Konstantin Sluchevsky was a prose writer and poet who never received full recognition during his lifetime. The prime of his creative life occurred during the last third of the nineteenth century--a period dominated by a brand of realistic prose ruled by the ideas of materialism, positivism, and nihilism. Neither Sluchevsky's interest in metaphysical and mystical themes nor his heavy, nonmusical, and disharmonious poetic style were timely, and thus his writings were unpopular with his contemporaries. He was a forerunner of the Silver Age poets, and his writings were a bridge between late Romanticism and modernism. Sluchevsky served all his life in a government career, which, unlike his literary endeavors, was quite successful. By the end of his life Sluchevsky was a Privy Councillor; he had been decorated with many orders and awards; and he served as editor in chief of the daily newspaper Pravitel'stvennyi vestnik (The Government Messenger...