Petr Dmitrievich Boborykin (1836–1921) - everyday life writer, playwright, literary critic, publicist, memoirist, author of the most popular novels “Dealers”, “China Town”, “Vasily Terkin” and many others, who devoted more than sixty years to literary activity . The writer conceived the book as a final work of memoirs—a documentary history of the life of the Russian intelligentsia, with its merits and weaknesses, and selfless search for truth. The life of society at the moment, costumes, the nature of conversations, changes in fashion, everyday tastes, furnishings, customs, entertainment and habits... are depicted by him with entertaining accuracy and detail. The scope of the work he undertook can be judged by the volume of the surviving first nine chapters of this memoir epic, covering a smaller part of the half-century he had planned. All texts by Boborykin included in this book are printed without abbreviations according to the edition: P. D. Boborykin. Memoirs in two volumes. M., “Fiction”, 1965.