The Black Monk and Other Horrors

The classics of Russian literature are also people—nothing human is alien to them. Sometimes even great writers set aside monumental works and wrote mysterious stories to tickle the nerves of their readers. That’s how all these Gothic castles and fantastic monsters came to be: a pale beauty imprisoned in a cave; a ghost living in a mirror; a black monk appearing out of a whirlwind; the mad ringing of a bell tower ablaze. Or a completely everyday horror—born from the collision of human souls’ darkness with an abyss of gloom… Listen to how eagerly the classics scare and mystify their readers.