Saint Helena, a Small Island

He was devoured by Aladanovs. One of his friends, writer Boris Zaytsev, testifies: he and his wife tore up Aladanov’s new book to read it racing each other. In the Soviet Union, his books were banned, but in other countries they were translated into 24 languages, even Bengali. He lived 70 years, divided into two equal parts: the first 35 were the search for his calling, the second 35 were intense creative labor. He was one of the most erudite people of the pre-revolutionary generation, working not only in literature and journalism—he regularly published scientific works on chemistry. He never wrote “from his head”; he firmly relied on documents. He was distinguished by phenomenal memory, remembering historical buildings of different cities, coats of arms of aristocratic families, and twists of forgotten battles. Aladanov’s debut in fiction prose took place in France in 1921, and the writer was immediately noticed. For the centenary of Napoleon’s death, he published his novella “Saint Helena, Little Island.” The work, written so vividly and talentfully—and also appearing so timely—sparked genuine reader interest. The public’s overall attitude toward him is expressed in a letter sent to the writer by I. E. Repin: “Ah, what kind of book is this! How sorry I am that I can’t sketch portraits of what I’ve read… But your heroes are living people: they appear so unexpectedly, in such incredible turns, and with such elusive tones that grasping it—that is, you know—genius creativity… Your admirer, Ilya Repin.”

And now, almost a hundred years after the publication of the novella “Saint Helena, Little Island,” which in many ways determined Mark Aldanov’s further creative fate, you have the opportunity to get acquainted with an audio version of this legendary work.