Hailed by his famous contemporaries including Edith Wharton, H.G. Wells, Katherine Mansfield, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh, who called him a "genius," William Gerhardi is one of the twentieth century's forgotten masters, and his lovely comedy <i>Futility</i> one of the century's neglected masterpieces. <br><br>It tells the story of someone very similar to Gerhardi himself: a young Englishman raised in Russia who returns to St. Petersburg and falls in love with the daughter of a hilariously dysfunctional family--all played out with the armies of the Russian Revolution marching back and forth outside the parlor window.<br><br>Part British romantic comedy, part Russian social realism, and with a large cast of memorable characters, this astoundingly funny and poignant novel is the tale of people persisting in love and hope despite the odds.