noon
Superstition plays a prominent role in these sketches ; the unseen world of ghosts and apparitions has an enormous influence on the daily life of the peasants . The love of fun is everywhere in evidence ; these people can not live without practical jokes , violent dances , and horse-play . Shadowy forms of amorous couples move silent in the warm summer night , and the stillness is broken by silver laughter . Far away , in his room at St. Petersburg , shut in by the long winter darkness , the homesick man dreamed of the vast landscape he loved , in the warm embrace of the sky at noon , or asleep in the pale moonlight . The first sentence of the book is a cry of longing . `` What ecstasy ; what splendour has a summer day in Little Russia ! '' Pushkin used to say that the Northern summer was a caricature of the Southern winter .