The first in Russian complete collection of oriental stories and fairy tales by one of the most distinctive English writers - William Beckford (1760-1844), who was previously known to the domestic reader only for his variation on the Faust theme - the story "Vatek" translated by B.K. Zaitsev, carried out in 1911 and reprinted in 1967 in the series "Literary Monuments," after which he repeatedly reprinted.