Page:Leskov - The Sentry and other Stories.djvu/9

 Rh denounced first by the Left and then by the Right! But let us hear Sementkovsky on Lyeskov's upbringing and outlook:—

"Nikolay Semyonovitch Lyeskov was born in 1831 in the province of Orel on his father's estate, where he spent his childhood and early youth. From ten to sixteen he was at school at Orel, but soon afterwards the Lyeskov family lost all their property, the father died of cholera, and at the age of eighteen Lyeskov had to take a job in Kiev, first in a government office, then as an agent of an Englishman, a certain Mr. Scott, who managed the enormous estates of the Counts Perovsky, and did a great deal to improve the conditions of the peasants. His work for Scott gave Lyeskov exceptional opportunities for studying Russian life; for ten years he travelled from one province to another and came into contact with 'all sorts and conditions of men.' As a young man he had no idea of becoming a writer, and the idea that he might write first occurred to him because the Scott family used to admire enormously the long letters he sent them and to read them to friends as if they were stories, and some of these friends encouraged him to write for publication. But the first things that Lyeskov wrote were wholly devoted to social and political questions, chiefly to matters affecting the welfare of the peasants. About 1860 Lyeskov came to Petersburg and lived there, for the most part, till his death in 1896.

"Lyeskov's parents were ordinary, well meaning people, fairly cultured (the father was a government official; the mother belonged to a noble family) and although he was a good son they had very little influence on him. The people who helped most to shape his character and convictions were his grandmother and his aunt—both of them very fine women—and the priest who gave him his first lessons in religion.