“THE FIRST WORK OF AN INEXPERIENCED WRITER”.EKATERINA PRIVALOVA ABOUT THE BOOK BY M. GLADKOVA

Abstract

This article is an introduction to materials from the Archive of the Institute of Russian Literature (Pushkin House) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, a typewritten article “O pervom trude neopytnoy pisatel’nitsy” (On the first work of an inexperienced writer), found in the personal archive of E. P. Privalova and previously never published. The year the text was written, 1975, was established presumably based on the date on the folder in which the other works of the author were kept. The article provides brief background information on the author of the article — researcher of the history of Russian children’s literature, E. P. Privalova; it gives a review of the contents of the folder with archival files — articles about A. L. Schlözer and I. A. Teils, published in different years in the “XVIII vek” (18 th century) collections. The article by E. P. Privalova is dedicated to the study of a novel by M. Gladkova “15-ti dnevnoe puteshestvie, 15-tiletneyu pisannoe, v ugozhdenie roditelyu i posvyashchaemoe 15-ti letnemu drugu. 1810-go goda avgusta mesyatsa” (A 15-day journey, written by a 15-year-old girl, to please her parent and dedicated to her 15-year-old friend. 1810th year of August) (St. Petersburg, 1810). The introduction analyzes the main theses of E. P. Privalova’s article — the alleged authorship of M. Gladkova and literary connections of her text with such works as “Pis’ma russkogo puteshestvennika” (Letters of the Russian Traveler) by N. M. Karamzin and “Puteshestvie iz Peterburga v Moskvu” (Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow) by A. N. Radishchev, published in the last third of the 18th century.