Art · Books · Observations · Ethnography
A curious carving of two aquatic creatures: one male, one female. One should be careful with the term "rusalka", since it is purely Slavic. For clarification one ought to read about life beneath the waters and the harem of the vodyanoy: here one thinks of Barbara Frischmuth'
The East · Books · Observations · Pop Culture
Not only is "Aida" a family drama, but it is set in Ancient Egypt, and its scenario, however modest at just 4 pages, was written by the Egyptologist Mariette Bey. Verdi had to labour over it, because there was little material to begin with: Mariette simply read the
Books · Observations · Science
"To prepare the elixir of the sages, or the philosopher's stone, take, my son, philosophical mercury and heat it until it turns into a green lion. After this, calcine it more strongly, and it will turn into a red lion. Digest this red lion in a sand
Books · Observations · Saint Petersburg
I have a sizeable library of books about the war, memoirs of those years, and I did not at once work out which story to recall today. All of them are heavy and grievous. But one cannot brush such horrors aside. If you have to read a single book about
NB! · Books · Observations · People
To mark Pushkin's birthday, I have brought out from my storerooms his kammerjunker's hat with its silvered braid. Alas, he never managed to climb higher than the eighth rank, but there is always something more important than a career
Architecture · Art · Books · Monarchies · Paris
Napoleon wished to raise a dazzling monument to his victories: a bronze elephant twenty-four metres high, cast from melted-down cannon, was to adorn the square on the site of the demolished Bastille. The elephant, on a lofty pedestal, stood in the middle of a fountain, and the creature&
Architecture · Books · Paris
Foreigners rarely inspected this structure, and passers-by did not look at it at all. The Elephant was crumbling with every year; fallen chunks of plaster left hideous sores on its flanks. The "aediles", as the elegant argot of the salons puts it, had forgotten it since 1814.
NB! · Books · Monarchies · Observations · Humour
a description of the English king George I (1660-1727) from a book by L. du Garde Peach. For a long time it was believed that the odious Edward did not know English, apparently because he never addressed the people
NB! · Books · Observations · Humour
Art · Books
According to Virgil, for warning the Trojans not to bring the gigantic horse into the city, the gods sent two serpents to strangle the prophet Laocoön and his sons. Sophocles' version ties the punishment to the breaking of a prohibition on marriage and the desecration of the temple of
Archive · Books · Society · People
Ever since the ancient Scythians, our forebears have yielded more reluctantly than any other people to classical civilisation, and if they distinguished themselves by anything, in the words of Herodotus, it was only by a bent for drunkenness and internecine strife. The father of history says plainly that the Scythians,
NB! · Archive · Books · Saint Petersburg
The dog was never caught. From the siege diary of Tatyana Velikotnaya