The structure of Solovyov's three lifetime poetry books: toward a problem statement

This essay examines for the first time the three editions, from 1891, 1895, and 1900, of Solovyov’s collected poetry from the point of view of their internal organization and relationship. The task posed is the identification and description of the most important components of the poetry book, which are present in all three editions and contribute to an understanding of the author's conception as it was realized in the books under consideration. To fulfill this task the comparative and descriptive methods of analysis are used. The evolution of the author’s artistic consciousness is described on the basis of the collected editions of Solovyov's poetry, his epistolary heritage, and the research of contemporary scholars. The different levels of the author's dialogue with the reader, with critics, as well as with poets and writers are highlighted. The author outlines the ways of researching the examined theme. In particular, the chronological order of the development of Solovyov's lyrical books, as well as the definite recurrence of the separate lyrical components in each of the three books, is shown. We see that the content of the author's three prefaces determines their function in the structure of the poetry books. The special role of critical works, included by the author in the third edition, in shaping the structure of the book of poems, as well as their relation with the foreword, is emphasized. The author concludes with genre renewal of art forms to solve new aesthetic tasks. Solovyov's aspiration to realize the life-creative conception within the framework of work on three lifetime editions is affirmed. In conclusion, the author substantiates the idea that the presented editions in their unity are a transitional genre form, which corresponds to the poet’s individual artistic searching and which establishes the literary trends of the turn of XIX–XX centuries.