The book by the famous classic scientist and translator Elena Georgievna Rabinovich is brilliantly written, fascinating research short stories. The first section consists of articles devoted to the stylistics of oral speech, in particular, the principles of the generation of modern jargons (based on material collected by the author). The “Sovietization” of the language is also explored (using examples of teaching English in schools and universities), and a reasoned guess is made about the origin of the expression: “Who? - Pushkin!” The second section is devoted to the assimilation of ancient traditions: did Pushkin read Horace, Dostoevsky - Virgil; what Akhmatova knew about Antinous, whom she introduced in “Poem without a Hero,” and what “catharsis” is in Aristotle.