Had the oppressive Soviet regime not cracked down on author Victor Shklovsky and his Russian formalists. the world may have seen more books by the ingenious author. Still, the world was able to read Theory of Prose (originally published in 1929), which is a nonfiction work of literary criticism that discusses structuralism and post-structuralism. In essence, Scklovsky's argument is that writers craft their books with artistic principles in mind rather than with attempts to imitate "reality" in mind. Ultimately, Theory of Prose examines the way that fiction is created and consumed, as well as the way that fiction is looked at in the world - from writers like Cervantes to Dickens and Bely and Rozanov.
Not only is Theory of Prose regarded as one of the most important works of literary criticism to have ever been written, it continues to sell quite a few copies and is still reasonably well-reviewed. While some reviewers don't particularly like the book because of Shklovsky's "bad prose," those who like the book have said that Shklovsky is one of the "best-educated minds of the twentieth century" and that his book is "intriguing and intelligent."
