La solitaria casetta sull’isola Vasil'evskij (Одинокий маленький домик на Васильевском острове)

In 19th-century Saint Petersburg, young Vera lives a quiet life with her mother in a modest house on Vasilyevsky Island. Their existence is upended by the arrival of two men: Pavel, a pure-hearted distant relative, and the mysterious Varfolomeij, whose presence brings a disturbing darkness with it.

This gothic tale by Pushkin admirably weaves supernatural elements with deeply human themes: innocent love, the temptation of evil, loneliness, and loss. The wintry setting of Saint Petersburg becomes the perfect backdrop for a story where reality blurs with nightmare, and where moral choices carry eternal consequences.

As the forces of evil tighten around the house on Vasilyevsky Island, Vera finds herself trapped in a web of deceit and dark omens. Who is Varfolomeij really? And what price must the protagonists pay for their choices? A story that keeps the reader in suspense until the very last page, revealing how pure love can be both salvation and condemnation.

Author: Aleksandr Sergeevič Puškin (Александр Сергеевич Пушкин)

Born in Moscow to a family of ancient but impoverished nobility, is considered the founder of modern Russian language and literature. Having associated early on with reformist and liberal circles, he spent his short life first in exile and later under strict surveillance. He died from wounds sustained in a duel—which took place at the Black River (Chornaya Rechka) in St. Petersburg—just months before his 38th birthday. Among his major works are the novel in verse Eugene Onegin (1823–31), the drama Boris Godunov (1825), and The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin (1830).