Sergey Borisovich Ilyin translator. Harry Potter pays more than the classics

There is an opinion that Joanne Rowling was not very lucky with Russian translators at first. Some Harry Potter fans are still angry on the Internet about Igor Oransky and Marina Litvinova, who worked on the first four books. The fifth novel, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, was commissioned by the publishing house to the experienced Viktor Golyshev, Vladimir Bobkov and Leonid Motylev. Well, the sixth - “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” - to Sergei Ilyin and Maya Lahuti. This sixth book turned out to be probably the best translated.

The final novel, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” will be published in translation by the same Ilyin and Lahuti on October 13. In the meantime, we decided to ask Sergei Ilyin about how the work was going.

Voldemort should have been renamed!

- How did you become a translator of “Potter”?

I got a call from the Rosman publishing house a couple of months before The Half-Blood Prince was supposed to be published in English, and they offered to translate it. I had never read a single Harry Potter book before. Well, when we agreed with the publishing house, I quickly read everything in Russian and English.

- Your predecessor Marina Litvinova baptized Voldemort into Voldemort, the owl Hedwig into Hedwig, and Russified other names as best she could. Do you approve of this?

Yes, because almost all of Rowling's names carry meaning. Vol de Mort, for example, literally translates from French as “flight of death.” And in Russian you need to build something similar in meaning. But this is not always possible.

- Translation of "Potter" brings more money than a translation of a bestseller?

Much more. The publishing house is very generous in this regard, but it also pays for the translation to be done in an extremely short time: the book needs to be published as quickly as possible, before not everyone has time to read it on the Internet.

- How much time did the publisher give you for the seventh Harry Potter?

I won’t give exact dates, but... I worked on the book twelve hours a day and have now submitted the translation.

The book was delivered to me on the morning of the day sales began. I split the novel in half with my co-author, Maya Lahouti. She translated the second part, and I translated the first. By the way, on “The Half-Blood Prince” we worked the same way, only, on the contrary, I translated the second part.

Deathly Hallows for a young magician

Rowling announced the title of the novel late last year. On the Russian Internet it was translated as “Harry Potter and the Fatal Relics.” But when the book was published in English, it turned out that there were no fatal relics there is no trace of it.

- Title Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows finally decided to translate as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”?

Apparently, this option will remain.

- Maybe it’s better, like the French, “...and relics of Death”?

The word “relics” in Russian has a certain sacred connotation... Actually, The Deathly Hallows is three specific things. Inside the novel there is a tale about three brothers who once met Death. She gave everyone one magic item. Two of her brothers were quickly driven to the grave by her gifts, but the third used his wisely and lived to old age. According to legend, the person who collects all three gifts of Death is absolutely protected from death. So... No, these are not relics.

-Have you read the “folk” translation of this book on the Internet?

I looked it up when I started translating it myself. At that time, five or six chapters had already been posted. To be honest, the thought even flashed through my mind whether I shouldn’t use some individual finds... But I didn’t find any special finds there: I really didn’t like this translation precisely because of the quality of the Russian language. It was done by non-professionals, and they did it hastily, literally in a week.

- You liked it yourself last novel about Harry Potter?

I like all seven books overall. For approximately two reasons. Firstly, they are not evil, and fantasy in recent times has begun to move towards evil and cruelty, remember Roger Zelazny or Michael Moorcock. There are also plenty of horror stories in The Deathly Hallows, but that’s why it’s the final book - the last fight with evil; but there is still no malice there. Well, secondly, Rowling did a very important thing for humanity: she adapted great amount people to read, taking them away from TV and computer games.

- Was there anything difficult in your work on “Deathly Hallows”?

No, there were no particular difficulties there. After Nabokov and Frye, dealing with Rowling is still easier.

PRIVATE BUSSINESS

Sergei ILIN was born in 1948 in Saratov. A theoretical physicist by training. I started translating, as he says, on occasion. As a result, he translated into Russian all the novels that Vladimir Nabokov wrote in English (except for “Lolita” - Nabokov translated it personally), as well as books by Thornton Wilder, Joseph Heller, Christopher Buckley, Stephen Fry.

Translator Sergei Borisovich Ilyin died tonight at the age of 68. He was born in Saratov on December 18, 1948. Graduated from the Faculty of Physics of Saratov University with a degree in theoretical physics. He worked as a teacher of physics and astronomy, and a programmer at a closed research institute. Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences. He began translating fiction (by Nabokov) in 1983 for his wife Elena, who did not read English. He is known primarily for his translations of the English-language prose of the same Vladimir Nabokov, published in the collected works of the Symposium publishing house. The first translation was Nabokov's novel Pnin. Then he translated White, Wilder, Heller, Buckley, Dunleavy, Kelman, Cunningham, Mervyn Peake, Stephen Fry, Mark Twain and others. He was published in the magazines “Ural”, “Znamya”, “Foreign Literature”, “New Youth”. Prizes from the Znamya Foundation (1999), Illuminator (1999).

Below is the text of the interview that Sergei Ilyin gave to Elena Kalashnikova in 2002. It was published in Russian Journal.

S.I.: Is it easy for me to fit in, etc. - It’s hard for me to judge. It seems that without much effort. But what does it mean: “fit into the style”?

RJ: Do you listen to the opinions of your colleagues, or do they for the most part biased because competitors?

S.I.: It so happened that I see my colleagues extremely rarely and do not discuss craft issues. Yes, I don’t know many people. Luckily, I didn’t have to read my colleagues’ reviews of my works.

RJ: Is it everyone? own translations Are you happy?

S.I.: No, not all. And especially with all sorts of stories that I’m not good at.

RJ: Why then do you take them on?

S.I.: I took up the stories when I was translating Nabokov. This was my second or third attempt at translation - since then I have reworked them several times, but, in my opinion, I have never completed them. Then I tried to translate other authors, maybe two turned out.

RJ: Which ones?

S.I.: “Lila, the Werewolf” and also “Come, Lady Death” by Peter Beagle.

RJ: According to Max Nemtsov, who read “Lila, the Werewolf” to his family in your translation, the story fits perfectly with the voice, it is natural, like breathing, nothing superfluous. “It seemed to me then close to ideal”... But it turns out that the short genre is not your thing?

S.I.: Not mine. A long genre is a machine that, from a certain moment, pulls you along, you adjust the beginning to what happens next, you redo everything several times. And in short genre As soon as I caught my breath, the distance was already over.

RJ: Maybe that’s why, in order to get into the author’s rhythm, you need to take several of his works? Or does the rhythm change from piece to piece?

S.I.: In different ways. I haven't translated a lot from one author. I had a unique experience with Nabokov, but it is easy to translate in the sense that you can look into his Russian texts and try to construct something similar. As for my translations of one author, these are three novels by White (strictly speaking, seven, but five are combined into one book), two novels by Coetzee, two by Heller; a novel and two stories by Beagle - I wanted to translate some more from it, but, in my opinion, it is already in Russian.

RJ: Which translations of yours are you especially pleased with?

S.I.: It seems to me that it turned out to be “Autumn in St. Petersburg” by Coetzee, “Pale Fire”, “The True Life of Sebastian Knight” by Nabokov. I won’t say that Nabokov’s other translations are extremely bad, but these two are my favorites. I am also pleased with Heller's two novels, one of which has not yet been published. A wonderful novel about King David - the narrator is dying, conceals last words Michelangelo, Shakespeare, who stole all the plots from him, and his son, a complete fool, the future King Solomon. The book is filled with quotations from Scripture, not to mention Shakespeare, Coleridge, Milton - and they are all unquoted.

RJ: Have you looked for translations of the quoted fragments?

S.I.: It’s easier with the Bible - I have a Russian and an English Bible on my computer. In other cases, English quotation books help. It's good if there is a link...

RJ: What if not?

S.I.: As a rule, quotes still stick out from the text, although, probably, not all are found, depending on your luck.

RJ: Max Nemtsov: “I approach the text from the point of view of sound...” V.S. Muravyov: “The rhythmic approach to translation seems to me to be the most fruitful.” What is important to you in the text?

S.I.: I can’t say. IN good text everything is important - sound, rhythm, vocabulary. Perhaps it’s still rhythm.

RJ: Vadim Mikhailin: “...first I read the text in its entirety, several times, in order to set the teeth on edge at first perception, when you are mainly looking at the plot, the dynamics of the characters, in order to get to the language. Sometimes you translate fragments from different places". How do you do it?

S.I.: I read the text in its entirety and then try to keep the “on edge” that Vadim talks about. The plot and so on, generally speaking, don’t interest me that much.

RJ: What does “set your teeth on edge” mean to you?

S.I.: I wrote about this. In 1998, I turned 50, and I wrote something called “My Life with Nabokov,” and in 1999, for the centenary of Nabokov’s birth, it also came in handy. “Something” is a letter to my then close friend Oleg Dark, he worked at Nezavisimaya and asked me to write something about translation. He soon left there, the text was not published, but in 1999 they remembered him. The first impression, right or wrong, is the strongest, and translation, as I understand it, is an attempt, mainly for myself, to reproduce it in another language. If six months later, looking at the text, you remember how it was the first time, it means the translation was a success.

RJ: N.M. Demurova, for example, translated many things, but her name is associated with Carroll’s “Alice”. Do you consider yourself - by and large - a “translator of Nabokov”?

S.I.: Not much time has passed, it’s hard to judge, but the very formula “Nabokov’s translator” is starting to stick. Recently I spoke at the Russian State University for the Humanities - Grisha Kruzhkov, an old acquaintance of mine, invited me to his translation seminar and introduced me as a “translator of Nabokov” - I got angry and asked from now on to call me simply “translator”. And whose - it will be seen there. I have a new “project” in the works right now.

S.I.: Mervyn Peake is best known as the author of three novels, although he seems to have five, and he also has poetry, a room of graphic works in the Tate Gallery.

RJ: Why is he interesting to you?

S.I.: This very “set on edge” that Vadim spoke about.

RJ: Did you want to translate it yourself or did someone suggest?

S.I.: There was such a publishing house "North-West", I received my first orders there - while I was preparing to publish Shakespeare... what the hell is Shakespeare? - Nabokov. Just the first order was White's tetralogy about King Arthur, four novels - four ages, however, it later turned out that there are five books in this tetralogy... White is one of the pillars on which fantasy literature stands, besides him there are also Tolkien and Mervyn Peake, who did not write any fantasy and fell into this company as a fool. When the Tolkien boom began to subside in the USA, American publishers began to look for a new author. At that time Peak was dying in an insane asylum... I didn’t know anything about him: “What kind of Peak?” - I ask. And Sasha Kononov: “Yes, such Kafka’s Castle, only not without an entrance, but without an exit.”

RJ: Do you like Kafka?

S.I.: Long and lasting. At that time, I was just getting ready to go to Koktebel, took a volume of Pika from the library on Ulyanovskaya, and read the first novel with complete rapture on the beach. It doesn’t look like Kafka at all, in style it’s more like Dickens, Gogol, Edgar Poe; there are a lot of details, some insignificant episode - “Vanya passed” - takes up two pages.

RJ: Like Proust.

S.I.: Maybe. I rushed to Sasha: “I want to translate Pika.” And they had already ordered a translation from a St. Petersburg sinologist, it was Sasha’s idea - Pieck was born in China, the whole life of Gormenghast Castle is built on the daily performance of complex meaningless rituals, in these kind of Chinese ceremonies... Then the publishing house fell apart, and I sat down to translate Pieck for myself, two I translated the novel, and now I’ve started the third one. I hope they will appear in the Symposium.

RJ: There were works that you wanted to translate, but for some reason it didn’t work out - were you disappointed or something else?..

S.I.: Beagle’s first novel, “A Quiet, Calm Place.” He wrote it in the early 60s, at the age of 18, under a blanket in a student dormitory. In a Catholic cemetery, a love story unfolds between two dead people, one of them is a suicide, and they are separated, a man who has lived in the cemetery for 20 years tries to help them - he is afraid to go outside the gate, he tried once, but returned. Recently it turned out that a translation of this novel is being published somewhere or has already been published - and this is death: the second translation is published rarely or after many years. I translate some books because I need it, say, Nabokov, Peak, but here there was no such feeling. Generally speaking, I am not a translator at all. By education I am a theoretical physicist, the theory of relativity and so on.

RJ: So translation came into your life thanks to Nabokov?

S.I.: This is a historical anecdote: It was 1982. (I came to Moscow in 1975, I’m from Saratov, like Vadik Mikhailin. I studied in Dubna, in graduate school, and also read more and more books, there was a luxurious library.)

RJ: Were you already familiar with Kruzhkov then? He studied at the Institute of High Energy Physics in Protvino.

S.I.: No. Grisha is an experimental physicist, it seems, and I am a theorist, these are different football teams, besides, he is older than me, and when we met in Moscow, I was a software engineer, and he was already translating Keats for Literary Monuments. Compared to Saratov, there were incomparably more books in Moscow. And when I read “Russian” Nabokov, I immediately fell head over heels in love with him.

RJ: What was the first thing you read?

S.I.: “Invitation to Execution”, “Mashenka”, “The Gift”. So: my friend Lyalka, Galperin’s student, who has been teaching at the Institute all her life foreign languages, now Linguistic University. Maurice Thorez, good english library, I re-read almost all of it - and developed the habit of English reading. At that time, she was offered a hack job: to teach the Russian language to a group of American students. When they left, they left her with books that they had bought for the trip in order to quickly learn something about Russia; one of them happened to have Nabokov’s Pnin. It always seemed to me that Nabokov was cold with his characters, with the exception of himself in the role of Godunov-Cherdyntsev, but in Pnin everything was unusually warm - and I sat down to translate it for my wife. Back then I didn’t even suspect the existence of English. phraseological dictionary- and Nabokov, although rarely, uses idioms and some linguistic cliches - especially when conveying the speech of a vulgar person... Lyalka corrected something in my translation and returned it to me under New Year- I'm just in New Year's Eve got poisoned and started processing it without getting out of bed. Later I exchanged through a friend - from an Iranian or Algerian who collected our scientific literature, which cost a penny here - "Bend Sinister" and a collection of Nabokov's stories; I borrowed “The True Life of Sebastian Knight” from my friends. And off we go - I translated everything in about 15 years. Over time, my skills developed, I began to acquire dictionaries, searched second-hand booksellers for English books, there were three such stores - on Kachalov and Academician Vesnin streets, and also “Akademkniga” on Pushkinskaya Square.

RJ: This is probably more of a theoretical question, but still... has your translation style already formed?

S.I.: If we are talking about technical skills, probably yes. But the vague feeling that I don’t know how to translate remains to this day, and I’m still waiting for an attentive reader to come and ask: “What are you doing here, good man?”

RJ: Well, everyone probably has this feeling.

S.I.: My suspicions on this matter are more justified than others. My English is like a one-way street - from English into Russian and only written, I almost don’t perceive it by ear. The same Vadik Mikhailin graduated from the philology department of our university, and not from the physics department, like me. True, Golyshev, and Kruzhkov are also techies...

RJ: Also Motylev, Babkov... Did you have to somehow change the author’s style or write in translation “under such and such”?..

S.I.: I did this thing once with Coetzee’s “Autumn in St. Petersburg.” The magazine "Foreign Literature" asked to comb the conversations in the novel "like Dostoevsky." I, as they say, refreshed my memory of what was written by Dostoevsky up to “Demons” inclusive - the novel ends with Dostoevsky beginning “Demons”. You can’t write what he’s like, but to make it look like it, I tried it. And then I read a review on the Internet: “The author’s penetration into Dostoevsky’s style is amazing...” I assure you that Coetzee has no penetration: chopped phrases, all in the present tense.

RJ: Translators often say that they are looking for an analogue of the stylistics of the translated work in Russian literature, - you too?

S.I.: Probably not. What for? Authors XIX centuries should look like the authors of their time, and if you look for analogues, then not among our brightest of that time, because they are too bright - well, maybe read Pisemsky. In general, it all depends on the author.

RJ: Do you immediately understand that you want to translate this or that text?

S.I.: By the end of the first third, approximately. It happens - the beginning is interesting, but by the time you get to the end, the text will already stretch your legs twice. Now, perhaps, I’ll get around to translating a book by Kellman, a Booker winner, even though it’s written almost in the Scottish dialect and is stylistically similar to Venichka Erofeev. With him everything is clear right away.

RJ: So, when translating, you will focus on “Moscow-Petushki”?

S.I.: Maybe we’ll have to find it. There were about 10 Cockerels in the house, but they all scattered.

RJ: Did the translated text influence you?

S.I.: Any mystical phenomena? When I was translating "Sebastian Knight", the weather was the same sunny as today, 8th floor, the balcony was open, usually 2-3 butterflies were circling in the room - and then they flew... I'm not prone to mysticism, but I remember this episode .

S.I.: Rather, for certain authors - for Joyce. There are also genres that it is better not to mess with. I took up a romance novel once, and I won’t do it again, as well as openly popular literature - it’s just that then I was cleared from work, and I ran in all directions at once.

RJ: And women?

S.I.: For myself, I translated the stories of Patricia Highsmith - and I would like to continue, but I see: here in the store there is my favorite "Mr. Ripley." Yes, there is also such a serious lady who wrote under a pseudonym, Isaac Dinesen.

RJ: In your opinion, the fate of the second and third translation usually does not work out?

S.I.: It usually turns out to be difficult. For example, magazines have a strict rule: if a translation or fragment has been published somewhere, it is no longer published. The wonderful magazine "New Youth" dared to publish "Transparent Things", which by that time had already been published in " Fiction" - "Translucent Objects." A volume by Woody Allen has now been published in the Symposium, in which I am also participating - some of the stories there have been translated, probably several times, the publishing house simply selected what turned out better.

RJ: Are you close to Woody Allen?

S.I.: Very much. He only wrote three collections, I had one of them in my hands - there are parodies of genres: memoirs of Hitler’s personal hairdresser, a detective story, a play, memories of fictional “great philosophers” - and so on...

RJ: Do you read the works of your colleagues?

S.I.: I try not to read other translations of Nabokov and, in general, books that I read in English. A sore throat that has turned into tartar is yours, but here they are trying to implant someone else’s tartar into you. But there are exceptions: I read with great pleasure Golyshev’s translations from Dashel Hammett.

RJ: Is it possible to fall under influence?...

S.I.: It’s more likely not an influence here - you’d want to see how someone else translated something difficult place, and then quietly paraphrase it.

RJ: Did you do that or are you just guessing?..

S.I.: I think I would. Here is Mervyn Peake - a complex author, when I picked up his second novel "Gormenghast", I remembered that I had seen a Russian translation on the trays, however, the publisher did not mention that there were also first and third novels... In the novel, the characters have significant surnames, which , according to Burgess, are only acceptable in cartoons. There is a bad young man there, Machiavelli like that, Steerpike, in that translation it turned out to be Shchukovol, although then - why not Voloshchuk, after all, the translation was published in Ukraine. I don’t remember the name of the translator; in my opinion, he screwed up a bit, but the next ones have something to rely on. However, fortunately, I did not find this book; I had to make do on my own.

RJ: And how did you translate Steerpik?

SI: Not yet, so he remained Steerpike - maybe Volakul - close and does not evoke such connotations as Voloshchuk. Although, say, the name of Gormenghast Castle is also interpreted. It is possible, after all, to translate “The Count of Monte Cristo” as “Count of Christ’s Mountain” or convey something similar with a French pronunciation... But in many countries the book “Gormenghast” is known, and it cannot be completely renamed, although in the mentioned translation it was called “Castle Gormenghast” ", I suppose, to make it more attractive.

RJ: How to translate polysemantic words or surnames - give “additional” information in comments, footnotes?

S.I.: A piece from this novel was published by Foreign Literature at the beginning of the year, and a similar question arose there too. At the beginning of the publication, we provided a footnote where all significant surnames were divided into possible English words. On the other side, funny surnames comic characters, the horde of professors who teaches the children of the castle, I tried to convey.

RJ: Surely, you have encountered the difficulty of translating names. Tell us about this side of translation.

S.I.: At first I was cheerful and cheerful and gave the names as I wanted, especially since I translated them “to the table.” Nabokov's novel "Under the Sign of the Illegitimate" got the name "The Black Line" or something, I don't remember exactly, but then I realized it.

For the same "North-West" I translated Beagle's novel "The Folk of the Air" - something like "Air Tribe", "Air Folk" - its original author's title was "The Knight of Ghosts and Shadows". The fact that this is a fantasy becomes clear only towards the middle, and so people called themselves the “Society of Archaic Entertainment” and play in the Middle Ages: guilds, knightly tournaments, a king, a witch, with whom it all begins... I called the novel “Archaic Entertainment ", but here the publisher usually decides what is best for him. However, that will happen later. The novel just lies there motionless.

In Heller's novel "God knows" this phrase is often repeated; I translated "God knows" - in Russian it is the same popular phrase as it is in English. Coetzee's novel is "The Master of Petersburg", but the meaning of the word "master" is "master" and "master". We settled on the neutral version of “Autumn in St. Petersburg”, fortunately the action takes place in the fall.

RJ: Did anyone (editors, translators, acquaintances, parents) help you when you first started translating?

S.I.: When I started, and I started, as they say, “for myself,” not at all expecting that this would become my main occupation, there was no one to help me. Yes, and I started right with Nabokov in those days when you could get a hat for him, so I didn’t stick my head out too much.

RJ: What are your favorite translated books?

S.I.: I learned to read at the age of five, I started translating at 34, and before that I read and read everything. Translated books were read simply as books. Perhaps the first ones that come to mind - apparently, they are favorites - are “Through the Eyes of a Clown”, “Catcher in the Rye”, “Tristram Shandy”, “Cola Breugnon”, “Treasure Island” (of course!), Pasternak's "Hamlet" - then, not now - "Gargantua and Pantagruel", "Theophilus North", "The Name of the Rose" - and "Lolita", of course. The order here is completely arbitrary.

RJ: If you were compiling a textbook of the best Russian translations of the 20th century, whose works would you include there?

S.I.: Offhand: Lyubimova, Wright-Kovalyova, Lozinsky, Golyshev - the order, again, is arbitrary. Well, I wouldn’t forget myself.

RJ: To the question: “Do you think there are untranslatable books?” I.M. Bernstein replied: “If a book is incomprehensible to the reader, then it is untranslatable. For example, nothing good happened with the translation of Ulysses. In general, the translation of this book is partly connected with the political situation; on American radio they said: “In "Ulysses" has not yet been translated in the Soviet Union!" In my opinion, this is a book for writers. It is not known what Leopold Bloom saw on June 16, 1904 in Dublin, when he went out to buy a kidney. It is necessary to go to Dublin. It is better to let the writer go "following the path indicated by Joyce. Faulkner and the French had a great flow of impressions." Do you think there are untranslatable books, or should each book simply wait for its translator?

S.I.: There are, and the vast majority of them. If, of course, we talk about Books. "Ulysses", "Ada", "Finnegans Wake" - these are, of course, extreme phenomena, because experiments with language are already beginning there - and even with several. But Shakespeare - is he really translatable?

RJ: Do you think there is a “golden” age for translation?

S.I.: If we are talking about the age of the translator, yes, probably. Still, he is required to be somewhat well-read. I think that “gold” falls in the period from 30 to 50, when a person already has baggage and still has strength.

List of works

• Pale Fire: [Novel, short stories]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [Translation from English, notes and translation. foreign terms of S. Ilyin; Artist A. Kazantsev]. - Sverdlovsk: Independent Publishing Enterprise “91”, 1991. - 352, p.: ill.; 17 cm. (in translation): B. ts.
• The Sword in the Stone: Novels/ Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; Sword in the Stone; Queen of Air and Darkness - St. Petersburg: North-West, 1992. - 416, p.: ill. ISBN 5-8352-0093-5 (Translated): B. ts.
• Candle in the Wind: Novels/ Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; A knight who has committed a crime; Candle in the wind - St. Petersburg: North-West, 1993. - 480, p.: ill. ISBN 5-8352-0095-1 (Translated): B. ts.
• Bend Sinister: [Novels]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [Translation from English, comment. and lane foreign terms of S. Ilyin; Artist M. Zanko]. - St. Petersburg: North-West, 1993. - 525, p.: ill.; 21 cm - (Ex libris). ISBN 5-8352-0019-6 (Translated): B. ts. Contents: The True Life of Sebastian Knight; Pnin; Bend Sinister
• / Vladimir Nabokov; [Transl. from English and comments by S. Ilyin; Artist V. N. Belousov]. - M.: DI-DIK, B. G. (1996). - 572, p.: ill.; 22 cm. - (Almanac “Modern Classics”, ISSN 0206-2178). ISBN 5-87583-024-7 (Translated): B. ts.
• / Vladimir Nabokov; [Compiled by S. B. Ilyin, A. K. Kononov; Preface and comment. A. M. Luxemburg]; Fund for support of book publishing “Petersburg. book." - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997-. - 21 cm. [T. 1.]: The True Life of Sebastian Knight; Under the sign of the illegitimate - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997. - 605, p.: ill. ISBN 5-89091-016-7 (Translated): B. ts.
• Collected Works of the American Period: [Trans. from English] / Vladimir Nabokov [Compiled by S. B. Ilyin, A. K. Kononov; Comment. A. M. Luxemburg]; Fund for support of book publishing “Petersburg. book." - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997-. - 22 cm. [T. 2]: Lolita; Laughter in the Dark: [Novels]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997. - 670, p.: ill. ISBN 5-89091-017-5 (Translated): B. ts.
• Collected Works of the American Period: [Trans. from English]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [Compiled by S. B. Ilyin, A. K. Kononov]; Fund for support of book publishing “Petersburg. book." - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997-. - 21 cm. [T. 3]: Pnin; Pale Flame; Stories / [Comment. A. M. Luxemburg, S. B. Ilyin; Artist M. G. Zanko]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997. - 700, p.: ill. ISBN 5-89091-023-X (translated): B. ts.
• Collected Works of the American Period: [Trans. from English]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [Compiled by S. B. Ilyin, A. K. Kononov]; Fund for support of book publishing “Petersburg. book." - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997-. - 21 cm. [T. 4]: Hell, or the Joy of Passion / [Translation by S. Ilyin; Auto. note V. Damore-Block; Comment. S. B. Ilyin, A. M. Luxemburg; Artist M. G. Zanko]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1997. - 666, p.: ill. ISBN 5-89091-036-1 (Translated): B. ts.
• Collected Works of the American Period: [Trans. from English]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [Compiled by S. B. Ilyin, A. K. Kononov]; Fund for support of book publishing “Petersburg. book." - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1999-. - 21 cm. [T. 5]: Look at the harlequins!; Memory, speak / [Translation by S. Ilyin; Comment. S. B. Ilyin, A. M. Luxemburg; Artist M. G. Zanko]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 1999. - 698, p.: ill. ISBN 5-89091-014-0 (Translated): B. ts.
• World of wildlife/ [Transl. from English Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: AST-Press, 2000. - 216, p.: color. ill.; 21x20 cm. - (My first illustrated encyclopedia). ISBN 5-7805-0552-7 (Russian)
• Lie That Wouldn't Die = Lie That Wouldn't Die: "Protocols" Elders of Zion": hundred years of history/ Hadassah Ben-Itto; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Rudomino, 2001. - 477, p.; 22 cm. ISBN 5-7380-0149-4
• Kabbalah: [Novel]: [Trans. from English Sergei Ilyin]/ Thornton Wilder. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2001. - 233, p.; 21 cm - (Symposium). ISBN 5-89091-158-9
• Infamy: A Novel/ J.M. Coetzee; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka: B.S.G.-Press, 2001. - 292 p.; 17 cm. ISBN 5-94145-026-5 (“Foreigner”)
• Autumn in St. Petersburg: Roman/ J.M. Coetzee; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka: B.S.G.-Press, 2001. - 289, p.; 17 cm. ISBN 5-94145-010-9 (Foreigner)
• They Smoking Here: Roman/ Christopher T. Buckley; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka: B.S.G.-Press, 2001. - 439, p.; 17 cm. ISBN 5-94145-014-1 (Foreigner)
• God knows: Novel/ Joseph Heller; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; - M.: Inostranka: B.S.G.-Press, 2002. - 575, 17 cm.
• Plasticine of rings: Roman/ Henry Bird, Douglas Kenny; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya;]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2002. - 272, p.: 17 cm. ISBN 5-89091-193-7
• Titus Groan: A Novel/ Mervyn Peak; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [Ill. Mervyn Peake]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2003. - 588, p.: ill.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-89091-228-3: 4000
• Liar = The Liar: [Novel]/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2003 (Type. JSC Mol. Guard). - 446 pp.; 17 cm - (Zebra Series). ISBN 5-86471-341-4 (translated)
• Hippopotamus: [Novel]/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2003 (Type. JSC Mol. Guard). - 444 pp.; 17 cm - (Zebra Series). ISBN 5-86471-328-7 (translated)
• White Mice: A Novel/ Nicholas Blincoe; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka, 2003 (Ekaterinburg: Ural Worker). - 245 pp.; 20 cm. - (Behind the porthole: lit. of the new century; 043). ISBN 5-94145-098-2 (translated)
• How late it is all: [Novel]/ James Kelman; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: EKSMO, 2003-336 pp.; 21 cm. - ISBN 5-699-02668-1 (translated)
• Translation of testimony: [Novel]/ James Kelman; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: EKSMO, 2003-320 p.; 21 cm. - ISBN 5-699-03676-8 (translated)
• Gormenghast: A Novel/ Mervyn Peak; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [Poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2004. - 604, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-89091-263-1: 4000
• Titus' Solitude: A Novel/ Mervyn Peak; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya; ill. Mervyn Peake]. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2004. - 394, p.: ill.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-89091-277-1: 4000
• The guts of any person: [Novel]/ William Boyd; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: ROSMEN, 2005. - 800, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-353-01531-2 (translated)
• South Wind: A Novel/ Norman Douglas, [trans. Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: B.S.G.-PRESS, 2004. - 525, p., l. ill., portrait; 21 cm - (Post Factum). ISBN 5-93381-147-5 (translated)
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: [Novel]/ J. K. Rowling; lane from English M. Lahuti and S. Ilyina. - M.: ROSMEN, 2005 (Yaroslavl: Yaroslavl Printing Plant). - 668, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-353-02187-8 (translated)
• A Magical Tale of New York: A Novel/ James Patrick Dunleavy; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: NLO, 2005. - 544, p.; 221 cm. ISBN 5-89091-118-X: 4000
• Age of Mercury. Jews in modern world / Yuri Slezkine; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - St. Petersburg: Symposium, 2005. - 478, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 5-86793-355-5: 4000
• How to make history = Making History: [Novel]/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2005. - 639 p.; 17 cm - (Zebra Series). ISBN 5-86471-370-8: 10000
• Dorian = Dorian: A Novel/ Will Self; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka, 2005 (Ekaterinburg: Ural Worker). - 399 pp.; 20 cm. - (Behind the porthole: lit. of the new century; 043). ISBN 5-94145-349-3 (translated)
• / Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin [ill. Natalya Dobrokhotova-Maikova] M.: House of Hope, 2006. - 288, p.: ill. ISBN 5-902430-04-6 (Translated): B. ts.
• Sleep, Sweet Prince: A Novel/ D. Dickinson; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Slovo, 2006. - 384, p.: ill.; 21 cm. - ISBN 5-85050-873-2 (translated)
• An incomplete but definitive history of classical music/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2006. - 544, p.: ill.; 21 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 5-86471-402-X (translated)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: [Novel]/ J. K. Rowling; lane from English S. Ilyina and others - M.: ROSMEN, 2007. - 637, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-353-02907-6 (translated)
• Maestro myth/ Norman Lebrecht; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Classics-XXI, 2007. - 448, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-89817-192-6 (Translated)
• The Fahrenheit Twins: [stories]/ Michelle Faber; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Creation Machines, 2007. - 272, p.: 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-902918-12-7 (translated)
• Autobiography: Moab is my washbasin/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2007. - 604, p.: ill.; 21 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 978-5-86471-426-3 (translated)
• The Stars Tennis Balls/ Stephen Fry; [transl. from English Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: Phantom Press, 2007. - 509, p.; 20 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 5-86471-408-9 (translated)
• Prophecy and politics/ Jonathan Frenkel; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Bridges of Culture, 2008. - 24 cm. - 2008. - 847, p., (erroneous) (translated)
• The Fry and Laurie Show/ Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2008. - 20 cm. - (The Best of Phantom). 1. - 2008. - 343, p., l. color ill. ISBN 978-5-86471-461-4 (translated)
• The Lady Who Loved Clean Toilets: A Novel/ James Patrick Dunleavy; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Geleos, 2008. - 171, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-8189-1184-7: 4000
• Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman! = Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman: adventures amazing person, which he told to Ralph Layton/ Richard Feynman; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: KoLibri, 2008. - 479 p.; 21 cm. - (Biographies). ISBN 978-5-389-00122-0 (translated)
• Club Rakaliy/ Jonathan Coe; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2008. - 636, p.: ill.; 20 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 5-86471-407-0 (translated)
• E=mc². Biography of the most famous equation in the world/ David Bodanis; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Kolibri, 2009. - 448, p.: ill.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-389-00499-3 (translated)
• Electric Universe/ David Bodanis; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Kolibri, 2009. - 384, p.: ill.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-389-00506-8 (translated)
• Paperweight = Paperweight/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2009. - 638, p.: ill.; 20 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 978-5-86471-483-6 (translated)
• Maestros, masterpieces and madness/ Norman Lebrecht; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Classics-XXI, 2009. - 328, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-89817-289-3 (Translated)
• Five operas and a symphony/ B. M. Gasparov; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Classics-XXI, 2009. - 320, p.; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-89817-291-6 (Translated)
• Taking Woodstock/ Eliot Tiber; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2009. - 320, p.; see ISBN 978-5-271-24546-6 (translated)
• Crimson Petal and White: A Novel/ Michelle Faber; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; Mariam Salganik. - M.: Creation Machines, 2009. - 872, p.: 24 cm. ISBN 978-5-902918-15-8 (translated)
• Apple: [Stories about people from the "Crimson Petal"]/ Michelle Faber; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Creation Machines, 2010. - 208, p.: 14 cm. ISBN 978-5-902918-16-5 (translated)
• Supreme Courtship: Novel/ Christopher Buckley; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Inostranka, 2010. - 526, p.; 17 cm - (The Best of Foreigner). ISBN 978-5-389-00649-2 (translated)
• Look at the harlequins!: [Text]: [Novel]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [transl. from English Sergey Ilyin]. - St. Petersburg: ABC-classics, 2010. - 314, p.; 17 cm. ISBN 978-5-9985-0850-9
• Imagine a picture: [Novel]/ Joseph Heller; [Transl. from English S. Ilyina;]. - M.: AST Astrel, 2010. - 319, p.: 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-271-28749-7 (translated): B. ts.
• Flesh and Blood: A Novel/ Michael Cunningham; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2010. - 704, p.; see ISBN 978-5-271-28984-2 (translated)
• Stephen Fry in America/ Stephen Fry; [transl. from English Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: Phantom Press, 2010. - 312, p.; 29 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-503-1 (Translated)
• From Murder to Murder: A Novel/ Aravind Adiga; [transl. from English Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: Phantom Press, 2010. - 448, p.; 17 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-524-6 (translated)
• It Can't Be Blacker: A Novel/ Nayo Marsh; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2010. - 507, p.; see ISBN 978-5-271-31771-2 (translated)
• Breakup: Romance/ Lelic, Simon; [transl. from English Sergei Ilyin]. - M.: Phantom Press, 2011. - 384, p.; see ISBN 978-5-86471-543-7 (translated)
• Meet Orson Welles/ Orson Welles and Peter Bogdanovich; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Rosebud Publishing. Post Modern Technology, 2011. - 496, p.; see ISBN 978-5-904175-08-5 (translated)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn/ Mark Twain ; lane from English S. Ilyina. - M.: Reader's Digest, 2011. - 477, p.; see ISBN 978-5-89355-627-8 (translated)
• Chronicles of Fry. Autobiography/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2011. - 544, p.: ill.; 21 cm - (The Best of Phantom). ISBN 978-5-86471-600-7 (translated)
• Philosopher/ Jesse Kellerman; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2012. - 383, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-618-2 (Translated)
• Any third thought/ John Bart; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, Azbuka-Atticus, 2012. - 224 p. ISBN 978-5-389-02988-0 (translated)
• Under the Sign of the Illegitimate: [Novel]/ Vladimir Nabokov; [transl. from English Sergey Ilyin]. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2012. - 286 p.; 17 cm. ISBN 978-5-389-04369-5
• Snowdrops: [Novel]/ Miller E. D.; [transl. from English Sergey Ilyin]. - M.: Phantom Press, 2012. - 319 p.; 17 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-628-1
• A Week in December: [Novel]/ Sebastian Faulks; [transl. from English Sergey Ilyin]. - M.: Astrel, Corpus, 2012. - 606 p.; 20 cm. ISBN 978-5-271-42655-1
• Heat/ Jesse Kellerman; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2012. - 416, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-647-2 (Translated)
• The unreal life of Sergei Nabokov/ Paul Russell; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2013. - 416, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-661-8 (Translated)
• Amendment after amendment/ Joseph Heller; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: AST, 2013. - 412, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-17-078138-6 (Translated)
• Canada: Novel/ Richard Ford; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2013. - 480, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-676-2 (Translated)
• The Once and Future King: Novels / Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; Sword in the Stone; Queen of Air and Darkness - M.: RIPOL classic, 2014. - 590, p.: ill. ISBN 978-5-386-06559-1 (translated)
• The Once and Future King: Novels / Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; A knight who has committed a crime; Candle in the wind - M.: RIPOL classic, 2014. - 592, p.: ill. ISBN 978-5-386-05839-5 (translated)
• The Once and Future King: Novels / Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; Merlin's book - M.: RIPOL classic, 2014. - 176, p.: ill. ISBN 978-5-386-06414-3 (translated)
• Gormenghast: Titus Groan: Roman / Mervyn Peake; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [Poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya]. - M.: LiveBook, 2014. - 733, p.: ill.; see ISBN 978-5-904584-79-5 (translated)
• Gormenghast: Gormenghast: Roman / Mervyn Peake; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [Poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya]. - M.: LiveBook, 2014. - 765, p.: ill.; see ISBN 978-5-904584-80-1 (translated)
• Gormenghast: Titus alone: Roman / Mervyn Peake; lane from English Sergei Ilyin; [Poems in trans. Alexandra Glebovskaya]. - M.: LiveBook, 2014. - 413, p.: ill.; see ISBN 978-5-904584-81-8 (translated)
• Settled scores: Stories / Woody Allen; lane from English Sergei Ilyin and others. - M.: AST, 2014. - 224, ; see ISBN 978-5-17-084391-6 (translated)
• Dancer/Colum McCann; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2014. - 416, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-665-6 (Translated)
• Under the skin: Roman / Michelle Faber; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Machines of Creation, 2014. - 319, p.: 24 cm. ISBN 978-5-902918-43-1 (translated)
• And the birds sang...: [Novel] / Sebastian Faulks; [transl. from English Sergey Ilyin]. - M.: Sinbad, 2014. - 600 pp.; 20 cm. ISBN 978-5-905891-38-0
• 50 ideas you need to know about. Physics / Joanne Baker; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2014. - 208, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-688-5
• Unknown Fields: Novel, short stories/ Peter Beagle; (In the lane). - Lviv-Kharkov, 2014. - 446, Gift edition, not for sale.
• Sports Journalist: Roman/ Richard Ford; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2014. - 448, ; 21 cm (trans.)
• Jinx: A Romance/ Sage Blackwood; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Abrikobuks, 2015. - 302, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-9905904-1-0 ] (Translated)
• Ada, or the Joys of Passion: [Family Chronicle: Novel]/ Vladimir Nabokov; ger. from English S. Ilyina. - St. Petersburg: Azbuka, 2015. - 702, ; 22 cm. ISBN 978-5-389-09541-0 (translated)
• There's still plenty of dope: Memories/ Stephen Fry; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2015. - 383, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-705-9 (Translated)
• Possible Life: [Novel]/ Sebastian Faulks; lane from English Sergey Ilyin. - M.: Sinbad, 2015. - 350 pp.; 20 cm. ISBN 978-5-905891-78-6
• The Great Gatsby: [Novel]/ Scott Fitzgerald; lane from English Sergey Ilyin. - M.: EKSMO, 2015. - 224 p.; 20 cm. ISBN 978-5-699-84232-2
• The Boy in the Dark and Other Stories/ Mervyn Peak; lane from English Sergei Ilyin, Max Nemtsov; [Ill. Mervyn Peake]. - M.: Livebook, 2016. - 248, p.: ill.; ISBN 978-5-9907254-6-1
• Jinx's Magic: A Novel/ Sage Blackwood; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Abrikobuks, 2016. - 376, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-9905904-4-1 (Translated)
• Tender is the Night: [Novel]/ Scott Fitzgerald; lane from English Sergey Ilyin. - M.: EKSMO, 2016. - 480 pp.; 20 cm. ISBN 978-5-699-84952-9
• Area of ​​interest:[Novel]/ Martin Amis; lane from English Sergei Ilyin. - M.: Phantom Press, 2016. - 416, ; 21 cm. ISBN 978-5-86471-724-0 (Translated)
• Mrs. Masham's Rest: A Novel/ Terence H. White; lane from English Sergei Ilyin [ill. Tatyana Kormer] M.: ALBUS CORVUS, 2016. - 288, p.: ill. ISBN 978-5-906640-68-0 (translated)

• The Last of the Unicorns: A Novel. "Two Hearts: A Tale./ Peter Beagle; (in translation)
• Riot on the Bounty: A Novel/ John Boyne;
• Independence Day: Novel/ Richard Ford;
• Host: Roman/ Terence H. White; (in translation)
• The Sword in the Stone: Chapters from the first draft of the novel/ Terence H. White; (in translation)
• Archaic entertainment; Leela, the werewolf; Come Lady Death: A Novel, Stories/ Peter Beagle; (in translation)
• Unicorn Sonata: A Novel/ Peter Beagle; (in translation)
• Gospel of Fire: A Novel/ Michel Faber ; (in translation)
• King among the branches. Revenge: Tales/ Stephen Millhauser; (in translation)
• Our gang: Roman/ Philip Roth; (in translation)
• Adolescence. Youth. Summer: 3 novels/ J. Coetzee; (in translation)
• Jinx's Flame/ Blackwood, Sage; (in translation)
• Elephant and kangaroo/ White, Terence H.; (in translation)

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Links

• in the "Magazine Hall"
• : Interview with Denis Korsakov // Komsomolskaya Pravda, August 28, 2007.
• : Interview with Olga Kopsheva // Newspaper of the Week in Saratov, October 26, 2010.

Excerpt characterizing Ilyin, Sergey Borisovich

Returning to Moscow from the army, Nikolai Rostov was accepted by his family as the best son, hero and beloved Nikolushka; relatives - as a sweet, pleasant and respectful young man; acquaintances - like a handsome hussar lieutenant, a deft dancer and one of the best grooms in Moscow.
The Rostovs knew all of Moscow; this year the old count had enough money, because all his estates had been re-mortgaged, and therefore Nikolushka, having got his own trotter and the most fashionable leggings, special ones that no one else in Moscow had, and boots, the most fashionable, with the most pointed socks and little silver spurs, had a lot of fun. Rostov, returning home, experienced a pleasant feeling after some period of time trying on himself to the old living conditions. It seemed to him that he had matured and grown very much. Despair for failing to pass an exam according to the law of God, borrowing money from Gavrila for a cab driver, secret kisses with Sonya, he remembered all this as childishness, from which he was now immeasurably far away. Now he is a hussar lieutenant in a silver mentic, with a soldier's George, preparing his trotter to run, together with famous hunters, elderly, respectable. He knows a lady on the boulevard whom he goes to see in the evening. He conducted a mazurka at the Arkharovs’ ball, talked about the war with Field Marshal Kamensky, visited an English club, and was on friendly terms with a forty-year-old colonel whom Denisov introduced him to.
His passion for the sovereign weakened somewhat in Moscow, since during this time he did not see him. But he often talked about the sovereign, about his love for him, making it felt that he was not telling everything yet, that there was something else in his feelings for the sovereign that could not be understood by everyone; and with all my heart he shared the general feeling of adoration in Moscow at that time for Emperor Alexander Pavlovich, who in Moscow at that time was given the name of an angel in the flesh.
During this short stay of Rostov in Moscow, before leaving for the army, he did not become close, but on the contrary, broke up with Sonya. She was very pretty, sweet, and obviously passionately in love with him; but he was in that time of youth when there seems to be so much to do that there is no time to do it, and the young man is afraid to get involved - he values ​​​​his freedom, which he needs for many other things. When he thought about Sonya during this new stay in Moscow, he said to himself: Eh! there will be many more, many more of these, somewhere, still unknown to me. I’ll still have time to make love when I want, but now there’s no time. In addition, it seemed to him that there was something humiliating for his courage in female society. He went to balls and sorority, pretending that he did it against his will. Running, an English club, carousing with Denisov, a trip there - that was another matter: it was befitting of a fine hussar.
At the beginning of March, the old Count Ilya Andreich Rostov was preoccupied with arranging a dinner at an English club to receive Prince Bagration.
The Count in a dressing gown walked around the hall, giving orders to the club housekeeper and the famous Theoktistus, the senior cook of the English club, about asparagus, fresh cucumbers, strawberries, veal and fish for Prince Bagration's dinner. The Count, from the day the club was founded, was its member and foreman. He was entrusted by the club with arranging a celebration for Bagration, because rarely did anyone know how to do this wide hand, it was a hospitable way to throw a feast, especially because rarely did anyone know how or want to invest their money if it was needed to organize a feast. The cook and housekeeper of the club listened to the count's orders with cheerful faces, because they knew that under no one else could they profit better from a dinner that cost several thousand.
- So look, put scallops, scallops in the cake, you know! “So there are three cold ones?...” asked the cook. The Count thought about it. “No less, three... mayonnaise times,” he said, bending his finger...
- So, will you order us to take large sterlets? - asked the housekeeper. - What can we do, take it if they don’t give in. Yes, my father, I forgot. After all, we need another entrée for the table. Ah, my fathers! “He grabbed his head. - Who will bring me flowers?
- Mitinka! And Mitinka! “Ride off, Mitinka, to the Moscow region,” he turned to the manager who came in at his call, “jump off to the Moscow region and now tell Maximka to dress up the corvée for the gardener. Tell them to drag all the greenhouses here and wrap them in felt. Yes, so that I have two hundred pots here by Friday.
Having given more and more different orders, he went out to rest with the countess, but remembered something else he needed, returned himself, brought back the cook and the housekeeper, and again began to give orders. A light, masculine gait and the clanking of spurs were heard at the door, and a handsome, ruddy, with a black mustache, apparently rested and well-groomed from his quiet life in Moscow, entered the young count.
- Oh, my brother! “My head is spinning,” the old man said, as if ashamed, smiling in front of his son. - At least you could help! We need more songwriters. I have music, but should I invite the gypsies? Your military brethren love this.
“Really, daddy, I think Prince Bagration, when he was preparing for the Battle of Shengraben, bothered less than you do now,” said the son, smiling.
The old count pretended to be angry. - Yes, you interpret it, you try it!
And the count turned to the cook, who, with an intelligent and respectable face, looked observantly and affectionately at father and son.
- What are young people like, eh, Feoktist? - he said, - the old people are laughing at our brother.
“Well, Your Excellency, they just want to eat well, but how to assemble and serve everything is not their business.”
“Well, well,” the count shouted, and cheerfully grabbing his son by both hands, he shouted: “So that’s it, I got you!” Now take the pair of sleighs and go to Bezukhov, and say that the count, they say, Ilya Andreich sent to ask you for fresh strawberries and pineapples. You won't get it from anyone else. It’s not there, so you go in, tell the princesses, and from there, that’s what, go to Razgulay - Ipatka the coachman knows - find Ilyushka the gypsy there, that’s what Count Orlov was dancing with, remember, in a white Cossack, and bring him back here to me.
- And bring him here with the gypsies? – Nikolai asked laughing. - Oh well!…
At this time, with silent steps, with a businesslike, preoccupied and at the same time Christianly meek look that never left her, Anna Mikhailovna entered the room. Despite the fact that every day Anna Mikhailovna found the count in a dressing gown, every time he was embarrassed in front of her and asked to apologize for his suit.
“Nothing, Count, my dear,” she said, meekly closing her eyes. “And I’ll go to Bezukhoy,” she said. “Pierre has arrived, and now we’ll get everything, Count, from his greenhouses.” I needed to see him. He sent me a letter from Boris. Thank God, Borya is now at headquarters.
The Count was delighted that Anna Mikhailovna was taking on one part of his instructions, and ordered her to pawn a small carriage.
– You tell Bezukhov to come. I'll write it down. How is he and his wife? - he asked.
Anna Mikhailovna rolled her eyes, and deep sorrow was expressed on her face...
“Ah, my friend, he is very unhappy,” she said. “If what we heard is true, it’s terrible.” And did we think when we rejoiced so much at his happiness! And so tall heavenly soul, this young Bezukhov! Yes, I feel sorry for him from the bottom of my heart and will try to give him the consolation that will depend on me.
- What is it? - asked both Rostov, the elder and the younger.