The Fiery Angel
The Fiery Angel (, "Ognenny Angel") is a novel by Russian writer Valery Bryusov. It was first serialized in the Russian literary monthly "Vesy" in 1907–08, and then published in a book form (in two volumes) in 1908. Set in sixteenth-century Germany, it depicts a love triangle between Renata, a passionate young woman, Ruprecht, a knight and Madiel, the fiery Angel. The novel tells the story of Ruprecht's attempts to win the love of Renata whose spiritual integrity is seriously undermined by her participation in occult practices. This love triangle is now recognised to be that which existed between the author, Bryusov, the symbolist novelist Andrei Bely and their shared lover, the nineteen-year-old Nina Petrovskaya. The novel is a meticulous account of sixteenth-century Germany, notably Cologne and the world of the occult. Characters such as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and Faust appear alongside a description of a Black Mass.