This is a book of essays about the key milestones in the history of French lyrics of the 19th-20th centuries and its major masters: Vigny, Hugo, Nervale, Baudelaire, Rimbaud. Verlaine, Mallvrme, Apollinaire, Desios, Prevert, Char, Saint-Joey Perse, many others. Paul Eluard - the world famous singer of love, human brotherhood and revolutionary re * construction of life - is dedicated to the most detailed of the portraits. Excerpts from the best Russian translations of French lyrics are interfered with in the book.