Saturday Rave: Nikolai Leskov.

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov was born in Russia in 1831.

He became a writer by accident. He had had an insecure debt-ruled upbringing, and he had not taken kindly to school, and so he ended up working for Scott & Wilkins, a trading company owned by his aunt's English husband. He travelled all over Russia for Scott & Wilkins, dealing with all classes of people, and all sorts of different ethnic and cultural groups. He thrived on the variety and challenge, and later described these years as the happiest of his life.

Part of Leskov's job involved writing reports of his business undertakings, and his literary abilities showed themselves so clearly in these accounts that his uncle realised they were worthy of publication.

Thus it occurred that Nikolai Leskov's career as a writer started with a work entitled Sketches on Wine Industry Issues.

The folk origins of Leskov's work showed clearly in the style, now called skaz, which involves the narrator's use of slang and dialect, of which he was one of the originators. 

Later, Leskov wrote: 'I think I know the Russian man down to the very bottom of his nature but I give myself no credit for that. It's just that I've never tried to investigate 'the people's ways' by having conversations with Petersburg's cabmen. I just grew up among common people.'

Even nowadays, that's a sadly unusual way for a novelist to source material.

Leskov wrote a great deal, but, not being a member of any particular political party, he was largely ignored by Russian critics. His work was much admired by Tolstoy and Chekhov, but most of it was denounced by the Soviets.

I'll leave you with the first line of his most famous work, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

Katerina Lvovna lived a boring life in the rich house of her father-in-law during the five years of her marriage to her unaffectionate husband; but, as often happens, no one paid the slightest attention to this boredom of hers.

Can't wait to find out what happens next?

Well, you can HERE. 

It's violent and bleak and terrific.

Word To Use Today: boredom. This word appeared in the 1700s, from no one knows where.