An Outline of Russian Literature

In this brilliant and stimulating survey of Russian literature, Marc Slonim traces its development from the religious manuscripts and folk epics of the Middle Ages down to the writings of such contemporary authors as Sholokhov and Pasternak.

With understanding, authority and insight, the noted critic and scholar discusses the work of the great poets, playwrights and novelists of the past ten centuries. He analyzes the specific qualities that set Russian literary schools apart from their European counterparts and he studies the influence that the important literary critics – Belinsky, Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Pisarev – had on Russian political and intellectual life.

Mr. Slonim surveys the literature of modern Russia from the bright period of Soviet letters following the Revolution to the subsequent decline in the quality of Soviet fiction under the party state. He examines Russia’s policy towards writers today and probes the possibility of a a renaissance of literature in the Russia of the future.