The Enchanted Wanderer

Translated by Ian Dreiblatt

Part of The Art of the Novella

“You took my life without giving me a chance of repentance.”

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.

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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.

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