V knige osveshchayutsya dukhovno-nravstvennye i religioznye aspekty tvorchestva russkikh pisateley XIX-XX vv. Issleduetsya prichina ikh nastoychivogo obrashcheniya k "proklyatym voprosam" bytiya: o smysle zhizni, o dobre i zle. Avtor, sopostavlyaya put' geroev proizvedeniy Pushkina i Karamzina, Dostoevskogo i Ostrovskogo, obrashchaet glavnoe vnimanie na vnutrenniy konflikt, nakhodit ryad porazitel'nykh sovpadeniy i predlagaet chitatelyam izvlech' iz dramaticheskikh sudeb geroev nravstvennye uroki. V stat'e o romane L.N. Tolstogo vpervye obrashcheno vnimanie na osoboe, tolstovskoe, opredelenie ponyatiya "prostoty," kotoroe yavlyaetsya klyuchevym dlya ponimaniya vsey kontseptsii epopei. Kniga soderzhit takzhe uroki, v kotorykh obobshchen opyt prepodavaniya russkoy literatury kak yavleniya pravoslavnoy kul'tury. Dlya uchiteley shkol, litseev i gimnaziy, studentov, starsheklassnikov, abiturientov, spetsialistov-filologov i shirokogo kruga chitateley.