Neil Cornwell is Emeritus Professor in the School of Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. His books include the first study on Odoevsky in English - V.F. Odoevsky: His Life, Times and Milieu (1996) and The Literary Fantastic: From Gothic to Postmodernism (1990).

Odoyevsky (1804-1869) was a leading writer, musicologist, popular educator and public servant in Russia, close to the major historical events of his period and acquainted with many of the leading personalities, from Pushkin to Glinka, to Turgenev, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, as well as Berlioz and Wagner. Based upon published and unpublished sources in Russia and the West, Cornwell paints a portrait of one of Russia's central figures, though little known in the West.

Foreword Sir Isaiah Berlin

Preface
Acknowledgements
Biographical Introduction
PART I ODOEVSKY'S CREATIVE ACTIVITY
1 The Writer
2 The Thinker
3 The Musician
4 The Popular Educator: Odoevsky's Activities as Pedagogue, Philanthropist and Children's Writer
PART II ODOEVSKY AND TSARIST SOCIETY
5 Odoevsky and Tsarist Society
6 Odoevsky and the Cultural Milieu: His Circle and Relationships
Appendices
Notes
Bibliography
Selective Index of Works by Odoevsky
Index