About the book: year / “...The Sovremennik of 1857 contained a number of articles about Lessing, which examined in some detail his significance for contemporary Germany. With Laocoon, Lessing created a new theory of poetry, bringing life into it and breaking up the deathly formalism that had until then dominated all aesthetics. With extreme clarity and power of thought, with irresistible logical persuasiveness, he proved that the essential subject of poetry, unlike all other arts and especially painting, is action.…»