That Petersburg is Russia's "Window to Europe" is stated in Pushkin's poem "The Bronze Horseman" - subtitled "A Petersburg Tale," the first of Russian literature. The famous novellas "The Postmaster," "Queen of Spades," the fragment "Egyptian Nights," the story "The Lonely House on Basil Island," and the equally amusing and artfully rhymed anecdote about the little house in Solomna also take place entirely or partially in Petersburg. Thus, in this volume, against the backdrop of Petersburg, both the poet and the prose writer are represented, as well as the serious and the lighthearted Pushkin.