Ivan Bunin was considered by many to be the heir of the literary tradition established by Tolstoy and Chekov - a realist writer with an achingly beautiful, brocaded style. The Life of Arseniev was written over twelve years; a part-translation was put out by Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press in 1933, but Bunin continued working on the novel until 1952. This is the first English translation of Bunin's magnum opus as he truly envisioned it.

We follow Alexei Arseniev, born on his father's estate in the 1870s, from his childhood to his schooldays to his first love, and on to writerly and romantic maturity. Tragic, lyrical, imbued with an exhilarating zest for life, The Life of Arseniev shows us a unique, deeply personal snapshot of Russia on the brink of revolution, capturing it forever in the amber of Bunin's exquisite prose.