read when the books are on the shelf.

Bulgakov wrote “The Master and Margarita” for a total of more than 10 years. Hidden dating is also contained in the indication of the age of the Master - the most autobiographical of all the characters in the novel. The master is “a man about thirty-eight years old.” Bulgakov himself turned the same age on May 15, 1929. 1929 is also the year when Bulgakov began working on “The Master and Margarita.”

The first newspaper, very similar to modern ones, is considered to be the French “La Gazette”, which was published since May 1631. The significance of “Le Gazette” was very great, King Louis XIII himself, Cardinal Richelieu wrote in it, and it was in it that paid advertising began to be placed.

Alexandre Dumas, when writing his works, used the services of many assistants - the so-called “literary blacks”. Among them, the most famous is Auguste Macquet, who invented the plot of The Count of Monte Cristo and made significant contributions to The Three Musketeers.

Audiobooks are voiced piece of art, lecture, excursion, recorded on any storage medium, read professional actor or by a group of them for the purpose of further distribution and listening. There are different opinions about when exactly the first audiobook appeared. Many believe that the prototype of the first audiobook dates back to 1933, when anthropologist J.P. Harrington recorded stories and legends told by Native American tribes. Discussions about creating audio books for the blind began in the early 1930s in the USA. The first such attempts were made in 1931 by the US Congress. The first audiobooks were produced by the American Foundation for the Blind in 1932, and in 1934 Congress approved free distribution of audiobooks. Commercial audiobooks were pioneered by Dylan Thomas, who recorded his audiobook A Child's Christmas in Wales on cassette in 1952. This book did not receive too much distribution, but a start had already been made.

Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva. When the poetess emigrated to Berlin, they began to correspond. This correspondence was like a novel in letters. They saw each other in Moscow, many years later. Pasternak constantly helped Tsvetaeva financially. While packing her for evacuation, he joked about the packing rope, that you could hang yourself on it, it would hold up. Then it turned out that it was on this rope that Tsvetaeva committed suicide in Yelabuga.

Virginia Woolf wrote all her books standing up.

Founded in 1892, Vogue is probably one of the oldest fashion magazines in the world. This American super cult fashion magazine is published once a month in 23 different national and local regions. American version Vogue magazine was founded by Arthur Turnure as a weekly newspaper. From 1988 to the present, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue has been the legendary lady Anna Wintour.

Three of Franz Kafka's novels - "America", "The Trial" and "The Castle" - remained unfinished. But if the understatement, by and large, only benefits “The Trial” and “The Castle,” then the open ending of “America” seems like a cruel joke.

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.

Larousse Gastronomique (1938) is the world's premier gastronomic encyclopedia, the absolute first item on any list of food-related books. The editor-in-chief of Larousse Gastronomique was Prosper Montagne, the great French chef educator. At the time of the first edition of the book, the king of French cuisine, Auguste Escoffier, was still alive, who wrote the preface to the encyclopedia (and did not hesitate to point out that Montagne borrowed a lot from his own “Culinary Guide”). However, this was the first attempt to create a book of this kind, and it turned out to be unusually successful - the encyclopedia actually became a living monument to haute French cuisine.

Library of Congress - National Library USA, the largest library in the world. It was founded on April 24, 1800, when US President John Adams signed a law moving the state capital from Philadelphia to Washington. Among other things, this law contained a provision for the allocation of $5,000 (then a very significant amount) “for the purchase of books that may be needed by Congress, and the creation of appropriate premises for their storage.” It houses over 5,500 incunabula (including the Gutenberg Bible), book collections of T. Jefferson and a number of other US presidents, collections of works of Chinese (330 thousand volumes) and Japanese (450 thousand volumes) literature, a collection of rare American publications (60 thousand . vol.), 14.5 million books and brochures, 132 thousand volumes of bound newspapers, 3.3 million units of sheet music, etc.

One of the last literary works Márquez's Remembering My Sad Whores was published in 2004 by Random House Mondadori. Shortly before the presentation, book “pirates” managed to get hold of the manuscript and illegally put the book on sale. In response to this unfortunate event, Marquez changed the ending of the story, and the millionth edition was sold out at a record short term. The counterfeit products were soon confiscated by the police, and these items are now coveted by many collectors.

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.

Albert Camus smoked throughout his life. It is difficult to find photographs of him without a cigarette. He even named his cat “Cigarette.”

Alchemist – Paulo Coelho was published in more than 117 countries and translated into 67 languages. In 2002, the Portuguese Journal di Letras, an authority on local literature and the literary market, announced that The Alchemist had sold more copies than any other book written in Portuguese in the history of the language.

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.

George Byron created a completely new direction - “gloomy selfishness.”

Byron and Lermontov are distant relatives. His ancestor Gordon, who lived in the sixteenth century, was married to Margaret Learmonth. She had the roots of a famous Scottish family, which gave rise to the origin of Mikhail Yuryevich himself.

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

Most readers consider the suppression of individuality through government censorship to be the main theme of the novel Fahrenheit 451, but Ray Bradbury himself states that this perception is incorrect. The author's main message is the danger of television, which destroys interest in reading literature, replacing it with entertainment, and deep knowledge with superficial “factoids.”

In 2002, a “new” Harry Potter book was published in China by anonymous author entitled "Harry Potter and Bao Zulong". It was an accurate translation of Tolkien's The Hobbit, in which all the characters were replaced with heroes from the works of JK Rowling. Rowling's lawyers were only able to get the Chinese publisher to issue an apology in the press and a fine of $3,400, and the book sold millions of copies.

The writer Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, was also an amateur ornithologist. Therefore, it is not strange that it was the ornithological reference book of the American James Bond “Birds of the West Indies” that gave the name to the famous spy peace.

The most widely read is Komsomolskaya Pravda. Founded back in 1925, it has not lost popularity for many years. After Komsomolskaya Pravda in the ranking is the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty. It is read in more than sixty countries. In 1990, this tabloid was included in the Guinness Book of Records for the fact that its circulation exceeded thirty-three million copies, and the number of readers exceeded one hundred million. In America, several newspapers can be called the most popular - the New York Post, The New York Times", " The Wall Street Journal", "Daily News", etc.

According to Andrei Bitov, he first learned about Zen Buddhism at the age of thirty, having read the dissertation of an English literary critic entitled “Zen Buddhism in early work Andrey Bitov."

"The Little Prince" is considered the most read and translated book in the world. French, it has been translated into 250 languages and dialects, including Braille for the blind. More than 140 million copies of the tale have been sold worldwide since 1943.

Reader's Digest magazine covers many topics from the most different areas life, being a companion to any person.

Mark Twain crossed the Atlantic Ocean 29 times, visited Palestine and Odessa, wrote 30 books and more than 50 thousand letters. During his black-and-white era, he wore only white suits and had more than two dozen of them in his wardrobe. Plus the obligatory white hat and red socks.

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.

"The Little Prince" was an atypical work for Exupery; before that, he had not written children's books. The tale was written in 1942 in New York shortly before the writer's death. In 1943, he achieved a return to the front, and in the summer of 1944 he went on a reconnaissance flight in his Lightning P-38 aircraft and did not return.

In the last ten years of his work, writer Sergei Dovlatov deliberately avoided sentences with words starting with the same letter. According to him, this rule helped him discipline himself, protecting him from verbosity and emptiness. Dovlatov’s works with this principle include “Suitcase”, “Reserve”, “Branch” and others.

Cosmopolitan - This world-famous magazine was founded back in 1886 as a literary magazine, and was published for the first time as a magazine for women in 1965.

In 1925, the 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."

One day, Chuck Palahniuk was relaxing in nature and got into an argument with a neighboring camp, after which he was soundly beaten. Returning to work with a bruised face, Palahniuk saw that none of his colleagues were asking what happened. Then the idea of the novel “Fight Club” was born.

When asked what 5 books you would take with you to a desert island, Bernard Shaw replied that he would take 5 books with blank pages. This concept was embodied in 1974 by the American publishing house Harmony Books, releasing a book called “The Book of Nothing,” which consisted exclusively of 192 blank pages. She found her buyer, and subsequently the publishing house republished this book more than once.

Worldwide famous series The Harry Potter books were first published in 1995, although they were written in 1992? JK Rowling, having written the first part of the series, for a very long time could not get her work published by a publishing house. All publishers refused to publish this book, not believing that it could be successful.

James Barrie created the image 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.

The novel “The Three Musketeers” was originally published chapter by chapter in the magazine Le Siècle from March to July 1844. This is a traditional novel with a continuation, a novel-feuilleton: the chapter ended at the very interesting place so that the reader looks forward to the continuation. The main character d'Artagnan was a real person and his name was Charles de Batz de Castelmore.

Ken Kesey in his novel “Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” did not just choose people with mental disorders. In 1959, at Stanford University, to earn money, Kesey went to work as a psychiatrist assistant at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital. There he voluntarily participated in experiments to study the effects of LSD, mescaline and other psychedelics on the body.

Mark Twain's wife. Even in her youth, Laivi became disabled after she fell on the ice. Twain carefully looked after his wife and always helped her in everything. He was madly in love with Livey until her death in 1904. Twain suffered this loss with difficulty and never fully came to his senses until the end of his life. He simply did not want to live in the world without Livey.

on UNESCO statistics, Jules Verne is the most “translated” author in the world. His books have been published in 148 languages. In the 60s of the 19th century Russian Empire the publication of Jules Verne’s novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” was banned, in which spiritual censors found anti-religious ideas, as well as the danger of destroying trust in Holy Scripture and the clergy.

Friedrich Nietzsche never married and had no children. There were, of course, women in his life, and he proposed more than once, but was refused. Nietzsche wrote: “There have been only four women in my life. The two of them who made me even a little happier were prostitutes. Elizabeth (sister) was quite smart (and even too smart sometimes), but she refused to marry me.”

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.

In the 1950s in the United States, best-selling book lists were compiled not only by actual sales, but also by customer requests in bookstores. Radio host Gene Shepard decided to make fun of this system and asked listeners of his show to ask in stores for the book “I, Libertine” by his fictional writer Frederick Ewing. This draw allowed the book to enter the official New York Times bestseller chart. After some time, a book with this title and pseudonym was actually published, although only after the hoax was exposed.

The English artist and poet Dante Rossetti buried his wife in 1862, placing his unpublished poems in the coffin. A few years later he was offered to publish a book, but the poet could not restore the poems from memory. Then his friends persuaded him to exhume his wife’s body, and the poems were published.

14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, Morgan Robertson published a story that became her prediction. In the story, the ship Titan, which was very similar in size to the Titanic, also collided with an iceberg on an April night, and most of passengers died.

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.

Among newspapers, perhaps the most authoritative, popular and influential is the American publication The New York Times. Almost everyone knows this name. Number of copies published weekdays is more than one million one hundred thousand, and on holidays and weekends - more than one million six hundred thousand.

The world-famous book “Kama Sutra” includes not only a description of sexual positions, but also reflections on the topic of relationships between men and women and life in general? In fact, only a fifth of this Indian book (15 chapters out of 64) is devoted to sexual positions. Most of the book consists of reflections on love in general, on girls, on men, on relationships between the sexes, on courtship and charm.

Robert Louis Stevenson. The first film adaptation of the book Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde was filmed in 1908; since then it has been filmed more than 60 times. And our viewers are better known for the film adaptations of the novels “Treasure Island” (the 1988 cartoon of the same name is especially popular)

The dramatic searches of the founder of Cubism, Pablo Picasso, were inspired by his work on sets and costumes for surrealistic performances. Having decided to try himself not only as an artist and decorator, Picasso in the 1940s wrote two absurdist plays - “Desire Caught by the Tail” and “Four Little Girls”.

Scientists from Yale University decided to test whether there is a connection between reading books and life expectancy. They relied on data from a large national study (it involved more than 3 thousand people over 50, whose health was monitored for several years). All participants were divided into three groups: those who do not read at all, those who read up to 3.5 hours a week, and those who read more than 3.5 hours a week. On average, a love of reading extended life by two years, regardless of gender, income level, education or health.

The title of Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451 was chosen because, supposedly, at this temperature paper spontaneously combusts (and in the plot of the novel, the government is trying to confiscate and burn all books from the population). In fact, paper spontaneously combusts at temperatures just above 450 degrees Celsius. According to Bradbury, the mistake was caused by the fact that when choosing the name, he consulted with a specialist from the fire service, who confused the temperature scales.

The merry fellow and drunkard Hasek would have become a symbol of Czech literature even without Švejk. He has about 1,500 short stories, pamphlets and other essays. Book "Adventures" good soldier Sewing" was supposed to consist of six parts, but Hasek managed to finish only three and begin the fourth. Death interrupted the author’s work on “Adventures,” and when the 39-year-old rebel was buried, the publisher asked Karel Vanek, Hasek’s friend, to finish the book.

Arthur Conan Doyle, in his stories about Sherlock Holmes, described many forensic methods that were still unknown to the police. These include collecting cigarette butts and cigarette ashes, identifying typewriters, and examining traces at the crime scene with a magnifying glass. Subsequently, the police began to widely use these and other Holmes methods.

William Shakespeare is recognized as the most “filmed” classic. “Hamlet” alone has been filmed 21 times! During the first years of the twentieth century, films based on Shakespeare's works were made in England and France, Germany and Italy, Denmark and America.

Interesting facts about literature.

Which book was published under different titles in different countries formed on the basis of currency exchange rates?

In 2000, Frederic Beigbeder’s novel “99 Francs” was published, recommended for sale in France at exactly that price. The same principle was the reason why publications in other countries were published under a different name, corresponding to the exchange rate: “39.90 marks” in Germany, “9.99 pounds” in the UK, “999 yen” in Japan, etc. In 2002, the book was republished in connection with the introduction of the euro and was called “14.99 euros.” After some time, the peak of the book’s popularity passed, and it was discounted to the title and corresponding price of “6 euros.”

What circumstances led to the mathematician Alexander Volkov becoming a writer?

The fairy tale “The Wise Man of Oz” by the American writer Frank Baum was not published in Russian until 1991. At the end of the 30s, Alexander Volkov, who was a mathematician by training and taught this science at one of the Moscow institutes, began to study English language and for practice I decided to translate this book in order to retell it to my children. They really liked it, they began to demand a continuation, and Volkov, in addition to the translation, began to come up with something of his own. This was the beginning of it literary path, which resulted in The Wizard emerald city"and many other tales about Fairyland.

In which work was the Kasparo-Karpov system mentioned long before Kasparov and Karpov became known to the world?

The Strugatsky brothers' story "Noon, XXII Century" mentions the Kasparo-Karpov system - a method that was used to make a "copy" of the brain and build its mathematical model. The story was published in 1962 - Anatoly Karpov was only 11 years old at the time, and Garry Kasparov had not yet been born.

Where does the word "miniature" come from?

The word "miniature" comes from the Latin name for red paint "minium" and in the original means antique or medieval paintings in the genre of illuminated manuscript. Due to the small size of these paintings and the presence of the prefix “mini” in the word, an etymological metamorphosis later occurred, as a result of which any small drawings, especially portrait miniatures, began to be called miniatures. From painting, the term penetrated into literature, where it refers to works of small format.

Who came up with the plot of the novel The Count of Monte Cristo?

What is the name of the main character of Pushkin’s story “The Queen of Spades”?

The main character of Pushkin's story "The Queen of Spades" is not called Herman. His name is generally unknown, but Hermann (with two n) is the surname of the hero, German by origin, which is quite common in Germany. But in the opera “The Queen of Spades” Tchaikovsky removed one n, turning the surname Hermann into the name Hermann.

How did they translate a French novel into Russian, in which there is not a single letter e?

In 1969, the novel “La disparition” by the French writer Georges Perec was published. One of key features What made the novel so special was that it did not contain a single letter e, the most commonly used letter in the French language. Using the same principle - without the letter e - the book was translated into English, German and Italian languages. In 2005, the novel was published in Russian, translated by Valery Kislov, under the title “Disappearance.” In this variant you cannot find the letter o, since it is the most common in the Russian language.

Which literary hero began to use many forensic methods before the police?

Arthur Conan Doyle in the stories about Sherlock Holmes, he described many forensic methods that were still unknown to the police. These include collecting cigarette butts and cigarette ashes, identifying typewriters, and examining traces at the crime scene with a magnifying glass. Subsequently, the police began to widely use these and other Holmes methods.

How were Dostoevsky’s real walks around St. Petersburg reflected in the novel “Crime and Punishment”?

Dostoevsky made extensive use of the real topography of St. Petersburg in describing the places in his novel Crime and Punishment. As the writer admitted, he drew up the description of the courtyard 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 to relieve himself.

Where and when did Baron Munchausen live?

Baron Munchausen was a very real historical figure. In his youth, he left the German town of Bodenwerder 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 a cherry tree growing 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.

Where and when was a concept book made entirely of blank pages sold?

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

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.

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 female. 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?

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 with Latin letters.

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

Peter Benchley, the author of the novel Jaws, later filmed by Steven Spielberg, in the last years of his 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, a large number of Kalmyks, deported here from their historical homeland, gathered at the loudspeaker. 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 and for what? Ig Nobel Prize?

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?

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?

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 stories sometimes they are distinguished by the 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 into the bargain, and 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 paragraph in its 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, the tradition of signing spines from bottom to top has taken root, 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, D) or one year (classes E, F, I). The students of the one-year stream were called “hedgehogs.” When they arrived at the boarding school, the two-year students were already ahead of them in the non-standard program, so at the beginning of the 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 it really sounded like Lenin's phrase about the cook and the state?

“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 peace is used as an antonym to war (pre-revolutionary "peace"), and not in the sense of " 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”, disputes about true meaning title of the novel.

Which writer encouraged readers to use their own punctuation?

The American extravagant writer Timothy Dexter wrote a book in 1802 with 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?

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. During Soviet times, 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?

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 of Southeast Asia and is forced to get to Europe through all of Russia. In particular, he waits out the winter in Tobolsk for 8 months.

When did the prologue “Near the Lukomorye green oak...” appear?

Pushkin wrote the prologue “There is a green oak at the Lukomorye...” of 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?

Who predicted the sinking of the Titanic literary work?

14 years before the sinking of the Titanic, Morgan Robertson published a story that became her prediction. In the story, the ship Titan, much like the Titanic in size, also collided with an iceberg on an April night, killing most of the passengers.

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?

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, the 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."

What pornographic scene is in "Woe from Wit"?

Interesting facts about literature

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 during the production of the opera “The Queen of Spades.” n , turning the surname Hermann into the name Herman.
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 drew up the description of the courtyard 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 a cherry tree growing 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.