Based on the differentiated approach to the reading audience of the second half of the XIX century, the article deals with the phenomenon of the bursa’s prose. The perception of “Bursa’s Essays” by N.G. Pomyalovsky is included in the context of non-fiction literature. The issue of the actual authenticity of the fiction text is considered in the process of “dialogue” with literary criticism, concepts of literary and religious figures, and in the light of the memoirs of D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak.