The article deals with the epigraph as a form of dialogue between the author and the reader that is essential for the realization of narrative strategies in a novel. The implementation of the epigraph helps the reader not only to understand the message of the work, but allows him to join in co-creating.
The article considers features of the critical literary approach to the oeuvre of one of the most popular Russian authors of the second half of the XIXth century represented in a forgotten work by a prominent Russian philologist dedicated to the jubilee of the writer.
