The stories and essays of Gennady Alexandrovich Barabtarlo (1949-2019), a philologist, poet, translator and researcher of the work of Vladimir Nabokov, cannot but surprise. The literary and philosophical images brought to life by them cover a huge time period from St. Augustine to Pushkin and from Plotinus to Shestov, and the fresh, precise, refined language reminds the reader of the highest literary models. This is the prose of an artist who devoted his whole life to the study of literature, and until the end of his days not only preserved the taste of his native speech, but also multiplied its gift.