Left. Leon, butler son. Unnecessary ruble. Stupid artist. Leskov N.S.

In Russian literature, Nikolai Semenovich Leskov (1831-1895) is famous for its unique style, figurative language, and author’s intonation resembling a folk tale. When reading the “left -handed”, it seems that the story of the Tula craftsman is led by a storyteller from the people, unfamiliar with many words of foreign origin and, as a result of this, generously fingering his speech with ridiculous neologisms. The expressiveness of Leskov’s speech critics often reproached for deliberation. Leskov uses stylization under the folk dialect in many other works, including included in this book. Nikolai Semenovich knew the life of the common people very well. According to him, he “grew up among the people” - the writer traveled a lot around the country. It is no coincidence that L. N. Tolstoy spoke of Leskov as "the Russian most of our writers."

Maxim Gorky, arguing about Leskov’s prose, called it “bright painting or, rather, icon painting”. There was such a kind of literary icon painter Leskov. In his works, he created a portrait gallery of the righteous and ascetics, who are surrounded in life by scammers, bribes, thieving officials and nihilists of all stripes, seeking to destroy a healthy patriarchal core in the soul of a Russian person. One of these righteous is Leskovsky left -handed.