Saksagan
St. John`s Eve part 10
“What did you promise for the girl?” thundered Basavriuk; and like a shot he was on his back. The witch stamped her foot; a blue flame flashed from the earth and illumined all within...
St. John`s Eve part 9
Then he parted the thorn-bushes with a knotty stick, and before him stood a tiny farmhouse. Basavriuk smote it with his fist, and the wall trembled. A large black dog ran out to meet...
St. John`s Eve part 8
“Do you see before you three hillocks? There are a great many kinds of flowers upon them. May some power keep you from plucking even one of them. But as soon as the fern...
St. John`s Eve part 7
My late grandfather`s aunt was somewhat surprised at seeing Peter at the tavern, at an hour when good men go to morning mass; and stared at him as though in a dream when he...
St. John`s Eve part 6
Recovering himself, he took his grandfather`s hunting whip from the wall, and was about to belabor Peter`s back with it, when Pidorka`s little six-year-old brother Ivas rushed up from somewhere or other, and grasping...
St. John`s Eve part 5
She said that his father had been in Zaporozhe, and had been taken prisoner by the Turks, amongst whom he underwent God only knows what tortures, until, having by some miracle disguised himself as...
St. John`s Eve part 4
My grandfather`s aunt, who kept at that time a tavern, in which Basavriuk (as they called this devil-man) often caroused, said that no consideration on the earth would have induced her to accept a...
St. John`s Eve part 3
These people laugh at everything you tell them. Along comes one of them and doesn`t believe in witches! Yes, glory to God that I have lived so long in the world! I have seen...
St. John`s Eve part 2
My grandfather (the kingdom of heaven be his! may he eat only wheaten rolls and poppy-seed cakes with honey, in the other world!) Could tell a story wonderfully well. When he used to begin...
St. John`s Eve part 1
Nikolai Gogol (1809-1852)
Born in the Ukraine, Gogol was in many respects the founder of modern Russian literature. His stories of rural life collected under the title Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka were enthusiastically...