Book Description

"In the autumn of 1831, some easter from the Poltava province issued a book under the tantalizing title "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka". The simple-hearted villager, as if in a frightened way, recommended to the enlightened public four fantastic stories allegedly told at gatherings in his modest hut. "This is real gaiety, sincere, unconstrained, without cheating, without being stiff. In some places, what poetry! What sensitivity!"--So welcomed the new book Pushkin. He knew that, under the mask of an old farmer, a twenty-two-year-old writer is hiding, happily inventing and colorful characters (daring dudes, dazzling marvels, stubborn old men, angry women, mermaids, witches, devils - in a word, all sorts of people and nonhumans), and funny storytellers, and the collector himself invariably "truthful" nonsense - Rudy Pank. Nowadays the name of the writer "Evenings ..." is known to all, in 1831, very few knew him. But among them were two great poets - Zhukovsky ..." --Vasha Kniga