The events of Gypsy Rizka take place in and near Greater Dunitsa: Greater Dunitsa boasted a spacious public square with an excellent horse trough in the middle. The town clock, which frequently told the right time, was much admired. For the comfort of travelers, Mr. Farkas provided a luxurious inn: the only one, but who needed another? The town barber, Mr. Pugash, had invented his own amazingly aromatic hair oil. The highly educated Mr. Mellish taught the young folk and occasionally strummed the zither. Big Franko, the blacksmith, could straighten a horseshoe with his bare hands. Not to be overlooked: all the rest of the town's diligent, public-spirited citizens.

When one provides the clock with a ghost, the inn with enormous fleas in its beds, the barber with insane patent medicines, and the schoolmaster with a hot air balloon that he does not know how to navigate, the...