Book excerpt: Pushkin's status as Russia's national poet rests as much on the breadth of his cultural influence as on the intrinsic quality of his works. Pushkin's Legacy reflects in various ways the areas in which this influence has been felt. Part I considers some of the key factors in defining Pushkin for posterity, in particular the crucial role played by the critic Belinskii and the problematics of periodising Pushkin. Part II examines the richness of Pushkin's poetics, including the ways in which his work challenged the established boundaries between poetry and prose. Part III examines Russian music's debt to Pushkin and vice versa: Russian music's role in popularising his works. Part IV examines Pushkin's influence abroad via studies of his influence on Mérimée and Henry James and, on a more personal level, through his descendants in England. Pushkin's Legacy offers a variety of approaches to Pushkin and his oeuvre and to the nature of his complex impact on Russian and European culture. Pushkin's Legacy is the third volume devoted to Pushkin to be published in the SSLP series, under the general title Two Hundred Years of Pushkin. It follows volume I, Pushkin's Secret: Russian Writers Reread and Rewrite Pushkin, and volume II, Alexander Pushkin: Myth and Monument.