III. Find information about each of these famous English and American writers.

English writers

• John Ronald Reuel Tolkien

• Joseph Rudyard Kipling

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

• George Bernard Shaw

• Charles Dickens

• Herbert Wells

• Lewis Carroll

• С. S. Lewis

A. This dramatist wrote over 50 plays, most of which deal with moral and social problems. In “Pygmalion” (1913), Professor Higgins has been teaching Cockney flowerseller Eliza Doolittle to talk and act like a lady.

B. One of the most prolific writers of the 19th century. His works include some of the best-loved novels in the English language (“Oliver Twist”, “Nicolas Nickleby”, “David Copperfield”). His novels are populated by memorable, often comic, characters from all social classes, and many of his works criticize the social inequality of Victorian England.

C. This English writer, philologist, and university professor is often called the “father” of modern fantasy literature because he is best known as the au­thor of “The Hobbit”, “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Silmarillion”. Although he also wrote tales, poems, literary essays and invented languages.

D. This British author and poet was born in Bombay, British India, he is known for “The Jungle Book”, many short stories and his poems, including “Mandalay and If”. In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

E. An English author, mathematician, logician, and photographer. He is noted for his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy. His most famous writings are “Alice`s Adventures in Wonderland” and its sequel “Through the Looking-Glass” as well as the poems “The Hunting of the Snark” and “Jabberwocky” (Бармаглот), all examples of the genre of literary nonsense.

F. This British author is most noted for his stories about the detective Sher­lock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fic­tion stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and nonfiction.

G. A novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, and Christian apologist, he was a close friend of J. R. R.Tolkien. His works have been translated into more than 30 languages and have sold millions of copies over the years. The books that make up “The Chronicles of Narnia” have sold the most and have been popularized on stage, in TV, in radio, and in cinema.

H. This English novelist wrote some of the earliest science-fiction novels, such as The War of the Worlds (1898), which combined political satire with warnings about the powers of science.

American writers

• Mark Twain

• Edgar Allan Рое

• Ernest Hemingway

• James Fenimore Cooper

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A. He was a writer and a journalist, and the veteran of World War I. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1953 for “The Old Man and the Sea”,and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954, his other famous works include “For Whom the Bell Tolls”and “A Farewell to Arms”.

B. Samuel Clemens is better known by his pen name. This author and hu­morist is most noted for his novels “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, which has been called the Great American Novel, and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”.He was even called Twain “the father of American literature”.

C. This educator and poet whose works are famous for their musical­ity wrote “The Song of Hiawatha”,and was also the first American to translate Dante Alighieri`s “The Divine Comedy”. He became the most popular American poet of his day and also had success overseas.

D. This poet, editor and literary critic, is best known for his tales of mys­tery. He was a famous short story writer, and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He wrote “The Gold-Bug” incorporating ciphers as part of the story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Cask of Amontillado”. In January 1845, Рое published his poem “The Raven” to instant success.

E. He was a prolific and popular writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels. Among his most famous works is the Romantic novel “The Last of the Mohicans”, often regarded as his masterpiece.

 

MY FAVOURITE BOOK

 

I`ve recently read a book which has made a very deep impression on me. It is called “Gone with the Wind”andit 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.

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 (1861-1865) 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.

Not so long ago, 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.

 

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 Wind”?

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?

 

Vocabulary (transcribe the words, learn them by heart):

a highly successful film — фильм, пользующийся большим успехом

area – площадь, пространство

burning – жгучий

decidedly – явно

eventually – в конечном счете

gentlemanly – воспитанный

gentry – господа (изнч. нетитулованное мелкопоместное дворянство)

heroine – героиня

high-spirited – отважный, пылкий

huge – огромный

it became the talking point of all America — о ней говорили по всей Америке

northerner – северянин

review – обзор

sequel – продолжение

slave – раб

southern – южный

spoilt – избалованный

stormy – бурный

to advance – продвигаться вперед

to cultivate – обрабатывать

to defend – защищать

to destroy – разрушать, уничтожать

to own – владеть, иметь в собственности

to walk out on smb. – уйти (от жены, мужа)

triangle – треугольник

wealth – богатство

wild – неистовый, дикий

willful – упрямый

wit – сообразительность

Exercises

I. Compose your own sentences with the following words:

a highly successful film, decidedly, eventually, gentlemanly, gentry, heroine, high-spirited, to become the talking point, review, spoilt, to advance, to cultivate, to defend,, to walk out on smb., wealth, willful, wit.

II. Speaking

Comment on the following:

1. Reading books of Russian or foreign literature make our life richer.

2. Reading books of English and American literature in the original is very popular with language students.