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The Little Angel

L[eonid] N[ikolaevich] Andréyev

This is one of five known, and two possible, books in Hodder & Stoughton's Great Russian Fiction Series. They are listed on the rear cover of the jacket, below. Two of these novels have not been seen with a jacket, so the design by Blampied is assumed. The novel The Abyss was actually issued as The Precipice. The jackets of four of the novels have drawings in pen and black ink by Blampied and were printed on thick orange paper, like the jacket shown below and was also used for the covers of the paperback edition, also shown below. My paperback copy is falling apart, but it's the only paperback impression of any of these books that I have ever come across. The other novels in the series may also have been issued as paperbacks, but none have been found in any book search. All books in the series are uncommon. Perhaps Russian fiction wasn't very popular during the First World War.

Leonid Andréyev (1871-1919) was a Russian playwright, novelist and short-story writer whose work was likened to Edgar Alan Poe. This is a book of those short stories.

Blampied's design is so drab and unimaginative I suspect it may have come from a photograph that he was supplied with.

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Image of dust jacket (click to enlarge)

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Image of covers and spine (click to enlarge)

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