Author. A native of Russia's Orel province, he held odd jobs throughout the country until 1860, when he left his wife to become a writer in St. Petersburg. Although liberal-minded, Leskov's books attacking what he saw as the rigidity of Russian life and religion infuriated progressives as well as conservatives. He is most famous for the novella "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" (1865), in which social restrictions drive an illiterate woman to murder. It was adapted into an opera by Dimitri Shostakovich in 1934. Anton Chekhov considered Leskov his teacher, and Maxim Gorky saw him as the Russian writer "most deeply rooted in the people". The communists viewed Leskov's work with suspicion and it was not until the 1950's that his reputation began to rise as one of Russia's great 19th Century authors.
Author. A native of Russia's Orel province, he held odd jobs throughout the country until 1860, when he left his wife to become a writer in St. Petersburg. Although liberal-minded, Leskov's books attacking what he saw as the rigidity of Russian life and religion infuriated progressives as well as conservatives. He is most famous for the novella "Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk" (1865), in which social restrictions drive an illiterate woman to murder. It was adapted into an opera by Dimitri Shostakovich in 1934. Anton Chekhov considered Leskov his teacher, and Maxim Gorky saw him as the Russian writer "most deeply rooted in the people". The communists viewed Leskov's work with suspicion and it was not until the 1950's that his reputation began to rise as one of Russia's great 19th Century authors.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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