A.S. Novikov-Priboy found the happy fate of the writer: he found his reader and this reader has been faithful to him for many years. Novikov had a lot to see and experience in his lifetime, and he told about it, not fabricating, but with cordial and harsh simplicity. The first volume of the collected works included stories: "Dark," "Slaughter," "Approved sedition," "Caught," "Gift," "Joked," "Story of the boatswain," "Literature," "Spoiled" and others.