In the book of the famous literary critic and historian B.F. Egorov, for the first time for the general reader, the life path of one of the most difficult figures of Russian culture Apollon Alexandrovich Grigoriev (1822-1864), a wonderful poet, prose writer, literary and theater critic, publicist, is revealed in detail and popularly. Widely known only for his " gypsy " songs (" Oh, speak at least you with me... " and " Two guitars ringing... "), he was still an outstanding critic of the mid-19th century (Turgenev compared him to Belinsky), the author of the most interesting memoirs, a talented essayist. A man of irrepressible passions, he did not know measures in love, in friendship, in alcohol, often fell into ideological extremes (he was a freemason, revolutionary, conservative, Slavophile, " soil worker "), then honestly refused " extremism ". By the contradictions of life and work, Grigoriev can be compared with N.S.L Eskov and V.V. Rozanov.