HomeReading

was the architect Giacomo Quarenghi. His most eminent buildings are: the Academy of Sciences and the Smolny Institute.

Ivan Starov built the Taurida Palace for Duke Grigory Potyomkin, a favourite of the Empress Catherine II, in 1789.

The young Russian capital expanded rapidly, becoming more and more beautiful, especially during the years after the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812. Not only individual buildings but the whole architectural ensembles came into being. The classical architectural style of HIGH CLASSICISM had finally came into being. This style was not so strict and was characterized by groups of buildings with sculpted decorations. The style is best illustrated by buildings erected in St. Petersburg from 1800 to 1830:

—the Stock Exchange, arch. J. Thomas de Thomon;

—the Kazan Cathedral;

—the Mining Institute, arch. Andrei Voronikhin.

However, the most brilliant representative of this style was Carlo Rossi who designed the buildings of:

—the General Headquarters;

—the Mikhailovsky Palace (The Russian Museum);

—the Alexandrinsky Theatre and Rossi Street.

In the second half of the 19th century many architects borrowed freely from various styles: French, Italian Renaissance, Gothic, Romanesque, Early Russian. This borrowing is called Eclecticism. It can be seen in the following buildings:

—the Mariinsky Palace (Maria's Palace);

—the Nikolayevsky Palace, arch. Andrei Stakenschneider;

—the Lutheran Church, arch. Alexander Bryullov;

—the Mariinsky Theatre (Maria Imperial Theatre, arch. Albert Cavos);

—The Palace of Grand Prince Vladimir Alexandrovich (The House of Scientists, arch. Alexander Rezanov).

Those times were marked by intensive construction of banks, railway stations, industrial buildings, mansions of wealthy merchants, multy-storey blocks of flats, shops. At the turn of the century new materials, including metal and large sheets of glass, were used in constructions. The style was characterized by asymmetrical proportions, sinuous forms and functional solutions. This style is called ART NOUVEAU:

—the Yeliseyev Store, arch. Gavriil Baranovsky;

—the Palace of ballerina M. Kshesinskaya, arch. Alexander Gogen;

—the "Astoria Hotel", arch. Fyodor Lidval.

St. Petersburg reminds some visitors of Rome, others of Paris, Venice, Vienna or Amsterdam. However, in reality it resembles none. You can spend

31

weeks wandering around the centre of the city and still find something new at every corner.

II. Answer the questions to the text.

1.Why is the city called “a museum in the open air”?

2.What is the main trait of the Russian Baroque and who is the most brilliant representative of this style?

3.Why was the Baroque style ousted by the new style of classicism?

4.What do you know about Carlo Rossi and what style did he build

in?

5.What is the Art Nouveau style characterized by and in what time did

it appear?

III. Open the brackets in the sentences below and put the verbs in the correct form.

1.The future city (to have) the plan which (to be) unusual for Russian

towns.

2.The magnificent palaces and churches designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli (to be richly decorated).

3.The young Russian capital (to become) more and more beautiful during the years after the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812.

4.If architects (to borrow) freely from various styles: French, Italian Renaissance, Gothic, Romanesque, Early Russian, it (to be called) Eclectism.

5.Undoubtedly people (to admire) the treasures of Russian architecture in St. Petersburg.

IV. Find in the text the equivalents to the given words & phrases.

1)a piece of work, especially a piece of art which is one of the best a particular artist has done;

2)a central point;

3)the architectural style which is characterized by the rectangular shape of lines and rich decoration;

4)a strong, heavily armed fort, which serves as a last place of defense during the war;

5)the architectural style which is illustrated by the Stock Exchange (arch. J. Tomas de Tomon), the Kazan Cathedral and the Miming Institute (arch. Andrei Voronikhin);

6)a large house usually belonging to a wealthy person;

32

7)forms typical of Art Nouveau style;

8)the architectural style which was borrowed from various styles: French, Italian Renaissance, Gothic, Romanesque, and Early Russian;

9)a building or set of buildings in which nuns live;

10)a characteristic or feature.

V. Make a word-tree. Find as many words as possible in the text to add to the tree.

Style

Palace

VI. March the phrases into sentences.

33

VII. Imagine that one of your friends is coming to your city. You would like to give him/her a brief information to the sights of the historical environments:

1)palaces;

2)churches;

3)monuments,

4)parks,

5)you favorite places;

6)the main building of the university you study in.

VIII. Read the text and try to remember what you should

know.

You should know...

Carlo Rastrelli, a famous sculptor, was a Parisian-born Italian. He was invited to Russia by Peter the Great. The statue of Peter on a horseback was cast in 1746 by Carlo Rastrelli. It stands in front of the main entrance to the Engineers' Castle.

Bartolomeo Rastrelli, the son of Carlo Rastrelli, came to Russia when he was sixteen years old. He studied in St. Petersburg and became an architect of world renown. He designed a lot of magnificent palaces and churches in the city: the Winter Palace, the Great Catherine Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, the Smolny Convent, the Stroganov Palace. He reconstructed the Great Palace in Peterhof.

IX. Read and translate the text. Make up 10 questions to the text using the underlined words.

The Mikhailovsky or Engineers' Castle was built for Paul I, the son of Catherine II. Mistrustful Paul wanted his new residence to be surrounded by water. The little island was connected with the rest of the city by draw-bridges protected with guns. Numerous guards were posted all over the palace. At 9 p.m. tsar went to bed and the bridges were raised.

In spite of all precautions Paul lived for only 40 days in his new residence. On the night of March 11, 1801 he was strangled in his bedroom by officers of his own guards who carried out the order of a group of conspirators, Paul's close associates.

A few years later the Central Engineering College was housed in the castle. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Dmitry Grigorovich, and later, an outstanding Russian electrical engineer and inventor Pavel Yablochkov studied here.

34

Recently the Castle has been affiliated to the State Russian Museum.

35

Level “A”

How To Write a Thriller

I. Pre-text questions:

1.What literary genres do you prefer to read (science fiction, thrillers, adventure/love stories, detective stories, etc.)?

2.Do you read thrillers sometimes?

3.A reading habit is formed early in life. Agree or disagree.

II. Have you ever read stories written by Ian Fleming? What are your impressions of them?

(abridged) by Ian Fleming

The only difference between me and perhaps you is that my imagination earns me money

The craft of writing sophisticated thrillers is almost dead. Write seem to be ashamed of inventing heroes who are white, villains who are black, and heroines who are a delicate shade of pink.

1 am not an angry young, or even middle-aged, man. My books are not "engaged". 1 have no message for suffering humanity and, though 1 was bullied at school and lost my virginity like so many of us used to do in the old days, 1 have never been tempted to foist these and other harrowing personal experiences on the public. My opuscula do not aim at changing people or making them go out and do something. They are written for warm-blooded heterosexuals in railway trains, aeroplanes or beds.

1 have a charming relative who is an angry young litterateur of renown. He is maddened by the fact that more people read my books than his. Not long ago we had semi-friendly words on the subject and I tried to cool his boiling ego by saying that his artistic purpose was far, far higher than mine. The target of his books was the head and, to some extent at least, the heart. The target of my books, 1 said, lay somewhere between the solar plexus and, well, the upper thigh. These self-deprecatory remarks did nothing to mollify him and finally, with some impatience, and perhaps with something of an ironical glint in my eye, 1 asked him how he described himself on his passport.

"I bet you call yourself an Author," 1 said. He agreed, with a shade of reluctance, perhaps because he scented sarcasm on the way. "Just so," I said,

36

"Well, I describe myself as a Writer. There are authors and artists and then again there are writers and painters."

But the point I wish to make is that if you decide to become a professional writer, you must, broadly speaking, decide whether you wish to write for fame, for pleasure or for money. I write, unashamedly, for pleasure and money.

I also feel that, while thrillers may not be Literature with a capital L, it is possible, to write what I can best describe as "Thrillers designed to be read as literature", the practitioners of which have included such as Edgar Allan Poe, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. I see nothing shameful in aiming as high as these.

All right then, so we have decided to write for money and to aim at certain standards in our writing. These standards will include an immannered prose style, unexceptional grammar and a certain integrity in our narrative.

But these qualities will not make a bestseller. There is only one recipe for a bestseller and it is a very simple one. If you look back on the bestseller you have read, you will find that they all have one quality you simply have to turn the page.

Nothing must be allowed to interfere with this essential dynamic of the thriller. You cannot linger too long over descriptive passages. There must be no complications in names, relationships, journeys or geographical settings to confuse or initiate the reader. He must never have to ask himself "Where am I? Who is this person? What the hell are they all doing?" Above all, there must never be those maddening recaps where the hero maunders about his happy fate, goes over in his mind a list of suspects, or reflects on what he might have done or what he proposes to do next. By all means, set the scene or enumerate the heroine's measurements as lovingly as you wish, but in doing so, each word must tell and interest or titillate the reader before the action hurries on.

I confess that I often sin grievously in this respect. I am excited by the poetry of things and places, and the pace of my stories sometimes suffers while I take the reader by the throat and stuff him with great gobbets of what I consider should interest him, at the same time shaking him furiously and shouting "Like this, damn you!" But this is a sad lapse, and I must confess that in one of my books, Goldfinger, three whole chapters were devoted to a single game of golf.

Well, having achieved a workmanlike style and the all-essential pace of narratives, what are we to put in the book? Briefly, the ingredients are anything that will thrill any of the human senses – absolutely anything.

In this department, my contribution to the art of thriller-writing has been to attempt the total stimulation of the reader all the through, even to his taste buds. For instance, I have never understood why people in books have to eat such sketchy and indifferent meals. English heroes seem to live on cups of tea

37

and glasses of beer and when they do get a square meal we never hear what it consists of.

Personally, I am not a gourmet and I abhor wine-and-foodmanship. My favorite food is scrambled eggs. In the original typescript of Live and Let Die, James Bond consumed scrambled eggs so often that perceptive proofreader suggested that this rigid pattern of life must be becoming a security risk for Bond. If he was being followed, his tail would only have to go into restaurants and say, "Was there a man here eating scrambled eggs?" to know whether he was on the right track or not. So I had to go through the book changing the menus.

It is surely more stimulating to the reader's senses if, instead of writing, "He made a hurried meal off the Plat du Jour – excellent cottage pie and vegetables., followed by home-made trifle", you write "Being instinctively mistrustful of all Plats du Jour, he ordered four fined eggs cooked on both sides, hot buttered toast and a large cup of black coffee. ''The following points should be noted first, we all prefer breakfast foods to the sort of food one usually gets at luncheon and dinner, secondly, this is independent character who knows what he wants and gets it; thirdly, four fried eggs has the sound of a real man's.

What I aim at is a certain disciplined exoticism. I have not reread any of my books to see if this stands up to close examination, but I think you will find that the sun is always shining in my books – a state of affairs which minutely lifts the spirit of the English reader that most of the settings are in themselves pleasurable, taking the reader to exciting places round the world, and that a strong hedonistic streak is always there to offset the grimmer side of Bond's adventures.

My plots are fantastic, while being often, based upon truth. They go wildly beyond the probable but not, I think, beyond the possible. Even so, they would stick in the gullet of the reader and make him throw the book angrily aside – for a reader particularly hates feeling he is being hoaxed – but for two technical devices: first, the aforesaid speed of the narrative, which hustles the reader quickly beyond each danger point of mockery and, secondly, the constant use of familiar household names and objects which reassure him that he and the writer have still got their feet on the ground.

People often ask me, "How do you manage to think of that? What an extraordinary (or sometimes extraordinarily dirty) mind you must have?"

I certainly have got vivid powers of imagination, but I don't think there is anything very odd about that. We are all fed fairy stories and adventure stories and ghost stories for the first 20 years of our lives, and the only difference between me and perhaps you is that my imagination earns me money. There are three strong incidents in my fast book, Casino Royal, which carry it along and they are all based on facts. I extracted them from my wartime memories of the

38

Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain and a heroine, and there was the book.

III. Answer the following questions and then put your own questions to the text, for discussing them in your group.

1.What does the author write the books for?

2.What recipe for a bestseller is given in a text?

3.Is he excited by the poetry of things and places?

4.The author abhors wine-and-foodmanship, doesn’t he?

5.What are the two technical devices used by the author?

IV. Choose the correct variant for each blank from the box below. Pay attention one variant is not necessary.

1.These standards ……… an immannered prose style, unexceptional grammar and a certain integrity in our narrative.

2.Well, ……… a workmanlike style and the all-essential pace of narratives, what are we to put in the book?

3.My plots are fantastic, while ……… often ……… upon truth.

4.I never correct anything and I never look back at what I ………,

except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to.

5.For instance, I ……… never ……… why people in books have to eat such sketchy and indifferent meals.

V. Paraphrase or explain in your own words the italicized parts of the following sentences; translate them into Russian.

1.So I had to go through the book changing the menus.

2.I confess that I often sin grievously in this respect.

3.The craft of writing sophisticated thrillers is almost dead.

4.By all means, set the scene or enumerate the heroine's measurements as lovingly as you wish, but in doing so, each word must tell and interest or titillate the reader before the action hurries on.

5.You cannot linger too long over descriptive passages.

39

VI. Replace the italicized parts of the sentences with the words and phrases from the text.

1.Personally, I am not a gourmet and I detest wine-and-foodmanship.

2.I must admit that in one of my books, three whole chapters were dedicated to a single game of golf.

3.These self-deprecatory remarks did nothing to make him feel less

angry and upset.

4.He writes books in order to become renowned and wealthy.

5.I have never been tempted to foist the disturbing personal experiences on the public.

VII. Make the written translation of the following extract.

What I aim at is a certain disciplined exoticism. I have not reread any of my books to see if this stands up to close examination, but I think you will find that the sun is always shining in my books – a state of affairs which minutely lifts the spirit of the English reader that most of the settings are in themselves pleasurable, taking the reader to exciting places round the world, and that a strong hedonistic streak is always there to offset the grimmer side of Bond's adventures.

My plots are fantastic, while being often based upon truth. They go wildly beyond the probable but not, I think, beyond the possible. Even so, they would stick in the gullet of the reader and make him throw the book angrily aside – for a reader particularly hates feeling he is being hoaxed – but for two technical devices: first, the aforesaid speed of the narrative, which hustles the reader quickly beyond each danger point of mockery and, secondly, the constant use of familiar household names and objects which reassure him that he and the writer have still got their feet on the ground.

VIII. Tell about the successful methods of thrillers’ writing.

IX. Make up a brief summary of the story (4-5 sentences).

X. Imagine you are an author and you are going to write a thriller. Think of the plot of the story.

XI. Make your own ending of the story.

40