The Evil Eye

Modern readers have a rather one-sided view of classical literature: what isn’t in school textbooks is almost certainly not known. Russian mysticism has long been associated with Gogol’s terrifying fairy tales, where the devil steals the moon from the sky and a bursak draws a chalk circle that protects against evil forces. This anthology will present you with other writers—unfairly forgotten or completely unknown to the general public. …A man in purple glasses who came to Moscow to buy, at an auction, an antique ring. A stern Cossack with bushy eyebrows who sends young girls to the grave with a single look. The ghost of an old woman living in a photograph from the Egyptian hall of the Hermitage. A rich nobleman whose three wives unexpectedly died soon after their wedding from a terrible anemia. A forest spirit living on a New Year’s tree. Let’s meet the wonderful stories that frightened our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers!

Contents:
1. Nikolay Melgunov “Who is it?”
2. Orest Somov “The Evil Eye”
3. Aleksey Tolstoy “Amena”
4. Sergey Stechkin “Vampire”
5. Alexander Ivanov “Stereoscope. A Twilight Story”
6. Fyodor Sologub “Ёlkiсh”