Interesting facts about literature

Interesting facts about literature help you learn more about great works and their authors. Today in the world there are many literary genres that allow a person not only to recognize this or that information, but also to get a lot of pleasure from the very process of reading.

So, here are the most interesting facts about literature.

1. Gone With the Wind is the only book by Margaret Mitchell. She wrote it for 10 years, after leaving journalism and becoming a housewife.
2. In 2000, Frédéric Beigbeder's novel 99 Francs was published, which was recommended for sale in France at this very price. It is curious that in other countries this book was published under different names corresponding to the current exchange rate. For example, “£ 9.99” in the UK or “999 yen” in Japan.
3. An interesting fact is that the largest number of films was shot based on the works of William Shakespeare. Hamlet alone has been filmed more than 20 times.
4. In the period 1912-1948. Olympic medals were awarded not only to athletes, but also to cultural figures. In total, there were 5 main categories: architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture. However, after 1948, the scientific community came to the conclusion that all participants in such competitions were professionals in their field, earning money through art. As a result, these contests were replaced by similar exhibitions.
5. In Western Europe and the United States, book spines are signed from top to bottom. Thanks to this, it is more convenient for a person to read the name of the work if it is on the table. But in Eastern Europe and Russia, the roots, on the contrary, are signed from the bottom up, since this is how it is easier to read the names of books on the shelf.
6. Bulgakov worked on the creation of "The Master and Margarita" for over ten years. However, not everyone knows about the latent dating of the age of the Master, who is referred to in the novel as “a man of about 38 years old”. This is exactly how old the writer was on May 15, 1929, when he actually began to write his masterpiece.
7. Did you know that Virginia Woolf wrote all her books while standing?
8. The newspaper (see interesting facts about newspapers) got its name after a small Italian coin - "gazette". About 400 years ago, Italians paid one gazette to read the daily news bulletin, which was posted in a specific location.
9. When writing books, the writer Dumas the father used the help of the so-called "literary blacks" - people who write texts for a fee.
10. Curious what the most common genre of information is the note? She informs readers about an important fact or any social event.
11. The first audiobooks appeared in the 30s of the last century. They counted on a blind audience or people with poor eyesight.
12. An interesting fact is that founded in 1892, Vogue magazine is obviously one of the oldest fashion magazines in the world. Today it comes out once a month.
13. Larousse Gastronomique (1938) is the first ever large-scale culinary encyclopedia. Today this literary work is a living monument to French cuisine.
14. In the famous novel by Leo Tolstoy "Anna Karenina", the main character threw herself under a train at the Obiralovka station near Moscow. During the Soviet era, this village turned into a city called Zheleznodorozhny.
15. Boris Pasternak and Marina Tsvetaeva were close friends. At the beginning of World War II (1941-1945), when Pasternak was helping his girlfriend to evacuate, he joked about a packing rope, which was supposedly so strong that you could even hang yourself on it. As a result, it was on this rope that the poetess took her own life in Yelabuga.
16. One of the last literary works of Marquez "Remembering my sad whores" was published in 2004. On the eve of the publishing house, attackers managed to take possession of the manuscripts of the famous writer and began to print the book underground. To teach the crooks a lesson, the writer changed the final part of the story, thanks to which the millionth circulation was instantly sold out by fans of Marquez's work.
17. Arthur Conan Doyle, in his works about Sherlock Holmes, described in detail the many ways to catch offenders, which were then adopted by British investigators. For example, the police began to pay attention to cigarette butts, cigar ash, and use a magnifying glass when inspecting crime scenes.
18. George Byron became the ancestor of such a genre as - "dark selfishness."
19. The American Library of Congress is the largest library on the planet. It contains the most ancient documents and literary works. Today, about 14.5 million books and brochures, 132,000 volumes of bound newspapers, 3.3 million pieces of scores, etc. are "gathering dust" on the library shelves.
20. Cuban writer Julian del Casal died of laughter. One day during dinner, one of his friends told an anecdote that caused the poet to laugh uncontrollably. This led to aortic dissection, internal bleeding and, as a consequence, rapid death.
21. Did you know that Byron and Lermontov were distant relatives of each other?
22. During his lifetime, Franz Kafka published only a few works. On the eve of his death, he instructed his friend Max Brod to destroy all his work. However, Max still disobeyed his friend's will and sent his works to the printing house. As a result, after his death, Kafka became a world famous literary man.
23. It is curious that the famous novel by Ray Bradbury "Fahrenheit 451" was first published in parts in the first issues of Playboy magazine.
24. Ian Fleming, who created James Bond, was not only a literary man, but also an ornithologist. This is why James Bond, author of the Bird of the West Indies ornithological guide, gave the name to the most popular spy of our time.
25. Perhaps the most authoritative newspaper in the world is The New York Times. The newspaper has a circulation of about 1.1 million on weekdays, while over 1.6 million on weekends.
26. Did you know that Mark Twain crossed the Atlantic Ocean 29 times? Over the years of his life, he published 30 books and over 50,000 letters.
27. An interesting fact is that the same Mark Twain preferred to wear exclusively white suits, along with a snow-white hat and red socks.
28. Not so long ago, American scientists tried to determine whether there is a relationship between reading literature and life expectancy. As a result, it was possible to establish that people who read live on average 2 years more than those who read little or do not read at all.
29. Argumenty i Fakty, published since 1978, is the largest weekly newspaper in Russia with a circulation of over 1 million copies. In 1990, the newspaper entered the Guinness Book of Records for the largest circulation in world history - 33,441,100 copies. with more than 100 million readers!
30. The Little Prince is the most popular and translated French work. The book has been translated into 250 languages ​​and dialects, including Braille for the blind.
31. It turns out that not only Arthur Conan Doyle wrote about Sherlock Holmes. After him, hundreds of other writers continued to write about the legendary detective, including Isaac Asimov, Mark Twain, Stephen King, Boris Akunin and many others.
32. Baron Munchausen is quite a historical figure. In his youth, he moved from Germany to Russia, where he initially worked as a page, and then rose to the rank of captain. Returning to his homeland, he began to tell extraordinary stories about his stay in Russia: for example, entering St. Petersburg on a wolf.
33. In the last decade of his life, the writer Sergei Dovlatov deliberately avoided sentences with words starting with one letter. In this way, he sought to save himself from idle talk and to accustom himself to discipline.
34. D'Artagnan from "The Three Musketeers", authored by Dumas the father (see interesting facts about Dumas), was a real person named Charles de Butz de Castelmore.
35. 14 years before the infamous tragedy of the Titanic, Morgan Robertson published a story in which a ship named Titan, similar to the actual dimensions of the Titanic, appeared, which also collided with an iceberg, after which most of the passengers died.
36. When Bernard Shaw was once asked what 5 books he would like to take with him to a desert island, he replied that he would take 5 books with blank sheets. It is curious that in 1974 the idea of ​​the writer was embodied by one American publishing house, having published a book called "The Book of Nothing" with 192 blank pages. As it turned out, the book gained popularity and was reprinted several times.
37. The series of literary works about Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, was published only in 1995, 3 years after the writing of the work. This was due to the fact that not a single editorial board wanted to publish the book, since, in their opinion, it was doomed to failure.
38. British artist and poet Dante Rossetti buried his wife in 1862, placing his unpublished works in her coffin. After some time, the writer was offered to publish his poems, but it was difficult for him to reproduce them in memory. As a result, the writer had to exhume his late wife in order to get hold of the manuscripts.
39. According to UNESCO statistics, Jules Verne is the most "translated" author in the history of literature. His work has been translated and published in 148 languages.
40. James Barry, who invented Peter Pan, the never-growing boy, invented his character for a reason. He dedicated his character to his brother, who passed away as a teenager.

Watch the video: Interesting facts about English Literature (December 2024).