About the book: year / SALOV ILYA ALEXANDROVICH (1834–1903) - prose writer, playwright. Salov spent his childhood not far from Penza on his father’s family estate, Nikolsky, located in a picturesque corner of the Volga region. Pictures of nature, painted accurately and poetically, will become an integral part of his works. In 1850 he moved to Moscow and served in the office of the Moscow governor. He was engaged in translations of fashionable French plays. He wrote and published two of his own plays at his own expense. In 1858–1859 Salov’s works, written under the tangible influence of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter,” are published one after another: “Pushilov’s Regent” and “Forgotten Estate” (“Russkiy Vestnik”), “Forester” (“Contemporary”), “Dead Body” (“Domestic Notes”) "), In 1864 he published the anti-serfdom novel "Butuzka" in the magazine "Time". Since the mid-70s. collaborated in Saltykov-Shchedrin’s “Notes of the Fatherland”. Shchedrin repeatedly turned to Salov with a request to send his works: “...The editors greatly appreciate your participation in the magazine” (Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Collected works: In 20 volumes. M., 1976. T. 19. Book 1 . P. 104). In Otechestvennye zapiski from 1877 to 1833, Salov published fourteen stories. Their main theme is bourgeois predators and their victims. Contemporaries accused Salov of imitating Shchedrin, while the author claimed that his heroes were “copied from life.” In the 80-90s. Salov's stories were a success among readers and were translated into foreign languages. In 1894, reviews of Salov's new collection of stories appeared in major Russian magazines. Critics noted his excellent knowledge of rural life, deep sympathy for village people, and a truthful portrayal of peasants devoid of idealization. A. M. Skabichevsky described Salov as a writer of the “Turgenev school”, one of the most talented fiction writers of his time. According to A. N. Pypin, “some of his village heroes can be considered among the best folk types” created by Russian writers. At the same time, Salov’s truthful, unvarnished portrayal of the people did not satisfy the critic of the populist “Russian Wealth”, who without reason accused the writer of “an indifferent attitude towards the phenomena depicted.” After the closure of Otechestvennye Zapiski, Salov was published in the magazines Russian Thought, Severny Vestnik, Nedelya, Artist, Niva, etc..