This review focuses on the new book by the renowned German scholar Heinz-Günter Nesselrath on Lucian of Samosata, an author whom Nesselrath has been studying for over 40 years. The review gives a brief overview of the preface, the nine chapters and the afterword. Among the undoubted merits of this book is that Nesselrath has succeeded in presenting his view and his understanding of Lucian’s rich legacy, which have developed over many years of working with the texts. This is what distinguishes Nesselrath’s book from the companions popular nowadays, where a plurality of opinions and approaches of the authors of the articles naturally arises. On the one hand, the author perfectly shows that the genre and content diversity of the works, the heterogeneity of literary masks are quite amenable to comprehensive consideration. There is no reason to speak of “the comedy of nihilism” or “the palimpsestic evanescence of author’s voice” (T. Whitmarsh). Through Nesselrath’s book, a distinct, consistent portrait of Lucian as a writer is created. On the other hand, this book once again confirms the unfounded and biased judgements of J. Bernays, R. Helm, who regarded Lucian as a mere epigone and a mediocre writer. The book’s shortcomings may include the fact that the author speaks of the division of rhetoric and philosophy and notes that there is another opinion, but does not elaborate on it. Equally neglected is the manuscript tradition of Lucian. Nonetheless, the unified concept, the well-thought-out structure, the lively and lucid presentation of the material allow us to say that this book is the long-awaited basic study that has been sorely lacking for Lucian