A NEST OF SIMPLE FOLK
THE AMAZON, by Nikolai S. Leskov; Allen & Unwin. English price, 10/6. | ESKOV i is a great 19th Century Russian writer little known in’ translation. Apparently his popularity is still growing, even in Russia itself. Although some of his books were translated many years ago, it was a book of short stories, The Musk Ox, published in 1944, which introduced him to English-speaking
readers of this generation. The Amazon, in David Mage arshack’s well-mane aged English idiom, is a worthy successor to it. The elegant binding and delightful dust jacket immediately ensnare the eye. Greater rewards await the happy reader of this deliciously comic volume. Leskov excels in the delineation of richly eccentri¢e character, the lively marshalling of incident and the re‘tailing of fascinat«
ing detail. The "amazon," the simple peasant who drifts into nameless turpitude without realising how far behind she has left her innocence, and the gentle lunatic "March hare," thrust into an office too eminent for his understanding, are persons fit to stand beside any‘thing our own 18th Century novelists created. For it is with that century that these two short novels and short story should be compared: Leskov has the same ironic and comic intentions as Sterne or Fielding, with a deeper humanity. The Russians look eternity in the face; the Englishmen take it for granted. "
David
Hall
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 547, 16 December 1949, Page 14
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226A NEST OF SIMPLE FOLK New Zealand Listener, Volume 22, Issue 547, 16 December 1949, Page 14
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