Neil Cornwell is Professor Emeritus (Russian and Comparative Studies) and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Bristol

Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. MUSICMAN: The Musical-Artistic Story from Hoffmann and Odoevsky to Pasternak
2. STARMAN: The Rise of the 'Cosmic Traveller'
3. SEERMAN: The Rise of the Psychic Detective
4. MONK: Duelling Confession within the Novel
Appendix: two previously untranslated short stories by Vladimir Odoevsky
Two Days in the Life of the Terrestrial Globe
The Witness
Index

This book takes four stories by the Russian Romantic author Vladimir Odoevsky to illustrate 'pathways', developed further by subsequent writers, into modern fiction. Featured here are: the artistic (musical story), the rise of science fiction, psychic aspects of the detective story, and of confession in the novel.
The four chapters also examine the development of the featured categories by a wide range of subsequent writers in fiction ranging from the Romantic period up to the present century.
The study works backwards from Odoevsky's stories, noting respective previous examples or traditions, before proceeding to follow the 'pathways' observed into later Russian, English and comparative fiction.
Whilst appealing to specialists in Russian and comparative literature, these chapters are accessible to a student readership taking courses involving the main areas featured - including the arts in literature, fictional artistic biography, interplanetary flight and civilisations, detective fiction, and novelistic confession.