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Alexandre Grine : Fandango. Editions Noir sur Blanc,12 janvier 2023, 128 pages • 17 Euros • 22 CHF

Traduit du russe et annoté par Paul Lequesne. Collection La bibliothèque de Dimitri Première édition : L’Âge d’Homme, 2003 Traduction revue et corrigée

Fandango est l’une des plus longues nouvelles d’Alexandre Grine. Si elle ne fut publiée qu’en 1927, la date de sa rédaction remonte certainement à 1924, année de parution de L’Attrapeur de rats, dont l’intrigue est rigoureusement contemporaine. Fandango s’appuie sur la confrontation entre la réalité (Petrograd en 1921, le froid et la faim) et le monde fantasmagorique de la peinture : un homme traverse un tableau pour se retrouver dans un univers imaginaire. On y retrouve, non pas en toile de fond, mais au premier rang, le Pétersbourg affamé et dévasté des années d’après-guerre, un héros famélique, et surtout plusieurs détails qui en font une sorte d’œuvre miroir et la rattachent à L’Attrapeur de rats aussi solidement que si l’auteur y avait écrit le mot « suite ».

Tour à tour apprenti matelot, vagabond, chercheur d’or, bûcheron, flotteur de bois, soldat, déserteur et révolutionnaire, Alexandre Grine (1880-1932) connut la misère la plus noire, la faim, l’exil et la prison. Autodidacte, nourri de littérature populaire, riche d’une étrange érudition construite au hasard de ses lectures, de ses rencontres et de ses voyages, il finit, vers 1905, par se consacrer exclusivement à la littérature, s’imposant peu à peu parmi les auteurs les plus singuliers du xxe siècle.

About the author

Nadia Sikorsky

Nadia Sikorsky was born and raised in Moscow. She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Moscow State University and went on to complete her postgraduate studies there, earning a PhD in History. She spent 13 years at UNESCO, first in Paris and then in Geneva. After serving as Director of Communications at Green Cross International, founded by Mikhail Gorbachev, she launched NashaGazeta.ch in 2007, Switzerland’s first Russian-language online daily newspaper.

In 2022, Nadia Sikorsky was named to Le Temps’ Forum des 100, which brings together individuals who, in the newspaper’s view, have “significantly contributed to the success of French-speaking Switzerland”, from across public life, business, politics, science and culture.

After 18 years at the helm of NashaGazeta.ch, Nadia Sikorsky decided to devote herself to what had always held a special place in her work as a journalist: culture in all its diversity. This led to the creation of Russian Accent, a trilingual cultural blog in Russian, French and English, born in the heart of Europe, in Switzerland, which has become her second home and whose multiculturalism and multilingualism have helped shape the character of this new project.

At the heart of the project is the perspective of a European of Russian origin, drawing on more than 35 years of professional experience and a deep knowledge of both cultural traditions. Nadia Sikorsky sees her role as that of a cultural mediator between the two. The title of the blog, Russian Accent, reflects this idea: the accent is neither a linguistic barrier nor a political position, but a distinctive cultural imprint within a European context.

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