XVIII vek - odin iz samykh interesnykh, perelomnykh etapov razvitiya russkoy literatury, kotoraya vsegda formirovalas' i razvivalas' kak neot"emlemaya chast' gosudarstvenno vazhnogo dela. Petrovskie reformy sdelali russkogo cheloveka uchastnikom nebyvalykh po masshtabu preobrazovaniy, burnyy potok kotorykh olitsetvoryaya bystrotechnost' vremeni, pridaval epokhe nevidannyy ranee dinamizm. XIX vek obychno nazyvayut "zolotym vekom" russkoy slovesnosti. Literatory etogo perioda, obrashchayas' k obshchestvenno-politicheskim problemam, sozdali neprevzoydennye po znachimosti shedevry mirovoy literatury. V knige podnimayutsya voprosy samosoznaniya cheloveka Petrovskoy epokhi, problemy gosudarstvennogo sluzheniya ( na primere zhizni i deyatel'nosti M.V. Lomonosova i G.R. Derzhavina), vospitaniya, povsednevnoy zhizni, kotorye nashli svoe otrazhenie v proizvedeniyakh russkoy literatury.