Vladimir Odoevsky (1804-1869) was a fascinating and encyclopedic figurein nineteenth-century Russian culture, who in his day was mentioned in the same breath as Pushkin and Gogol. Thinker, pedagogue, musicologist, amateur scientist and public servant, he is now undergoing a revival as a virtually rediscovered writer of Romantic and Gothic fiction. The author, a leading specialist on Odoevsky, analyses the contribution of Odoevsky to Russian prose fiction and in particular his influential approach to Romanticism, his Gothic novellas and his proto-science fiction, as well as his critical reception.