Путешествие в Петербург
Going to sleep in St Petersburg. One of those cities so shaped in the imagination by history & literature that just being here feels like I’m already in a dream...
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 11, 2019
I keep passing places where I can imagine Raskolnikov going up a staircase with an axe... pic.twitter.com/5pqgCMvxRt
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 12, 20
Just need to steer clear of Finland Station...
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 13, 2019
Reading Crime & Punishment in a long queue for the Hermitage. Does it get more Russian?
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 13, 2019
“Crossing the bridge, he gazed in quiet serenity at the Neva, at the bright setting of the bright red sun.”
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 13, 2019
As I have just done!
Did Nietzsche similarly hug a beaten horse before collapsing into madness? So the famous story goes. But as is usual with famous stories, it’s complicated... https://t.co/o9muOE70BS
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 13, 2019
Reading Crime & Punishment actually in St Petersburg, & with a map beside me, gives it a wholly different feel; the quality of nightmare & delirium is enhanced, not diminished, by my realisation that Raskolnikov is a kind of homicidal Leopold Bloom
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 14, 2019
‘Did you spill my pint?’ #Hermitage pic.twitter.com/hO3vGadBzI
— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) August 13, 2019