Five great stories from one of the most quintessentially Russian of writers, Nik
olai Leskov. In the best of Leskov's stories, as in almost no others apart from
those of Gogol, we can hear the voice of nineteenth-century Russia. An outsider
by birth and instinct, Leskov is one of the most undeservedly neglected figures
in Russian literature. He combined a profoundly religious spirit with a fascinat
ion for crime, an occasionally lurid imagination and a great love for the Russia
n vernacular. This volume includes five of his greatest stories, including the m
asterful Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.
