The Ghost of the Engineers' Castle

Nikolai Leskov, 1831 - 1895, a Russian journalist, novelist and short story writer. By many Russians he is considered the most Russian of all Russian writers. As a writer and journalist in the turbulent 1860s, he quickly established a reputation for being anti-nihilist. Anton Chekhov considered Leskov in some respects his teacher. For decades Leskov did not gain official approval, partly due to his religious themes and only in the 1950s Leskov has secured his position among the major classic Russian writers of the 19th century. Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev 1818-1883, a Russian novelist, short story writer, and playwright. His short story collection entitled The Hunting Sketches, is a milestone of Russian Realism, and his novel Fathers and Sons is regarded as one of the major works of 19th-century fiction. Turgenev studied literature, philosophy and philology at the Universities of Moscow, St Petersburg and Berlin and in 1879 received honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford. Turgenev's artistic purity made him a favourite of like-minded novelists of the next generation, such as Henry James and Joseph Conrad.