Звернуто увагу на потребу нового текстологічно вивіреного безцензурного видання творів І. Нечуя-Левицького, куди слід долучити й раніше не публіковані та маловідомі тексти. Зокрема, йдеться про нарисову оповідь "Як сахарні голови літали в повітрі", написану понад сто років тому та з невідомих причин не віддану до друку.
In November 2018 it was 190 years since the birth of Ivan Nechuy-Levytsky. The author of the article believes that it is now necessary to accumulate materials for the updated academic edition of the artistic heritage of the classics of Ukrainian literature to its 200th anniversary. In this context, the work "How Sugarheads were flying in the air" is interesting for researchers. It was forgotten and the only one publication of the draft text was made by Vira Levytska, the great-niece of writer, in 1978. At the time of preparation for publication, the writing of some words, in particular phonetic dialecticisms, was consistent with the rules of the then spelling. According to the author of the article, in preparation for a textually validated publication, phonetic dialecticisms should be reproduced or at least submitted in the notes. The essay is based on a true story: farmer Pylyp Taran, who had become an involuntary accomplice t&o the theft, later told the village priest about that sin. Pylyp asked him to warn the host, Lazar Gershkovich Lieber[ma]n, that his employees steal and smuggle refined sugar through the fence. In the preamble to the first publication, in particular,& it is said that the work "reveals certain facets of socio-economic relations in a capitalist society, which neglects people and leads to moral degradation. There are also anticlerical motives here". In fact, the analyzed work shows the beneficial in&fluence of the rural priest on the development of the described events and their solution. The article combines genre features of essay, partial re-publication, ethological and poetic analysis. In particular, the peculiarities of the poetics of the e&ssaynarrative, its ethological rootedness in the mentality of the people are analyzed.
