Have you ever wondered where Cinderella was born? Did you know that Snow White fell victim to court intrigue? That there were times when the real Batman patrolled the streets of New York, the real Robinson Crusoe spent days waiting for a ship on a desert island, which, by the way, was later named after him, and the prototype of Alyosha from Pogorelsky’s “The Black Hen” grew up and served as the prototype for Alexei Vronsky in “ Anna Karenina"? Agree, it is interesting to study the works of famous authors from such an unusual angle. From this book you will learn that the sad story of Mumu was written from life, that Tove Jansson almost married the prototype of her Snufkin, and JK Rowling divorced the prototype of Zlatopus Lokons. Many literary heroes are reflections of real people. Read, and you will find out that there once lived a real villain Bluebeard, that Stirlitz is not a figment of the imagination of Yulian Semenov, and little Alice was not born in Wonderland at all... We will be glad if reading this book brings you as many discoveries as it brought us during working on the text.