Это настолько прекрасно, что не могу не поделиться=)
Для непосвящённых - есть такой замечательный писатель Jasper Fforde, у него есть замечательная серия книг (хотя вообще у него все книги замечательные), которая вообще must read для книголюбов кстати. В этой серии про Thursday Next есть, хм, вселенная под названием Bookworld - по сути, "изнанка" книг - там персонажи обучаются быть персонажами, "играют" свои роли в книгах, иногда не в одной, защищают книги от паразитов неграмотности и прочего=) Ну и конечно постоянно общаются между собой.
Повествование от лица одного из персонажей собственно этого книжного мира, к ней в дверь стучатся персонажи из "Преступления и наказания". Да, сразу добавлю, что эти персонажи хоть и русские по книге, но в этом мире именно английских переводов (есть и отдельно части мира на разных языках), так что путаются как любой англоговорящий человек.
“Welcome to my home, Rodion Romanovich Raskolnikov.”
“Oh!” said Raskolnikov, impressed that I knew who he was. “How did you know it was me? Could it have been the subtle way in which I project the dubious moral notion that murder might somehow be rationalized, or was it the way in which I move from denying my guilt to eventually coming to terms with an absolute sense of justice and submitting myself to the rule of law?”
“Neither,” I said. “It’s because you’re holding an ax covered in blood and human hair.”
читать дальше
“Yes, it is a bit of a giveaway,” he admitted, staring at the ax, “but how rude am I? Allow me to introduce Arkady Ivanovich Svidrigailov.”
“Actually,” said the second man, leaning over to shake my hand, “I’m Dmitri Prokofich Razumikhin, Raskolnikov’s loyal friend.”
“You are?” said Raskolnikov in surprise. “Then what happened to Svidrigailov?”
“He’s busy chatting up your sister.”
He narrowed his eyes.
“My sister? That’s Pulcheria Alexandrovna Raskolnikova, right?”
“No,” said Razumikhin in the tone of a long-suffering best friend, “that’s your mother. Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova is your sister.”
“I always get those two mixed up. So who’s Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova?”
Razumikhin frowned and thought for a moment.
“You’ve got me there.”
He turned to the third Russian.
“Tell me, Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin: Who, precisely, is Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova?”
“I’m sorry,” said the third Russian, who had been staring at her shoes absently, “but I think there has been some kind of mistake. I’m not Pyotr Petrovich Luzhin. I’m Alyona Ivanovna.”
Razumikhin turned to Raskolnikov and lowered his voice. “Is that your landlady’s servant, the one who decides to marry down to secure her future, or the one who turns to prostitution in order to stop her family from descending into penury?”
Raskolnikov shrugged. “Listen,” he said, “I’ve been in this book for over a hundred and forty years, and even I can’t figure it out.”
“It’s very simple,” said the third Russian, indicating who did what on her fingers. “Nastasya Petrovna is Raskolnikov’s landlady’s servant, Avdotya Romanovna Raskolnikova is your sister who threatens to marry down, Sofia Semyonovna Marmeladova is the one who becomes a prostitute, and Marfa Petrovna Svidrigailova—the one you were first asking about—is Arkady Svidrigailov’s murdered first wife.”
“I knew that,” said Raskolnikov in the manner of someone who didn’t. “So . . . who are you again?”
“I’m Alyona Ivanovna,” said the third Russian with a trace of annoyance, “the rapacious old pawnbroker whose apparent greed and wealth led you to murder.”
“Are you sure you’re Ivanovna?” asked Raskolnikov with a worried tone.
“Absolutely.”
“And you’re still alive?”
“So it seems.”
He stared at the bloody ax. “Then who did I just kill?”По-моему, совершенно чудесно показывает, как бедные носители многих других языков путаются в наших именах-отчествах=)))