"Michael Moorcock - Von Bek 2 - The Brothel in Rosenstrasse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moorcock Michael)

The Brothel in Rosenstrasse
Michael Moorcock




Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque crowd together: the early basilica of St Vaclar stands
between the sixteenth-century Chemnitz fortress and the eighteenth-century Capuchin
monastery, all noteable examples of their periods, and are joined just below, in
Konigsplatz, by the beautiful new Egyptianate concert hall designed by Charles Rennie
Mackintosh. It has been fairly said that there are no ugly buildings in Mirenburg, only
some which are less beautiful than others. Many travellers stop here on their way to and
from the Bohemian spas of Karlsbad, Manenbad and Franzenbad. Mirenburg is joined to
Vienna by water, rail and road and it is common to change here from one mode of
transport to another, or merely to make the appropriate train connections. The station is
by Kammerer: a Temple to Steam in the modern 'Style Liberty'. From it one may progress
easily to Prague or Dresden, to St Petersburg or Moscow, to Wroclaw or Krakow, to
Buda-Pesht or Vienna, and beyond to Venice and Trieste, which may also be reached by
canal.
Mirenburg's wealth comes from the industry and commerce of Walden-stein, whose
capital she is, but it is enhanced by the constant waves of visitors, who arrive at all
seasons.
The revenues from tourism are used to maintain the older structures to perfection and it is
well-known that Prince Badehoff-Krasny, the hereditary ruler of Waldenstein, spends a
considerable proportion of his own fortune on commissioning new buildings, as well as
works by living painters, composers and writers. For this reason he has been fairly called
a 'present-day Lorenzo' and he is apparently quite conscious of this comparison to the
great Florentine. Mirenburg is the quintessential representation of a Renaissance which is
at work everywhere in modern Europe.

R.P. DOWNES, Cities which Fascinate , Kelly, London,



CHAPTER ONE
Mirenburg

I am at last able to move my right hand for extended periods of time. My left hand,
although still subject to sudden weakness and trembling, is satisfactory. Old Papadakis
continues to feed me and I have ceased to be filled with the panic of prospective
abandonment. The suffering is now no worse than anything I knew as a small boy in the
family sickroom. In fact minor discomforts, like an irritated groin, I welcome as wonderful
aids to memory, while I continue to be astonished at my difficulty in recalling that
overwhelming emotional anguish I experienced in my youth. My present tantrums and fits of
despair cannot bear comparison: the impotence of sickness or old age at least reconciles
one to the knowledge there is nothing one can do to improve one's own condition. Those old
wounds seem thoroughly healed, yet here I am about to tear them open again, so possibly I
shall discover if I have learned anything; or shall find out why I should have suffered at all.
Mirenburg is the most beautiful of cities. Great architects and builders have
displayed their best talents here since the tenth century. Every tenement or hovel,