About the book: 2017 / Elena D. Tolstaya’s book “The Hopscotch Game” includes two monographs. The first, “Transformations of Romanticism: “On the Eve” of Turgenev,” examines the modernization and disguise of romantic topoi in Turgenev’s novel, studies what makes up “Turgenev’s woman,” and finds unexpected literary motifs reflected in the novel. The second monograph, “Secret Figures in War and Peace,” is devoted to Leo Tolstoy’s experimental writing techniques, mainly types of repetition in the novel (including “rare” repetitions as a way of introducing themes important to the author, sound repetitions, etc.). d.); it also identifies the mythopoetic motifs of the novel and traces their transformation from its early versions to the canonical one. The last part of the book contains analyzes (“The Bride” by Chekhov) and articles about the classics of Russian prose of the twentieth century, exploring the little-known journalism of Alexei Tolstoy in the mid-1910s, reminiscences from modern authors by Bulgakov, as well as prototypes of two early Nabokov characters.