In the Cold and Gold. Early Stories (1892-1901)

Leonid Andreyev (1871–1919) is known as the author of «Bergamot and Garasyka», «Judas Iscariot», «Red Laughter», «The Life of Vasily the Athenian», and a dozen other novellas, stories, and plays. But this is just the tip of the iceberg, a small part of his literary heritage. In the volume compiled by Roman Senchin, early, little-known stories by Andreyev are gathered, which he himself did not include in reissues, but carefully kept in his archive.

"In this book, one can see the future famous writer, who has already felt his themes, found his language, his types, but has not yet learned to write correctly, and therefore, in many stories, there is quite a bit of precious rubbish. Many texts are extremely autobiographical, written almost from life. Youthful love, poverty, drunkenness, gymnasts, students, residents of the Pushkarnaya sloboda in Oryol — the heroes are truly alive, their speech can be heard. «I can't compose at all», — lamented young Andreyev. He later learned to do so, but that is quite another story..." (Roman Senchin).