‘Laughter’, in which a young man is embarrassed and ridiculed. A collection of often dark, pessimistic and doom-laden tales, this is a fantastic introduction to the Russian author. Leonid Andreyev (1871-1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. Born in the city of Oryol, Andreyev studied law in Moscow and St Petersburg. He went on to become a police court-reporter but continued to write poetry in his spare time. His first short story was published in 1898, and Andreyev’s literary fame quickly grew after the 1901 publication of his first short story collection. Widely regarded as the father of Russian expressionism, Andreyev’s works are often haunting, dark, pessimistic, and controversial. His body of work includes two novels, five novellas and a number of short stories and plays. The most well-known of them include the story ‘The Seven Who Were Hanged’, ghost story, ‘Lazarus’, the play ‘Tsar Hunger’, and his novel ‘Sashka Zhegulev’. He died in Finland in 1919.