About the book: 2004 / Offered to the reader is a book by the prominent historian and ethnographer P.F. Preobrazhensky (1894-1941) - a master of vivid historical paintings, a talented author of the now forgotten genre of popular science essays - is distinguished by a brilliant literary form, free from dreary scientificism. The book includes essays on Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, an article “Terence and his time,” which briefly outlines the struggle that was raging in Roman society at that time and the situation in which the neo-Attic comedy arose. The essay “Voltaire of Antiquity” is dedicated to Lucian. In the essay “The Myth of Catiline,” Preobrazhensky is included in the debate about the figure of Catiline that arose in the historical tradition. The reader will also read with interest essays about Flaubert, Charles Kingsley and others. Recommended for a wide range of readers.