History of Aldridge. James Aldridge short biography

James Aldridge(born July 10, 1918) is an English writer and public figure.

James Aldridge entered English literature in the early 1940s; in a relatively short time, he went through a significant creative evolution. The birth of Aldridge as a writer, his ideological growth are closely connected with the liberation struggle of the peoples during the Second World War. Most of Aldridge's writings are extremely topical; at the same time, journalistic sharpness is combined with the gift of artistic generalizations. The focus of the writer is a man with his search for freedom and happiness. The power of Aldridge's satirical denunciations is directed against those who, in his words, are trying to "base their calculations on lucrative deals with dead souls."

James Aldridge (James Aldridge, p. 1918) was born in Australia, in Swanhill (Victoria), in the family of an English writer who settled here shortly before his birth. Already at the age of fourteen, he entered the editorial office of one of the Melbourne newspapers as a messenger, while continuing to study. He also lived on the Isle of Man (near Scotland) in his mother's old house.

After moving to England, Aldridge entered the university at Oxford; then he attended flight courses and actively collaborated in a number of London newspapers.

During the years of the liberation struggle of the Spanish people, young Aldridge followed with ardent sympathy all the vicissitudes of the historical battles against fascism in Spain, where many outstanding representatives of the British intelligentsia fought. The events of those days played a big role in the ideological formation of Aldridge - an anti-fascist.

Aldridge was 21 years old when he headed to Finland as a war correspondent. A sharp-eyed journalist correctly assessed the events unfolding before his eyes. In the messages of the astute correspondent, there was a condemnation of the destructive anti-national policy of the Finnish ruling circles of that time and recognition of the historical correctness of the Soviet Union. For this he was expelled from Finland.

During the Second World War, Aldridge traveled as a correspondent in many countries (Norway, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Iran, etc.) and in many theaters of war. He also visited the Soviet Union, where he spent almost a year (1944-1945). The writer was an eyewitness to the selfless struggle of the Soviet people, who gave everything for victory and played a decisive role in the defeat of the Nazi war machine.

The first books of Aldridge aroused considerable interest not only for their truthfulness and authenticity of the story, but also for the deep democracy of the writer, who is vitally interested in the victory of the people.

James Aldridge's early works Signed with Their Honor (1942), The Sea Eagle (1944) and Of Many Men (1946) are major achievements in cutting-edge English military literature. time. These works pleased with novelty, freshness of the writer's voice, clarity of political thought. They were perhaps the first messengers in England from the fields of war, bringing the truth about the suffering of millions and the determination of peoples to defend their independence and freedom.

The first novel by James Aldridge, A Matter of Honor, paints a vivid picture of the popular liberation movement in Greece, from the moment of the invasion of the Italo-fascist invaders in October 1940 until the capture of the country by the Nazis in April 1941. The Greek people, defending their freedom, are opposed in novel of the rotten fascist-metaxist elite in power. The writer shows how selflessly poorly armed Greek soldiers fought for their land and what an ominous, treacherous role the Metaxists and representatives of the British high command played.

Already by the first novel, marked by an undoubted talent, one can judge Aldridge's democracy, his significant life experience, great powers of observation, persistent search for his own individual style of writing.

In the early works of Aldridge, especially in the novel A Matter of Honor, echoes of the Hemingway intonation are heard. However, this influence, which Hemingway had on Aldridge at the time of the formation of his creative method, should not be overestimated. The young writer inevitably enters into a kind of ideological and artistic polemic with him. Aldridge rethinks the theme of courage in the face of death, takes a new approach to depicting the patriotism of the people fighting for their independence. Its heroes experience the same bitterness as the heroes of Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, but they see more clearly the perpetrators of the senseless and tragic death of people, and all of them make their way to the truth in one way or another, overcoming the mood of political indifference, characteristic of many representatives of the English bourgeois intelligentsia. .

Aldridge very soon discovers his independence as an artist, and this is greatly facilitated by the breadth of his views and the ever-increasing historical experience he has taken from the liberation struggle of peoples. Aldridge's path in this sense is directly opposite to the path of various Hemingway epigones, who blindly canonize the early manner of their teacher, his deliberately simplified, stylized tale, which Hemingway himself later largely abandoned.

The desire to depict noble human characters, which is one of the main features of Aldridge's work, makes him related to the best traditions of English and world classical literature.

The lyrical theme - the love of the Greek patriot Elena Stangu and the English pilot John Quayle, the awakening and development of this love, its tragic nature, due to the harsh environment of the war - occupies a large place in the novel "A Matter of Honor". The personal destinies of the heroes, inextricably linked with the nationwide struggle against fascism, are, as it were, illuminated by its light. In the family of Elena Stangu, John Quail found the true patriots of Greece, people of advanced convictions who were persecuted by the Metaxists. Communication with this family, bitter military experience encourage the hero to think about a lot, reevaluate his views on life.

Quail saw that "his views are not ugly" and that he was not alone. And Mann, and young Gorelle, and many others are in the same mood as he is. "The day will come when they will all unite," is Quail's conclusion.

The novel "A Matter of Honor", dedicated to the fate and searches of John Quayle, brings the writer close to the theme of the people who have risen to fight. This theme is developed in the novel "The Sea Eagle", in which the clarity of political thought, the courage to denounce the perpetrators of the tragedy of the Greek people are combined with high artistic merit.

The novel is preceded by an epigraph, which gives the key to the author's intention and introduces him into a dynamically developing action full of passionate struggle.

“Nys defended Megara,” the epigraph says, “when the Minotaur invaded the country. His half-brother planned to take Megara into his own hands as soon as Nis defeated the Minotaur. Nis penetrated his plan and told Zeus about it. Zeus turned his half-brother into a fish, and gave Nisu the power to turn into a sea eagle at will, in order to pursue his half-brother in this image and observe the actions of enemies.

The action of the novel "The Sea Eagle" takes place on the island of Crete at the moment when the last act of the drama that the Greek people were experiencing came: having occupied Greece, the Nazis occupied Crete, destroying the Australian, New Zealand and English detachments that did not have time to leave the island.

These days, the wounded Australian Enges Burke wanders in search of salvation. A skeptical person, he tries to remain an outside observer of the events unfolding before him. He meets on his way the Greek patriot Nis; close acquaintance with him and participation in a joint struggle prompt Burke to think and doubt the correctness of his position of political indifference. Fate brings another Australian with Nees, the simple-hearted giant Stone, a man of unbending will, possessing endurance and humor; Accepted as a brother by the kind-hearted Lithosian fishermen, Stone becomes close to them.

The image of the freedom-loving Greek Nis - the "sea eagle" - a man of great spiritual strength and nobility, who knows how to be a devoted friend and a passionate, uncompromising fighter, helps to understand how deep the roots of the people's liberation movement are. This is one of the best images of the folk hero in the literature of the Second World War period.

James Aldridge proves himself in this novel as a master of intense, fascinatingly developing plot. He knows how to convey the drama of life, to show the clash of social forces, the deep antagonism between the people and their enemies. The novel shows that the reactionary aims and plans of the metaxist clique claiming power found sympathy and support in well-known English circles.

Showing how people infected with ironic skepticism overcome it and join the ranks of the fighters against fascism, Aldridge does not separate this theme from the image of the nobility and strength of ordinary people, like Nis or the giant Sarandaki, boldly going towards danger. The lyrical subtext is especially noticeable in the masterful dialogues, which eloquently testify to the deep emotional experiences of the characters in The Sea Eagle.

The book "About Many People" consists of separate chapters-short stories, of essays written at different times, but connected by the unity of the ideological concept and the image of the protagonist. In bright fragments, she gives a brief chronicle of the outbreak of the Second World War, outlines its dramatic course and completion.

The book is, as it were, a survey of the most important theaters of the war. Events are given through the perception of the protagonist, the sharp-sighted journalist Wolf, a Scot by birth. Wolf visited Spain during the war of the Spanish people against the fascist invaders and is full of sympathy for the anti-fascists. The book contains silhouettes of many people he has seen. He writes about his encounters on the mountain roads of Norway, where he comprehended the calm courage of the Norwegian people, writes about people he encountered in the rear, in America. He talks about close friends and literary snobs deeply alien to him, whom he mentally calls "corrupt creatures." In Italy, Wolf saw such folk heroes as the Italian anti-fascist Fabiano, who was held accountable by the representatives of the Anglo-American command for punishing fascist murderers who mocked the Italian people. Wolf characterizes the persecution to which Fabiano was subjected as a typical manifestation of a certain policy of encouraging revanchism. Wolf visited the USSR, where the people gave everything for victory, met with persistent people who defended Stalingrad.

The figure of Wolf, a man seeking truth, plays a fundamentally important role in the book. It enables the author not only to cement together disparate fragments, but also to show the aspirations of one of the typical representatives of the English democratic intelligentsia.

The genre of the book "About Many People" is peculiar: it is more like links of short stories, closely related to each other, than a complete novel. Aldridge proved himself here as a brilliant storyteller, possessing the secret of a dynamic development of action, prominently outlining his images, skillfully building a dialogue, always with a deep undercurrent of thought.

The book "About Many People" is one of the writer's approaches to the great epic canvas - the novel "The Diplomat".

Written in 1946, the play Forty-Ninth State can also, to some extent, be seen as a forerunner of The Diplomat. And not only because Aldridge turned to acute international problems, which in itself is indicative of his creative development, but also because this work fully revealed an important side of the writer's talent - the ability to create satirical images.

The events depicted in the play take place "80 years after our time", but it bears the stamp of our days.

The novel "The Diplomat" (The Diplomat, 1949), on which James Aldridge worked for four years and in which, according to him, he invested himself, is one of the most significant phenomena of English literature of the post-war period. Despite the attacks of reactionary criticism, this novel found its way to a wide range of readers and was a well-deserved success.

The novel is set in the winter of 1945/46, first in the Soviet Union, then in Iran and England. The sharp vicissitudes of the struggle between the two main characters - Lord Essex, who arrived in the Soviet Union on a "special" diplomatic mission, and his assistant, a geologist, the Scot MacGregor, who gradually discovers the true goals of his patron and courageously opposes him, express the inner essence of the central conflict of the novel. The essence of the conflict is emphasized by the very composition of the novel, which is divided into two books: the first is called Lord "Essex", the second - "MacGregor". In the first book, the figure of Lord Essex is given in close-up, trying to play a dominant role in everything and showing his diplomatic skills; in the second part, Lord Essex gives way to MacGregor.

The image of Lord Essex is a great creative achievement of Aldridge. This character embodies the typical features of bourgeois politicians who imagine themselves to be the arbiters of the destinies of the nation. This image, which has its predecessors in the gallery of portraits of "polyps" and "snobs" created by Dickens and Thackeray, is snatched from modern life and shown in a new way by an artist who stands at the height of an advanced worldview.

It is as natural for Essex to weave dirty intrigues, to cynically recruit hired agents from among the most criminal elements, as it is unnatural for the whole and honest MacGregor.

The image of the geologist MacGregor, a thoughtful, direct, honest, internally independent person, represents the democratic circles of the English intelligentsia in the novel.

Aldridge portrays this character in development, showing how MacGregor overcomes his weaknesses and shortcomings, his narrowness. The artistic power and persuasiveness of the novel "The Diplomat" lies, in particular, in the fact that the image of an advanced contemporary, a representative of the English democratic intelligentsia, is depicted not straightforwardly, but in his complex and painful search, in overcoming many illusions, in the process of accumulating new observations and generalizations. , which lead to sudden changes in the mind and actions of the hero.

In the contest with Lord Essex, MacGregor wins politically and morally. Subtly using the weapon of irony, Aldridge debunks Lord Essex. The further the action of the novel develops, the clearer becomes the inconsistency of the ideas defended by Essex, who has a blind hatred for the people, for the forces of historical progress, for the world of socialism. Readers are convinced of how pitiful his personal goals, his concerns about his career, how deceptive his "greatness" is, and what an essentially small man he appears in comparison with MacGregor.

Having embarked on the path of struggle, MacGregor will be true to his social vocation - such is the logic of the development of this integral character. “Only now,” he admits, “a real fight has begun for me, and I see that I cannot leave the field.” MacGregor can no longer refuse to fight. “It even seems to me that I have only just begun to live, and I know that my time and my labors have not been in vain.”

The novelist depicts social events in the life of English society in the light of great historical perspectives. He clearly sees the features of the new in the destinies of the peoples of the Middle East, he knows that the victory of the democratic forces is inevitable, although the reaction may temporarily triumph. The system of images of his novel serves to reveal the opposite of the two worlds. Full of tension and drama, the novel "Diplomat" is imbued with a sense of historical optimism, faith in the strength of the people.

The writer came so close to the problems of today, to the chronicle of the events of our time, that he was in danger of slipping into the path of illustration and cursory sketches. But the artist happily avoided this. Unfolding before readers a motley string of events of international significance, the novelist created capacious, plastic images against their background, revealed the complex and contradictory play of public interests, showed the connection and clash of various human destinies as an expression of social antagonisms, as a manifestation of contradictions between the outgoing world and the world that is being born in fight.

The special success of Aldridge, the satirist, is the image of Essex precisely because it is not given in isolation, but included in a larger perspective, and this allowed the writer to show with all persuasiveness how hopeless the cause that Essex defends, how tragicomic his attempts to make history. In a deep and consistent debunking of the philosophy of a sophisticated diplomat, who plays a tragic role in the life of peoples, lies the vital truth of this image.

Using all the positive that he obtained in the early period of his work, the author deeply solves the problem of the positive hero of our time. In rapprochement with the people and their liberation struggle, the best sides of the character of John Quail, Enges Burke, Stone, Wolf - the positive heroes of Aldridge's early works, appeared. All the previous artistic discoveries of the writer were further developed in the novel "The Diplomat", acquired a new quality. Compared to earlier works, the tone and style of the novel The Diplomat takes on a different character. Aldridge appears in it both as a deeper and more mature realist artist, boldly invading the world of political passions, clarifying the subtle connection between the hero's personal feelings and actions and the social situation, and as a militant satirist. The novel "Diplomat" is an important milestone on the creative path of a talented artist. And at the same time, it testifies to the victory of innovative tendencies, marking the emergence of a new stage in the development of advanced English literature of our day.

“It has been a long time since I read such a good novel, which gives such a topical political lesson as this book,” wrote Harry Pollitt about the novel The Diplomat. “It can make a great contribution to the cause of the struggle for peace and national independence.”1

In June 1953, the World Peace Council awarded James Aldridge a gold medal for The Diplomat. This testifies to the recognition by the world community of the great merits of this outstanding artist and fighter for peace.

The novel The Hunter (1950), which followed The Diplomat, Aldridge dedicates to working people who have preserved nobility and purity of soul in the cruel conditions of their existence. Aldridge shows interest in the spiritual world and the fate of such people from the very first steps of his literary activity. In this book, he contrasts his understanding of man with the mockery of him, which is characteristic of modernist literature.

Although "The Hunter" does not have the breadth of the social horizons of "The Diplomat", the author in this novel also touches on the disturbing social problems facing his heroes - Canadian hunters and farmers. Aldridge is deeply concerned about human destinies.

The novel reveals the tragedy of Indian Bob, a driven, lonely, withdrawn and proud man. He treats Roy with love and respect, who sacrifices his interests for him, and despises his oppressors. Democratic views of Aldridge and his humanism are also manifested in the historically truthful depiction of Indian tribes doomed to slow death by capitalism. The author shows the unity of the white and colored peoples in their struggle for their vital interests. In the friendship of Roy McNair and Indian Bob, in their growing mutual understanding, the best aspects of their nature are revealed - integrity of character, responsiveness and humanity, manifested in a restrained form that only emphasizes the strength of their emotions.

Beautiful descriptions of the harsh nature in the novel, among which Aldridge's heroes live, fight and win. The writer, as it were, returns to the mood of the novel "The Sea Eagle" and writes a book imbued with lyrics and philosophical reflection on the fate of people who are close to nature and feel their inextricable connection with it, leading a fierce struggle so as not to perish and become brutalized in vast forest wilderness.

“The Hunter is a beautifully constructed novel,” wrote the Daily Worker, “reflecting hope, struggle and the victory of man over despair; this side of the book is very important at the moment. This novel, of course, does not have the scope and scale of the Diplomat” , but thanks to the skill of the author, dedication, "Hunter" is immeasurably higher than most of the books that appear today"

Truthful and meaningful coverage of significant social problems put forward by reality is combined in Aldridge with the art of creating images that express the characteristic features of this reality.

The protagonists of Aldridge's writings about the Second World War are modest heroes, born of the trials of a just war, brought forward by fierce struggle from the most national depths. The writer emphasizes their humanity, camaraderie, severity and ruthlessness towards the enemy. Their inherent shortcomings and weaknesses do not obscure from him their spiritual beauty, their civic feelings, awakening in the struggle. Following the best traditions of English literature, and above all the traditions of Byron and Shelley, Aldridge, along with the images of his compatriots, draws images of participants in the liberation movement of other countries - Greek, Italian patriots, courageous fighters against Hitlerism, full of hatred for the invaders.

The problems of the post-war world, significant events in the life of the English people are also of great concern to Aldridge, who takes an active part in the struggle for peace. In one of his articles entitled “This is Patriotism,” he wrote: “Before my eyes lay in all its charm the nature of England, its beautiful cities and villages. And I suddenly thought: in the event of war, these densely populated and closely spaced cities and villages, our islands are a good target for atomic bombings. One had only to imagine how little of all this beauty and human comfort would be left after a few atomic explosions - and any of these charming landscapes suddenly acquired a gloomy, tragic coloring, as if reminding us that only in the struggle to preserve peace on our earth can we find true peace. patriotism, that people who deliberately endanger their peoples and their country should be branded as traitors ... The world will win because patriotism wins, the feeling of humanity wins. By loving our own country, we learn to love all other countries and want peace for all."

The writer illuminates specific national problems and general, international problems - in close interconnection, shows the revolutionary development of reality; this is one of the essential features of the creativity of the innovative artist. Aldridge exposes the social contradictions of bourgeois society, revealing the potential forces of the people who create history, showing the justice and inevitability of the victory of advanced, democratic tendencies in modern life.

Aldridge's works are usually built on acute dramatic situations, they are always full of action, revealing the interconnections of reality, intense social conflicts, the struggle of opposing tendencies in social development, the psychological structure of images, and fundamental changes in the minds of the characters.

Aldridge's work has undergone a significant artistic evolution from the first front-line sketches and novels to the latest works.

The ideological and artistic searches of Aldridge the realist are reflected in his meaningful and interesting statements on the development of progressive literature and aesthetics.

In his speech at a solemn meeting in Moscow dedicated to the centenary of the death of V. V. Gogol, James Aldridge highly appreciated the power of the great writer's smashing satire and at the same time vividly expressed his ideological and aesthetic views, clearly defined the artist's place in the struggle for happiness and freedom of peoples.

Aldridge highly appreciates the life-giving value of the realistic traditions of both national and world literature. At one of the meetings with Soviet readers, Aldridge spoke about the enormous contribution of Leo Tolstoy to the development of the artistic thought of mankind, about the strength of his genius and the unfading power of his realism.

James Aldridge sees all the deceit and madness of the rotten old world and all the grandeur of the victories of the new world, where free people are embraced by the enthusiasm of creative labor.

Aldridge's books, translated into Russian and published in large editions, enjoy the well-deserved love of the reader, attracting with their great ideological and artistic merits, the exciting significance of the problems raised in them and the vital brightness of the images and characters depicted in them. The creations of an outstanding realist artist have an enduring aesthetic value, they testify to the significant victories of advanced English literature, reflecting the needs and aspirations of the broad masses of the people, their desire for peace and independence.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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James Aldridge
James Aldridge
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Studied at Melbourne Commercial College. During World War II, Aldridge worked as a war correspondent in the Middle (Iran) and Middle East and wrote about the Axis invasion of Greece and the island of Crete.

His first novel, A Matter of Honor, based on his own experience as a writer, was published in the UK and the US in 1942 and immediately established itself as a bestseller. The protagonist of the novel, a young pilot of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain, John Kweil, fights on obsolete biplanes against Axis aircraft in the sky over Greece, Crete and North Africa in 1940-41. The novel became Aldridge 's best - selling book until 1988 .

The writer's second novel, The Sea Eagle, was published in 1944. The plot is based on the story of the fate of Australian pilots after the disaster on the island of Crete in 1941. Despite the fact that the book turned out to be generally successful, reviews from critics turned out to be more restrained.

Aldridge's early novels - "A Matter of Honor" and "The Sea Eagle" - were written under the influence of the work of Ernest Hemingway.

One of the most successful and widely known novels of the writer was The Diplomat, published in 1949. It talks about espionage and the political situation during the revolution in Iran. The book received mixed reviews from critics.

The novel "Hunter", written in 1949, was the result of the author's attempt to mix different genres and trends in literature. The drama tells about Canadian fur hunters, about their life's difficulties and about the ups and downs of fate occurring around the hunt on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Since the mid-1960s, Aldridge has written mainly books for children and teenagers.

Bibliography

Awards

The Girl from the Sea 2002 novel young adult 2003 shortlisted Children’s Book Council Book of the Year Awards - Book of the Year: Older Readers 2003 shortlisted New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards - Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature
The True Story of Spit MacPhee 1986 children’s fiction children’s 1986 winner FAW ANA Literature Award 1986 winner New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards - Ethel Turner Prize 1986 winner New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards - Children’s Book Award
The True Story of Lilli Stubeck 1984 novel young adult 1985 winner Children's Book Council Book of the Year Awards - Book of the Year Award - Older Readers

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Literature

Kornilova E. V., J. Aldridge, M., 1957;
Stukov O. V., Novels by J. Aldridge, M., 1961;
Ivasheva V. V., English novel of the last decade (1950-1960), M., 1962;
Balashov P. S., J. Aldridge, M., 1963.

Screen adaptations

In 1958, the film "The Last Inch" directed by Teodor Vulfovich was filmed in the USSR based on the story of the same name by Aldridge.
In 1975, the film Ride a Wild Pony was filmed in the USA. Ride a Wild Pony) based on the novel of the same name directed by Don Chaffee.
In 1990, with the assistance of the United States and the USSR, the film "Prisoner of the Earth" was filmed (Eng. A Captive in the Land) based on the writer's story of the same name. Directed by John Barry.

Notes

Links

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Excerpt characterizing Aldridge, James

“My name is Giovanni… you don’t need to know more, Madonna…” the man said hoarsely. - And who are you? How did you get here?
“Oh, it’s a very long and sad story…” I smiled. – My name is Isidora, and you also don’t need to know anything else, Monseigneur...
– Do you know how you can leave here, Isidora? The cardinal smiled back. “How did you end up here?”
“Unfortunately, people don’t leave here so easily,” I answered sadly. “My husband didn’t manage, anyway… And my father only got to the fire.
Giovanni looked at me very sadly and nodded, showing that he understood everything. I tried to get him drunk with the wine I found, but nothing worked - he was not able to take even the slightest sip. “Looking” at him in my own way, I realized that the poor fellow had a badly damaged chest.
“Your chest is broken, Monseigneur, I can help you… unless, of course, you are not afraid to accept my “witch” help…” I said, smiling as affectionately as possible.
In the dim light of a smoking torch, he carefully peered into my face until his eyes finally lit up with understanding.
– I know who you are... I remember you! You are the famous Venetian Witch, with whom His Holiness does not want to part for anything - Giovanni said quietly - Legends tell about you, madonna! Many around the Pope wish you were dead, but he does not listen to anyone. Why does he need you so much, Isidora?
It was evident that the conversation is given to him very difficult. With every breath, the cardinal wheezed and coughed, unable to breathe properly.
- It's very hard for you. Please let me help you! - I stubbornly did not give up, knowing that after that no one else would help him.
- It doesn't matter ... I think it would be better for you to get out of here as soon as possible, madonna, before my new jailers arrive, or even better - the Pope himself. I don’t think that he would have liked to find you here very much ... - the cardinal whispered softly, and added, - And you really are extraordinarily beautiful, Madonna ... Too ... even for the Pope.
Not listening to him anymore, I put my hand on his chest, and, feeling life-giving warmth pouring into the broken bone, I abandoned my surroundings, fully concentrating only on the person sitting in front of me. After a few minutes, he carefully but deeply sighed, and not feeling pain, he smiled in surprise.
“If you didn’t call yourself a Witch, you would immediately be christened a saint, Isidora!” It is wonderful! True, it is a pity that you have worked in vain ... After all, they will come for me soon, and I think that after that I will need more serious treatment ... You are familiar with his methods, aren't you?
“Are you really going to be tortured like everyone else, Monseigneur?.. You serve his favorite church!.. And your family – I’m sure they are very influential!” Can she help you?
“Oh, I don’t think they’re going to kill me so easily…” the cardinal smiled bitterly. - But even before death in the cellars, Caraffa is forced to pray for her ... Isn't it? Go away madonna! I will try to survive. And I will remember you with gratitude...
I sadly looked around the stone “cell”, suddenly remembering with a shudder the dead Girolamo hanging on the wall ... How long will all this horror last?! another, destroyed with impunity? ..
Footsteps were heard in the corridor. A moment later, the door creaked open - Caraffa stood on the threshold ....
His eyes sparkled with lightning. Apparently, one of the diligent servants immediately reported that I had gone into the cellars and now the "holiness" was clearly going, instead of me, to take out his anger on the unfortunate cardinal, who was sitting helplessly next to me ...
Congratulations, Madonna! This place is clearly to your liking, even if you come back here alone! - Well, let me give you pleasure - we will now show you a nice performance! - and smiling contentedly, he sat down in his usual large armchair, intending to enjoy the upcoming "spectacle" ...
I felt dizzy from hatred... Why?!.. Why did this monster think that any human life belongs to him, with every right to take it away when he pleases?..
– Your Holiness, do heretics come across among the faithful ministers of your beloved church?
– Oh, in this case, this is just a serious disobedience, Isidora. Heresy does not smell here. I just don't like it when my orders are not followed. And every disobedience needs a little lesson for the future, doesn't it, my dear Morone? .. I think you agree with me on this?
Morone!!! Surely! That's why this man seemed familiar to me! I only saw him once at the Pope's private reception. But the cardinal delighted me then with his truly natural grandeur and the freedom of his sharp mind. And I remember that Caraffa then seemed very benevolent to him and pleased with him. Why did the cardinal manage to do so much wrong now that the vindictive Pope dared to put him in this terrible stone bag? ..
“Well, my friend, do you want to admit your mistake and return back to the Emperor to correct it, or will you rot here until you wait for my death… which, as I have learned, will not happen very soon…” .
I froze... What did that mean?! What changed?! Caraffa was going to live long??? And he said it very confidently! What could have happened to him during his absence?
- Do not try, Caraffa ... This is no longer interesting. You have no right to torture me and keep me in this basement. And you know it very well,” Morone replied very calmly.
There was still his unchanging dignity that had once so sincerely delighted me. And right there in my memory very clearly surfaced our first and only meeting ...
This happened late at night at one of Caraffa's strange "night" receptions. There were almost no more waiting, when suddenly, as thin as a pole, the servant announced that His Eminence Cardinal Morone had come to the reception, who, moreover, was "in a hurry." Caraffa was clearly delighted. In the meantime, a man entered the hall with a majestic tread ... If anyone deserved the title of the highest hierarch of the church, then it was he! Tall, slender and fit, magnificent in his bright moire attire, he walked with a light, springy gait over the richest carpets, as if over autumn leaves, proudly carrying his beautiful head, as if the world belonged only to him. Thoroughbred from the roots of his hair to the very tips of his aristocratic fingers, he aroused involuntary respect for himself, even without knowing it.

"... He managed to say this time too: What do I care about all of you, And you - about me? .."

There are test phrases, passwords, identification marks, which, more accurately than any long conversations, allow you to distinguish your own. If you already hear that very melody, if something important, not in demand almost in ordinary life, has pinched, scratched in your soul, then we will understand each other. So, you do not need to explain what the "Last Inch" is.

Actually, it's a weird movie. It seems to be old-fashioned, pretentious style with naive "special effects" and generous ideological seasoning, it should not look today. But it looks the same. Because the important thing is not when the laughing capitalist turns into a predatory shark, but when the father's leather jacket on the back of the chair in the aircraft cabin transforms into the father himself. As strong and courageous as in life - but close, smiling, understanding everything. Pilot Ben and his son Davy eventually find each other. Through courage, determination, tension is beyond human strength. Through the last inch.

At one time, the incredible success of the film was ensured by the chased profile of Nikolai Kryukov, and Slava Muratov, one of the "star boys" of Soviet cinema, and, of course, Moses Weinberg's song about soldier Bob Kennedy. But the main thing here is still the story, that is, the story in the cinematic sense. Dramatic, extremely harsh and at the same time built with the finest psychological precision. The story was invented by the English writer and journalist James Aldridge.

James Aldridge is one of those figures who are so strongly associated with a bygone, and long gone, era that you are surprised to find a contemporary in him. In the official biography - only one date in brackets after the name. And Aldridge's latest book, The Girl from the Sea, saw the light of day in Puffin at Penguin Books Australia's teen literature series as recently as 2002, and was even shortlisted for one of the prestigious literary awards.

Neither here nor in Russia, of course, it will be published. “A communist writer, publicist and fighter, a friend of the Soviet Union,” as Aldridge recommended the annotations to the Soviet editions of his books, which were translated “from the wheels” and published in huge circulation, after the collapse of the Union, simply ceased to exist, fell out of the crumbling clip. And there, at home, he was never a circulation and media author, surrounded by fans, right and left signing autographs and interviews. “Aldridge is published in bourgeois England and even in the USA, because he, of course, has a reader,” wrote T. Kudryavtseva, an acquaintance and translator of the writer, in the afterword to the two-volume “The Chosen One” (1986), “but his books are published without advertising, with a minimum number of reviews, and this is precisely the measure of success in the West.

He was born on July 10, 1918 in Australia, in Swanhill, Victoria, where he spent, according to him, "Tom Sawyer's" free childhood, full of adventures. About which you can and should read in the story "My Brother Tom", in the novel "The True Story of Lilly Stubek", in other "Australian" books by Aldridge, where autobiography cannot be separated from fiction, and it is not worth it. At the age of fourteen, James went as a messenger to the editorial office of one of the Melbourne newspapers, and at eighteen he went to conquer London. Entered Oxford, attended flight courses, and most importantly - began a journalistic career, collaborating with several London newspapers.

This novel, far from the most famous and perhaps not the strongest by Aldridge, still deserves attention. "Last Look" is about the friendship of two great writers of that era: Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, seen through the eyes of a young journalist, so deliberately written off from the author. However, James Aldridge, as if not completely sure of his right to this topic, asks for "the indulgence of many people who knew these writers closely, but perhaps did not see the drama of their friendship as I see it."

After all, the parallel with Hemingway haunted Aldridge always. Their biographies are already paralleled: journalism at the beginning of a career, moreover, extreme, military journalism, smoothly turning into literature. (By the way, in The Last Look, Fitzgerald sarcastically tells his friend Ernest that he is too good a journalist to become a good writer.) In creativity, there is a parallel interest in the same topics, conflicts, characters. Stylistic similarity, and most importantly, the same value system, which works so well and flawlessly in war or in extreme extreme situations like The Old Man and the Sea or The Last Inch, but for some reason sags and is not in demand in normal civilian life.

Hemingway, in the end, could not live with this, putting a terrible and spectacular end in his biography. Aldridge - could, choosing a quiet long life with his family in a small house on the outskirts of London. The first option is undoubtedly more advantageous and brighter in the eyes of posterity, the second is more likely to remain in the shadows. Comparing the books of Hemingway and Aldridge does not turn out to be correct: the shadow is cast by the myth that the first one created from his life. Which, you see, is a completely separate talent, not necessarily attached to the literary one.

The biography of James Aldridge also began excitingly. As a military journalist, he made his debut at the age of 21 in the Finnish War and was soon expelled from the country for sympathy for the USSR unacceptable to the Finns (at least, this is the official Soviet version). During the Second World War, he managed to visit Norway, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and spent 1944-45 in the Soviet Union. T. Kudryavtseva recalls that foreign journalists lived in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel, from where they walked along the snow-covered Kuznetsky Bridge at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry for reports from the fronts, on the basis of which correspondence was written. Of course, there were also carefully organized group business trips around the country, to the recently liberated territories (in one of the articles of the 80s, Aldridge writes with some nostalgia about a trip to Sevastopol and Chersonese, where the last battles had just ended).

In the USSR they knew how to work with the foreign press. The journalist Aldridge struck up friendly and working contacts here, which continued after the war and resulted both in cooperation with Soviet periodicals and in translations and mass editions of his books. James Aldridge became one of those writers who were published and promoted for the sole reason that he was "ours." He delivered the right speeches to Soviet intellectuals, gave the right instructions to Soviet schoolchildren, wrote the right articles about the decaying capitalist society and made the right accents, comparing it with our Soviet one:

“Your youth is sometimes cheerful, sometimes sad. Sometimes she has to make sacrifices. Nevertheless, I have never seen a hopelessly extinct look in Soviet young people and girls, so characteristic of our unemployed youth ”(“ Change ”, 1985).

His articles and essays were published by the magazines "Smena" and "Spark", "Foreign Literature" and "Problems of Peace and Socialism", the newspapers "Pravda" and "Vecherny Leningrad", "Literaturnaya Gazeta". Reading them, it is difficult to figure out how sincere the author was, and to what extent he "worked out" his literary success and recognition here, one sixth. In any case, there is much more journalism than agitation, lively, relaxed conversation than dogmatic rhetoric, and romantic naivete slips in a more touching than false note:

“Someone told me that Lenin lived in the room I occupied at the National Hotel when he first came from Petrograd to Moscow. ... And although I do not know if this is true or not, I am very pleased to think that it was so. I am a romantic at heart, and it gives me great pleasure to sit in this sunny room and imagine what Lenin thought in 1918 when he looked out of the window at these roofs, at the Kremlin wall ... ”(“ Evening Leningrad ”, 1954).

“If a society of Solar-Soviet friendship is created, I will join it with great pleasure. After the launch of the space rocket, my friend the Sun became somehow closer ”(“ Literary Gazette ”, 1959).

But if James Aldridge expressed his impressions of Soviet reality mainly in the genre, as it is now called, of an author's column (where, by definition, some optionality is hidden behind the brilliance of style) or an almost artistic essay, then about "capitalist reality", that is, about problems and troubles of the country where he did not live at all in the room of the National Hotel, he writes serious analytics. About double and triple morality in politics, about the twisted ideology of the "nuclear umbrella", about the technologies of the commercial press, about the blurring of landmarks in a consumer-oriented society. Of course, in the Soviet country such revelations went with a bang. But it's not that.

Sincere indignation and pain can be read, for example, in the essay "Defamation of Freedom" published in "Foreign Literature" (1976). I will give a few quotes, however, without harm to the context. Read. Something familiar, right?

“Our modern life in the West is largely programmed by the so-called consumer goods - consumer goods. And all of them must be sold to us, that is, we need to be convinced that we need them. ... In the process of "selling" any product, whatever it may be, is inevitably covered with a thick layer of vulgarity. The level of television advertisements for detergents, chocolate or canned beans is usually quite high. But it does not leave the slightest doubt that it is being adapted to the lowest common spiritual denominator, to the most primitive strata of our society, not accustomed to thinking independently.

“There has never been a time in our history when violence dominated art, cinema, and television to such an extent. The sexual aberration of cinema and television has reached the limit beyond which, in the opinion of many, many, all limits come to an end.

“Another, more sinister commodity appears - now, along with sex and violence, “freedom” itself becomes such a commodity, although a commodity that does not bring direct profits, but is well advertised. We are convinced that our "freedom" is the best in the world, just like our detergents, chocolate, cigarettes or toilet paper.

“The more our media and those in power tell us about personal freedom, the more we lose the sense of the real meaning of this concept, the more it becomes vulgarized and turns into a screen. Little by little, behind this screen of "personal freedom," our true freedom is being restricted more and more severely.

Could a person who analyzed his native reality so mercilessly and accurately be so radiantly mistaken in assessing Soviet reality? Basically, why not. In that polar and definite system of ethical values that shows through in his books, obvious evil must certainly be opposed by adequate good. He saw through the evil of the Western system. Good Soviet - sincerely wanted to see, and he probably succeeded.

In the official biographies of James Aldridge, they wrote that it was his pro-Soviet stance that caused the modest success of his books in the West. To some extent, apparently, it is so. Aldridge formulated his political sympathies very clearly, not understanding how it could be otherwise: “We are on the side of either the right or the wrong” (from an essay on the Cold War “Loyalty to Friendship”, “Foreign Literature”, 1985). On the other hand, his novels have collected many literary awards (in Soviet biographies only the international Lenin Prize "For Strengthening Peace Between Nations" is mentioned, but the English-language list of awards is quite long), that is, the writer accepts and adequately evaluates his near-literary environment. But remember: “his books are published without advertising, with a minimum number of reviews, and this is precisely the measure of success in the West.” Simply not demanded by the market. Now we know how it happens.

The writer's fate is a counterpoint in which many multidirectional lines must happily intersect. It is scary to imagine how many really good books either do not find a publisher at all, or go unnoticed, lost in the ever more powerful information flow. In James Aldridge's counterpoint, a key role was played by his now so controversially perceived fascination with the Soviet Union. But if not for this, we probably would never have read A Matter of Honor and The Sea Eagle, The Diplomat and The Hunter, The Last Look and The True Story of Lilly Stubeck ... They would not have heard so simple and to the point: "It's all about the last inch."

James Aldridge

last inch

It's good if, after twenty years as a pilot, you still experience the pleasure of flying by the age of forty; it’s good if you can still rejoice at how artistically precisely you landed the car: you squeeze the handle a little, you raise a light cloud of dust and smoothly win back the last inch above the ground. Especially when you land on snow: snow is a great bed for your wheels, and a good landing on snow is as pleasant as walking barefoot on a fluffy carpet in a hotel.

But with flights on the "DS-3", when you lift an old car, it used to be in the air in any weather and fly over the forests anywhere, it was over. Working in Canada gave him a good start, and it is not surprising that he ended his flying life over the desert of the Red Sea, flying a Fairchild for the Texegypto oil export company, which had oil exploration rights all over the Egyptian coast. He flew the Fairchild over the desert until the plane was completely worn out. There were no landing sites. He landed his car wherever geologists and hydrologists wanted to get off, that is, on sand, and on bushes, and on the rocky bottom of dry streams, and on the long white shallows of the Red Sea. The shallows were the worst: the smooth-looking surface of the sands was always littered with large pieces of white coral, sharp at the edges, like a razor, and if not for the low center of gravity of the Fairchild, it would have turned over more than once due to a puncture of the camera.

But that was all in the past. The Texegypto Company abandoned costly attempts to find a large oil field that would give the same profits as Aramco in Saudi Arabia, and the Fairchild turned into a miserable ruin and stood in one of the Egyptian hangars, covered with a thick layer of multi-colored dust, all slashed at the bottom narrow, long cuts, with disheveled cables, already only a semblance of a motor and devices that are fit only for scrap.

It was all over: he was forty-three, his wife left him for home, on Linnen Street in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and healed as she liked: she rode the tram to Harvard Square, bought groceries in a store without sellers, visited her an old man in a decent wooden house - in a word, she led a decent life, worthy of a decent woman. He promised to come to her in the spring, but he knew that he would not do this, just as he knew that he would not get a flight job in his years, especially the one he was used to, he would not even get it in Canada. In those parts, supply exceeded demand even when it came to experienced people; the farmers of Saskatchewan taught themselves how to fly their Piper cabs and Austers. Amateur aviation deprived a lot of old pilots a piece of bread. They ended up being hired to serve the mining departments or the government, but both jobs were too decent and respectable to fit him in his old age.

So he was left empty-handed, except for an indifferent wife who did not need him, and a ten-year-old son who was born too late and, as Ben understood somewhere in the depths of his soul, a stranger to both of them - a lonely, restless child who in for ten years he understood that his mother was not interested in him, and his father was an outsider who did not know what to talk about with him, sharp and laconic in those rare moments when they were together.

This moment was no better than the others. Ben took the boy with him on the Auster, which bobbed wildly at an altitude of 2,000 feet above the Red Sea coast, and waited for the boy to get seasick.

If you're sick, Ben said, keep your head low on the floor so you don't mess up the whole car.

Fine. The boy looked very unhappy.

Are you afraid?

The little Auster tossed mercilessly in the hot air from side to side, but the frightened boy still did not get lost and, desperately sucking on a lollipop, looked at the instruments, the compass, the jumping artificial horizon.

A little, - the boy answered in a quiet and shy voice, unlike the rough voices of American children. - And from these shocks the plane will not break?

Ben did not know how to calm his son, he told the truth:

If you don't take care of your car, it's bound to break down.

And this ... - the boy began, but he was very sick, and he could not continue.

This one is all right, - said the father with irritation. - Pretty good plane.

The boy lowered his head and wept softly.

Ben regretted taking his son with him. All generous impulses always ended in failure in their family: both of them had long lacked this feeling - a dry, whiny, provincial mother and a sharp, quick-tempered father. Ben once tried, during one of his rare bouts of generosity, to teach the boy how to fly an airplane, and although his son turned out to be very quick-witted and quickly learned the basic rules, every shout brought him to tears ...

Do not Cry! Ben ordered him now. - You don't have to cry! Raise your head, do you hear, Davy! Get up now!

But Davy sat with his head down, and Ben more and more regretted that he had taken it, and looked dejectedly at the huge barren desert of the Red Sea coast spreading under the wing of the plane - a continuous strip of a thousand miles separating the gently blurred watercolor colors of the land from the faded green of the water. . Everything was motionless and dead. The sun burned out all life here, and in the spring, over thousands of square miles, the winds lifted masses of sand into the air and carried the sand to the other side of the Indian Ocean, where it remained forever: the desert merged with the seabed.

Sit up straight, he said to Davy, if you want to learn how to land.

He knew that his tone was harsh, and he always wondered why he couldn't talk to the boy. Davy raised his head. He grabbed the control board and leaned forward. Ben moved the throttle, waited until the speed slowed down, and then pulled hard on the trimmer handle, which was very uncomfortable on these small English planes - at the top left, almost overhead. A sudden shock jerked the boy's head down, but he immediately raised it and began to look over the lowered nose of the car at a narrow strip of white sand near the bay, like a cake, thrown into this coastal wasteland. My father flew the plane right there.

How do you know which way the wind blows? the boy asked.

On the waves, on the clouds, by flair! Ben called out to him.

But he himself did not know what he was guided by when he was flying an airplane. Without thinking, he knew to within one foot where he would land the car. He had to be precise: a bare strip of sand did not give a single extra span, and only a very small plane could land on it. It was a hundred miles from here to the nearest native village, and all around was a dead desert.

It's all about getting it right," Ben said. - When you level the plane, you need to have a distance of six inches from the ground. Not a foot or three, but exactly six inches! If higher, you will hit on landing and the plane will be damaged. Too low - you get on a bump and roll over. All. it's the last inch.

Davy nodded. He already knew it. He saw how in El Bab, where they rented a car, one such Auster turned over. The student who flew it was killed.

See! cried the father. - Six inches. When he starts to sit up, I take back the pen. I pull her towards me. Here! he said, and the plane touched the ground as softly as a snowflake.

Last inch! Ben immediately turned off the engine and applied the foot brakes - the nose of the plane was lifted up, and the brakes did not allow him to plunge into the water - she was six or seven feet away.

* * *

The two airline pilots who discovered this bay named it Shark, not because of its shape, but because of its population. It was constantly inhabited by many large sharks that swam here from the Red Sea, chasing schools of herring and mullet that sought refuge here. Ben flew here because of the sharks, and now, when he got into the bay, he completely forgot about the boy and from time to time only gave him orders: help with unloading, bury a bag of food in wet sand, moisten the sand by watering it with sea water. water, supply tools and all sorts of little things necessary for scuba gear and cameras.

Does anyone ever come here? Davy asked him.

Ben was too busy to pay attention to what the boy was saying, but he shook his head when he heard the question.

Nobody! No one can get here except by light aircraft. Bring me the two green bags that are in the car and cover your head from the sun. It was not enough for you to get a sunstroke!

Davy didn't ask any more questions. When he asked his father about something, his voice immediately became sullen: he expected a sharp answer in advance. Now the boy did not even try to continue the conversation and silently did what he was ordered to do. He watched intently as his father prepared his scuba gear and camera for underwater filming, about to dive into the clear water to film the sharks.

English writer and public figure, Australian by birth. James Aldridge He was born on July 10, 1918 in Australia, in Swanhill, Victoria, where he spent, according to him, a “Tom Sawyer” free childhood full of adventures..
James Aldridge at studied at the Melbourne Commercial College. In 1938 he moved to England. During the Second World War James Aldridge worked as a journalist and war correspondent.

James Aldridge- one of those figures that are so strongly associated with a bygone, and long gone, era, that you are surprised to find a contemporary in him. In the official biography - only one date in brackets after the name. And the last book Aldridge The Girl from the Sea saw the light of day in Puffin at Penguin Books Australia's teen fiction series as recently as 2002, and was even shortlisted for one of the most prestigious literary awards.

About in olny childhood James Aldridge full of adventure can and should be read in the story "My Brother Tom", in the novel "The True Story of Lilly Stubek", in other "Australian" books Aldridge, where autobiography cannot be separated from fiction, and it is not worth it. At fourteen James Aldridge he went as a messenger to the editorial office of one of the Melbourne newspapers, and at eighteen he went to conquer London. James Aldridge entered Oxford, attended flight courses, and most importantly - began a journalistic career, collaborating with several London newspapers.

“You were so green, so enthusiastic, so shy, terribly insecure and at the same time ruffed and with such devilish determination to achieve your goal in any way ...” warns readers not to buy into the obvious autobiography: "... she is pure fiction, not a juggling of facts." This novel, far from the most famous and perhaps not the strongest among James Aldridge nevertheless deserves attention. "Last Look" is about the friendship of two great writers of that era: Francis Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, seen through the eyes of a young journalist, so deliberately written off from the author. However James Aldridge, as if not completely sure of his right to this topic, asks "indulgence from many people who knew these writers closely, but perhaps did not see the drama of their friendship as I see it." After all, the parallel with Hemingway pursued James Aldridge Always. Their biographies are already paralleled: journalism at the beginning of a career, moreover, extreme, military journalism, smoothly turning into literature. (By the way, in The Last Look, Fitzgerald snidely tells his friend Ernest that he is too good a journalist to be a good writer.)

In creativity - a parallel interest in the same topics, conflicts, characters. Stylistic similarity, and most importantly, the same value system, which works so well and flawlessly in war or in extreme extreme situations like The Old Man and the Sea or The Last Inch, but for some reason sags and is not in demand in normal civilian life. Hemingway, in the end, could not live with this, putting a terrible and spectacular end in his biography.

James Aldridge- I could, choosing a quiet long life with my family in a small house on the outskirts of London. The first option is undoubtedly more advantageous and brighter in the eyes of posterity, the second is more likely to remain in the shadows. Comparison of books by Hemingway and James Aldridge does not turn out to be correct: the shadow is cast by the myth that the first one created from his life. Which, you see, is a completely separate talent, not necessarily attached to the literary one. Biography James Aldridge It also started out great.

As a military journalist James Aldridge He made his debut at the age of 21 in the Finnish War and was soon expelled from the country for sympathy for the USSR unacceptable to the Finns (at least, this is the official Soviet version). During the Second World War, he managed to visit Norway, Greece, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and spent 1944-45 in the Soviet Union. T. Kudryavtseva recalls that foreign journalists lived in Moscow at the Metropol Hotel, from where they walked along the snow-covered Kuznetsky Bridge at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry for reports from the fronts, on the basis of which correspondence was written. Of course, there were also carefully organized group business trips around the country, to the recently liberated territories (in one of the articles of the 80s James Aldridge writes with some nostalgia about a trip to Sevastopol and Chersonese, where the last battles have just ended).

In the USSR they knew how to work with the foreign press. At the journalist's James Aldridge friendly and working contacts began here, which continued after the war and resulted both in cooperation with Soviet periodicals and in translations and mass editions of his books. James Aldridge became one of those writers who were published and promoted for the sole reason that he was "ours". He delivered the right speeches to Soviet intellectuals, gave the right instructions to Soviet schoolchildren, wrote the right articles about the decaying capitalist society and made the right accents, comparing it with our Soviet one: “Your youth can be cheerful, sometimes sad. Sometimes she has to make sacrifices.

Nevertheless, I have never seen a hopelessly extinct look in Soviet young people and girls, so characteristic of our unemployed youth ”(“ Change ”, 1985). His articles and essays were published by the magazines "Smena" and "Spark", "Foreign Literature" and "Problems of Peace and Socialism", the newspapers "Pravda" and "Vecherny Leningrad", "Literaturnaya Gazeta". Reading them, it is difficult to figure out how sincere the author was, and to what extent he "worked out" his literary success and recognition here, one sixth. In any case, there is much more journalism than agitation, lively, relaxed conversation than dogmatic rhetoric, and romantic naivete slips in a more touching than false note: “Someone told me that in the room I occupied at the National Hotel Lenin lived when he first came from Petrograd to Moscow. ... And although I do not know if this is true or not, I am very pleased to think that it was so. I am a romantic at heart, and it gives me great pleasure to sit in this sunny room and imagine what Lenin thought in 1918 when he looked out of the window at these roofs, at the Kremlin wall ... ”(“ Evening Leningrad ”, 1954). “If a society of Solar-Soviet friendship is created, I will join it with great pleasure. After the launch of the space rocket, my friend the Sun became somehow closer ”(“ Literary Gazette ”, 1959).

But if your impressions of Soviet reality James Aldridge expounded mainly in the genre, as it is now called, of an author's column (where, by definition, some optionality is hidden behind the brilliance of style) or an almost artistic essay, then about "capitalist reality", that is, about the problems and troubles of the country where he did not live at all in a room hotel "National" James Aldridge writes serious analytics.

About double and triple morality in politics, about the twisted ideology of the "nuclear umbrella", about the technologies of the commercial press, about the blurring of landmarks in a consumer-oriented society. Of course, in the Soviet country such revelations went with a bang. But it's not that. Sincere indignation and pain can be read, for example, in the essay "Defamation of Freedom" published in "Foreign Literature" (1976). Could a person who analyzed his native reality so mercilessly and accurately be so radiantly mistaken in assessing Soviet reality? Basically, why not.

In that polar and definite system of ethical values that shows through in his books, obvious evil must certainly be opposed by adequate good. He saw through the evil of the Western system. Good Soviet - sincerely wanted to see, and he probably succeeded. In official biographies James Aldridge wrote that it was his pro-Soviet position that caused the modest success of his books in the West. To some extent, apparently, it is so. Your political sympathies James Aldridge formulated very clearly, not understanding how it could be otherwise: "We are on the side of either the right or the wrong" (from an essay on the Cold War "Loyalty to Friendship", "Foreign Literature", 1985).

It is scary to imagine how many really good books either do not find a publisher at all, or go unnoticed, lost in the ever more powerful information flow. In counterpoint James Aldridge a key role was played by his now so controversially perceived fascination with the Soviet Union. But if not for this, we probably would never have read A Matter of Honor and The Sea Eagle, The Diplomat and The Hunter, The Last Look and The True Story of Lilly Stubeck ... They would not have heard so simple and to the point: "It's all about the last inch."