The Bronze Horseman

“A Petersburg tale in verse. Peter the Great, standing on the empty marshes by the Neva, dreams of a city that will open a window onto Europe; a hundred years later it stands in granite and splendour. Then, in the great flood of November 1824, a poor clerk named Evgeny loses the girl he meant to marry and his reason with her. Wandering the city, he threatens the bronze statue of Peter — and in his madness hears the Horseman galloping after him through the empty streets.”