About the book: 2019 / If you ask an educated European or American what he knows about Russian culture, they will usually name two phenomena: great Russian literature and great Russian ballet. The works of Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, and Chekhov are read all over the world. These writers are on a par with Homer, Dante and Shakespeare and are part of world culture. The book by literary critic Yegor Sartakov will help you take a fresh look at the world of Russian classics and penetrate into the writers' intentions. The book was written together with Level One, the largest lecture hall in Moscow, which helps to understand complex topics, from literature and astronomy to memory development and style workshops. The author of the book is Egor Sartakov, Level One lecturer, senior lecturer at the Department of History of Russian Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Moscow State University, Candidate of Philological Sciences, literary critic.