Jim Curtis received his PhD from Columbia University and was professor of Russian literature at the University of Missouri-Columbia for 31 years. He is now Professor Emeritus of Russian. Dr. Curtis is the author of numerous books and essays, including Solzhenitsyn’s Traditional Imagination and Stalin’s Soviet Monastery.

"Curtis’ interjection of Russian terms, together with their English translations, gives a very pleasant feeling to the book. And one gets the Slavic emotions when he translates such Russianisms as tser’kovnost’ as 'churchiness.' When Curtis makes assertions or arguments it is never done with dogmatism – he rather invites discussion and argument."– Irwin Weil, Professor Emeritus of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Northwestern University

• Preface – The Critical Legacy of the Twentieth Century and Russian Studies Today – Russia and Russian Literature in the Nineteenth Century: Some General Remarks – The Biographical and Literary Contexts of the Russian Classic Writers – The Arrival Motif and the Monoplot of the Russian Classics – Metaphor is to Dostoyevsky as Metonymy is to Tolstoy – Why Are Russian Novels So Long? – A Proposed Periodization of Russian Literature, 1825- 1918 – Epilogue: The Heart of Russian Literature – Conclusion – Bibliography – Index.