"Russian Gothic Tales from the Twentieth Century"
Finally, having lusted after this for a year I finally broke down and bought it online. It didn't disappoint. The reasons, well, it contained a translation of Chayanov's "Venediktov", which was the tale that inspired Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". The fact that Chayanov used "Bulgakov" as the narrating character no doubt set the hook. The parallels are obvious, and Chayanov's source material is every bit as inspired as Bulgakov's masterpiece. Then there are few tales as well by Bryusov, who's "The Fiery Angel" I found as well terrific. And there are many other tales of horror, of homunculi, madmen, insanity, demon-haunted mirrors, of men on the cusp of dying, where the veil between this world and the next is shorn and rendered in the half-light of madness; it was, in short, a fine and worthwhile anthology of Russian authors not conveniently in translation. Perfect reading for a cold and rainy fall day.
Now back to Bloch...