Вавилонская башня

"Vavilonskai͡a bashni͡a" - ėto tretiĭ roman "Kvarteta Frederiki", schitai͡ushchegosi͡a, pozhaluĭ, glavnym proizvedeniem kavalerstvennoĭ damy ordena Britanskoĭ imperii Antonii Sʹi͡uzen Baĭett. Tetralogii͡a pisalasʹ v techenie chetverti veka, i si͡uzhet ee takzhe imeet chetvertʹvekovoĭ okhvat, prichem pervye dva romana ("Dama v sadu", "Zhivai͡a veshchʹ") vyshli eshche do udostoennogo Bukerovskoĭ premii mezhdunarodnogo bestsellera "Obladatʹ", a tretiĭ i chetvertyĭ - posle. Itak, Frederika Potter - byvshai͡a ĭorkshirskai͡a shkolʹnit͡sa i kembridzhskai͡a vypusknit͡sa, a teperʹ zhena kherefordshirskogo skvaĭra - sbegaet s maloletnim synom ot muzha-tirana iz ego imenii͡a Brėn-Khaus i okazyvaetsi͡a v Londone 1960-kh godov, kotoryĭ vot-vot transformiruetsi͡a v psikhodelicheskiĭ "svingui͡ushchiĭ London". Tam ee okruzhai͡ut khudozhniki-buntari, pisateli i poėty. Istorii͡a materi-odinochki, zarabatyvai͡ushcheĭ na zhiznʹ prepodavaniem v khudozhestvennom uchilishche i literaturnoĭ kritikoĭ, pereslaivaetsi͡a glavami "romana v romane" pod nazvaniem "Balabonskai͡a bashni͡a" i protokolami dvukh sudebnykh prot͡sessov - nad ėtoĭ knigoĭ, obvinennoĭ v oskorblenii obshchestvennoĭ morali, i po Frederikinomu isku o razvode. "Baĭett voskreshaet legendarnoe desi͡atiletie v izobilʹnoĭ i bezuprechno dostovernoĭ polnote. Kogda-nibudʹ istoriki budut blagodarny ledi Antonii za takui͡u shchedrostʹ, nu a chitateli mogut blagodaritʹ uzhe seĭchas" (Boston Review). Vpervye na russkom!

The Tower of Babel is the third novel by the Frederica Quartet, considered perhaps the main work of the cavalier Dame of the Order of the British Empire, Antonia Susan Byatt. The tetralogy was written for a quarter of a century, and its plot also has a quarter—century span, with the first two novels ("The Lady in the Garden", "The Living Thing") published before the Booker Prize-winning international bestseller "Possess", and the third and fourth after. So, Frederica Potter — a former Yorkshire schoolgirl and Cambridge graduate, and now the wife of a Herefordshire squire — runs away with her young son from her tyrant husband from his Bran House estate and finds herself in 1960s London, which is about to transform into a psychedelic "swinging London". There she is surrounded by rebel artists, writers and poets. The story of a single mother who earns her living by teaching at an art school and literary criticism is interspersed with the chapters of a "novel within a novel" called "Balabon Tower" and the protocols of two trials - over this book, accused of insulting public morality, and Frederick's divorce suit. "Byatt resurrects the legendary decade in abundant and impeccably authentic completeness. Someday historians will be grateful to Lady Antonia for such generosity, but readers can thank her now" (Boston Review). For the first time in Russian!