This book is concerned with one aspect of the work of a complex and prolific author. Besides writing novels, Andrey Bely was a poet, a theoretician of the Russian Symbolist movement, a philosopher of the history of culture, a literary critic, a voluminous memoirist and a copious correspondent. His published bibliography lists over six hundred items, of which more than forty are separate books, and there lies in various archives a quantity of unpublished material that is probably equal in volume. Only gradually is his work being studied, only gradually is the unpublished work becoming available. There is no prospect of a definitive edition of Bely's works, and no imminent likelihood even of a definitive biography. Equally this book makes no claim to be a definitive study of his novels.

Any one of Bely's separate capacities would have been sufficient to secure him a permanent reputation. Much of his poetry is strikingly original, showing great rhythmic inventiveness and constant evolution. His verse memoir, First Encounter, from 1921, is widely regarded as one of the highest poetic achievements of the early twentieth century. Yet as poetic spokesman of his generation, Bely is inevitably overshadowed by Blok. As a memoirist, on the other hand, he has no rivals. His Reminiscences of Blok, upon which he embarked as soon as he returned home from his friend's funeral in August 1921, went through several stages of revision and expansion to emerge as three volumes of memoirs, covering the period from his childhood to 1912, which are essential reading for anyone interested in this era of Russian culture.