“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, perceived and felt in life, influencing human destinies, disturbing the mind and imagination.

In a provincial town, the Wandering Enthusiast examined a Jesuit church and met an artist in it painting the walls to look like marble. Until recently, this painter was a great painter, but now his soul is shaken and his mind is darkened. What devilish force destroyed his life?