The Fiery Angel

«The Fiery Angel» — the first novel by poet, prose writer, playwright, and one of the founders of Russian symbolism Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov (1873–1924). This work, first published in 1907 in the journal «Weights», is based on a fantastically transformed... story of the author's relationships with writers Nina Ivanovna Petrovskaia and Andrei Bely (Boris Nikolaevich Bugaev). The book is illustrated with 63 engravings by masters of the Northern Renaissance.
At the age of twenty, Valery Bryusov became fascinated by French Symbolist poets. In 1893, he wrote an enthusiastic letter to Verlaine, expressing his dream of spreading symbolism in Russia. Bryusov's dream came true. In 1895, he published a collection of his own poems under the pretentious title «Masterpieces», recorded in his diary that his youth is the youth of a genius, and by the end of the 19th century he gained fame as one of the leaders of Decadents and Symbolists. Bryusov's friends and acquaintances knew that the poet was interested in occultism, spiritism, and magic, and sometimes jokingly called him a magician. The poet himself spread rumors that he knew how to cast love spells. Within the circle of Symbolists, who, according to Khodasevich, were trying to «find the alloy of life and creativity», was Nina Ivanovna Petrovskaia — an unsuccessful dental assistant who quickly became the hostess of a fashionable literary salon. In 1904, she approached Bryusov and quite seriously asked him to cast a spell on the poet Andrei Bely, who had recently ended a romantic relationship with Petrovskaia. Of course, nothing came of this scheme. However, the married Bryusov suddenly became infatuated with Nina Ivanovna. She became not only the poet's mistress but also Renata — the main character of the novel «The Fiery Angel», which Bryusov set about writing. The action of the novel takes place in 16th century Germany. Bryusov depicted himself in this work as the landsknecht Ruprecht, and represented the poet Bely in the guise of Count Heinrich von Otterheim.
The excellent education Bryusov received at the historical faculty of Moscow University allowed him to create a true masterpiece out of «The Fiery Angel». The novel was first printed in installments in the journal «Weights». Bryusov arranged a humorous literary mystification out of this publication. In the preface, he wrote that he was merely a translator and commentator of the original German manuscript from the 16th century. Under Bryusov's own name, the novel was published in 1908 by the «Scorpion» publishing house. The book was illustrated with dozens of engravings from the 15th–16th centuries. All of them are included in this edition, but reproduced in much better quality and with corrected attribution.