Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka

“Evenings on the Farm near Dikanka” - one of the first books of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809 - 1852) The book consists of eight stories. According to the writer, it captures “the first sweet minutes of young inspiration.”
“Evenings on the farm” - these are oral stories, legends, stories. The effects of stories are transferred from the 19th century (“Sorochinsky Fair”) in the 17th century (“Evening on the eve of Ivan Kupala”), and then in the XVIII (“May Night, or drowned”, “The missing diploma”, “Night before Christmas”) and again In the XVII (“terrible revenge”) and again in the XIX (“Ivan Fedorovich Shponka and his aunt”) In this kaleidoscope, Gogol depicts the Little Russian folk festive and fair life. A holiday with its fuss and fun, associated with him beliefs and events, derive heroes from the usual existence, making the impossible possible. Reality and science fiction are bizarre in the view of the people about the past and present, about good and evil.
... read evenings near Dikanka. - wrote A.S. Pushkin in one of the letters to the publisher. “They amazed me.” Here is a real mercy, sincere, relaxed, without premance, without stiffness. And in some places what poetry! ..