Erast Petrovich Fandorin () is a fictional 19th-century Russian detective and the hero of a series of Russian historical detective novels by Boris Akunin.
The first Fandorin novel (The Winter Queen, Russian: Азазель) was published in Russia in 1998, and the latest and the last one in 2023 (The Pit, Russian: Яма). More than 15 million copies of Fandorin novels have been sold as of May 2006, even though the novels were freely available from many Russian websites and the hard copies were relatively expensive by Russian standards.Leon Aron, "A Private Hero for a Privatized Country" in Russian Outlook , retrieved 17 August 2006. New books in the Fandorin series typically sell over 200,000 copies in the first week alone, with an unparalleled (for mystery novels) first edition of 50,000 copies for the first books to 500,000 copies for the last., retrieved 18 March 2010.Yulia Idlis, "B. Akunin's Fandorin Saga: To Be Continued?", Kultura 1, 2006, pp. 10-15, retrieved 23 September 2006 (PDF).
The English translations of the novels have been critically acclaimed by, among others, Ruth Rendell.Ruth Rendell, Fiction: The Winter Queen by Boris Akunin trans by Andrew Bromfield, The Sunday Times, 12 May 2003 , retrieved 26 September 2006.
Background In the Soviet Union, detective novels enjoyed mass popularity. Although they were seen as a "low genre" by the communist officials, both local (such as Igor (Georgy) Vayner and Julian Semenov), and foreign detective novels have always been avidly coveted.Sofya Khagi, "Boris Akunin and Retro Mode in Contemporary Russian Culture", Toronto Slavic Quarterly , retrieved 11 September 2006.San Francisco Chronicle, "Russian writer is onto a rare thing -- a series of good detective novels", retrieved 17 August 2006.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many trashy detective novels were published that featured a lot of gore and sex.Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, "A Russian intellectual turns to crime (fiction)" , retrieved 11 September 2006. Akunin's wife, in common with many other Russians,Vsevolod Brodsky, Context, Letter from Russia , retrieved 11 September 2006. started to enjoy reading this genre of literature. However, she did not want to be seen reading the novels and she always wrapped them in brown paper to prevent people from seeing what she was reading.Telegraph, "The masked man", retrieved 17 August 2006Richard Lourie, New York Times, "If Pushkin had written mysteries", retrieved 18 August 2006. This inspired Akunin to create a detective novel which nobody would be ashamed to be caught reading, something between the literature of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky and the pulp of modern Russian detective novels.The Independent, "Boris Akunin: The riddler of Russia" , retrieved 29 August 2006
He set out to write a cycle about Fandorin with an exploration of every subgenre of the detective novel in mind, from spies to serial killers. In addition, he wanted to address different types of human character in his books. As Akunin identified sixteen subgenres of crime novels, as well as sixteen character types, the novels in the Erast Fandorin series ultimately numbered sixteen, with the final novel, Not Saying Goodbye, published in 2018. The series is titled (New detective, or New Mystery). This title serves to set the novels apart from the postmodernist intellectual novels as well as from the trashy detective novels, but it is also a subtle play on the use of time in the novels.
Akunin uses many historical settings for his novels. He uses the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire as background for the novel The Turkish Gambit; the death of the "White General" Mikhail Skobelev (as 'Mikhail Sobolev') in The Death of Achilles; and the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II and the Khodynka Tragedy for Coronation, or the Last of the Romanovs. Akunin uses the gaps in the knowledge of these histories to create an atmosphere for his mystery novels to which readers can relate.
Novels English title Russian title Russian original publication English translation Genre The Winter Queen (Azazel) 1998 2003 Conspiracy mystery The Turkish Gambit 1998 2005 Spy novel Murder on the Leviathan (Leviathan) 1998 2004 Agatha Christie-type mystery The Death of Achilles 1998 2005 Hired killer mystery Special Assignments The Jack of Spades Пиковый валет 1999 2007 A novella about confidence men The Decorator ДекораторA novella about a maniac The State Counsellor 2000 2009 Political mystery The Coronation (Coronation, or the Last of the Romanovs) 2000 2009 High society mystery She Lover of Death (Mistress of Death) 2001 2009 Decadent mystery He Lover of Death (Lover of Death) 2001 2010Per Amazon UK listing for "He Lover of Death" Dickensian mystery The Diamond Chariot 2003 2011Ethnographic mystery Ying and Yan Инь и Ян2006noneExperimental play (Jade Rosary Beads) 2006 2026 Different for each story in collection 2009 2017Theatrical mystery 2012 2018 Thriller, political mystery 2015 none Technocratic mystery, nostalgic mystery, idiotic mysteryНе прощаюсь20182019Historical
Adaptations Film The Turkish Gambit (2005): a theatrically released film starring Egor Beroev The State Counsellor (2005): a theatrically released film starring Oleg Menshikov
Television Azazel (2002): a miniseries starring Ilya Noskov Television Theater: "Lewiatan" (2021): feature length Polish adaptation of Murder on the Leviathan starring Piotr Zurawski Fandorin: Azazel (2023): a six episode series starring Vladislav Tiron, with the setting updated to the present day
Audio The Saturday Play: "Murder on the Leviathan" (2005): BBC Radio drama starring Simon Robson
References
External sources Dmitry Babich, "The Return of Patriotism?", retrieved 17 August 2006. Rebecca Reich, The St. Petersburg Times, "Akunin's plot thickens" , retrieved 17 August 2006. Author's Website: www.akunin.ru Includes the complete texts, in Russian, of the first six Erast Fandorin novels. Fan site Fandorin.ru Erast P. Fandorin Virtual Museum The Moscow News, "Boris Akunin: Murder by Cliches", retrieved 7 September 2006. Leon Aron, "A champion for the bourgeoisie: reinventing virtue and citizenship in Boris Akunin's novels" in The National Interest, Spring 2004, retrieved 29 September 2006. Akunin website containing the Russian texts of all Erast Fandorin novels through The Diamond Chariot