Abstract
Literature, according to Leo Tolstoy, explores the behavior of people, when the conditions of life to which they “were accustomed to submit would be completely upset”. Albert Camus’ novel “The Plague” is a story about how people face natural or man-made catastrophes; how they react to the challenges posed by nature: whether they act out of danger or they hide their fear under the guise of denial. The motive of survival is a part of the life-affirming pathos of Romain Rolland’s novel “Cola Brunion” which is called “an attempt to combine dream and action”, and this brings to mind the book “Baudolino” by Umberto Eco. One of the episodes of journey to the mythical Kingdom of Prester John is about crossing the stone river (stone as a symbol of inanimate nature). The hopes of the heroes are connected with the animate nature, with “the land, which induces and removes ailments”.