World classics of literature: Hermann Hesse, Kurt Vonnegut and Henry Miller

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The world classics of literature are boundless like the sea. And the further time steps with its firm step, the more classics appear in the memory of mankind. In the era of the Internet and lists of books that are distributed according to the most diverse criteria, it is naive and presumptuous to write about works that are well known to everyone. Therefore, we will talk about outstanding writers, but not too famous for their works. The company will be strange: one German and two Americans, world classics of literature, got into it. The list is:

• Hermann Hesse;
• Henry Miller;
• Kurt Vonnegut.

Hermann Hesse is not only the author of The Bead Game, Steppenwolf, Siddhartha

When a person hears "Hesse", then the above three works come to mind, the first two for sure. True, there are also such readers who have not heard anything about the Nobel laureate in literature in 1946, and this is regrettable, but fixable. Since everyone is already tired of exaggerating essays about the wolf and the game on the Internet, the article proposes a work no less worthy, but not in great demand among the mass reader. “Gerdtrude” is also quite accuratea world classic of literature, but for some reason it is not given enough attention by the public.

Gertrude

A novel about the composer Kuhn, who found himself overboard from ordinary life overnight: during one of the country winter walks with his fellow students at the conservatory, he got into a sleigh with the aspiring singer Liddy and moved down a very steep slope with her, but did not lost control and crashed. Liddy escaped with a slight fright and a cut hand (it was just a scratch), and Kun broke his leg so badly that he was left lame forever.

Everything is interesting in the novel, but above all, the process of Kuhn's transformation: his inner personal transitions from hatred of others to humility, self-acceptance and dissolution in creativity. Love trials of the protagonist and women who are next to him. Of course, H. Hesse's prose is unthinkable without musical and philosophical intentions.

Kurt Vonnegut and his Breakfast of Champions

With "Papa Kurt" (S. King) the same story as with Hesse. When we say "Vonnegut" we mean "Cat's Cradle", "Slaughterhouse No. 5" and maybe "Mechanical Piano" (classics of world literature, the list of works is quite worthy). Meanwhile, Vonnegut wrote many more wonderful books that few people pay attention to.

"Breakfast of Champions", despite the film adaptation with the great and mighty Bruce Willis, did not become a cult work in the eyes of a respectable reading public.

Two characters move towards each other as the story progresses. And in the process of this movement, a variety of adventures happen to them. To tell the truth, the plot of the book by Vonnegut does not play a decisive role; K. Vonnegut himself put "Breakfast …" 3 on a 5-point scale, that is, this was not his favorite work of his own production, and yet it is a world classic of literature, and it should not pass the reader by. If anyone is interested, K. Vonnegut put himself a solid five for "Sirens …", "Mother Darkness", "Slaughterhouse …", "Cradle …" and two or three more works, but "Breakfast …" hit the disgrace to its creator. Things like that.

Information about grades is taken from the recently published Russian-language book "Palm Sunday" by K. Vonnegut.

"Indecent" literary classic Henry Miller

World classics of literature can also be represented by such a writer, who in Soviet times would probably be simply indecent to read. Most of his works are now said to have a clearance level of +18, or even +21. We are talking, of course, about Henry Miller. He has two main trilogies: Crucifixion Rose (it consists of Sexus, Plexus, Nexus) and Autobiographical Trilogy (Black Spring, Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn).

Tropic of Cancer

In principle, one couldtake any work by G. Miller, and it would be about the same as in Tropic of Cancer: a minimum of plot, a maximum of artistic and philosophical content. Many of G. Miller's books are autobiographical. He does not hesitate to talk in detail about his sex life. When you read it, it seems that the whole world is really saturated and smelled of sex, but all the same, in G. Miller's novels, sensual pleasures are not the alpha and omega of the story. His works are a bottomless reservoir of images and thoughts. Specifically, the "Tropic of Cancer" is good for its lofty-low reasoning about a woman. If someone is interested in the world classics of literature (the best), then, without hesitation even for one second, one can name the prose of Henry Miller. It is not only fascinating, piquant and not boring, but also beautifully written, and as you know, such books cannot harm a person. This applies to almost all the writers in the World Classics of Literature category, the list of them is extremely extensive.

True, G. Miller is better to read after 18 or 20 years old, but not because of rich eroticism, but because many of his turns of thought and style may be incomprehensible to a person under 18.

Thus, the classics of world literature (the list of works recommended for reading after reading this article) looks like this:

• "Gertrude" (G. Hesse).
• "Breakfast for Champions" (W. Vonnegut).
• "Tropic of Cancer" (G. Miller).