Portrait of a man in red. Barnes J.

The laureate of the Buker Prize Julian Barnes is one of the most striking and original prose writers of modern Britain, the author of such international bestsellers as “one story”, “noise of time”, “foreboding of the end”, “Arthur and George”, “History of the world in 10 1/2 chapters ”,“ Flaubert Parrot ”,“ Elizabeth Finch ”and many others. Perhaps his main talent is the ability to easily and naturally play with styles and directions. Thin stylization and caustic irony, sophisticated lyricism and sarcasm that is almost cynic, aggressive rigidity and fun mischief - Barns is subject to all this and much more.

“Which genre should include the“ Portrait of a man in red ” "Historical, biographical or philosophical?" - asked the newspaper Independent; And she herself answered: “To all three at the same time! Before us is an ideal guide for an amazing era. ”

So, get acquainted with Samuel Potzzi - a fashionable Parisian doctor of the late 19th century, the father of modern gynecology and the legendary womanizer; In a word, thereby the “man in red” depicted on the famous portrait of Sargent's brushes “Doctor Potzzi at home”. Through the prism of the doctor’s travels, equipped with a letter of recommendation from Sargent Henry James, Belle Epoque (a beautiful era) in all her diversity, and the reader cannot but conduct an alarming parallels with today's day. Moreover, the doctor goes not alone: ​​the company is made up of refined aristocrats Prince de Polynyak and Count Robert de Monteskeu - the prototype of Baron de Charlus from the epic of Proust “In search of the lost time”.