Boris Akunin: list of works about Fandorin

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Erast Fandorin is a retired State Councilor who served as an official for special assignments under the Moscow Governor General. He is a collective image of the aristocrats of the 19th century: charming, intelligent, incorruptible - this is how Boris Akunin portrayed him in all his novels.

List of works by year of publication

Georgy Chkhartishvili began writing a series of novels about the most interesting and mysterious character in the literary world in 1998. The first four books - "Azazel", "Turkish Gambit", "Leviathan" and "The Death of Achilles" - were written in just a few months. The next two novels - "Special Assignments" (a collection of stories "Jack of Spades" and "Decorator") and "State Counselor" were published in 1999. The beginning of the new century was less fruitful for Akunin: he publishes a book"Coronation, or the Last of the Novels".

In 2001, the author pleases his fans with the works "The Mistress of Death" and "The Lover of Death". "Diamond Chariot" is a novel published in 2003, consisting of the books "Dragonfly Catcher" and "Between the Lines". "Yin and Yang" is a play written especially for Alexei Borodin, director of the Russian Academic Youth Theatre. In the same year, 2006, the author publishes the book Jade Rosary. The collection consists of ten stories. Actions take place in different countries, but mainly in the capital of Russia.

In 2009, Akunin managed to publish the thirteenth book "The whole world is a theater", and three years later - "Black City". The press learned that soon Georgy Chkhartishvili, aka Boris Akunin, will add the fifteenth novel to the list of works about Erast Fandorin.

Appearance of the main character

Erast Fandorin - white-skinned, rather tall, black-haired, with blue eyes and long eyelashes. He wore a "thin black mustache, as if painted in charcoal." This part of the face drove crazy not only women, but also men. Sometimes it seems that the author himself (Boris Akunin) admires his fictional character. The list of works from twelve books demonstrates that Fandorin changes little with age. Thanks to daily gymnastics, he continues to look great even at 50.

Interesting facts about a literary hero

Fandorin is incredibly lucky in gambling of any kind. The gift passed to him due to curious circumstances: once his father, having ruined his family due to addiction to this occupation, died as a result of a heart attack. For good luck, Erast Fandorin carries a jade rosary with him, which helps him concentrate.

He speaks English, French, German, Turkish, Bulgarian, Japanese, Spanish and Italian, he also planned to learn Chinese and Arabic. In some books he appeared under different nicknames: he was Nameless, Prince Genji, Kuznetsov, Yumrubash; his friend Count Zurov called him Erasmus, and his classmates called him Filbert.

There is even an official website of Erast Fandorin, which contains information about the history of his family, biography and some personal characteristics. Boris Akunin himself gave permission to create the resource. List of works and news from the author are attached.

Women and children of Erast Fandorin

The first girlfriend of the hero was the seventeen-year-old Elizaveta von Evert-Kolokoltseva. By a fatal coincidence, she dies on the day of the wedding, after which Fandorin acquired gray temples and a stuttering style. Two years after the tragedy, Erast meets the courtesan O-Yumi, who gave birth to a son from him. After another 8 years, he develops a romantic relationship with Ariadna Opraksina.

Esfir Litvinova was the mistress of the hero in the novel "State Councillor". Princess XeniaGeorgievna Romanova falls in love with Fandorin, but their relationship does not last long due to the different social status of the characters. A girl under the curious pseudonym Death is next to the hero in the work "Death's Lover". Elizaveta Anatolyevna, who appeared in the novel "The whole world is a theater", in 1920 gave birth to a son, Alexander, from Fandorin.

Saadat Validbekova is the last woman from the book "Black City", in which the hero dies. Boris Akunin could finish the list of works about Erast Fandorin at the fourteenth novel, but the author decided to continue the cycle with the fifteenth collection "Planet Water", which will be released soon.

All books about Erast Fandorin (author - Boris Akunin). List of works in chronological order

The first three novels take place in 1876-1878. Further, the author violates the chronology, misses three years of the life of Erast Fandorin and returns to them in the last books. The reader may have some difficulties regarding the semantic perception of the novels, since in each of them there are hints of the yet unexplored past and future of the hero. Maybe Boris Akunin was counting on this effect.

A list of works about Fandorin in chronological order may look like this: first you should read the first three novels, then the second story of the book "The Diamond Chariot". Next - the first story of the collection "Jade Rosary", and then - "The Death of Achilles". After that, it is recommended to familiarize yourself with the play "Yin and Yang". Read on withthe second to the fourth story from the collection "Jade Rosary", and then - the story "Jack of Spades"; then return to story 5 of The Jade Rosary and then to Part 2 of Special Assignments.

After this, chronologically, the sixth story of the collection "Jade Rosary" follows, and then - "State Councilor". Next, read the seventh and eighth story of the collection "Jade Rosary". After that, you should read The Coronation, and then the last two stories from The Jade Rosary. Next, read the eighth and ninth novels, as well as the first volume of the tenth novel. "All the World Theater" and "Black City" are books worth reading at the very end.

Fiction and reality in books about Erast Fandorin

Boris Akunin's favorite genres are detective and historical fiction, but in some of his novels he does not follow the chronology of historical events.

The Leviathan liner, on which Fandorin revealed a series of murders and their cause, was actually launched half a century after the events described in the novel.

Mikhail Sobolev, known by the nickname Achilles, is the prototype of Mikhail Dmitrievich Skobelev, an outstanding military leader. The killer maniac whose atrocities are described in the story "The Decorator" later turns out to be Jack the Ripper. Governor-General Dolgoruky is the prototype of VladimirAndreevich Dolgorukov; Grand Duke Simeon Alexandrovich - the prototype of Sergei Alexandrovich, the Moscow governor-general.

The book "Coronation, or the Last of the Novels" is full of contradictions: the time of the coronation of the emperor is observed, but not the age of Princess Xenia Georgievna and Mikhail Georgievich (in the novel - Miki, who is killed by the villain Lind) - this is what Boris Akunin conceived. The list of works about Fandorin is full of real historical events, such as the stampede on the Khodynka field and mass suicides in the Old Believers.