The hero of Konstantin Aksakov’s story “Walter Eisenberg” (1836, originally published as “Life in a Dream”) was known as a romantic young man with an ardent heart, capable of understanding beauty, he drew well, and powerful spiritual forces slept within him. Although “thanks to” such qualities, this student of about eighteen was practically incomprehensible to his peers; he had only one close friend, Karl, to whom Walter could entrust his thoughts and who could appreciate the trust of the young romantic. One day Walter falls in love with nineteen-year-old Cecilia, a pupil of the eccentric doctor Eichenwald. The doctor was known in the city for his oddities, and his distant relative very rarely appeared in society, which is why she was more desirable to the young men of the city. The love of Walter and Cecilia flared up with everyone during the day, especially since Eikhenwald indulged this romance in every possible way. Walter had his head in the clouds and did not quite understand his friend Karl, which is why he had a negative attitude towards this connection. Now Walter was able to reveal his true feelings to the girl, and some cold (if you look from the outside and not biased) Cecilia opened up to Walter. When the young man looked into the eyes of his beloved, he seemed to dissolve in her soul and even caught himself looking at the world through her eyes. At these moments, he seems to be in a hypnotic trance, being in blissful oblivion. But a few days later, in the village where Eichenwald invited Walter to stay, something terrible happened. In the forest, Cecilia, suddenly squeezing the happy Walter’s head with both hands (at that moment it seemed to the young man that fire had burned through his skull), said: “Listen, insignificant creature: I hate you; nature itself has put us in the world against each other and created us as enemies”... Cecilia - the spirit of vengeance on the entire human race - absorbed Walter’s soul into herself, so that from now on he could not hide anywhere not only from her dark thoughts, but in any subject he saw only Cecilia: “You love me, you have loved me forever, and my hatred will lie like a stone on your heart - you are mine.” Over the course of several years, Walter tried several times to get rid of Cecilia’s obsessive haze. His friend Karl helped as best he could, but nothing worked. Walter took up painting, his paintings gained fame, but still nothing could calm his eyes, ears and soul. Once a young man painted a wonderful picture, which depicted an endless field and three beautiful girls. These heavenly creatures, leaving the canvas at a time when there was no one else in the room except Walter, also got involved in a fight with Cecilia. But everything was in vain, and then our hero decided to leave this world forever: he took paints, a palette and painted himself in the picture next to the girls. When he drew his last stroke on the canvas, his lifeless body fell to the floor. For several subsequent years, the painting was in the possession of a wealthy distant relative of Eisenberg and adorned his art gallery. No one knew that all these years Walter lived happily and serenely, enjoying the company of three beautiful creatures, but even in a canvas you cannot hide from the hated Cecilia. The fateful hour has struck. Some young woman was able to persuade a relative to sell her a painting and the next day she was burned. Vitaly Karatsupa, 2005