12. British literature

British literature of the 20th century depicts the changes and new political ideas, which were influenced by the rapid technical progress, the invention of cars and aeroplanes, and by the events of the First and Second World War.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is the creator of Sherlock Holmes (who is called the master of deduction) and he makes one of the grates detective story writers of all times. He was born in Edinburg. He studied medicine at the University of Edinburg and briefly practised as a doctor. He was the author of more than 50 books.
Agatha Christie is called the Queen of Crime or as she preferred, the Duchess of Death. She worked in hospital during FWW and used her experience in her books. She is the best-selling novelist of all time. She wrote nearly seventy novels and more than a hundred short stories. Her most famous character is Hercule Poirot. He is a Belgian detective with funny looking moustache. Many of Christie’s stories became movies, the most notable is the film based on the novel Murder on the Orient Express. The story is about an American millionaire who was stabbed to death in his compartment. All passengers are suspect. They are rich people, in the train there are f. e. an American widow, a German professor, a nurse, a Russian aristocrat. Unluckily for the murderer, one of the passengers on the train is Hercule Poirot. This film has been adapted for film and TV many times. A new version include stellar cast with two Oscar winners and four Oscar nominees, Johnny Depp, Daisy Ridley, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Michelle Pfeiffer.
Georg Bernar Shaw is the most famous personality in drama of this period. He attacked the whole society. In his plays he criticises the false morals of the society – Pygmalion (My Fair Lady). He was awarded the Nobel Prize.
Rudyard Kipling was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature as a first British author. He wrote short stories about Indian, the sea, the jungle and ins animals. His most famous books are The Jungle Book and Just So Stories. The story of The Jungle Book tells about the child Mowgli who is a foundling brought up by wolves. He learns the rules of Laws of the jungle.
George Orwell wrote excellent novels criticising totalitarian society. His most famous works are Animal Farm and 1984.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was philologist and writer. He became a professor of Anglo Saxon and English language and literature at Oxford University. His first fantasy novel is The Hobbit: or There and Back Again. During and after the war Tolkien continued the story in the trilogy The Lord of the Ring, which became one of the most popular works of fiction of the 20th century.
J. K. Rowling is a British author best known for the Harry Potter fantasy series. The books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, sold more than 400 million copies. The books also have been the basis for a very popular series of films. Her dream was to became a writer. As a child she wrote fantasy stories, which she usually read to her sister. In 1996 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published. The book was a sensational hit and Rowling became one of the world’s best-known and best-paid authors.
The novels tells about Harry Potter, an orphan who discovers at the age of eleven that he is a wizard. Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He meets his two best friends there, Ron and Hermione. Together they have to fight against the evil lord Voldemort who murdered Harry’s parents. (the Chamber of Secrets, the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Goblet of Fire, the Order of the Phoenix, the Half-Blood Prince, the Deathly Hallows)
Samuel Beckett won a Nobel Prize. His famous play is called Waiting for Godot.