The novel “The Serapion Brothers” by the famous German romantic writer E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776–1822) is a cycle of narratives united by the framing story of young writers - the Serapion brothers. Incredible events, vampires, necromancers, mysterious beauties come to life on the pages of a book that has not been completely published in Russian translation for more than 70 years.

In the business center of Danzig, in the Artus Hall, the young merchant Traugott met an artist with a page, as if they had stepped out of an ancient fresco. The artist's skill and personality amazed the clerk, he left business for the sake of art and became an apprentice to a painter...