About the book: 2013 / For the first time in Russian - a complete translation of the classic detective genre, the book by M. F. Shiel "Prince Zalessky". Zalessky, this "most decadent" literary detective, "Sherlock Holmes in the House of Escher", admired by H. L. Borges, spends his days in a dilapidated abbey, in a room filled with relics of bygone centuries. Without leaving the couch, in the intoxicating smoke, Zalessky is a worthy rival to Holmes and Auguste Dupin - solves mysterious crimes, relying on his enormous intellect and encyclopedic knowledge. But Zalessky is not just an amateur detective engaged in mind games: the romantic Russian prince, exile and esthete embodies the decadent artist, as one of the most notable authors of Victorian decadent saw him and fantastic prose.