LAUSR

Abstract The present paper focuses on the disruptive nature of Aleksandr Griboedov's play Woe from Wit (Gore ot uma) for 19th-century readers. After a short review of the reactions of various notable writers and critics concerning non canonical aspects of the play's plot, structure, characterization or politics, it focuses on two lesser known texts, which document other aspects of Woe from Wit's reception: a late nineteenth-century anonymous pornographic spoof and Evdokia Rostopchina's 1856 sequel The Return of Chatskii (Vozvrat Chatskogo). As it turns out, both these hypertexts voiced deep concerns about the disturbing social order painted in Woe from Wit and aimed at fixing it by restoring the traditional gender and class roles shaken up in Griboedov's original.