A classic of Austrian literature of the 20th century, Franz Werfel (1890-1945), a student and like-minded person of Gustav Meyrink, was one of the founders of expressionism in German literature. His early stories, whimsical and idiosyncratic, influenced the work of Franz Kafka. Werfel is known to Russian readers for his novels “Verdi” (1924), “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” (1934) and “The Song of Bernadette” (1941). Werfel's mystical novellas and stories are published in Russian for the first time.