Publisher's Synopsis
Leonid Andreyev was a Russian short-story writer, novelist and playwright. He helped popularize the Expressionist movement in Russian literature and was often compared to Poe. After the 1905 Revolution, his work became more pessimistic, and he lost his audience. He despaired at the end of his life because of the rise of the Bolsheviks, and this may have contributed to his death by heart failure.