It is well known that to understand a writer, you must first read him correctly. However, this is not always possible. The researcher needs to know a lot about the author being studied, feel not only the text, but also the subtext of his creations, the aesthetic and emotional structure of each phrase. Otherwise, there may be annoying miscalculations. In our opinion, such mistakes are allowed when studying N. I. Novikov's satirical magazine "Drone", starting from the author's preface. Researchers usually do not notice the irony of the publisher contained in it, reading it, oddly enough, page 3 too literal. They take seriously the claim that the publisher himself is the author. "apart from this preface", he will write "very little" for the magazine and intends to publish mostly "other people's works" (see: N. I. Novikov's Satirical Journals, Moscow-L., 1951, p. 47; further only - List and serial number). It was not noted that this text set a special kind of cheerful laughing mood to the entire composition of the weekly. It was written using the technique of literary play, which also none of the researchers focused on. Addressing readers, Novikov poses as a carefree, restless sloth who does not want to do anything. "No matter how much you think about it," he observes, " you will not correctly guess the intention with which I am issuing this magazine, if I do not tell you about it myself. (...) Well, it's about my weakness: I know that laziness (...) I am an implacable enemy of hard work; I know that it makes a person incapable of public and private benefits ( ... ), but with all that, I can't overcome it in any way." It is further reported that the publisher, because of his laziness, does not go to bow to the "big boyars ", does not read books, does not enlighten the mind with science and knowledge. Being an "eternal slave of laziness", he did not even choose any service for himself (neither military, nor ordered, nor court). I felt only one desire in myself -to publis ... Read more