About the book: 2010 / Modern readers know Vladimir Ivanovich Dal primarily as the author of the four-volume "Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language", but very little familiar with his creative heritage. Dahl’s interest in folklore - legends, superstitions and fairy tales - was reflected in many of his works, which N.V. Gogol spoke of with admiration: “For me, he is more significant than all storytellers and inventors. Maybe I’m judging here biasedly, because this writer pleased the personality of my own taste more than others.” This collection includes works by Dahl, united by a common theme: the collision of man with evil spirits. Sometimes the “secret” receives an everyday explanation, and sometimes the reader should become really scared: there are sorcerers, and mermaids, and werewolves, and murders, and the sale of the soul to the devil, and punishment for godless behavior.