"She has not been to Switzerland for nothing." Shatov listened with attention, his eyes fixed on the ground, showing not the slightest surprise that a giddy young lady in society should take up work that seemed so out of keeping with her.
Her literary scheme was as follows.

Numbers of papers and journals are published in the capitals and the provinces of Russia, and every day a number of events are reported in them.

The year passes, the newspapers are everywhere folded up and put away in cupboards, or are torn up and become litter, or are used for making parcels or wrapping things.
Numbers of these facts make an impression and are remembered by the public, but in the course of years they are forgotten.

Many people would like to look them up, but it is a labour for them to embark upon this sea of paper, often knowing nothing of the day or place or even year in which the incident occurred.

Yet if all the facts for a whole year were brought together into one book, on a definite plan, and with a definite object, under headings with references, arranged according to months and days, such a compilation might reflect the characteristics of Russian life for the whole year, even though the facts published are only a small fraction of the events that take place.
"Instead of a number of newspapers there would be a few fat books, that's all," observed Shatov.
But Lizaveta Nikolaevna clung to her idea, in spite of the difficulty of carrying it out and her inability to describe it.