Talk:Nicholas Fandorin

No heading comments
In an interview with readers on the website www.fandorin.ru Akunin had said that Nicholas was born in 1960. Tighina 21:06, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

I was motivated to compile the page on Yury Neledinsky-Meletsky by the end of the 2003 novel
 * Павлина велела кучеру остановиться. Поманила офицера.
 * - Скажите, господин военный начальник,  умеют  ваши  музыканты  играть "Выду ль я на реченьку"?
 * - Как же, сударыня, - ответил румяный от мороза офицер, с удовольствием глядя на красивую даму. - Новое сочинение господина Нелединского-Мелецкого, вся Москва поет.
 * И пропел звонко, чувствительно:
 * Выду ль я на реченьку, погляжу на быструю,
 * Унеси ты мое горе, быстра реченька, с собой!

These are the actual 1796 lyrics of a song that is still sung as a "Russian folk song", but with different (modernized) lyrics. The in-joke here is that Akunin takes a Russian poet who was popular at the time, but who has been completely forgotten now, and he takes the single one piece by him that is still known today, even though it is not remembered under his name but as a "folk song" (none of the editions of the text I have googled seem to be aware of the author) and gives it in the now-unfamiliar original. The fact that this song even exists (in the story) establishes that we are in November 1796 (it was published in 1796), and thus that Catherine the Great is going to die from a "stroke" within a matter of days; [The chapter's final Эй, флейты, начинайте! is the reference to Much Ado About Nothing (strike up, Pipers!).]

The book is presumably brim-full with such intricate literary allusions (hence the title extracurricular reading, which does not have any explanation in the novel's plot itself), which would be lost on most native speakers, and certainly on readers of translations such as myself. Akunin is basically sending his readers on a scavenger hunt of researching at least one classic per chapter :) --dab (𒁳) 11:36, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

English translations
If anyone knows which books have English translations, it would be a valuable addition to this article.Zipzip50 (talk) 02:56, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Nicholas's heritage
Isn't the first paragraph a better place to mention the fact that Nick is the grandson of Erast, and that Erast is the hero of a bunch of Akunin novels? Zipzip50 (talk) 04:21, 2 April 2016 (UTC)

Nicholas Fandorin series
The article does not make a good case that the character is notable. I suggest this is rewritten into an article about the Nicholas Fandorin series.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus&#124; reply here 01:33, 29 January 2024 (UTC)