The Fiery Angel is one of the great achievements of modern Russian literature, as powerful and revolutionary as its contemporary, Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita. In a vividly atmospheric recreation of the occult underworld of sixteenth century Germany, during the age of the Inquisition, three souls meet; an innocent young man choosing between Love and Duty, a woman prone to visions and a Knight, who is either an angel or a demon. Religious experience and sexual hysteria meet in an apocalyptic vision of the spiritual crisis of modern life. The Fiery Angel is one of the great novels of decadent occultism.