The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller

In this edition — the second book of the illustrated series «Little Rhinoceros» — the novella by Gustave Flaubert «The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller» is published in the translation by Alexander Blok and with illustrations by Alexander Pogorzhelskiy. Blok worked on the translation of this text by Flaubert, better known by the title «The Legend of Saint Julian the Merciful» in the version by Ivan Turgenev, in 1914–1915 for the next volume of Flaubert's collected works at the publishing house «Shipovnik». Due to the war and revolution, the publication did not take place, and the translation — the only fully completed rendition of the prose text by the poet — has been preserved in Blok's personal archive. In it, Blok achieves a conciseness and expressiveness close to the French original, written on the plot of a medieval life. One possible source of inspiration for this novella — medieval bestiaries — also served as a key prototype for the rhythmic lace-like drawings of Alexander Pogorzhelskiy. At the same time, the brutality of the hunting scenes and the subsequent revenge of the victims on the main character, which can be interpreted today also from the perspective of animal rights activists, are hidden in the intricate interplay of bright compositions that refer to Arab medieval miniatures.