Dream Tales and Prose Poems

In the spring of 1878 Moscow, a shy twenty‑five‑year‑old named Yakov Aratov lives in a cramped wooden house on Shabolovka. He shares the space with his aunt, Platonida Ivanovna, a solemn woman who keeps the household running with quiet efficiency. Yakov, a university student of physics and mathematics, prefers the solitude of his books to the bustle of lectures, and his delicate, almost ethereal appearance mirrors the fragile beauty he secretly adores. The lingering presence of his late father—a self‑styled sorcerer and experimental chemist—casts a faint, mysterious pall over the modest home.

Within this quiet domestic world, Platonida tends to Yakov with a blend of motherly concern and ritual, offering herb‑steeped tea and whispered prayers that echo through the narrow rooms. Their conversations are sparse, yet each exchange hints at an unspoken bond that sustains him amid the lingering aromas of his father's strange powders. The prose captures the dream‑like quality of Yakov’s inner life, where scientific curiosity intertwines with wistful reveries, creating a tapestry of melancholy and wonder.