A summary of "The Most Terrible Villain and Other Stories" by Boris Akunin Automatic translate

Boris Akunin’s book was published in 2012. The format is interactive: each essay is followed by comments from the online audience. The writer shares fascinating historical facts not included in his detective novels. Akunin reflects on the intersection of time, human nature, and the vagaries of fate. The paperback edition captures fleeting discussions, transforming them into literary form.

This work is part of the author’s popular "Love of History" series. It builds on the tradition of other volumes in this series, offering the public a vivid look at little-known historical episodes.

Historical myths and paradoxes

The narrative opens by debunking the myths of the noble nineteenth-century criminal. Real crimes lacked grace: they were brutal and often committed in a drunken stupor. A young man named Alexander Carr, who hacked his family to death for pocket money, is cited as an example. The author recalls London sergeant William Popeye and discusses police methods. The British abandoned undercover agents for the sake of the purity of the law. The authorities declared at the time, "A disguised policeman is like a crook." Akunin is convinced that victory over lawlessness, achieved through dirty means, inevitably destroys the law enforcement system itself.

The narrative then moves on to tales of power. The reader learns about the Japanese shogun Tsunayoshi, known as the "Dog Shogun." He issued harsh edicts on animal protection, punishing people with death for the slightest cruelty to street dogs. These ideas of mercy turned into tragedy, and after the ruler’s death, the Japanese immediately exterminated all dogs in the city of Edo. Akunin then examines the phenomenon of free loyalty. Courtiers are willing to endure any humiliation for royal favor. The Count de Beaumont reverently tucked a shawl soiled with Empress Josephine’s excrement into his pocket.

Villains and the dark humor of fate

In search of the perfect villain, the author turns to the story of 72-year-old French gang leader Prudence Pezet, nicknamed "La She-Wolf." The image of the elderly killer, who personally slit her victims’ throats and was caught by detective Vidocq, breaks stereotypes. Akunin then writes about the dark humor of fate. Famous daredevils often die in the most absurd ways. Legendary detective Allan Pinkerton died after biting his tongue on a slippery street. Playwright Tennessee Williams choked on an eyedrop cap, and writer Sherwood Anderson accidentally swallowed a deadly wooden toothpick at a party.

Akunin draws historical parallels between modern political trials and the Alfred Dreyfus affair, which divided French society. Another historical example is the tragedy of Finance Minister Nicolas Fouquet. The disgraced oligarch rotted in the prison of Louis XIV, despite a relatively lenient court sentence. Reflecting on the richness of the Russian language, the writer laments the lack of a future tense for the verb "pobedit" (to win). He proposes legalizing the word "pobedu" (victory). The author also seeks a precise analogy for the concept of female courage in the example of Empress Eugénie, who fearlessly visited dangerous cholera barracks.

Change of eras and aesthetic canons

The text illuminates the shifting canons of female attractiveness. Until the nineteenth century, plumpness was universally considered the ideal. Empress Eugénie introduced the fashion for painful thinness, forever changing Western aesthetic standards. In Japan, by contrast, shaved eyebrows, varnished teeth, and a complete absence of moles were prized. Touching on the topic of dictatorship, Akunin notes an interesting pattern. Leaders like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin surround themselves with associates devoid of masculine charisma. Any manifestation of masculine independence is utterly detrimental to the career of an official under tyranny.

Military honor and pacifism

The book recounts the long decline of the dueling tradition. It turns out that duels of honor persisted even in the second half of the twentieth century. The ballet master Serge Lifar dueled the Marquis de Cuevas with rapiers over artistic differences. Touching on military themes, Akunin searches for true heroes. The most decorated soldier in Britain was the pacifist Corporal William Coltman. This sectarian refused to bear arms, but under enemy fire, he saved many wounded with his stretchers. This example of boundless altruism fascinates the author far more than the usual bloody exploits of decorated military generals.

The author deeply analyzes the Japanese mentality. He admires the willingness of leaders to pay for their own mistakes. The founders of the kamikaze units, Admirals Masafumi Arima, Matome Ugaki, and Takijiro Onishi, voluntarily took their own lives after military collapse. Such maximalism sometimes reaches frightening absurdity. Lieutenant Hiroo Onoda and Corporal Shoichi Yokoi hid in the jungles of the Philippines for decades, refusing to believe their country’s capitulation. The book’s love stories are no less paradoxical. The shabby old detective Eugène Vidocq secured female attention for himself with cunning forged wills.

Forgotten names and rejected prototypes

Another love affair involves Napoleon. A young Spanish actress forever repelled the emperor with her abundance of strong perfume. Separate chapters are dedicated to forgotten heroes of Russian history. Akunin bitterly recalls the Kara tragedy of 1889. Female convicts, including Nadezhda Sigida, took poison in protest against the arbitrary rule of their superiors and corporal punishment. Their horrific deaths forced the tsarist authorities to permanently abolish flogging of women. The writer also generously shares biographies of historical figures who never became full-fledged prototypes for his detective novels.

Among the rejected prototypes, Antoine-Amédée Manca de Vallambrosa, Marquis de Mores, stands out. This handsome adventurer managed to become an American cowboy, a schemer in Indochina, and the leader of anti-Semitic pogroms in Paris before dying at the hands of Tuareg sabers. No less astonishing is the fate of the Russian girl Isabella Eberhardt. Having escaped the oppression of her authoritarian father, she converted to Islam and for years posed as an Arab youth, Mahmoud Saadi. Isabella joined a Sufi brotherhood, traveled throughout the Maghreb, and absurdly drowned during a sudden flood two or three meters high in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Grimaces of History

The author reflects on the properties of time at a French concert by Joan Baez and cites shocking facts from medical archives. It turns out that the magnificent illuminations at Napoleon’s wedding were powered by candle tallow secretly rendered from human corpses. Akunin contrasts true patriotism with mass insanity. In 1870, in the Dordogne village of Hautefay, a mob blinded by propaganda tore apart and literally burned alive the innocent landowner Alain de Monais. The peasants believed him to be a Prussian spy, and some of the crazed villagers even tore the charred flesh of their victim with their teeth.

The author takes a highly critical view of the aristocracy. The Château de Kériole, built by the elderly Russian princess Zinaida Yusupova for her young French husband, Charles Chauveau, became a monument to mindless extravagance. The book explores with interest the motives of those who switched sides. The Jew Boris Shteifon became a stern White general and then rose to high rank in the fascist army. He commanded the Russian Security Corps in Yugoslavia, completely distancing himself from the tragedy of his people being exterminated by the Nazis. The French Baron de Lussatz, by contrast, rose from the social depths through the Parisian underworld.

Social masks and dialogue with the audience

No less fascinating are the stories of women who assumed male guise for the sake of scientific work or life’s adventures. Jeanne Baret, disguised as a young servant, sailed around the world with Captain de Bougainville, painstakingly assembling a botanical collection. The Irishwoman Christian Davis cut her hair and fought for many years in a dragoon regiment, searching for her missing husband. Speaking of the Russian Revolution, Akunin calls the early Bolsheviks, like Felix Dzerzhinsky, "saints from Evil." These ascetics sincerely believed in the righteousness of their bloody cause and fanatically sacrificed the lives of others.

The appendices contain detailed results of online reader polls. Akunin meticulously interrogates his audience about the ideal male and female types, the greatest national hero, and whom readers would support in the Civil War. The text concludes with a selection of Boris Akunin’s direct responses to audience questions. The writer candidly discusses the specifics of literary craft, sharing his personal views on philosophy, religion, the role of the Russian intelligentsia, and possible paths for the country’s historical development.