“Night Stories” by the German writer, composer and artist E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822), who created his own special aesthetics, is published in full in Russian for the first time. This is a whole world where the real and the surreal are intricately mixed , ghostly, fantastic images reign, and an inevitable mystical principle reigns over all events and destinies. This is an image of the “night side of the soul,” a poetic consolidation of the unknown and mysterious, seen and felt in life, influencing human destinies, disturbing the mind and imagination.

Once the huntsman Andres sheltered a lost traveler, who called himself the merchant Ignaz Denner. The merchant was filled with gratitude and began to often visit the huntsman’s house. The fate of Andres and his family was firmly tied to Ignaz Denner by strange and terrible ties...