The article is devoted to the actual problems of the theory of the book, created and largely practically implemented by V.A. Favorsky and his associates in the 1930s —1950s. This theory was based on the principle of perception of the book as a synthetic art, which is confirmed by the tradition of handwritten books, relevant to the era of printing. The main contradiction faced by those who largely follow the work of V.A. Favorsky remains the correlation of the aesthetic concept of the book with its literary content. There are many dark places in V.A. Favorsky’s theory connected with this problem. Different approaches to this problem, characteristic of such a complex, synthetic work as a book, are analyzed, including issues related to the psychology of creativity, with a deep study of literary material when working on a book. The ambiguous experience of V.A. Favorsky, associated with immersion in the material of the book, with the study of the cultural context of the work, is considered. The article also highlights the important problem for V.A. Favorsky of the perception of a literary text in connection with the ideology and historical context of various epochs.

The theoretical legacy of V.A. Favorsky does not lose relevance in our time, when the art of books is in need of pioneering approaches related to electronic publications of various types, including on the basis of the principle of “relay race of arts”, developed by the director and art theorist S.V. Obraztsov. Taking into account the current state of book publishing and its prospects, an updated appeal to the legacy of V.A. is proposed. Favorsky, which would solve the task of creating books at a high artistic level, taking into account the educational and informative functions of the book, without contradictions with the literary content of the work.