The Twelve Chairs

The Twelve Chairs, 1927 — a novel written almost a century ago, yet it feels like it was written recently. It is quoted by everyone, even those who have not read a single page of the text or watched any adaptation. Ostap Bender, the Great Combinator, has become a household name, and monuments are erected to him all over Russia. The story of how Bender and his partner Kisa Vorobyaninov try to find the diamonds of Madame Petukhova, hidden in one of the 12 chairs of a furniture set, has truly become a national classic. The novel has been reissued in Russia almost 200 times, it has been translated into many languages, although it is quite difficult to convey the humor that saturates this astonishing book in every sense.