Leonid Andreyev. Judas Iscariot (catch-up), Life of Father Basil

Leonid Andreyev (or Andreev in the non-phonetic transliteration), who absorbed Romantic, Symbolist and Natural School influences, is considered to be among the founders -- perhaps the founder -- of Russian Expressionism. A protégé of Maxim Gorky, he became famous around 1901 after his short story collection sold a quarter million copies.

Andreyev's emotional writing style matched his own impressionable personality. His younger years were marked with tempting fate (he once lay between the rails under a passing train, and wasn't harmed), alcohol abuse, a suicide attempt and harboring fugitive revolutionaries at home. His favorite topics were faith crisis and fear of death, and his favorite settings the Passions of Jesus and the French Revolution. He was the father of Daniel Andreyev, an original Russian mystic who tried to fuse all religions together.

The reading goal for the meeting on August the 10th is the novelette "Judas Iscariot and Others", but you are encouraged to read other stories in the short story collections linked below.
The extra reading goal for the catch-up event on August the 17th is "The Life of Father Vassily (Basil)" that appears in the 1920 collection.

The 1910 collection (tr. by William Henry Lowe):
https://archive.org/details/judasiscariot00andrrich/ (online, turn pages)
https://dn790004.ca.archive.org/0/items/judasiscariot00andrrich/judasiscariot00andrrich.pdf (complete PDF)

The 1920 collection (tr. by Archibald J. Wolfe):
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/49595/49595-h/49595-h.htm

A modern translation by Dmitry Fadeyev (free; a donation is suggested):
https://leonidandreyev.com/ (ToC)
https://leonidandreyev.com/judas-1/ (Judas Iscariot, direct link)

The link for the meeting is https://zoom.us/j/5027419686?pwd=M3pHUXY0d2MveTk5dUVGbGVSdzE4Zz09

To join by phone, dial:
+1 669 900 6833 (meeting ID) 5027419686# (password) 979481

NOTE: we have enabled the waiting room for the meeting. If you are new to the group and we don't recognize your Zoom name (e.g. if it's substantially different from your Meetup name), we'll double check here in the comments whether it's really you; IOW, if it takes too long to get added to the call, check the comments section.