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752 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1913
Solitary street lamps were metamorphosed into sea creatures with prismatic spines”
And now, as he looked pensively into that boundlessness of mists, the man of state suddenly expanded out of the black cube in all directions and soared above it; and he desired that the carriage should fly forward, that the prospects should fly towards him – prospect after prospect, that the whole spherical surface of the planet should be gripped by the blackish-grey cubes of the houses as by serpentine coils; that the whole of the earth squeezed by prospects should intersect the immensity in linear cosmic flight with rectilinear law…
He runs and hears as if there were,
Just behind him, the peals of thunder,
Of the hard-ringing hoofs’ reminders, –
A race the empty square across,
Upon the pavement, fiercely tossed;
And by the moon, that palled lighter,
Having stretched his hand over roofs,
The Brazen Horseman rides him after –
On his steed of the ringing hoofs.
And all the night the madman, poor,
Where’er he might direct his steps,
Aft him the Bronze Horseman, for sure,
Keeps on the heavy-treading race.
Alexander Pushkin
Petersburg is a dream
“Petersburg does not exist. It merely seems to exist.”
“O Russian people, Russian people! Do not let the the crowds of slippery shadows come over from the islands!” [p.30]
“O Russian people, Russian people!
Do not let the crowds of fitful shadows come over from the island.” [p.36]