LOUIS LÉGER, POPULARIZER OF RUSSIAN LITERATURE IN FRANCE

The article describes the contribution of the French Slavic scholar Louis Léger (1843-1923) to the popularization and study of Russian literature in France. Léger is presented as the successor to the tradition of E. M. de Vogüé. For the rst time in Russian literary criticism, a comparative analysis of Léger’s anthology of Russian literature and the anthology compiled by his predecessor A. Tardif de Mello is provided. Léger’s Russian Literature anthology (1892) is considered as the prologue to his History of Russian Literature (1893). The History of Russian Literature is deemed to be more popular and perfunctory, while the preface to the anthology is more problem-setting and analytical, testifying to the af nity of Léger the scholar to the cultural and historical school in French literary criticism.

Russian literature, popularization, anthology, history