If luck or fate were to lead you down the roads to Dikanka—especially if it were winter, night had fallen, and the moon was already shining in the sky—it would be unforgivable not to visit the hamlet of the beekeeper Panko the Redhead. His evenings are truly unique! Under the Redhead's roof, besides enjoying good food and even better drinks, the locals tell wondrous stories that nourish the soul. The tales you hear there take you from a shiver down your spine to uproarious laughter, to the pang of heartbreak that pierces your soul in an instant.

A very young Nikolai Gogol, trying to find his place in the cultural circles of St. Petersburg society, understood that the city adored the exoticism, the secrets, and the mystery of his homeland, Ukraine. Thus, after some setbacks as an actor and the limited impact of his poems and articles, he decided to draw on his own childhood experiences and knowledge of folklore to write these stories. With Evenings in a Farmhouse in Dikanka, Gogol achieved his first literary success, a first step toward the posterity he finally attained with Dead Souls.