Erast Petrovich Fandorin (russian: Эраст Петрович Фандорин) is a fictional 19th-century Russian

detective A detective is an investigator, usually a member of a law enforcement agency. They often collect information to solve crimes by talking to witnesses and informants, collecting physical evidence, or searching records in databases. This leads th ...

and the hero of a series of Russian historical detective novels by

Boris Akunin Boris Akunin (russian: Борис Акунин) is the pen name of Grigori Chkhartishvili (russian: Григорий Шалвович Чхартишвили, Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვ� ...

. The first Fandorin novel (''The Winter Queen'', Russian: ''Азазель'') was published in Russia in 1998, and the latest and the last one in 2018 (''Not Saying Goodbye'', Russian: ''Не прощаюсь''). 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.Early news of ''All the World's a Stage'' sales
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 Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, (; 17 February 1930 – 2 May 2015) was an English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries. Rendell is best known for creating Chief Inspector Wexford.The Oxford Companion ...

.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 The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, 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 Yulian Semyonovich Semyonov (russian: link=no, Юлиа́н Семёнович Семёнов, ), pen-name of Yulian Semyonovich Lyandres (russian: link=no, Ля́ндрес) (October 8, 1931 – September 15, 1993), was a Soviet and Russian writ ...

), and foreign detective novels have always been avidly coveted.Sofya Khagi
"''Boris Akunin and Retro Mode in Contemporary Russian Culture''"

Toronto Slavic Quarterly The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, 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,
, 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.
retrieved 17 August 2006
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 Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

and

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

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 Mikhail Dmitriyevich Skobelev (russian: Михаил Дмитриевич Скобелев; 29 September 1843 – 7 July 1882), a Russian Empire, Russian general, became famous for his conquest of Central Asia and for his heroism during the Russo ...

(as 'Mikhail Sobolev') in ''The Death of Achilles''; and the coronation of Tsar

Nicholas II Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Pola ...

and the

Khodynka Tragedy The Khodynka Tragedy ( rus, Ходынская трагедия) was a crowd crush that occurred on , on Khodynka Field in Moscow, Russia. The crush happened during the festivities after the coronation of the last Emperor of Russia, Nicholas I ...

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.

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 sit
Erast P. Fandorin Virtual MuseumThe 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. *Akuni
website
containing the Russian texts of all Erast Fandorin novels through ''The Diamond Chariot'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Fandorin, Erast Characters in detective novel series Characters in Russian novels of the 21st century Literary characters introduced in 1998 Fictional people from the 19th-century Fictional male detectives Fictional historical detectives Fictional Russian police detectives Fictional Russian people in literature Novel sequences Novels by Boris Akunin