This volume examines the intriguing question: what happens when the ideas of a thinker like William James, who, despite his originality, was deeply rooted in American traditions, are refracted through a culture that draws on a heritage profoundly different to his own? The collection includes studies of reception and interpretation of James’s major works and analyses of the impact of this own ideal on certain Russian writers and thinkers. It also examines striking parallels and convergences and divergences between intellectual and spiritual issues. The essays are the work of recognized specialists in Russian literature and cultural history, as well as a distinguished biographer of William James.