This multi-faceted and imperturbably eccentric book is quite consistent with the atmosphere of the capital of the United Kingdom, incredibly tolerant of the most bizarre manifestations of human nature and spirit, and just as conservative in everyday details.
«Collection of colorful chapters» about London and in connection with London — sketches, memoirs, essays, published mostly in the magazine «Snob» — turned out to be so colorful that it may disappoint the reader who expects some kind of integrity from a thematic collection. In fact, what is not in this collection. A monologue by a Russian aristocrat from a family of emigrants and reflections on the fate of Boris Berezovsky and Yevgeny Chichvarkin, a literary essay by Dmitry Bykov about Dickens’s most mysterious novel, The Secret of Edwin Drood, and a whole scattering of fictional stories (among the authors are Eduard Limonov, Yuri Mamleev, Alexander Kabakov, Jonathan Green and other English and Russian writers). Moreover, the stories are conditionally united by the theme “Dickens today” — it is the authors of his characters and plots who dress in modern clothes and place them in our (often Russian) realities. It turned out such a game of association — lovers and connoisseurs of Dickens will definitely guess familiar prototypes in these stories with interest, be indignant or, on the contrary, surprised at the accuracy of analogies.
On the whole, this multi-faceted and imperturbably eccentric book is quite consistent with the atmosphere of the capital of the United Kingdom, incredibly tolerant of the most bizarre manifestations of human nature and spirit, and just as conservative in everyday trifles, like a black cab, a red telephone booth or 5 o’clock tea. It is no coincidence, by the way, that Ahmad Tea in Russia and the British Council took the most ardent part in the preparation of this edition.
Comp. S. Nikolaevich
AST, Edited by Elena Shubina, 542 p.