Aleksei Remizov was a Russian modernist writer whose imagination delved into the fantastic and bizarre, drawing heavily from Russian folklore and medieval art. He sought to revive ancient artistic forms through his unique prose, often stylizing his works in the manner of medieval tales and legends. His writing frequently explored the darker aspects of Russian society and the human psyche, incorporating elements of satire and gothic horror. Remizov's distinctive voice, infused with the flavor of folk imagination and dreamlike visions, set him apart as a truly original literary figure.
Alexei Remizov was one of the greatest writers of the Russian Symbolist movement. In the thirteen stories collected in this volume, his exceptional stylistic achievements are on full display. The Little Devil and Other Stories includes works from across Remizov's career encompassing his thematic preoccupations and stylistic experimentation.
The first English translation of this remarkable 1910 novel by Alexei Remizov, one of the most influential members of the Russian Symbolist movement, Sisters of the Cross is a masterpiece of early modernist fiction. In the tradition of Gogol's Petersburg Tales and Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, it deploys densely packed psychological prose and fluctuating narrative perspective to tell the story of a poor clerk who rebels against the suffering and humiliation afflicting both his own life and the lives of the remarkable women whom he encounters in the tenement building where he lives in Petersburg. Remizov is best known as a writer of short stories and fairy tales, but this early novel, masterfully translated by Roger Keys and Brian Murphy, is perhaps his most significant work of sustained artistic prose.