The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Leskov, Nikolai Semyonovich
(nykl´ smyô´nvch lyskôf´) (KEY) , 1831–95, Russian short-story writer and novelist. Leskov was first a civil servant, then an agent for his uncle’s business. Encouraged by his uncle he became a journalist and writer of narrative tales, told in a colorful, vital, and humorous style. An early story of sex and violence, “Lady Macbeth of the Mzinsk District” (1866; tr. in The Sentry, 1922), was used by Shostakovich as the basis of an opera (1934). Cathedral Folk (1872, tr. 1924) is a panoramic novel emphasizing the strengths of the provincial clergy and the faults of church bureaucracy. The brilliance of Leskov’s narration transcended his frequent attempts to serve an idea.
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