Charles de Coster is known to the reader as the author of the epic novel “The Legend of Ulenspiegel.” “Tales of Brabant,” a collection of short stories created by the writer in his youth, is a kind of author’s “running start,” creative preparation for a big novel. Like the Eulenspiegel, they are the result of de Coster's deep interest in the folklore of Belgium. The collection includes stories of different genres - from adaptations of a folk Christian fairy tale (“Sierre Hugues”) to a literary fairy tale (“Masks”), from an everyday novel (“Christ”) to the author’s memoirs about a meeting with an old resident of Brabant (“Ghosts”), making one remember the pages of Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter.” “Brabantian Tales” is published in Russian for the first time.