The scans in this post are of the book that was published by Progress Publishing House in 1982. That’s how long – as long as I live – I’ve been learning the English language. I...
Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric. Edward Said, a Palestinian American literary theorist ...
Our trouble is that we drink too much tea. I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the Yellow River down our throats. J. B. Priestley, an English novelist, playwright, and bro...
Today we all speak, if not the same tongue, the same universal language. There is no one center, and time has lost its former coherence: East and West, yesterday and tomorrow exist as a confused jumbl...
As part of Bloggers’ Portrait project, I and a few bloggers/colleagues/friends have recently had a conversation with a Russian author, blogger and an avid Twitterer, Vadim Ivanov. Born in Januar...
There is something majestic in the bad taste of Italy. E. M. Forster, an English author...
I once asked a hermit in Italy how he could venture to live alone, in a single cottage, on the top of a mountain, a mile from any habitation? He replied, that Providence was his next-door neighbor. La...
A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority. Samuel Johnson, an English author ...
One of the Russian bloggers I know did an interview with an Internet troll. Yes, that very troll who creates havoc in forums and makes people clash, while he quietly sits in front of his PC or laptop ...
Everything in Italy that is particularly elegant and grand borders upon insanity and absurdity or at least is reminiscent of childhood. Alexander Herzen, a Russian writer and politician....