This review article deals with Luba Golburt's award-winning monograph on the literary treatment of Russia's eighteenth century. After situating Golburt's book within the context of recent publications on eighteenth-century Russian studies, the reviewer offers a summary of the pros and cons of the author's methodological approach. The reviewer argues that The First Epoch constitutes a landmark contribution to both the ongoing reevaluation of early modern Russian history and to the scholarly study of the confluence between literary and mnemonic praxis.