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 published in Russian translation for more than 70 years.

The amazing mechanical toy has attracted the interest of the whole city. With the most perfect skill, the speaking Turk imitated the actions of a living person and seemed to give meaningful answers to the questions asked. Two skeptical young gentlemen also decided to visit the mechanical oracle...