Books: The Truest Russian

SELECTED TALES (300 pp.)—Nikolai Leskov—Farrar, Straus & Cudahy ($5).

In a sense, the igth century was Russia's Renaissance. Until then, Russian literature had been of little consequence, but 19th century Russia showered on the world a wealth of literary greatness such as few centuries anywhere have equaled and none have surpassed. In an epoch that produced Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Chekhov, it is not surprising that some valuable authors were virtually overlooked by the West. One of these, almost unknown to American readers, is Nikolai Leskov (1831-95), whose output of novels, stories, memoirs and articles filled a posthumous edition of 36...