Если у вас возникли сложности с курсовой, контрольной, дипломной, рефератом, отчетом по практике, научно-исследовательской и любой другой работой - мы готовы помочь.
Предоплата всего
Подписываем
William Shakespeare, the greatest and most famous of English writers, and probably the greatest playwright who has ever lived, was bom on the 23d of April, 1564, in Stratford-on-Avon.
In spite of his fame we know very little about his life. At the age of six he was sent to school, but had to leave it at the age of 13. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove-maker, and when he fell into debt, William had to help him in the trade.
Just what William did between his fourteenth and eighteenth year isn't known. At the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. Ann was eight years older than her husband and the marriage wasn't a happy one.
When Shakespeare was twenty-one, he went to London. We don't know why he left Stratford-on-Avon. There is a story that Shakespeare's first job in London was holding rich men's horses at the theatre door. But nobody can be sure that this story is true.
Later, Shakespeare became an actor and a member of a very successful acting company. It's highly probable that The Comedy of Errors, Romeo and Juliet and some other plays by Shakespeare were performed for the first time on this stage.
Very soon, however, the actors were told that they could no longer use the land that their theatre was built on and the company had nowhere else to perform. There is a story that in the dead of night the whole acting troop took down their theatre, timber by timber, brick by brick. They carried it across the river and rebuilt it. The new theatre was called the Globe.
Shakespeare's Globe was rather different from modern theatres. The plays were performed in the open air and the audience got wet if it rained. There was no scenery, very few props, and the only lighting was the daylight that came from the open roof above. Women in those days weren't allowed to act in public and all the parts (even Juliet!) were played by men. Much of the audience stood to watch the performance and moved around, talking with each other and throwing fruit at the stage if they didn't like something.
Shakespeare wrote 37 plays: 10 tragedies (such as Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth), 17 comedies (such as As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing), 10 historical plays (such as Henry IV, Richard III.). He also left 7 books of poems.
Most of Shakespeare's plays were not published in his lifetime. So some of them may have been lost in the fire when the Globe burnt down in 1613.
Shakespeare spent the last years of his life at Stratford, where he died, ironically, on the same date as his birthday, the 23d of April, 1616. He was buried in the church of Stratford. A monument was erected to the memory of the great playwright in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. In 1997, Shakespeare's Globe was restored.
Уильям Шекспир.
Уильям Шекспир, величайший и наиболее известный английский писатель, и, возможно, величайший драматург, когда-либо живущий, родился 23-го апреля 1564, в Стратфорде-на-Эйвоне.
Несмотря на свою известность, мы очень мало знаем о его жизни. В возрасте шести лет он был направлен в школу, но был вынужден оставить её в возрасте 13 лет. Его отец, Джон Шекспир, был перчаточником, и когда он залез в долги, Вильяму пришлось помогать ему в его ремесле.
То, что Уильям сделал между четырнадцатью и восемнадцатью годами не известно. В возрасте 18 лет, он женился на Энн Хэтэуэй. Энн была на восемь лет старше мужа, и брак не был счастливым.
Когда Шекспиру было 21, он отправился в Лондон. Мы не знаем, почему он покинул Стратфорд-он-Эйвон. Существует легенда, что первой работой Шекспира в Лондоне было держать лошадей богатых людей у дверей театра. Но никто не может быть уверен, что эта история правдива.
Позже Шекспир стал актером и членом весьма успешной труппы. Весьма вероятно, что "Комедия ошибок", "Ромео и Джульетта" и некоторые другие пьесы Шекспира были впервые сыграны на этой сцене.
Очень скоро, однако, актерам сказали, что они уже не могут использовать землю, на которой их театр был построен и труппе не было где играть. Существует легенда, что под покровом ночи вся труппа разобрала свой театр по бревну и по кирпичикам. Они перенесли его через реку и восстановили его. Новый театр был назван "Глобус".
"Глобус" Шекспира довольно сильно отличался от современных театров. Спектакли проводились на открытом воздухе, и зрители промокали, если шел дождь. Декорации не существовали, реквизита было очень мало, а единственным освещением был дневной свет, который падал с крыши. Женщинам в те дни не разрешалось играть на публике и все роли (даже Джульетту!) играли мужчины. Большая часть зрителей вставала, чтобы посмотреть представление и перемещалась, разговаривая друг с другом и бросала плоды на сцену, если им что-то не нравилось.
Шекспир написал 37 пьес: 10 трагедий (такие как "Гамлет", "Король Лир", "Отелло", "Макбет "), 17 комедий ( "Как вам это понравится", "Двенадцатая ночь", "Много шума из ничего"), 10 исторических пьес (таких, как "Генрих IV", "Ричард III" .). Он также оставил 7 книг стихов.
Большинство пьес Шекспира не были опубликованы при его жизни. Некоторые из них могут быть утеряны в огне, когда "Глобус" сгорел в 1613 году.
Шекспир провел последние годы своей жизни в Стратфорде, где он умер, по иронии судьбы, в тот же день, когда родился, 23 апреля 1616. Он был похоронен в церкви Стратфорда. Памятник был воздвигнут в память великого драматурга в Уголоке Поэтов в Вестминстерском аббатстве. В 1997 году "Глобус" Шекспира был восстановлен.
My Favourite English Writer
It's said that none of the British writers of our age enjoyed such popularity all over the world as Agatha Christie did. Her works were translated into many languages, and scores of films were made using them as the script.
The name of Agatha Christie is a synonym for high-class detective story, as well as Pele is a symbol of football, and Marilyn Monroe is an embodiment of femininity.
According to Agatha Christ* herself, she began to write just to imitate her sister whose stories had already been published in magazines. And suddenly Agatha Christie became famous as if by miracle.
Having lost her father at an early age, the prospective writer didn't receive even fairly good education. During the First World War she was a nurse, then she studied pharmacology. Twenty years later she worked in a military hospital at the beginning of the Second World War.
The favourite personages of the "queen of detective story" are the detective Hercules Poirot and the sedate Miss Marple who carry out investigations in noisy London and delusive quiet countryside.
The composition of her stories is very simple: a comparatively closed space with a limited number of characters, who are often plane or train passengers, tourists, hotel guests or residents of a cosy old village. Everyone is suspected!
Murders in the books of Agatha Christie are committed in most unsuitable places: in the vicar's garden or in an old abbey; corpses are found in someone's libraries being murdered with the help of tropical fishes, a poker, candelabra, a dagger or poison.
Once Agatha Christie wrote: "Some ten years will pass after my death, and nobody will even remember me...". The writer was mistaken. Agatha Christie's novels are very popular now. People of all continents read and reread "The Oriental Express", "Ten Little Negroes", "The Bertram Hotel", "The Corpse in the library" and other of her novels time and again, enjoy films made by her works, and one can hardly find a country where people do not know her name.
CHARLES DICKENS AS A FAMOUS ENGLISH REALISTIC WRITER
In 11 years, namely in 2012, the whole civilized mankind will mark the 200th anniversary since the birthday of the world-famous English novelist Charles Dickens. He was one of the brightest representatives of critical realism in English and world literature and showed the many-sided life of English society of his time.
His books gained an enormous popularity all over the world and were edited in millions of copies, translated into hundreds of languages. His novels attracted attention of film producers, many of them were screened (e.g. "David Copperfield", "Oliver Twist", "Nicholas Nickleby", "Dombey and Son", "Pickwick Club", "Great Expectations", "The Mystery of Edwin Drood") and had many remakes.
His characters are alive today and appeal to us because Dickens wrote them with fervour.
The author isn't indifferent to his heroes: his hearty laughter, his tears and his anger, his ability to treat every character as it were his personal friend or enemy make the pages of his novels alive and warm.
That's the reason why I love and admire this immortal English writer and advise everybody to make friends with his novels.
Dickens was born in a middle class family in Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812. Little Charlie was the eldest child in a large family. When he was seven, he was sent to a boys' school. Never a strong child, Charles wasn't good at any sport and his chief pastime was reading.
In 1821 the Dickens family moved to London and little nine-year-old Charles left behind him the happiest years of his childhood. For about this time the life of the family changed for the worse.Mr. Dickens had got heavily into debt, and was at last put into the Marshalsea prison until he could pay his creditors what he owed them.
The Dickens family now lived in the Marshalsea, and their poverty was so great that Charles grew to know the pawnbroker's shop very well.
Moreover: the boy, though only ten years old was forced to earn money, and a place found for him in a blacking factory. The months he passed at this warehouse were a torture to the delicate little boy. But it was the time of his first imaginary stories invented during lonely walks in front of the prison gates, when he was dreaming and watching the people in the street.
Fortunately, about this time a relative of the family died, and quite unexpectedly left Mr. Dickens a legacy, which enabled him to pay his debt and leave the Marshalsea. He now decided to continue Charles' education, and sent him to school.
On leaving school Charles entered an employment of a lawyer. But he used to spend his evenings acting small parts at a small theatre in the neighborhood. Indeed, at once he wanted to make a stage his profession. He would have made a fine actor had he done so, but probably the books by which we know and love him would never have been written.
Mr. Dickens had lately taking up the work of reporting speeches in Parliament, and Charles learned shorthand in order to do the same. He did it so well that at 23 he was considered the best parliamentary reporter in London. He surprised the public by his irony, lively depiction and reach language. This work led naturally to journalism, and journalism – to novel writing. In 1836, when only 24-year of age, Charles published his first book, a collection of sketches and stories, under the title of "Sketches by Boz". These were followed by the "The Pickwick Papers" and "Oliver Twist" (1837-38). Then came "Nicholas Nickleby" (1838-39), "Dombey and Son" (1848), "David Copperfield" (1849) and many other equally famous novels.
His popularity grew with every new publication. Now he wished to broaden his life experience and to get acquainted with American democracy. In January 1842 he left England for the North America.
Dickens was disappointed seeing the American democracy. His impressions were embodied in "The American Notes" and the novel "Martin Chuzzlewit" (1843) – a bitter satire and partly a parody of the Americans.
In 1857 Dickens took up public readings from his novels. . The audience was delighted for the writer worked at his "readings" very hard and created powerful impression.
This tremendous activity lasted till his last days. He certainly was overworked, for never ceased writing new novels ("Tale of Two Cities" – 1859, "Great Expectations" – 1860, "Mutual Friend" – 1864). His heart was undermined by colossal work and at 58, not old in years, Dickens died.
His literary legacy is so great, that we can make only some efforts to analyze it.
Dickens achieved phenomenal success at 24, when the first chapters of the "Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club" appeared. He portrays the good-natured optimistic and excellent old fellow Mr. Pickwick, and wins the English public by the enjoyment of such purely English positive and negative types as Pickwick himself, his funny friends, the unforgettable Sam Weller, Jingle and other characters of the novel.
But the following novels, which appeared two years later, were a brighter contrast to the first one. "The Adventures of Oliver Twist" is a tragic story of a boy drawn into the slums of London. We see the dreadful sin of the life which poor little orphans lead in English workhouses – the disgrace of the country.
The other novel "Nickolas Nickleby" is a blow at the English school education. Here Dickens shows a new side of his talent: his ability to expose the grim sides of the society, the contrasts of poverty and riches. This is how he arouses kind and pure feelings giving the lessons of love for man.
Here comes one of his best novels "Dombey and Son". The main trade of Dickens' literary style – strict division of characters into positive and negative – black and white – is clearly seen here.
His next great novel "The Personal History of David Copperfield" is to a large degree autobiographical. In this book Dickens put with striking sincerity and truth all that he learned in his hard childhood and youth of life in London full of contrasts, its social injustice and varied population, with the never dying humor. We can mention the family of Peggoti and Steerforth then undying image of a hypocrite – Uriah Heep.
In the fifties Dickens reaches the peak of his fame. His literary activity is marked by serious and excellent productions. In "Little Dorrit" he brings forth his childish impressions of the prison for debtors.
The famous "Tale of Two Cities" is a historical novel dealing with the French revolution.
His last novel "Our Mutual Friend", being full of artful detective intrigues, has no social themes and gives a lot of pages of fine English humor.
All Dickens' works bear the signs of his stylistic peculiarities, the main of them are: strict division of characters into positive and negative, the victory of virtue over evil, sincerity and fervour in writing and laughter that sometimes exposes the stings but is also a means of relieving the horrors of life.
So, from all the above-written we can draw the conclusion that Dickens was a great exponent of the suffering of the English middle class and "common people", he expressed their likings and their hatreds and their efforts to somehow bring harmony to their fate. His realism, full of humanism, made a great influence on the development of Russian classical and realistic literature. And Dickens' popularity is quite deserved all over the world.
My favorite writers (Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming)
There are many famous English writers. Among them are William Shakespeare, Keepling and many others. I will tell you about the life and work of Arthur Conan Doyle and Ian Fleming, because I like their books most of all. Ian Fleming is the author of internationally famous James Bond spy novels. And in his life he was like the hero of his books James Bond. Ian Fleming was born on May the 28th, 1908 in England. His family was rich. His grandfather was a millionaire banker and his father was a member of Parliament. He was killed in the First World War when Ian was only nine. He had three brothers and he was quite close to them, but he was different from them. They all went to Eton. His brothers liked it. He hated it. He hated the army too. He didn’t want to be a soldier. He was good at languages, so he went to study in Geneva in 1930. Then the next year he wanted to join the Foreign office but did not pass the exams. He went back home and he was living with his mother again, feeling very bored, when he got a job as a journalist. He worked in London, Berlin and Moscow. Then he worked as a stockbroker and he was doing this when the Second World War started. That’s when he started working in the world of spies. He joined the Naval Intelligence and had a lot of contact with MI5 and the Secret Service. He went on secret missions to North Africa, Lisbon and America. He was a good-looking man. He loved money and had expensive way of life. He always dressed very carefully. He had a lot of girlfriends. He didn’t marry until he was forty-three. He drank a lot of gin, martini, vodka and smoked 60 cigarettes a day. Probably as a result of this he had a bad heart from quite a young age. He started writing after the war. He went to Jamaica in 1952, loved it and decided to buy some land by the sea and built a house. He called it Goldeneye. And in Jamaica in 1952 three very important things happened: he got married, he got a son and started writing about James Bond. His first book was "Casino Royale”, then his second book was "Live and Let Dye” in 1954. After that there were more twelve James Bond books. His last book was " The Man with the Golden Gun”. He helped choose Sean Connery for "Dr. No”, but he died while they were making the Second Bond film, "From Russia with LOVE”. His books were successful. Forty millions were sold by the time oh his death.
All over the world, detective stories are the most popular kind of fiction. My favorite detective is Sherlock Holmes. Although he is a fictional character, Sherlock Holmes had a real address - 221b Baker street. Today this is the Sherlock Holmes museum. The author of the Sherlock Holmes stories was Arthur Conan Doyle. He was born in Scotland, in 1859. He was a doctor, and he wrote detective stories to spare time. He wrote twenty-six Sherlock Holmes stories between 1887 and 1895. Then, he decided to kill his hero. At the end of the story called "The Final Problem” Holmes and Moriarty fall into the Reichenbach falls in Switzerland. The readers were very upset. Public pressure was too great and he had to bring Holmes back to life, although he did not like him. He thought that Sherlock Holmes books were not serious. He wanted to write historical novels. Conan Doyle continued writing about his hero for another twenty-five years. Conan Doyle books are still famous and popular.
PAGE \* MERGEFORMAT 7