The volume contains ten new essays on Russian literature and thought of the classical age (roughly 1820-1880). The essays are based on papers delivered at the Fourth World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies held at Harrogate in July 1990. It strikes a balance between fresh work on major authors (Pushkin, Lermontov, Turgenev and Dostoevsky), important work on hitherto neglected minor authors (Marlinsky, Pisemsky and Boborykin), and studies that relate to thinkers of the period (Chaadaev, Herzen and Bakunin).

General Editor's Introduction - Preface - Notes on the Contributors - Note on Transliteration and Translation of Titles - Introduction; D.Offord - Pushkin's 'Ruslan and Liudmila' and the Traditions of the Mock-Epic Poem; M.Altshuller - Pushkin's 'Golden Cockerel': a Critical Reexamination; S.Hoisington - Marlinsky's 'Annalat-Bek': the Orientalisation of the Caucasus in Russian Literature; S.Layton - Lermontov's Reading of Pushkin: The Tales of Belkin and A Hero of Our Time; P.Meyer - Chaadaey's Letters to Viazemsky; R.McNally - Pisemsky's Sketches from Peasant Life: an Attempt at a Non-Partisan Reading; J.Woodhouse - Bakunin, Turgenev and Rudin; M.Shatz - Herzen's Past and Thoughts: Dichtung und Wahrheit; E.Dryzhakova - Suicide and Folk Beliefs in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment; L.Ivanits - Boborykin and his Chronicles of the Russian Intelligentsia; J.McNair - Index