The Winter Queen (Magill’s Literary Annual 2004)
At a glance:
- Author: Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili
- First Published: 1998
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: May to September, 1876
- Setting: Moscow, St. Petersburg, and London
- Principal Characters: Erast Petrovich Fandorin, Xavier Feofilaktovich Grushin, Pyotr Alexandrov Kokorin, Elizaveta “Lizanka” Alexandrovna von Evert-Kolokoltseva, Emma Gottliebovna Pfühl, Nikolai Stepanovich Akhtyrtsev, Lady Margaret Astair, Amalia “Cleopatra” Kazimirovna Bezhetskaya, Count Hippolyte Alexandrovich Zurov, Ivan Franzevich Brilling, Gerald Cunningham, Porfirii Martynovich Pyzhov, John Morbid, Nicholas M. Croog (Nikola Mitrofanich Krug), Adjutant General Lavrentii Arkadievich Mizinov, Full Privy Counselor Alexander Apollodorovich von Evert-Kolokoltsev, Professor Gebhardt Blank
- Genres: Long fiction, Mystery and detective literature, Translation, Novel
- Subjects: Crime or criminals, Gambling, Murder or homicide, Police, Nineteenth century, England or English people, Detectives, London, Trains, Orphans or orphanages, Inventions or inventors, Russia or Russian people, Moscow, Luck or misfortune
- Locales: London, England, Moscow, Russia, St. Petersburg, Russia
Boris Akunin’s The Winter Queen is not great literature, but it is great entertainment. The first of ten novels (of a projected twelve) in the Erast Fandorin detective series, The Winter Queen is also the first of the series to be translated into English. The Winter Queen clearly shows why the immense popularity of the series in Russia has been dubbed “Erastomania”: Introducing a young hero so straight and clean he could teach Sunday school, The Winter Queen offers traditional storytelling. Despite a few dialogue-heavy sections, for the most part the...
[The entire page is 1586 words long]
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