What meaning does the very form of a work of art radiate? Its type and genre, this or that structure, plot, rhythm? Why does a playwright perceive the world differently than a lyricist or epic writer, and why does an elegy imply a different content than an ode, sonnet or ballad? How does it determine what? Two eternal problems of culture: content and form and the division of literature into genera and types - are pushed into each other in the book and mutually explain themselves. The author of the book, a famous literary critic, esthetician and philosopher, Doctor of Philology, with rare accuracy reveals the meanings given in this or that literary text already by the optics of their genres - tragedy, satire, detective story - even before we, the readers, are immersed into the objective world of this tragic, satirical or detective story. The study of G.D., which became a scientific event when it was first published. Gacheva, analyzing the classic works of ancient, Western European and Russian literature, is by no means limited by the value of the monument of Russian philological and aesthetic thought and fully retains its relevance for modern times. For philologists, philosophers, aestheticians, literary critics and everyone interested in the problems of humanitarian culture.< /p>