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Jules Verne The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians The novel takes place in a mysterious, half-ruined castle in the Transylvanian Carpathians, shrouded in ghostly rumors of superstitious people from the nearby Carpathian village of Verst, who are convinced that their master, the Čort (devil), has returned to the castle. Smoke rises from the castle and mysterious lights appear in it at night. What people don't know is that these phenomena are created on the orders of the new owner of the castle, Baron Rudolf Gortz, by his companion, the brilliant but unrecognized (and therefore bitter) physicist Orfanik, so that both of them can carry out their experiments in peace and discourage the inhabitants of the village from visiting the castle. For example, Orfanik projected images of monsters onto the clouds, scared the villagers with the sound of compressed air sirens, and equipped the entrance gate of the castle with electrical protection. The all-round forester Nik Dek paid the price when he tried to break into the castle with the village doctor Patak. The cramp twisted his fingers so much that he couldn't let go of the electrically charged hardware of the gate. Dr. Patak, meanwhile, was held by the studs in his shoes by a magnetic plate embedded in the ground, unable to move from his spot. Another of Orfanik's inventions was a listening device that allowed Baron Gortz [gorc] to hear the conversations of visitors to the inn U krále Matyáše in Verst without leaving his study in his castle. Using the same device, Gortz could also address inn visitors and betray them before exploring the ruins. The events mentioned caught the attention of Count Franz Telek, who was passing through the region, mainly because he learned that the silhouette of a singing opera singer appeared on the battlements of the castle. It was about the singer Stilla, with whom Baron Gortz and Count Telek were once in love in Italy, and who tragically died of a heart attack. Now Count Telek is convinced that Stilla did not die, but was kidnapped by Baron Gortz. The Count manages to break into the castle, but Baron Gortz imprisons him there. Gortz hates Telek fiercely because he blames him for Stilla's death. He wants to blow up the castle and the Telek to take revenge. Telek also discovers to his disappointment that Stilla's image and singing are only one of Orfanik's inventions. At the behest of Baron Gortz, who was a fanatical admirer of Stilla's voice, Orfanik produced a device that made it possible to project a three-dimensional image of the singer into space and accompany this projection with the playback of a phonographic recording of her singing. The gendarmes, for whom Telek sent his servant as a precaution, arrive and open fire on the fleeing Gortz. In the process, Telek's servant shoots the baron's music box with Stilla's voice to pieces. Enraged, Gortz then blows up the castle and himself. All of Orfanik's ingenious devices are destroyed, but Telek and Orfanik save themselves by escaping through an underground passage.