At first, I wanted to complain a little about this book. Like, the book is wonderful, but what were the compilers thinking when they left out Bunin's beautiful poem "Childhood"?! I've had the book for six months; I've studied it inside and out, looked at all the paintings, and read all the poems and biographies. I sat down to write a post, and—darn it!—on the very first page I happened to open, I found "The hotter the day, the sweeter it is in the pine forest..."
Well, it turns out that after six months of close study, the book hasn't exhausted itself yet, and now I'm ready to admit that this book is a dream, a delight, almost perfect! I advise all lovers of the classics to have it in their library; it will stay with you for a lifetime, it's for any age: for any school grade, because it contains poems from the 1st to 11th-grade curriculum; and for any adult, because it has plenty of wonderful poems, both well-known to everyone and those little-known to the general reader.
But this is not just a poetry collection—it is also an art album, with classic paintings by Russian artists on every page, selected to match the text. Poems about autumn are paired with Levitan, poems about fairy tales are spread across pages with fairy-tale scenes, and next to Lermontov is Shishkin’s landscape "On the Wild North...". Very atmospheric!
A book that isn't destined to sit quietly on a shelf. It is doomed to wander around the house, appearing in different places so that in a spare moment you can pick it up and flip through it over a cup of tea at the dinner table or zone out with your feet stretched out on the sofa instead of poking at your phone.
The only thing we want to warn you about is its size. You expect a book like this to be large format, A4, like a real art album, but it is actually medium-sized (that's the only reason I don't consider it absolutely perfect). But it is thick and heavy, beautifully produced, and suitable as a gift.
"The Heavenly Azure is Pure" is a book for everyone and for all time.
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