A poet as great as Khodasevich deserves to be more widely known, and his shade is honored by Bethea's insightful study. I can't praise too highly the work of this scholar. He knows Russian poetry through and through, and his writing is clear and lucid. Read also his "apocalypse" book.

David Bethea has written an interesting and necessary biography about an important and relatively unknown 20th Century Russian poet. In addition to the fascinating story of Khodasevich's life, Bethea offers generous samples of the poems and intelligent readings of them.