TMoP - Petersburg

[Richard Ryan]

The first word of "The Master of Petersburg" is..."Petersburg."

Since this floating header echoes the "Petersburg" of the title Coetzee's insistent repetition gives the reader a powerful indication that above all, this will be a novel of place and situation.

Petersburg is one of the great cultural centers of the West, but like Russia itself, it has been the scene of numerous upheavals and transformations. One might say the turmoil and melancholy as well as the sub-currents of earthiness and anarchy of the city externalize and invoke from the first page onward the inner reality of the character.  

Petersburg the stage.  Petersburg the observation ward.  Petersburg the prison.