Vasilii Kirillovich Trediakovsky, one of the three leading Russian writers of the mid eighteenth century, was in many respects a product of the Petrine reforms: energetic, adventurous, socially mobile, and eager to work for the benefit of Russia in the field for which his talents and education prepared him best. An able philologist, skillful translator, and devoted poet, he was the first Russian writer to gain a direct knowledge of European literary life and to attempt to transplant its forms onto Russian soil, as well as the first to draw attention, later in his life, to the importance of the Russian national tradition. During his long career as a writer he produced works in virtually all meters and genres. However, his significant contributions to poetry, versification, literary theory, criticism, linguistics, and the development of the Russian literary language were overshadowed by his reputation as the most tasteless and...