Andreyev is not a pessimist.
Under one of his pictures he has written: "Though it destroys
individuals, the truth saves mankind." The misery in the world may be
ever so great; the problems that force themselves upon man's mind may
seem unanswerable; the happenings in the external world may fill his
soul with utter darkness, so that he despairs of finding any meaning,
any justification in life. And yet, though his reason deny it, his
soul tells him: "The truth saves mankind." After all, _Man_ is not a
failure. For though misfortunes crowd upon him, he remains intact in
soul, unbroken in spirit. He carries off the victory because he does
not surrender. He dies as a superman, big in his defiance of destiny.
This must be the meaning Andreyev attached to _Man's_ life. We find
an interpretation of it, as it were, in "Anathema," in which _Someone_
sums up the fate of _David_--who lived an even sadder life than _Man_
and died a more horrible death--in these words: "David has achieved
immortality, and he _lives immortal_ in the deathlessness of fire.
David has achieved immortality, and he _lives immortal_ in the
deathlessness of light which is life."

Andreyev was born at Orel in 1871 and was graduated from the gymnasium
there. According to his own testimony, he never seems to have been a
promising student. "In the seventh form," he tells us, "I was always
at the bottom of my class." He lost his father early, and often went
hungry while studying law at the University of St. Petersburg. In the
University of Moscow, to which he went next, he fared better. One of
the means that he used to eke out a livelihood was portrait painting
to order, and in this work he finally attained such proficiency that
his price rose from $1.50 apiece to $6.00.

In 1897 he began to practise law, but he gave most of his time to
reporting court cases for the "Courier," a Moscow newspaper, and later
to writing _feuilletons_ and stories. He tried only one civil case,
and that one he lost. His work in the "Courier" attracted Gorky's
attention, and the older writer zealously interested himself in
Andreyev's behalf.

In 1902 his story named "The Abyss" appeared and created a sensation
immediately. Even Countess Tolstoy joined in the dispute which raged
over this story, attacking it as matter unfit for literature. But the
verdict of Andreyev's generation was in his favor. Since then nearly
every new work of his has been received as an important event in
Ru