Literaturnye istočniki " di P. L'vov.

A Russian Pamela, or the Story of Mary, a Virtuous Peasant Girl The paper examines Petr Lvov’s 1789 novel A Russian Pamela, or the Story of Mary, a Virtuous Peasant Girl in relation to Richardson’s Pamela. It looks at connections and differences between the two works. There can be no doubt that the title of Lvov’s work was meant as a reference to the English classic, already famous in Russia, but instead of the epistolary form of Richardson’s masterpiece, the narrative approach he took was that of the conventional novel. Lvov reworked the figure of the virtuous maidservant by placing her within the socio-economic context of contemporary Russia. Clearly, as a free peasant girl, Mary would not have had access to the paper necessary to write letters. Evident principles of Rousseau’s philosophy can be found in the ideas of Mary’s father Phillip throughout the work. Also worthy of note are the literary echoes of old Russian works, and Mary’s tears in the final section of the book offer parallels in wording and theme to The Song of Igor’s Campaign. The author notes that Lvov perhaps had at his disposal a now lost copy of The Song of Igor’s Campaign, since the only existing copy of the work is that discovered by Count Musin-Pushkin after 1792.