Description of the fourth volume. (English version).

The fourth volume of Natasha Peterburzhskaya's works begins a completely new chapter in her creations. These are not poetic, this is prose works, but despite the use of a different language, the short stories are imbued with the same spirit of love as the poems. The first short story of the fourth volume has the same name as the entire collection of works, From the Bottom of the Soul. The story tells of the tragic fate of a woman who raised a child abandoned to her, raised her in love, tenderness, affection, but never managed to tell her daughter the story of her birth. A touching, tender and very emotional story. Easter Sunday is a poem about love, unrequited, sacrificial, not mutual love. In the next story, The Village of Kholmogory, Natasha for the first time weaves her poetic talent into the prose plot line, which will later become her hallmark and acquire a clear pattern. Prose writers, as a rule, do not master the poetic genre, but poets can use the prose form of narration and also achieve perfection in it, like Boris Pasternak, for example. The poem Koktebel plunges into the love drama of a young woman who, because of a short love affair, lost her entire life, both her feminine and creative. And again, the quintessence of the poem is collected in wonderful verses. The novella The Cup of Love speaks for itself. The novella Vera tells the reader about the short life of a remarkable person, about the fragility of our life and the tragedy of the events taking place. And again, beloved Leningrad (Spring in St. Petersburg), communication with the city through the prism of love of a provincial woman whose soul misses her home, which is very far from the greatness of the City of Peter the Great. The novella The Last Ovations is a hymn to the greatest dancer of all times and nations, Rudolf Nureyev, which ends with an amazing poem dedicated to him. Novel From Childhood is about love for art, music, The Final Stop is about love for people, about kindness and warmth, about the desire to help. Capellin's novella stands apart from the general theme, and it is not about love, it is about the cruelty of our modern world. The novella Monsieur Toporkoff amazes with its subtlety of description of one of the last officers of the White Guard, who settled in Paris after the revolution in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. The strokes to the portrait of this noble class of the Russian nation that has gone into oblivion, evoke tears and inexpressible bitterness of regret. The novells Letter, She, Buttons, I Got Lost in Your Autumn, On the Liner Diana, The Road of Life, Cold November, Old Waltz, That Autumn, Aftertaste, Chance, Daisies, Soul Mate, Pandora's Vessel - they are all about love, about love at different times in life, from the tremulous youth to the years when, it would seem, love is long in the past, but apparently love has no age. And, of course, how love cannot do without poetry. There are many of them. The parable The Price of Illusions is full of humor. The novella Hopelessness is dedicated to the untimely deceased Leningrad poet Roald Mandelstam, the namesake of the famous Silver Age poet Osip Mandelstam. The novel Café à Grasse is dedicated to the first Russian Nobel Prize laureate Ivan Bunin. Subtle descriptions of the character of the great master of words, excerpts from his works, and of course a poem dedicated to him. The novel Before Sunset concludes the fourth volume of Natasha Petersburzhskaya’s collected works and tells us that if you really want to, you can enter the same water twice, though separated by your entire life.

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