Selected Short Fiction of Leonid Andreyev: The Seven Who Were Hanged, Red Laugh, The Dilemma, Lazarus, Life of Father Vassily, etc.

by Leonid Andreyev, W.H. Lowe (Translator), Thomas Seltzer (Translator)

Selected Short Fiction of Leonid Andreyev is a compilation of twenty-eight stories translated into English, Leonid Andreyev was a novelist whose best work has a place in Russian literature for its evocation of a mood of despair and absolute pessimism. At the age of 20 Andreyev entered St. Petersburg University but lived restlessly for some time. In 1894, after several attempts at suicide, he transferred to the University of Moscow, where he studied law. He became a barrister and then a law and crime reporter, publishing his first stories in newspapers and periodicals. Encouraged by Maxim Gorky, who became a close friend, he was at first regarded as Gorky’s successor as a Realist. His “Zhili-byli” (“Once There Lived…”) attracted attention and was included in his first collection of short stories (1901). Two stories of 1902, Bezdna (“The Abyss”) and V tumane (“In the Fog”), caused a storm by their candid and audacious treatment of sex. Andreyev’s work became widely discussed, and he acquired fame and wealth with a series of novels and short stories that, at their best, resemble Tolstoy in their powerful themes and ironic sympathy for suffering humanity. Among his best tales are Gubernator (1905; His Excellency the Governor) and Rasskaz o semi poveshennykh (1908; The Seven That Were Hanged). Andreyev’s fame as a novelist declined rapidly as his works became increasingly sensational. He began a career as a dramatist in 1905. His most successful plays—Zhizn cheloveka (1907; The Life of Man) and Tot, kto poluchayet poshchyochiny (1916; He Who Gets Slapped)—were allegorical dramas, but he also attempted Realist comedy.

Genres: Fiction

466 pages, Paperback

Published September 9, 2020

About the author

Leonid Nikolayevich Andreyev (Russian: Леонид Николаевич Андреев; 1871-1919) was a Russian playwright and short-story writer who led the Expressionist movement in the national literature. He was active between the revolution of 1905 and the Communist revolution which finally overthrew the Tsarist government. His first story published was About a Poor Student, a narrative based upon his own experiences. It was not, however, until Gorky discovered him by stories appearing in the Moscow Courier and elsewhere that Andreyevs literary career really began. His first collection of stories appeared in 1901, and sold a quarter-million copies in short time. He was hailed as a new star in Russia, where his name soon became a byword. He published his short story, In the Fog in 1902. Although he started out in the Russian vein he soon startled his readers by his eccentricities, which grew even faster than his fame. His two best known stories may be The Red Laugh (1904) and The Seven Who Were Hanged (1908). His dramas include the Symbolist plays The Life of Man (1906), Tsar Hunger (1907), Black Masks (1908), Anathema (1909) and He Who Gets Slapped (1915).

Reviews

[Kevin Maness · Rating 5 out of 5]

An astonishing collection of stories, filled with moments of profound beauty, transcendence, absurdity, suffering, weirdness. Not everything works as well as it might, but it was worth it for the dozens of singular moments that broke my heart.