"The Tale" by Abraham Palitsyna
The famous figure of the Time of Troubles, Avraham Palitsyn, described the circumstances of protection from the Polish troops of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and his personal exploits in a work…

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strip tease
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…

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Two crosses of Konstantin Batiushkov
This year marks the 230th anniversary of the birth of Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov (1787–1855) and the 200th anniversary of the release of his only book, the two-volume book Experiments in…

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loving clothes and fans

Bogdanovich “Darling”

The content of “Darling” is taken from La Fontaine’s prose work “The Love of Psyche and Cupid” (“Les amours de Psyché et de Cupidon”). The content of this work, in turn, was borrowed by the author from Apuleius’s novel The Golden Ass.

In the work of Apuleius, the main idea is that the soul, immersed in sensuality, matter afterwards, thanks to the initiation into the sacraments, is purified and transformed. The soul of a woman (Psyche), having lost its original purity, should as a slave of Love (Venus) undergo a series of severe tests in order to ascend to the divine bridegroom – Eros (Cupid, Cupid). Continue reading

Bunin "Loopy ears"
Bunin's story "Petty ears" is very inferior to "The Lord from San Francisco", but written in the same powerful manner, with the same force of a full-sound and wonderfully heavy…

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Homer Iliad
Homer's poem "The Iliad" (see its full text and analysis) begins with a description of the wrath of the protagonist of the Greek army - Achilles. Nine years already spent…

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