Playing Classics. Russian Prose of the 19th–20th Century

The book by Elena D. Tolstaya "Playing Classics" includes two monographs. The first, "Transformations of Romanticism: "On the Eve" by Turgenev" examines the modernization and masking of romantic topos in Turgenev's novel, studies what constitutes the "Turgenev woman," and finds unexpected literary motifs reflected in the novel. The second monograph, "Secret Figures" in "War and Peace," is dedicated to the experimental writing techniques of Leo Tolstoy, mainly types of repetition in the novel (including "rare" repetitions as a means of conveying important themes for the author, sound repetitions, etc.); it also identifies mythopoetic motifs of the novel and traces their transformations from its early versions to the canonical one. In the last part of the book, analyses ("The Bride" by Chekhov) and articles about the classics of 20th-century Russian prose are published, exploring the little-known journalism of Alexei Tolstoy from the mid-1910s, reminiscences of modern authors in Bulgakov, as well as the prototypes of two characters from early Nabokov.