The Reception of F. de Graffigny’s Works in Russia

The article considers the particularities of the Russian reception of the epistolary novel “Letters of a Peruvian Woman” (1747) by F. de Graffigny, which became one of the “best sellers” in the 18th-century France. A close attention is paid to the collection of poetic messages “Letters of two Peruvians” by A.A. Pisarev (1825). Our analysis demonstrates that Pisarev’s main focus was not so much on Graffigny’s novel, but rather on its sequel created by H. de La Marche-Courmont and published anonymously under the title “Letters from Aza, or from a Peruvian” (1749). An assumption is made that Pisarev, offering an original interpretation of the French plot about the Peruvians, followed the tradition of “Heroides” that goes back to Ovid, i.e. poetic messages written on behalf of characters despairing over the separation from their beloved

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