Of course everything might be put in: strange incidents, fires, public subscriptions, anything good or bad, every speech or word, perhaps even floodings of the rivers, perhaps even some government decrees, but only such things to be selected as are characteristic of the period; everything would be put in with a certain view, a special significance and intention, with an idea which would illuminate the facts looked at in the aggregate, as a whole.

And finally the book ought to be interesting even for light reading, apart from its value as a work of reference.

It would be, so to say, a presentation of the spiritual, moral, inner life of Russia for a whole year.
"We want every one to buy it, we want it to be a book that will be found on every table," Liza declared.

"I understand that all lies in the plan, and that's why I apply to you," she concluded.

She grew very warm over it, and although her explanation was obscure and incomplete, Shatov began to understand.
"So it would amount to something with a political tendency, a selection of facts with a special tendency," he muttered, still not raising his head.
"Not at all, we must not select with a particular bias, and we ought not to have any political tendency in it.