ABSTRACT
In eighteenth-century edition of The Battle of the Books throws us into the midst of this intense battle and offers three symbols to aid in interpreting the scene. Jonathan Swift, a Tale of a Tub. Written for the Universal Improvement of Mankind. The knights look indistinguishable, but the pages of the books that serve as their emblems give the viewer a clue to their identity. Fedor Emin and Mikhail Chulkov, the first published authors of Russian fiction known by name, both turned to European literature for models. Their books, Emin and Chulkov addressed their ruler, reader and rival; neither one minced words in expressing his beliefs. In the introduction to his first published work, the voluminous collection The Mocker, or the Slavonic Tales, Chulkov reveals to his readers his own process of writing. It is a known fact that Catherine the Great was well read in French literature, philosophy and politics.
