Enlightenment adventurers. 2nd edition, corrected and supplemented. Stroyev A.I.

The book of Alexander Stroyev, a professor of general and comparative literary criticism, tells about the shadow side of the Enlightenment: about adventure seekers, alchemists and deceivers. It is dedicated to the famous adventurers and writers who visited the XVIII century in Russia: Casanova, Cagliostro, D’Eon, Bernarden de Saint-Pierre, Chudi, Fureer de Montrobon, brothers Zannovich and not only. Their stories serve as a kind of mirror, which reflects not so much consciousness as the subconscious of society: its secret desires and hopes, fears and fantasies.

In the first part, the author explores the place of adventurers in the information system, their relationship with monarchs and philosophers, in the second - compares their biographies with narrative models of the era, myths and stray plots. The final chapter is devoted to the fate of those adventurers who went to Russia, seeing in it a country where the most daring utopian projects can be realized.

The reader is offered the second - corrected and supplemented - edition of the book.