A book of selected works by the Russian writer Ivan Ivanovich Lazhechnikov, who stood at the origins of the Russian historical novel.
The book includes little-known works: an excerpt from an unfinished novel “The Sorcerer on Sukharev Tower,” devoted to events of the post-Petrine era (1725–1727), and essays-memoirs “Recruit of 1812,” “My First Meeting with Pushkin,” “Notes for a Biography of Belinsky,” “A Few Notes and Memories Regarding the Article on Yermolov’s Biography,” “How I Knew Magnitsky.”