The devil, “Notes of a Madman,” “The Power of Darkness”… This collection brings together works from different years, united by a complex theme of the struggle between good and evil in the human soul—tragic, sad, and always gripping for Tolstoy because of his immense psychological depth. Tolstoy categorically refused to publish the novella “The Devil” and the story “Notes of a Madman” during his lifetime, since they were too closely tied to the writer’s severe mental suffering, which nearly cost him his mental health.