I said I was reading books. I have finished P. Mérimée's "Tamango", "The Double Mistake" and other novellas…

I said I was reading books. I have finished P. Mérimée's "Tamango", "The Double Mistake" and other novellas of that kind. Various characters, realistic strokes. Hearts burning between honor and baseness, and so on. Various traits of human nature are laid bare with mercilessness and composure. But the writer's side is clearly visible: he looks at religion critically, calls people to a free life and makes it look attractive. An inner message — that people should work out certain notions, for instance categories such as freedom, rights, conscience and honesty, and live in accordance with them — seeps between the lines of the texts and, without your noticing, gets inside you too. The people in P. Mérimée's texts, that is, the positive characters, are people far from religion and immersed in feelings. Why am I bringing in the question of religion? Because everyone reads and judges a book on the basis of his own beliefs.

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I also finished "A Yankee and King Arthur". Written by Mark Twain. I thought these fantastical writings, called a satirical novel, were written for the revolutionary spirit and the propaganda of the new age. Through the Yankee's voice the author portrayed the Middle Ages as ignorance and people as mindless, sharply criticized reliance on lineage and the power of the church, mocks the nobly born as having nothing but their lineage, and shows the representatives of royal power as cruel and stupid. The Yankee, in his own way, tries to instill the democracy and equal rights of the new age into 7th-century England. Many parts take on a fairy-tale character. Judging by this work, I did not find Mark Twain's thought very broad or comprehensive; I met a writer tied to his own time and to new ideas, set on tearing people away from conservatism and traditions, who put politics first.

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I have begun Stendhal's novel "The Charterhouse of Parma"; events connected with Italy and France are mentioned. The main character is a young lad named Fabrizio; I am still at the beginning of the book, reading a little at a time. My first conclusion: P. Mérimée, M. Twain, Stendhal — they are all people from the same pot. They sharply criticize medieval Europe and want to step into a new world; they strenuously instill new and free ideas into art. Well, let's keep reading.