The Enchanted Wanderer

The Enchanted Wanderer

Nikolai Leskov

Translated by Ian Dreiblatt
Part of The Art of the Novella

The Enchanted Wanderer is a Russian Candide with a revolutionary edge, a picaresque that features a fast-talking monk named Ivan who is at war, it seems, with every level of society. Working as a carriage man for a Count, Ivan accidentally causes the death of a monk, which leads to his being ostracized by the local peasantry . . . until the dead monk returns as a ghost to guide him through trouble upon trouble.

NIKOLAI LESKOV (1831–1895) was one of Russia’s greatest writers. Anton Chekhov considered him his “teacher,” and Tolstoy hailed his courageous, anti-nihilist writing. Among his best-known works is Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.

IAN DREIBLATT translated Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych for the Art of the Novella series.