Angely i demony literatury. Polemicheskie zametki "neprofessionala" o "literaturnom cehe"

Kniga predstavlyaet soboy sbornik ocherkov i statey o duhovnyh smyslah literatury. Avtor - ne literator, a ekonomist, t. e. ne "literaturnyy professional". No tem neozhidannee i interesnee mneniya i ocenki, kotorye inogda diametral'no protivopolozhny slozhivshimsya stereotipam, soderzhaschimsya v uchebnikah po literature dlya sredney i vysshey shkoly. Avtor othodit ot tradicionnogo predstavleniya o tom, chto hudozhestvennaya literatura, buduchi chast'yu kul'tury, pozitivno vliyaet na cheloveka i obschestvo (za krayne redkimi isklyucheniyami). V knige vyskazyvaetsya protivopolozhnyy tezis: hudozhestvennaya literatura, dazhe klassika, chasche razvraschaet cheloveka i razrushaet obschestvo. Bol'shinstvo dokazatel'stv stroitsya na primerah russkoy literatury XIX - nachala XX vekov, na kotoruyu sil'no vliyala zapadnoevropeyskaya literatura (I.V.Gete, Dzh.G.Bayron, O.Uayl'd i dr.). Pokazana rokovaya rol' etoy russkoyazychnoy literatury v podgotovke usloviy revolyucii 1905-1907 godov i Fevral'skoy i Oktyabr'skoy revolyuciy 1917 goda. V russkoy kul'ture dorevolyucionnogo vremeni imelis' i "polozhitel'nye isklyucheniya". K takovym avtor otnosit, prezhde vsego, proizvedeniya A.S.Pushkina, N.V.Gogolya, F.M.Dostoevskogo.