Erast Petrovich Fandorin () 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 the ...

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

Boris Akunin Grigori Chkhartishvili (; ka, გრიგორი ჩხარტიშვილი), better known by his pen name Boris Akunin (, born 20 May 1956), is a Georgian and Russian writer residing in the United Kingdom. He is best known as a write ...

. The first Fandorin novel (''The Winter Queen'', Russian: ''Азазель'') was published in Russia in 1998, and the latest and the last one in 2023 (''The Pit'', Russian: ''Яма''). 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.}, 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 ...

Background

In the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, 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), 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 university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, 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 Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using Reforms of Russian orthography#The post-revolution re ...

and

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. () was a Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist and journalist. He is regarded as one of the greatest novelists in both Russian and world literature, and many of his works are considered highly influent ...

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 (; 29 September 1843 – 7 July 1882), a Russian general, became famous for his conquest of Central Asia and for his heroism during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878. Dressed in a white uniform and mounted on ...

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

Nicholas II Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917. He married ...

and the

Khodynka Tragedy The Khodynka Tragedy () 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 II. While 1,282 corpses were collected from t ...

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.

Adaptations

Film

* ''

The Turkish Gambit ''The Turkish Gambit'' () is the second novel from the Erast Fandorin series of historical whodunnit, historical detective novels by Russian author Boris Akunin. It was published in Russia in 1998. The English translation by Andrew Bromfield was ...

'' (2005): a theatrically released film starring

Egor Beroev Egor Vadimovich Beroev (; born 9 October 1977) is a Russian actor of film, television and theater. He appeared in more than thirty films since 1994. Career Beroev was born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union. He graduated from the Mikhail S ...

* ''

The State Counsellor ''The State Counsellor'' (, State Councillor (Russia), the 5th civil grade in the Table of Ranks of Imperial Russia) is the sixth novel in the Erast Fandorin Historical mystery, historical detective series by Russian writer Boris Akunin. It is su ...

'' (2005): a theatrically released film starring

Oleg Menshikov Oleg Evgenyevich Menshikov, PAR (; born 8 November 1960) is a Russian actor, theatre director and occasional singer. He is the current artistic director of the Yermolova Theatre in Moscow. Internationally, Menshikov is the best known for his r ...

Television

* ''

Azazel In the Hebrew Bible, the name Azazel (; ''ʿĂzāʾzēl'') represents a desolate place where a scapegoat bearing the Jewish views on sin, sins of the Jews was sent during Yom Kippur. During the late Second Temple period (after the Development ...

'' (2002): a miniseries starring Ilya Noskov * ''Television Theater'': "Lewiatan" (2021): feature length Polish adaptation of ''Murder on the Leviathan'' starring Piotr Zurawski * ''Fandorin: Azazel'' (2023): a six episode series starring Vladislav Tiron, with the setting updated to the present day

Audio

* ''

The Saturday Play ''Saturday Drama'' (formerly ''The Saturday Play'') is a regular feature on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broad ...

'': "Murder on the Leviathan" (2005): BBC Radio drama starring Simon Robson

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 characters from the 19th century Fictional Russian detectives Fictional Russian police detectives Fictional people from the Russian Empire Fictional Russian people in literature Novel sequences Novels by Boris Akunin