I-semestr Theme: introducing

17. Theme: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

In the history of Great Britain there are a lot of famous names. The name of William Shakespeare is one of them. William Shakespeare, the great English poet and dramatist, was born in 1564 in the town of Stratford-on Avon. There were no theatres in England. Group of actors traveled from town to town showing performances in the street. The boy went to see all their shows and liked them very much. He wanted to become an actor. Sometimes he wrote little plays and staged them with his friends. When he was 21, William went to London. There he joined a group of actors. At first he only helped actors and then began writing plays for them. Soon Shakespeare's plays staged more and more become famous. The theatre where he worked was called "The Globe". It becomes the first professional theatre. Everyone knows Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare showed the real life and attitudes between people. The most famous of plays are "Othello", "Hamlet", "Romeo and Juliet", "King Lear".

MARK TWAIN

Mark Twain was born in 1835 in the USA. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He spent his boyhood in the small town of Hannibal on the Mississippi river. When he was 12, his father died. After his father‘s death he left school and went to work. For ten years, Twain worked as a printer in different towns and cities. Later he became a pilot on the Mississippi River. His first short story was published in 1867 under the pen name “Mark Twain”. After his short story, he continued writing under this name and became well-known as the best short story writer in America. In 1876 he published “The adventure of Tom Sawyer”, in which he described the life of a boy in a Mississippi River town at the time of his own boyhood. Shortly after this, he published a book about one of Tom Sawyer’s friends, ”Huckleberry Finn”. Mark Twain is known as America’s greatest humorist, and his works are full of humor, from jokes to satire. He belongs to those writers of the past whose works never age. His works have been published in 25 languages. He died in 1910.

CHARLES DICKENS

Charles Dickens, one of the greatest and most popular English writers, was born on February 7, 1812, in a small town in England. Dickens learned to read at an early age and read many books in his childhood. When he was about six, somebody took him to the theatre for the first time. He saw a play by Shakespeare and liked it so much that he decided to write a play of his own. When it was ready, he performed it together with some of his friends. When Dickens was two years old, his family moved to London. They lived in the suburbs of the capital of England. There were several younger children in the family besides Charles. His family was very poor, and his father spent time in debtor’s prison. He wanted to study very much, but he didn’t finish school. When he was about fifteen, he often visited the famous library of the British Museum. He spent many hours in the reading room there. He read and studied there and in the way he got his education. Later, Dickens described parts of his childhood in some of his famous novels, such as “Little Dorrit”, “Nicholas Nickleby”, “Oliver Twist” and “David Copperfield”.