Daniel Defoe

By the author or Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe's Memoirs of a Cavalier is the story of an English gentleman during one of the most unstable and fascinating periods of English and European history. The Cavalier, thought to be 'no less a figure than one of King William's secretaries of state', tells of his adventures during the Thirty Years War as a soldier fighting in the army of the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in support of the German Protestants. The death of Gustavus Adolphus eventually draws the Cavalier back to his native land, and when England descends into civil war, he goes into battle again, this time for King Charles I against his own parliament. Memoirs of a Cavalier, one of the earliest examples of the English novel, is above all else a gripping adventure story set on the battlefields of Germany and England.

Trudno predstavit bolee "domashnego", vsem izvestnogo s rannego detstva pisatelja dlja semejnogo chtenija, chem Daniel Defo - sozdatel legendarnogo Robinzona Kruzo! Nabljudat za neutomimym ostrovitjaninom vnuki i pravnuki segodnjashnego chitatelja budut s tem zhe volneniem (shtorm, dikari-kannibaly, piraty - dukh zakhvatyvaet!..), ljubopytstvom i dazhe umileniem - ochen uzh ujutnaja, umirotvorennaja poluchaetsja zhizn v palatke, a zatem v shalashe, s samodelnoj mebelju i posudoj, v okruzhenii domashnikh ljubimtsev - sobaki, koshek, popugaev... Robinzon sam doit koz, sazhaet derevja, vyraschivaet i vypekaet khleb. "O kakoj by rabote on ni rasskazyval v etoj knige, on govorit o nej tak interesno, chto kazhdomu iz nas nachinaet kazatsja, budto my sami uchastvuem v nej" (K.Chukovskij).

"Trudno predstavit bolee "domashnego", vsem izvestnogo s rannego detstva pisatelja dlja semejnogo chtenija, chem Daniel Defo - sozdatel legendarnogo Robinzona Kruzo! Nabljudat za neutomimym ostrovitjaninom vnuki i pravnuki segodnjashnego chitatelja budut s tem zhe volneniem (shtorm, dikari-kannibaly, piraty - dukh zakhvatyvaet!..), ljubopytstvom i dazhe umileniem - ochen uzh ujutnaja, umirotvorennaja poluchaetsja zhizn v palatke, a zatem v shalashe, s samodelnoj mebelju i posudoj, v okruzhenii domashnikh ljubimtsev - sobaki, koshek, popugaev... Robinzon sam doit koz, sazhaet derevja, vyraschivaet i vypekaet khleb. "O kakoj by rabote on ni rasskazyval v etoj knige, on govorit o nej tak interesno, chto kazhdomu iz nas nachinaet kazatsja, budto my sami uchastvuem v nej"." K.Chukovskij

Roman Dafny Djumore (1907-1989) "Moja kuzina Rejchel", po mneniju mnogikh kritikov, ne ustupaet proslavlennoj "Rebekke", a v chem-to i prevoskhodit ee. Eto prekrasnyj obrazets razvitija traditsii "goticheskogo" i "sensatsionnogo" romana, osnovopolozhnikom kotorogo schitaetsja Uilki Kollinz: detektivnaja intriga sochetaetsja s neobychnoj ljubovnoj dramoj, razvorachivajuschajasja na fone liricheskikh pejzazhej Kornuolla i zhivopisnykh kartin Italii v sorokovye gody XIX veka. S kazhdym povorotom sjuzheta chitatel vse bolshe terjaetsja v dogadkakh, kto pered nim - zhertva nespravedlivykh podozrenij ili raschetlivaja intriganka i ubijtsa; no k kakoj by versii on ni sklonjalsja, final ego oshelomit. Izdannyj v 1951 godu roman mgnovenno stal bestsellerom i vsego cherez god na ekrany vyshel odnoimennyj film s Oliviej de Khevilend i molodym Richardom Bartonom; v 1983 godu po romanu byl snjat televizionnyj serial.