To the Hermitage

Main Ideas

• The intertwining of destinies and eras, where the present meets the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, and the journey becomes a metaphor for the search for truth and the meaning of human existence
• A meditation on the nature of history and memory, on how the past comes alive in the present, and how the great ideas and passions of former times continue to shape the modern world
• An ironic exploration of the role of the intelligentsia, the scholarly community, and literature in shaping cultural identity, as well as their capacity for self-irony and self-exposure
• An investigation of freedom of thought and speech, embodied in the figure of Diderot as a symbol of indomitable reason and the pursuit of enlightenment, despite historical and personal catastrophes
• A plunge into the labyrinths of the human soul, where doubts, hopes, love, and loneliness become inseparable from the intellectual and spiritual quest
• A subtle play with genres, styles, and narrative perspectives, creating a multilayered mosaic of meanings in which each reader finds their own path to truth