Abram Reitblat, Head of both the Department of Bibliography at Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie and the Department of Rare Books at the Russian State Art Library, has issued a stimulating collection of his essays on Russian literature as an institution. The essays appear at first to be separate pieces in uncertain relation to each other, but Reitblat weaves them into an integrated whole with both aesthetic and functional appeal. The volume reaffirms his standing as an innovative scholar offering new insights and approaches to the study of literature and society in Imperial Russia.

The book is divided into three loosely linked sections. The first, “The Sociology of Literature,” presents several concepts that help define literature as a social institution. The lead essay on the production of literary classics explores the classics as an idea and as a body of texts validated by journalists, writers, and educators. Reitblat also considers how literary scandals contribute to institutional definition by highlighting transgression and thereby affirming boundaries. He explains the origin of scandals and how they shape literary practices. Other essays in the section examine idiosyncratic literary concepts of the early nineteenth century, such as literature that circulated in hand-written copies (pis΄mennaia literatura) and “literary niches” (literaturnye nishi). A further essay addresses the evolution of the concept of “writer” as a professional designation.

The second section, “F. V. Bulgarin,” treats in detail Faddei Bulgarin (1789–1859), a figure not often accorded prime billing and chiefly identified with his discreditable association with Alexander von Benkendorff, chief of the secret police under Nicholas I, and his clashes with Aleksndr Pushkin. Reitblat argues that Bulgarin can be considered Russia's first professional literary critic and a contributor to the evolution of Russia's literary institutions. Bulgarin challenged literary values and norms as a powerful figure with high social standing and useful connections. He demonstrated that contract law could be relevant to literature by pursuing (and winning in 1845) a legal dispute with the bookseller and publisher Ivan Timofeevich Lisenkov (1795–1881). Reitblat sees Bulgarin's literary criticism in the large body of his feuilletons published between 1841 and 1858, which offers a lively view of literature and the arts through commentaries on literature, theatrical performances, music, opera, and visits of cultural figures from abroad. As a methodological contribution to the study of Russia's cultural institutions, Reitblat provides synopses of Bulgarin's Saturday feuilletons published over the seventeen-year period in his journal Northern Bee. Reitblat argues for the feuilleton's value as a source of information about Bulgarin's interests, views, and the context of his times.

In the final section of the book, somewhat infelicitously titled “The History of Literature,” Reitblat turns from society to the influence of politics and the state on literature. In a particularly engrossing essay, he describes how Nicholas I's Third Section bribed and badgered the writer Nikolai Polevoi (1796–1846) until he became a virtual flunkey of the regime and then betrayed his own rebellious son to the authorities. In another essay, Reitblat focuses on N. N. Grech, a literary figure with dubious political associations like those of Bulgarin. The section also contains an essay on the practically unknown self-taught poet Feoktist Ulegov, a writer of serf origins, and one about a prominent late imperial actress who became a rightwing publicist after 1905.

Reitblat's lively style makes even secondary literary actors interesting. More importantly, by including lesser-known figures and examining a range of literary products and practices, Reitblat affirms that great literature arises from and exists within a complex ecology of cultural, social, political, and technological developments and interrelationships. By putting these individually interesting and illuminating essays between two covers, Reitblat recreates a simulation of the nineteenth-century connectedness for the twenty-first century reader.