For the Fullness of Happiness

The unusual creative collaboration of Ilya Ilf and Yevgeny Petrov continues to touch and excite readers, their memory does not fade, and love for their books does not weaken. Working together for a short time (only ten years), the co-authors left behind a vast array of literary masterpieces of various genres. The works included in this collection were written during the period that separated the novel "The Twelve Chairs" from the novel "The Golden Calf," as well as in a more mature creative period of the co-authorship of the satirists — from 1929 to 1934. By exposing philistinism, sycophancy, and bureaucratism, the satirists opposed hypocrisy in art and literature, against literary opportunism and "strict citizens" who believed that "laughter is harmful" and that "satire cannot be funny." Rereading these immortal masterpieces, one cannot help but admire the diversity of the writers' creative talents, the literary brilliance of their feuilletons, essays, and comedies.