Just Classics! An Anti-textbook on Literature

Where are we and where is Russian literature? The answer: here. Everything is here, nearby and close, no matter how many years have passed and where we find ourselves. "Just Classics!" is a book for free reading. It is written by prose writer, philologist, and educator Alexander Arkhangelsky. Its audience is anyone who is interested in learning. Myths and theater, Antiquity and Enlightenment, poor Liza and poor Katerina, Pushkin and Gogol, Tatyana Tolstaya and Lyudmila Ulitskaya... What is all of this, and why do we need it? And how is everything connected to everything? The book consists of 52 meetings, 52 topics, 52 creative tasks for those who are curious to delve deeper. Why 52? According to the number of weeks in a year, so that within a year, one can become an excellent reader and learn to better understand classics.

About the author: Alexander Arkhangelsky is a literary scholar, critic, and writer. He was born on April 27, 1962, in Moscow. In 1988, he defended his dissertation on Pushkin's lyrics, worked in media, and hosted the television program "Meanwhile" on the "Culture" channel for almost 20 years. He was a professor at the Center for Humanities Knowledge at the Moscow State Conservatory named after Tchaikovsky, an ordinary professor at the Higher School of Economics (2006-2023), and a professor at the Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences ("Shaninka") (2023-2024). From time to time, he taught courses as a visiting professor at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). He has directed and is currently directing documentary films. He is the author of novels and scientific and educational books, and a laureate of the "Big Book" award. In 2024, he was recognized as a foreign agent in Russia.