Romantic fantasy and socially critical realism characterize the famous four stories by Nikolai Gogol that have entered literary history as the "Petersburg Tales." The title itself indicates that the master of the grotesque is found in an unusual setting: following his virtuoso depiction of the rural and provincial world in "Dead Souls," he now describes the metropolis as a symbol of modernity. In the novella "Nevsky Prospekt" (1835), Gogol portrays the changing physiognomy of the legendary boulevard of Petersburg throughout the day, revealing the discrepancy between the glamorous, promising facade and the soulless reality. The absurdity in the diary-like "Notes of a Madman" (1835) is further intensified by the progressive mental confusion of the titular councilor Poprishchin.