This newly rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century. And reviewers have hailed the translation as "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." An absent-minded professor and a glamorous yet bumbling spy struggle over a powerful secret formula in this tale filled with eccentric personalities, wild dialogue, improbable sounds, bristling images and vivid colors. In Andrei Bely challenges readers not only with his ideas, but by presenting them in a what he called an "epic poem in prose format." Built on a rhythmic backbone of metered prose that supports a wondrous array of literary devices, both poetic and prosaic, Bely's language play is breathtaking. He is as brilliant on a huge canvas depicting spectacular swaths of city life as he is in detailing the patterns of snow on a small stretch of sidewalk. He surprises and thrills readers with constant tonal and stylistic variation, moving effortlessly from lyrical descriptions of nature to slapstick physical and verbal parody of Russia's social milieu. Brought into English for the first time by award-winning translator Brendan Kiernan, and peppered with original illustrations by Katya Korobkina, this is a stunning, poetic, and powerful novel by the author of , which Vladimir Nabokov called one of the four best novels of the twentieth century.