A History of Design, Creation, Publication, and Critical Reception of Lyubov Gurevich’s Novel “Flatland” (“Ploskogoryeˮ)

The article attempts to characterize L.Y. Gurevich’s (1866-1940) creative persona and explain the reasons behind her refusal to continue her career as a writer and her transition to “the guild of critics.” A study of contemporary responses to the novel Ploskogorye (Flatland, 1897) suggests that their utterly arbitrary interpretation of the central idea, misinterpretation of the content and harsh criticism seemed to be painful to the young writer. The incomprehension of the critics, which could be found even in well-intentioned reviews, their contradictory remarks and focus on secondary aspects reveal, among other things, shortcomings of the methodology of criticism in general (especially in populist and Marxist criticism). Moreover, it also demonstrates male critics’ common unfriendliness towards women’s writing, which the author of the novel could not help but feel. In addition, the reviews allow us to look at the unsuccessful method of promoting the novel by the writer herself and similar ways that critics used to diminish the importance of works written by female authors. Nevertheless, various interpretations of the novel make it possible to read it from different perspectives and conclude how readers might have reacted to it.

L.Y. Gurevich, the magazine Severny Vestnik, reception, “male criticism, ” novel Ploskogorye (Flatland), A.L. Volynsky, idealism