A strange and tragic story by one of the best Russian storytellers - a beautifully and powerfully written drama of misguided people brought together at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and for all the wrong reasons.
The Engineering Castle is a real building that still exists. It remains one of the most sought-after landmarks in St. Petersburg, and it is steeped in legend, ghost stories, and lore every bit as much as Nikolai Leskov makes it sound.
There plenty of spooky action in this volume of tales. Ghosts, apparitions, entire armies of fairies and fairy queens. The volume opens with Shakespeare's timeless classic 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and continues to get more frightening with haunted castles in Leskov's 'The Ghost of the Engineers' Castle'.
The Enchanted Wanderer is a Russian Candide with a revolutionary edge, a picaresque that features a fast-talking monk named Ivan who is at war, it seems, with every level of society. Working as a carriage man for a Count, Ivan accidentally causes the death of a monk, which leads to his being ostracized by the local peasantry, until the dead monk returns as a ghost to guide him through trouble upon trouble.
An 1881 comic story by Nikolai Leskov, presented in the form of a traditional skaz or folk-tale, but entirely of Leskov's invention. It tells the story of a left-handed Russian artisan required to impress Tsar Nikolas I with his craftsmanship by outdoing some famous Englishmen who have created a tiny mechanical flea. The Russian smith barricades himself with two skilled colleagues in his workshop until finally forced to come out and reveal the brilliant result of his labor.
Far more famous in Russia than in the West, the story of The Steel Flea reveals much about nineteenth-century Russian attitudes toward the West and toward their own country, but is difficult to categorize. Either a celebration of Russian ingenuity or a critique of Russian autocracy, The Steel Flea has established itself as a classic worthy of any of the great Russian authors.
[It should be noted that many of the most comical lines in the story are funny only in the original Russian, depending as they do on ridiculous malapropisms or ignorant combinations of words almost impossible to translate. Ms. Hapgood, for example, has had to do the best she could, rendering the mistaken word for "international" as "internecine," for "infusoria" as "nymfozoria," for "Pyramids" as "Keramids," for "stench" as "spiral," and so on.] (Summary by Expatriate)
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (1831 — 1895) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and journalist. He was a favourite of Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others. Leskov is praised for his innovative techniques and his ability to create a vivid picture of contemporary Russian society.
The Ghost of the Engineers' Castle is a ghost story in which his storytelling skills are displayed to perfection. Scene by scene the tension builds up until the listener's hair is standing on end. The young cadets who live in the ancient castle of the late Emperor Paul, now known as the Engineers' Castle, are afraid of the many ghosts rumoured to walk the corridors at night. They are also fearful of the nebulous "grey man" who appears at dusk and will exact terrible revenge on them. So when they are given the task of holding watch at night over the coffin of the deceased General Lamnovsky, a spiteful man who himself would have every motivation to return from the dead and avenge himself on the naughty cadets, they are very afraid. One of them does show bravado in front of his comrades... but even he is petrified at the awful apparition which then appears.
Enter the world of mystery with this timeless audio book adaptation of Leskov's classic ghost story uncovering mysteries of haunted castle with reputation going back several centuries. Featuring ghost action and audio effects, it includes a story that takes you through events unfolding in St Petersburg in 1859 or 1860. This release also includes another story of mysterious disappearance. A 19th century nobleman goes missing in Turgenev's Hunting Sketches.
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