Nikolai Leskov

Reading notes

• The Duel §752 Leskov

  Nikolai Leskov, the Russian writer whose story of a saintly Danila feeding a leper von Koren cites (and rejects) as sentimental, self-defeating charity.

• Good People §30 "Соборянах" Лескова

  Cathedral Folk (Соборяне, 1872), Nikolai Leskov's novel of provincial clerical life; Vera's citation of its eccentric kitchen-gardener -- who sows a share of his crop for anyone, including thieves -- is a real literary reference she uses to test her brother's moral logic, not an invention of Chekhov's.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 15–28 October 1883. Moscow. §11 N. S. Leskov

  The celebrated novelist, then in his early fifties, who accompanied Leikin on this Moscow visit and startled the young Chekhov with a drunken, half-serious prophecy.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 4 February 1888. Moscow. §5 Leskov can't bear to read stories about clerical life that he didn't write himself

  Nikolai Leskov, the novelist best known for fiction on Old Believer and clerical life; Chekhov's example continues the point about writers guarding their own subject matter.

• To M. P. Chekhov, 16 March 1888. Petersburg. §2 Leskov

  Nikolai Leskov, the novelist, drops in on the New Times offices as Chekhov is writing.

• To A. I. Sumbatov, 11 March 1891. Moscow. §3 my sister will send you the Leskov. She's reading it now.

  "Leskov" is given by surname only, with no title or first name, so this is a probable rather than certain identification. It almost certainly refers to Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (1831-1895), the major contemporary Russian novelist and story writer, whose work Chekhov's sister Maria Pavlovna is apparently reading and will pass along to Sumbatov -- a small book-lending errand of the kind that recurs in this correspondence, but the letter itself does not specify which volume.