РОССИЯ VERSUS АНГЛИЯ: У. СОМЕРСЕТ МОЭМ - АВТОР «ЭШЕНДЕНА», «РОЖДЕСТВЕНСКИХ КАНИКУЛ» И «ЗАПИСНЫХ КНИЖЕК»

Abstract

The article demonstrates that the works by William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) are «a real storehouse» of Western ideas about Russia, the focus of British stereotypes of Russians, because he was not an «elite», but a «minor» writer - a brilliant witty storyteller and a «copier of life». It is evident that young and mature Maugham perceived the Russian world in a book of stories «Ashenden, or the British agent» (1928), in a novel «Christmas Holiday» (1939), in «A Writer’s Notebook» through the prism of Dostoevsky’s novels, he argued with the Russian writer and in a way was even obsessed with him. But when Maugham became old he lost his attraction to the Russian world.