Leskov's stories of Russian life are explosions of imagination. Peopled by outsized characters including serfs, princes, Gypsy girls, horse dealers, nomadic Tartars and garrulous storytellers, Leskov's writing exuberantly fables the national character of his age. For the first time, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's translation brings Leskov's original storytelling and irresistible voice to life.

A new translation of the hilarious picaresque about a man with an indomitable spirit 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.