"Russian Nights, Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky's major work, is of great importance in Russian intellectual history. This captivating novel is the summation of Odoevsky's views and interests in many fields: Gothic literature, romanticism, mysticism, the occult, social responsibility, Westernization, utopia and anti-utopia. Compared variously to The Decameron, to Hoffman's Serapion Brethren, and the Platonic dialogues, Russian Nights is a mixture of genres - a series of romantic and society tales framed by Odoevsky's musings on the main strands of Russian thought of the 1820s and 1830s. This is a unique work of Russian literature, and a key sourcebook for Russian romanticism and Russian social and aesthetic thought of its epoch."--BOOK JACKET.