Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka

«Evenings on a Farm Near Dykanka» — one of the first books by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol 1809—1852. The book consists of eight stories. In it, according to the writer, the «first sweet moments of youthful inspiration» are captured. «Evenings on... a Farm» — these are oral tales, legends, anecdotes. The action of the stories shifts from the 19th century «Sorochintsy Fair» to the 17th century «Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala», and then to the 18th «May Night, or The Drowned Woman», «The Lost Letter», «The Night Before Christmas», and again in the 17th «Terrible Revenge», and back to the 19th «Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt». In this kaleidoscope of epochs, Gogol depicts the Ukrainian folk festive and fair life. The holiday with its freedom and joy, the beliefs and events associated with it, leads the heroes out of their ordinary existence, making the impossible possible. Reality and fantasy intricately intertwine in the people's perception of the past and present, of good and evil.