The author was a famous Soviet/Russian writer, literary critic, translator, scholar and screenwriter. He was an authority on Pushkin and an important member of the Russian Formalist school. The first novel in this book is a satirical tale of an officer, created by a bureaucratic error, who (despite not actually existing) enjoys a career full of valor and awards and is granted an estate with 1000 souls by the Emperor. The second novel is based on the tragic fate of one of Russia's talented writers, who life was cut short when he serving as Russia's ambassador to Persia in 1829.