7. What was Chekhov's last play?
8. Do you know any English or American writers who were influenced by Chekhov?
AGATHA CHRISTIE
Agatha Christie is known all over the world as the Queen of Crime. She wrote 78 crime novels, 19 plays and 6 romantic novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. Her books have been translated into 103 foreign languages.
She is the third best-selling author in the world (after Shakespeare and the Bible). Many of her novels and short stories have been filmed. The Mousetrap, her most famous play, is now the longest-running play in history.
Agatha Christie was born at Torquay, Devonshire. She was educated at home and took singing lessons in Paris. She began writing at the end of the First World War. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, was published in 1920. That was the first appearance of Hercule Poirot, who became one of the most popular private detectives since Sherlock Holmes. This little Belgian with the egg-shaped head and the passion for order amazes everyone by his powerful intellect and his brilliant solutions to the most complicated crimes.
Agatha Christie became generally recognised in 1926, after the publishing of her novel The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It's still considered her masterpiece.
When Agatha Cristie got tired of Hercule Poirot she invented Miss Marple, a deceptively mild old lady with her own method of investigation.
Her last Poirot book, Curtain, appeared shortly before her death, and her last Miss Marple story, Sleeping Murder, and her autobiography were published after her death.
Agatha Christie's success with millions of readers lies in her ability to combine clever plots with excellent character drawing, and a keen sense of humour with great powers of observation. Her plots always mislead the reader and keep him in suspense. He cannot guess who the criminal is. Fortunately, evil is always conquered in her novels.
Agatha Christie's language is simple and good and it's pleasant to read her books in the original.
Names
Agatha Christie ^ 'kristi] the Bible ['baibl]
Mary Westmacott [, 'wes(t)makot] The Mousetrap ['maustraep]
Torquay [torki:]
Devonshire ['devnfla] ( )
The Mysterious [mis'tiarias] Affair [a'fea] at Styles
Hercule Poirot [ea,kju:l pwa:'rau]
Sherlock Holmes [Ja:lok 'haumz]
Belgian [']
The Murder ['rra:da] of Roger ['rod3a] Ackroyd
['aekroid]
Miss Marple ['ma:pl]
Curtain ['ka:tn]
Sleeping Murder
Vocabulary
queen [kwi:n]
crime [kraim]
to film [film] ,
running , ( ,
)
appearance [a'piarans]
private detective [praivit dftektiv]
egg-shaped ['egjeipt] ,
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the passion ['pae[n] for order
to amaze [a'meiz] ,
powerful ['pauaful] , ,
intellect [Intilekt]
solution [sa'lu:Jn] ,
complicated ['komplikeitid]
to invent [in'vent]
deceptively [di'septivli]
mild [maild]
method ['meSad] , ,
investigation [in,vesti'geijnj
autobiography [p:tabai'ografi]
to combine [kam'bain] ,
plot [pbt]
character ['kaerakta] ,
,
to draw [dro:] (drew, drawn) ()
keen sense of humour [hju:ma]
powers of observation [pbza'veijn]
to mislead [mis'lird] (misled)
to keep in suspense [sAS'pense]
,
evil [1:vl]
to conquer ['korjka]
Questions
1. Some people say that reading detective stories is a waste of time. Are you of the same opinion?
2. What famous detective-story writers do you know?
3. Agatha Christie's novels have been translated into 103 languages. Shakespeare's plays have been translated into 14 languages. Do you know why?
4. When was Agatha Christie's first novel published?
5. When did general recognition come to her?
6. Can you describe Hercule Poirot?
7. What were Agatha Christie's last novels?
8. Why are her books so popular with the readers?
9. Have you read any books by Agatha Christie? Did you read them in the original or in translation?
10. Have you seen any films based on her novels?
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Hemingway is one of the great 20th century American writers. His incredible career, and the legend which developed around his impressive personality, was that of a man of action, a devil-may-care adventurer, a brave war correspondent, an amateur boxer, a big-game hunter and deep-sea fisherman, the victim of three car accidents and two plane crashes, a man of four wives and many loves, but above all a brilliant writer of stories and novels.
Hemingway was born in 1899 in Oak Park, Illinois. His father was a doctor who initiated the boy into the outdoor life of hunting, camping and fishing. In high school Hemingway played football and wrote for the school newspaper.
In 1917, when the United States entered the First World War, Hemingway left home and schooling to become a young reporter for the Kansas City Star. He wanted to enlist for the war but was rejected because of an eye injury from football. Finally he managed to go to Europe as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross. He joined the Italian army and was seriously wounded.
His war experience and adventurous life provided the background for his many short stories and novels. He achieved success with A Farewell to Arms, the story of a love affair between an American lieutenant and an English nurse during the First World War.
Hemingway actively supported the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War and wrote another successful novel of war, love and death. It was For Whom the Bell Tolls.
During the Second World War Hemingway was a war correspondent first in China and then in Europe. He fought in France, and helped to liberate Paris.
In his later years Hemingway lived mostly in Cuba where his passion for deep-sea fishing provided the background for The Old Man and the Sea. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1954.
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Hemingway is famous for his lean style, which has been widely imitated but never matched. His heroes show courage in the face of danger, a characteristic which Hemingway admired greatly and which he prided himself on possessing.
Unwilling to live with the inevitable physical aging, Hemingway committed suicide, as his father had done before him under similar circumstances.
Names
Ernest Hemingway [,3:nist'hemirjwei] Illinois [JPnoi] ( )
A Farewell [fea'wel] to Arms , France [fra:ns]
The Old Man and the Sea
For Whom the Tolls [taulz]
China ['tjaina]
Paris f'paeris]
Cuba ['kju:ba]
Nobel prize [nau,bel 'praiz]
Vocabulary
incredible [in'kredibl]
career [ka'ria] , ,
legend ['Ied3snd]
develop [di'velap] around ), )
impressive [im'presiv] ,
personality [psisa'naeliti] ,
a man of action ['aekjn]
devil-may-care [,devil mei 'kea]
adventurer [ad'ventfara]
brave
war correspondent [,kori'spondant]
amateur ['aemata] boxer -
a big-game hunter
deep-sea fisherman -
victim ['viktim]
car accident ['aeksidant]
plane crash
to initiate (into) [i'nijieit] , ,
to enlist [in'list] ,
to reject [ri'd3ekt] , ,
injury [1nd38ri] (, ..)
ambulance ['aembjulans] driver " "
the Red Cross
to be wounded ['wu:ndid]
experience [iks'piarians] ,
to provide [pra'vaid] the background [traekgraund] for
to achieve [a'tjhv] success [sak'ses]
love affair [a'fea]
lieutenant [leftenant]
nurse [:]
to support [sa'po:t]
republican [ri'pAblikan]
civil ['sivil] war
to liberate [libareit]
passion ['paejn]
to award [a'wo:d]
lean [li:n] , ( )
to imitate [Imiteit]
to match ,
courage ['Iwids]
characteristic [,kaerikta'ristik] ,
to admire [ad'maia]
to pride oneself on smth -
to possess [pa'zes]
unwilling [/wwilirj] ,
inevitable [in'evitabl]
physical aging [,fizikl 'eidjirj]
to commit suicide [ka'mit 'su:isaid]
similar ['simila] , ,
circumstance ['sarkamstans]
Questions
1. Hemingway's life was full of adventures, wasn't it? What legend developed around his impressive personality?
2. When and where was he born?
3. When did Hemingway begin writing?
4. Why was he rejected when he wanted to enlist for the war?
5. How did he manage to go to Europe?
6. When was he first wounded?
7. A Farewell to Arms brought Hemingway success, didn't it? What's the novel about?
8. What novel did Hemingway write after the Spanish Civil War?
9. When was he awarded the Nobel Prize for literature?
10. What is Hemingway famous for?
MY FAVOURITE BOOK
I've recently read a book which has made a very deep impression on me. It's called Gone with the Wind and it makes really unforgettable reading. The author of the book is Margaret Mitchell. She was born in Atlanta, Georgia, into a family of the president of the Atlanta Historical Society. All the family were interested in American history and she grew up in an atmosphere of stories about the Civil War.
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After graduating from college Margaret Mitchell worked for a time for the Atlanta Journal. In 1925 she got married. In the following ten years she put on paper all the stories she had heard about the Civil War. The result was Gone with the Wind. It was first published in 1936 and became the talking point of all America. In 1939 it was made into a highly successful film. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable played the leading roles. Vivien Leigh won the Oscar.
Everyone loved her high-spirited and beautiful heroine, Scarlett O'Hara.
The story is set around the time of the American Civil War (1861-65) when the Southern States went to war with the North to defend their way of life. It was a way of life in which rich gentry lived in large houses and owned huge areas of land, cultivated by black slaves. Scarlett O'Hara was born into one of these rich houses. When this way of life was destroyed and all her family's wealth taken away by the advancing Northerners, the spoilt, willful Scarlet had to grow up and use all her wit and intelligence and beauty to build a new life.
But Gone with the Wind is also about a love triangle. While Scarlett loves the quiet, gentlemanly Ashley Wilkes, the wild and decidedly ungentlemanly Rhett Butler is in love with her. After Ashley marries someone else, and after many adventures of her own, Scarlett does marry Rhett but only for money.
The marriage is stormy and eventually Rhett walks out on her, but by that time Scarlett has realized that she loves him after all. Scarlett thinks of some way of getting him back, but we never know if she does.
Margaret Mitchell never wrote a sequel to answer this burning question.
She died in 1949 in a car crash.
In 1991 a publishing company asked Alexandra Ripley, a historical novelist to do the job. Her novel Scarlett was not in the same class as the original. Critics have been writing very bad reviews of Scarlett, but the book is popular with the public.
Names
Gone with the Wind
Margaret Mitchell [,ma:garat 'mitfal]
Atlanta [atlaenta] .
Georgia ['!:1] ( )
the Civil ['sivil] War
Vivien Leigh [,vivian 1i:]
Clark Gable [,kla:k -geibl]
Oscar ['oska] (,
)
Scarlett O'Hara |>ka:lit ':] '
Alexandra Ripley [yaelig'za:ndra 'ripli]]
Vocabulary
it became the talking point of all America
a highly successful film ,
high-spirited [,hai'spiritid] ,
heroine ['herauin]
southern [']
to defend [di'fend]
gentry ['dsentri] (
)
to own [aun] ,
huge [hju:d3]
area ['earia] ,
to cultivate ['kAltiveit]
slave [sleiv]
to destroy [dis'troi] ,
wealth [welG]
to advance [ad'va:ns]
northerner ['no:dana]
spoilt [spoilt]
willful ['wilful]
wit
triangle [traiaeggl]
gentlemanly ['djentlmanli]
wild [waild] ,
decidedly [di'saididli]
stormy ['sto:mi]
eventually [iventjuali]
to walk out on smb ( , )
burning [':]
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sequel ['si:kwal]
review [ri'vju:]
Questions
1. What do you think made Margaret Mitchell write a book about the Civil War?
2. Who starred in the film Gone with the Wind] Was the film successful?
3. Who are the main characters of the book Gone with the WincH
4. What is the story set around?
5. What can you say about Scarlett O'Hara?
6. Was it Margaret Mitchell who wrote the sequel under the Scarlett title?
7. Is the book popular with the public?
8. Have you read it? Did you read it in Russian or in the original?
TRETYAKOV GALLERY
The State Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known picture galleries in Russia. It takes its name from its founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and art connoisseur.
In the mid-19th century, Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings.
He visited all the exhibitions and art studios and bought the best pictures of contemporary artists. He was especially fond of the works of the Peredvizhniki (or Wanderers) the artists who belonged to the Society of Travelling Art Exhibitions. Little by little Tretyakov extended his range of interest and began to collect earlier Russian paintings. More than once he had to add wings to his house in Lavrushinsky Pereulok, because his collection grew larger and larger.
In 1881 Pavel Tretyakov opened his collection to the public. 11 years later he donated it to the city of Moscow. Since then the gallery has received hundreds of pictures from other museums and private collections.
The Tretyakov Gallery reflects the whole history of Russian art, from the 11th century to the present day.
It has a rich collection of old Russian icons. The world-famous icon is The Trinity, painted in the early 15th century by Andrei Rublev.
The gallery contains halls devoted to the magnificent works of such 18th-century celebrities as Rokotov, Levitsky, Borovikovsky, Shchedrin.
The first half of the 19th century is represented by brilliant paintings by Bryullov, Tropinin, Ivanov, Venetsianov. The second half of the 19th century is especially well represented. The gallery has the best collection of the Peredvizhniki, such as Kramskoy, Perov, Ghe, Yaroshenko, Myasoyedov, and others. Linked with the Peredvizhniki are such great names in Russian art as Surikov, Repin, Vereshchagin, Vasnetsov, Levitan. There you can see historical paintings, portraits, still-lifes, landscapes, seascapes, etc.
Further on we find the cream of turn-of-the century Russian art: Serov, Vrubel, Kustodiev...
Canvases of modern painters are housed in the new building situated on Krymskaya Naberezhnaya (Crimean Embankment).
The Tretyakov Gallery is not only Russia's biggest and most important museum of Russian Art. It's also a research, cultural and educational centre.
Names
the State Tretyakov ['tretjakof] Gallery ['gaelari]
the Society [sa'saiati] of Travelling Art Exhibitions
The Trinity ['triniti]
Vocabulary
merchant ['rrratjant]
connoisseur [,koni's3:]
studio ['stu:(stju:)diau]
contemporary [kan'temprari]
little by little -,
to extend [iks'tend]
range [reinds] of interest
wing , ,
to open to the public
to donate [dau'neit] ,
private f'praivit] collection
to reflect [ri'flekt]
icon [ aikan]
to contain [kan'tein]
to devote [di'vaut] to (-, -)
magnificent [mag'nifisant]
celebrity [si'lebriti]
to represent [/epri'zent]
to link
portrait ['po:trit]
still-life (. still-lifes)
landscape [Isenskeip]
seascape ['si:skeip]
further on
cream [krhrn] , "",
turn-of-the century
canvas ['kaenvas] ,
to house [hauz] ,
research [ri'sartf] -
Questions
1. When did Pavel Tretyakov begin to collect Russian paintings?
2. Whose works was he especially fond of?
3. What do you know about the Peredvizhniki?
4. Where did Tretyakov keep his collection?
5. When did he open his collection to the public?
6. What did Tretyakov do with his collection?
7. Who was The Trinity painted by?
8. Do you know any other famous icon-painters?
9. What 18th century portrait-painters do you know?
10. Why is the second half of the 19th century especially well represented at the Gallery?
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11. What great Russian names are linked with the Peredvizhniki?
12. What tum-of-the-century Russian artists do you know?
13. Where are canvases of modern painters housed?
14. When did you last go to the Tretyakov Gallery?
15. Who are your favourite Russian painters?
VALENTIN SEROV
One of my favourite artists is Valentin Serov. When I first saw his famous pictures - - the Girl with Peaches and the Girl in the Sunlight - - in the Tretyakov Gallery, frankly speaking, I wasn't too impressed. The girls seemed quite ordinary and I couldn't understand what was so special about these portraits.
Some years later I happened to be in Abramtsevo, where these two pictures had been painted. It's a very beautiful place. Abramtsevo belonged to Savva Mamontov, a well known patron of arts. Our guide told us about the people who had been invited there. It seemed that all artists, actors and writers of that period had stayed at Abramtsevo or at least visited it.
When I went to the Tretyakov Gallery after that and looked at the Girl with Peaches again, I suddenly remembered that day in Abramtsevo, and for the first time I noticed the play of light and shade in the picture, the atmosphere of a sunny summer day.
It's surprising that Serov painted this picture when he was only 22 years old. I read somewhere that at the time he had not seen the works of French Impressionists, who tried to catch the sunlight and the air and transfer it to the canvas. But he managed to do it perfectly.
Serov was born in 1865. His father was a well-known composer and the boy grew up in the atmosphere of creative activity. His first art teacher was Repin, who noticed that the boy could catch the likeness of a model often more quickly and surely than older artists.
Later Serov studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and graduated from it when he was 20.
For several years he taught at Moscow School of Painting Sculpture and Architecture. But teaching did not interfere with his painting. Probably now he would be called a workaholic. He painted almost 700 canvases, though, unfortunately, his life was not very long he died in 1911.
He was a brilliant landscape painter, he created genre scenes, but he is mostly remembered as a portraitist. The list of his portraits reads as "who-iswho" in Russian culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He painted Sawa Mamontov, Konstantin Korovin, Ilya Repin, Isaak Levitan, Nikolai
Leskov, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the great actress Yermolova... The list can be continued. And practically all his portraits are excellent from the technicalpoint of view the colours, the composition, but there is more than that - they show people's personality.
Names
Valentin Serov [vaelan,tin si:'rof]
Tretyakov Gallery [,tretjakof 'gaelari]
Abramtsevo [a:'bra:mtsavau]
Sawa Mamontov Lsa:va tnarmantof]
Girl with Peaches
Girl in the Sunlight ,
Academy of Fine Arts
Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture ['skAlptfa]
and Architecture ['arkitektja] -
,
Vocabulary
frankly speaking
to be impressed [im'prest]
ordinary [-o:danri]
special ['spejl]
to belong [bi'loq]
patron ['peitrn] of arts
guide [gaid] ,
atmosphere [ aetmasfia]
Impressionist [im'prejanist]
to transfer [trans'fa:]
canvas ['kaenvas]
composer [kam'pauza]
creative [kri'eitiv] activity
likeness [laiknis]
to interfere [jnta'fia] with
workaholic [.waika'holik]
landscape ['laenskeip] painter
genre scene [',si:n]
portraitist fportratist]
reads as
"who-is-who" " "
from the technical ['teknikl] point of view [yju:]
personality [.paisa'naeliti] ,
Questions
1. What is Abramtsevo famous for?
2. Who did Sawa Mamontov invite to Abramtsevo?
3. When was Valentin Serov born?
4. Who was his first teacher?
5. Where did Serov study?
6. How old was he when he painted the Girl with Peaches!
7. How many canvases did he paint?
8. What kind of pictures did Serov paint?
9. Can you name any of his famous portraits?
10. Who is your favourite painter?
11. Have you ever been to the Tretyakov Gallery?
12. What kind of pictures do you prefer portraits, landscapes, genre scenes?
13. Somebody said that when an artist creates a portrait it is not a portrait of his sitter, but a portrait of the artist himself. Do you agree?
ISAAC LEVITAN
Isaac Ilyich Levitan, the great Russian artist, became the first painter of the Russian scenery, who revealed all its beauty. He is a real poet of the Russian countryside. He continued and developed the traditions of painters of the Russian realistic school Savrasov, Polenov, Serov. Levitan found significant meaning and poetry in what would seem the most everyday subjects.
He is a very individual sort of painter. You can't but appreciate his paintings, because there is something in his landscapes that reflects our own moods.
He deeply felt what he wished to express and his brush transferred these feelings to the canvas. It is interesting to note that a master of landscape, he never introduced figures into it. Though if you look at the Autumn Day in Sokolniki everything seems to bring out the loneliness of the figure in the centre: the trees losing their leaves, the remote, indifferent sky, the path going off into the distance. But the fact is that it was not Levitan who painted the figure. It was Checkov's brother Nicolai who did it.
His travels over the Volga region influenced Levitan's art, the impression made on him by the great Russian river was unforgettable. For his life and painting he chose Plyoss a small beautiful town on the Volga. His paintings Evening, Golden Plyoss, After Rain reflect his love for nature.
Last summer I visited Plyoss and saw the places where the great pictures were painted. Many people admire his pictures Deep Waters, Evening Bells, Springtime, The Last Snow and, of course, his famous Golden Autumn. All his paintings are very emotional, lyrical and realistic.
In the closing years of his life Levitan made several journeys abroad to France, Italy and Germany where he painted a number of landscapes, although his best works of the period were devoted to Russia. He was only 40 when he died in 1900.
Levitan's influence on the painters of lyrical landscapes was great.
Levitan's feeling for nature, his great love for his native land, his ability to reveal and depict the poetry of the Russian land have won his paintings the love and gratitude of people.
Names
Isaac Ilyich Levitan [i'sa:k ilj'itj,levi'ta:n] Savrasov [ssvra:sof] .. (
(1860-1900) , )
Polenov [po'lenof] .. (
, )
Serov [sh'rof] .. ( ,
)
Plyoss [pljos] ( )
Vocabulary
scenery ['shnari]
to reveal [rivkl] ,
countryside ['kAntrisaid]
to develop [di'velap] ,
realistic [ria'listik]
significant [sig'nifikant] ,
individual [jndi'vidjual] ,
,
you can't but ...
to appreciate [a'prifieit]
landscape [Isenskeip]
to reflect [ri'flekt]
mood [mu:d]
to express [iks'pres] ,
brush
to transfer [traens'fa:]
