The Vampire

Alexey Tolstoy is best known as one of the creators of «Kozma Prutkov»—but the books he published under his own name also became part of the history of Russian literature. «The Vampire» is a fantastic novella. The action takes place in Russia, but the origins of the incident lead to Italy, to which listeners are transported by the story of one of the characters. The surreal in the novella receives a psychological explanation… yet it still leaves us freedom to decide whether such a thing could happen or not. The plot of the classic Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy’s novella «The Vampire» revolves around Alexander Andreevich Runyevsky, to whom, at one of the balls, some gentleman confidentially said that the hostess of the celebration—and also some of the guests—are in fact… vampires!