Our People Abroad. Under Southern Skies

Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin - at one time a famous Petersburg writer-humorist, journalist, publisher. "Our People Abroad" - one of Leikin's most well-known works. A cheerful narrative about the travels of merchant Nikolai Ivanovich Ivanov and his wife Glafira Semyonovna, about funny adventures and all sorts of misunderstandings that happen to the heroes in foreign lands, was so liked by readers that Leikin wrote several sequels. "Under Southern Skies" is the fourth and final part of this cycle. The couple, already experienced travelers, set out for France, to the resort town of Biarritz, where Nikolai Ivanovich becomes a hero of the newspaper chronicles, and Glafira Semyonovna, stepping onto the beach in a swimsuit, creates a real furor. Then the heroes go to Madrid, but soon leave Spain: the reason is a Spanish captain, a suitor of Glafira Semyonovna. Leikin humorously depicts compatriots getting acquainted with foreign history and culture, making many discoveries for themselves, but invariably longing abroad for Russian tea parties with a samovar.