Julian the Apostate takes the Roman purple and tries to give the old gods back their world, in the opening volume of Merezhkovsky's trilogy on Christ and Antichrist. Merezhkovsky was nominated for the Nobel nine times and died in Paris exile; his argument — that the flesh and the spirit are two truths at war and neither can win — begins here, in an emperor who loses. Fifty-six plates of Roman ruins, campagna light and antique scenes, among them works by Munch and Hayez, run through the boo...

Leonardo in Milan and Florence - the workshop, the anatomies, the unfinished commissions - as the second book of a trilogy about the pagan and Christian worlds contending. Merezhkovsky's Leonardo was admired by Freud and read across Europe before the revolution sent its author into exile. This edition adds 44 plates of painting, from Altdorfer and Clouet to Munch, and one restored and coloured illustration, in Herbert Trench's translation.

Tutankhamon-Tutankhaton, the envoy of Akhnaton, the king of Egypt, brought him a marvellous gift from the island of Crete—Dio, the dancer, the pearl of the Kingdom of the Seas.He boasted that he had saved her from death: but it was not he who saved her. When she killed the god-Bull in the Knossos arena to avenge her friend Eoia who had been sacrificed to the Beast, she was sentenced to be burned at the stake. But Tammuzadad, a Babylonian who loved Dio, went to the stake in her place...

Among Russian writers whose works have achieved European reputation, prominence must be given to Dmitri Merejkowski. The son of a court official, Merejkowski was born in 1866, and began to write verses at the age of fifteen, his first volume of poems appearing in 1888. Then, nine years later, came the first of his great trilogy, "The Death of the Gods," which is continued in "The Resurrection of the Gods," and completed by "Anti-Christ," the last-named hav...

This book is incomparable in the magic power of evoking startlingly vivid pictures of the Middle Ages. It is a gorgeous pageant, full of pomp and magnificence. Here and there the reader is given a glimpse into the mortal and humble frailties and exigencies behind the grandeur. This work is a fabulous historical novel that is full of a sly, crisp humor and contains some portions which are veritable poems in prose...

Peter the Great against his own son, and a father who has the boy tortured to death for treason. The third of Merezhkovsky's trilogy on the pagan and Christian worlds; the interrogation scenes are taken from the surviving transcripts. This edition is bound with 53 plates of paintings, among them works by Vasily Surikov, Lovis Corinth and Paul Klee.

This classic historical novel, first published in 1904, creates an outstanding picture of the 4th century, Roman Emperor Julian the Apostate and the profound spiritual implications of his life and deeds...

At Siena was discovered another statue of Venus, to the huge joy of the inhabitants. A great concourse, with much feasting and honour, set it up over the fountain called II Fonte Gaja," as an adornment. . . . "But great tribulation having come upon the land by reason of the Florentines, there arose one of the council, a citizen, and spake in this wise: 'Fellow-citizens, since the finding of this figure we have had much evil hap, and if we consider how strictly idolatry is prohibited by our...

In "The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, the Forerunner," Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky intricately weaves a narrative that explores the life and times of the quintessential Renaissance polymath, Leonardo da Vinci. Through a blend of historical fiction and philosophical inquiry, Merezhkovsky employs a lyrical prose style that immerses the reader in the vibrant tapestry of Renaissance Italy. The book delves into da Vinci's dual pursuits of art and science, revealing the tensions between his ...

The novel is set in the late Roman Empire during the reign of Emperor Nero and centers around the decline of paganism and the rise of Christianity. The story weaves together historical events and fictional elements to depict the struggle between the old pagan gods and the emerging Christian faith.The protagonist, a character named Justin, represents the old pagan world and its values. His story unfolds against the backdrop of Nero's Rome, where the ancient gods are losing their influence a...

IN the case of both Tolstoi and Dostoievski, but especially in the case of Tolstoi, their works are so bound up with their lives, with the personality of each author, that we cannot speak of the one without the other. Before studying them as artists, thinkers, or preachers, we must know what manner of men they are. In Russian society, and to some extent among critics, the opinion has taken root that about 1878, and in the early years of the next decade, there took place in Tolstoi a deep-s...

“Antichrist is coming. He, the last of devils, has not yet come himself; but the world is teeming with his progeny. The children are preparing the way for their father. They twist everything to suit the designs of Antichrist. He will appear in his own due time, when everywhere all is prepared and the way smoothed. He is already at the door. Soon will he enter!” Thus spake an old man of fifty, a clerk, judging by his clothes, to a young man, who, wrapped in a nankeen dressing gown, with sli...