Presentation of the novel “The Russian Detective”: Reconceptualising Forgotten 19th-Century Crime Fiction

Please join Carol Adlam for a conversation about her new graphic novel “The Russian Detective”, with Dr Claire Whitehead, Reader in Russian at the University of St Andrews.

“The Russian Detective’s” protagonist is Charlotta Ivanovna (aka Charlie Fox) an infamous daredevil, undercover journalist, magician and thief. She reluctantly returns to her hometown to report on the locked-room murder of Elena Ruslanova, daughter of a fabulously rich glass manufacturer. But in her attempts to unravel the mystery, she is caught up in a multi-layered story and faced with uncomfortable truths about the past she ran away from.

Carol Adlam will tell us about her reworking of the long-lost story – including why she employs certain visual and textual devices, from newspaper headlines to lubki woodcuts; her choice of a woman protagonist; and why we should rethink the 19th-century Russian literary canon.

Behind its captivating illustrations, “The Russian Detective”https://www.pushkinhouse.org/whats-on/events/1260 is a historical study of the period: its societal problems, methods of detective work and forensic analysis, and the legal system where evidence was less important than the criminal’s confession.

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