Лучшие книги Виктора Содена Притчетта

В том вошли лучшие рассказы разных лет выдающегося новеллиста современной Англии. В центре внимания писателя — внутренний мир человека, его радости, заботы, горести. Рассказы Притчетта неизменно отличает английский колорит, тонко подмеченные черточки национального характера.

Какой может оказаться встреча двух женщин, когда одна из них жена, а другая... Она ювелир, ни от кого не зависит и выстроила удобную для себя жизнь, подстраиваясь под обстоятельства и особенности собственного характера. Ее отношения с мужчинами со стороны могут выглядеть предосудительно, но в ее собственных глазах вполне оправданы. В ее дверь однажды постучит та, кого она меньше всего ожидает увидеть, и непрошенная гостья попытается нарушить ее блаженный покой...

В эту книгу включены рассказы из нескольких сборников известного английского писателя В.С.Притчетта, признанного мастера «малого» жанра. «Я люблю эту изысканную форму — короткий рассказ», — признаётся писатель.

London of the mind, the heart and the eye is displayed, discussed and dissected in this classic work of 1962 that unites the elegant prose of V.S. Pritchett and the revealing photographs of Evelyn Hofer. Here is a pithy, knowledgeable distillation of the essential London - a panorama of its history, art, literature and daily life. Here is the city that Londoners know, a paraodox of grandeur and grime, the locus of bustling markets and tranquil parks, of palaces and pubs, of docks and railway depots, of the ancient and modern. Great Londoners of the past stalk these pages - Wren, Pepys, Defoe, Hogarth, Dickens and, of course, Samuel Johnson. And here, too, are the faces of the people inhabiting modern London - enigmatic and enduring.

В книгу включены произведения известных британских и американских писателей XX века. Рассказы интересны по фабуле, написаны живым разговорным языком и отличаются большим стилистическим своеобразием. Тексты рассказов подвергнуты незначительной адаптации.

Книга может быть с успехом использована для аудиторных и домашних занятий в старших классах специализированных школ, гимназий и лицеев, а также на курсах иностранного языка.

“In his daily walks through London,” notes Jeremy Treglown in his Introduction to this collection, “Pritchett watched and listened to people as a naturalist observes wild creatures and birds. He knew that oddity is the norm, not the exception.” This finely attuned sense, coupled with an understanding that nothing in life is mundane, is what makes these stories so immensely enjoyable. Drawing on a vast treasure chest of writings, Treglown has selected sixteen of Pritchett’s gems, including “A Serious Question,” which makes its debut in book form here. Featuring some of the best work from a long career, this new compilation of Pritchett’s brilliantly compact stories illuminates his legendary skills.

“Like most great comedy,” writes Darin Strauss in his Introduction, “Mr. Beluncle makes sport of the Stuffed Shirt, the Hypocritical Pious Gentleman, and the Tyrant, as well as the Big Spender–and all these descriptions fit a single character: Mr. Beluncle himself.” One of V. S. Pritchett’s most enduring characters, Mr. Beluncle is narcissistic, sanctimonious, and self-indulgent, yet despite these flaws he is undeniably compelling. Readers who follow this quirky British furniture salesman on his seemingly ordinary escapades–shopping for ridiculously expensive houses, attending services at his peculiar church, presiding over a tumultuous family meal–are in for a delightful and disquieting ride. Poignant, hilarious, and utterly unforgettable Mr. Beluncle is an ideal introduction to one of the English language’s most gifted authors.

“If, as they say, I am a Man of Letters, I come, like my fellows, at the tail-end of a long and once esteemed tradition in English and American writing. We have no captive audience. We do not teach. We write to be readable and to engage the interest of what Virginia Woolf called ‘the common reader.'”

In a life that spanned almost the entire course of the twentieth century—he was born in 1900 and died in 1997—Sir Victor Pritchett mastered nearly every form of literature: the novel, short fiction, travel writing, biography, criticism, and memoir. Now, Sir Victor’s son Oliver has selected representative samples to illustrate the tremendous scope of his father’s brilliance. Included in this volume are sections of Pritchett’s memoirs, A Cab at the Door and Midnight Oil; his reflections on turning eighty; and an account of a visit to the Appalachians written in 1925. There are also portraits of Dublin, New York, the Amazon, and Spain; selections from the novels Dead Man Leading and Mr. Beluncle; thirteen complete short stories; excerpts from biographies of Turgenev and Chekhov; and critical pieces on Twain, Scott, Dickens, Eliot, Henry James, Tolstoy, Saul Bellow, Salman Rushdie, and others.

“Pritchett has lived as a man of letters must, by his pen, and he has done it with a freshness of interest and an infectious curiosity that have never waned,” observed novelist Margaret Drabble. Taken together with Oliver Pritchett’s appreciation of his father, and John Bayley’s “In Memoriam,” The Pritchett Century stands as the most comprehensive collection of Sir Victor’s work available in one volume.

In the spring of 1927, V.S. Pritchett set out to walk 300 miles across Spain. At that time the country was almost completely isolated: many of the people he met had never seen a foreigner before. Yet despite their poverty, they received their odd English visitor, in his outlandish tweeds, was unfailing courtesy, hospitality and curiosity. Marching Spain is a vivid portrait of a timeless Spain, about to be torn apart by civil war, and a delightful record of personal discovery.

V.S. Pritchett was born in Suffolk in 1900. Acclaimed as a master of the short story, he is also a noted critic, biographer, novelist and travel writer. Marching Spain is his first book.