Prince Silver

Count Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy is well known both as a poet (his poems "My Little Bells," "In the Midst of a Noisy Ball" became popular romances), as one of the creators of the famous Kozma Prutkov — a witty literary mystification, and as a playwright, whose plays have not left the stage to this day (the staging of his play "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" marked the beginning of the history of the Moscow Art Theatre). The historical novel by A.K. Tolstoy "Prince Silver" (1862), set during the times of the oprichnina introduced by Ivan the Terrible, is also very successful. The title character, Prince Nikita Romanovich Silver, like a medieval wandering knight, confronts multifaceted evil, trying to defend his beloved. The captivating plot and meticulously reproduced historical and folklore material — descriptions of luxurious royal feasts, falconry, folk songs, tales, and legends — make A.K. Tolstoy's masterpiece an engaging read for any age.