Ariosto, "Furious Roland"
Poem Ludoviko Ariosto “Furious Roland” had more than 80 editions in the XVI century. The elegant and at the same time simple language brought her a quick triumph over the…

Continue reading →

strip tease
Katerina Akhmakova in Dostoevsky's “Teenager”
To the unearthly friend of his, Sofia Andreevna, the main character of the “Teenager” Versilov faces a bright face. Dark, he turned to the earth of his love - Katerina…

Continue reading →

Afanasy Nikitin "Going beyond three seas"
“Going beyond the three seas of Afanasy Nikitin” (see its full text) - a description by a 15th century Russian man of his journey to far India.Afanasy Nikitin was a…

Continue reading →

but in essence

Goethe “Faust”

The great poet and thinker Goethe embodied all his life experience in the genius tragedy “Faust”. It was based on the German legend of the XVI century. about the magician and warlock, who entered into a contract with the devil. But the old story was for Goethe only a pretext to capture his thoughts on the burning issues of our time.

The plot of the tragedy combines fantastic situations and real-life scenes. This is a parable about the Man, about his duty, vocation, about his responsibility to other people. Continue reading

Bulgakov “Crimson Island”

But – yet, how much more I read in the house of E.S. [Elena Sergeevna Bulgakova]. At first I reached for the “Crimson Island” (1927) – a brilliant satire, to a production that was banned at the root at the same time, only slightly flashed in the Chamber Theater …

Parses laughter already from the subtitle of the play [1] and the confused list of characters. A double theater, a theater in a theater, the spirit of theatrical life – just a playwright cannot write such a thing, but a natural theater theater, which Bulgakov was. Continue reading

Beaumarchais The Marriage of Figaro

Exceptional success fell on the second part of the Beaumarchais comedy trilogy – “Mad Day, or the Marriage of Figaro”. (For the first part – see “The Barber of Seville” – analysis.)

Before us is Figaro again. But now it is no longer the Barber of Seville, arranging the love affairs of a young aristocrat. Managing the castle of Count Almaviva, he now comes into conflict with his master. Continue reading

Bulgakov "Heart of a Dog"
A homeless dog Sharik, who lived in Moscow, was scrubbed with a boiling water by one cruel cook. It was December, and Sharik, with his side wounded from the burn,…

...

Books about the art market
Several years ago I bought almost all books on the art market almost in a row and gradually created my own library of this literature. I have it all in…

...