The Enchanted Wanderer

“The Enchanted Wanderer” is one of the best works by the outstanding Russian writer Nikolay Leskov (1831–1895). The novella organically combines genre features of hagiography, a bylina/epic song, an adventure novel, and a travel novel. The main character, a commoner Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, wanders through the world, lands in the most unexpected situations, and meets different people. He accepts life as a gift, as a great miracle without limits. Wherever fate throws him, he discovers something new, surprising—and perhaps that is why he never fears change. Adapting to circumstances, he changes his line of work, and sometimes even his name. Having passed the path from sin to repentance, to expiation for guilt, Ivan Fyrazin goes into a monastery, believing that this is predetermined by God.

The work is included in the school curricula for grades 5–11 of all levels—both for classroom work and for home reading.

Listen to the audioversion of this textbook novella; feel all the magnificence of Leskov’s language—distinctive, vivid, rich in folk turns of phrase and bright imagery; enjoy the performance talent of the wonderful master of spoken word, Alexander Klyukvin.