The Steel Flea

by Nikolai Leskov

He gave orders that they were not to get any hot glum pudding in flames, for fear the spirits in their innards might catch fire...

The Steel Flea is an uproarious and alcohol-soaked shaggy-dog story from one of Russia's great comic masters.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Russia, Short Stories, Russian Literature, 19th Century, Literature

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1881

About the author

also:
Николай Лесков
Nikolaj S. Leskow
Nikolai Leskov
Nikolai Lesskow
Nikolaj Semënovič Leskov
Nikolaĭ Semenovich Leskov
Nikolai Ljeskow
Н. С. Лѣсков-Стебницкий
Микола Лєсков

Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (Russian: Николай Семёнович Лесков; 16 February 1831 — 5 March 1895) was a Russian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and journalist who also wrote under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky. Praised for his unique writing style and innovative experiments in form, and held in high esteem by Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov and Maxim Gorky among others, Leskov is credited with creating a comprehensive picture of contemporary Russian society using mostly short literary forms. His major works include Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (1865) (which was later made into an opera by Shostakovich), The Cathedral Clergy (1872), The Enchanted Wanderer (1873), and "The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" (1881).

Leskov was born at his parent's estate in Oryol Gubernia in 1831. He received his formal education at the Oryol Lyceum. In 1847 Leskov joined the Oryol criminal court office, later transferring to Kiev where he worked as a clerk, attended university lectures, mixed with local people, and took part in various student circles. In 1857 Leskov quit his job as a clerk and went to work for the private trading company Scott & Wilkins owned by Alexander Scott, his aunt's English husband. He spent several years traveling throughout Russia on company business. It was in these early years that Leskov learned local dialects and became keenly interested in the customs and ways of the different ethnic and regional groups of Russian peoples. His experiences during these travels provided him with material and inspiration for his future as a writer of fiction.

Leskov's literary career began in the early 1860s with the publication of his short story "The Extinguished Flame" (1862), and his novellas Musk-Ox (May 1863) and The Life of a Peasant Woman (September, 1863). His first novel No Way Out was published under the pseudonym M. Stebnitsky in 1864. From the mid 1860s to the mid 1880s Leskov published a wide range of works, including journalism, sketches, short stories, and novels. Leskov's major works, many of which continue to be published in modern versions, were written during this time. A number of his later works were banned because of their satirical treatment of the Russian Orthodox Church and its functionaries. In his last years Leskov suffered from angina pectoris and asthma. He died on 5 March 1895. He was interred in the Volkovo Cemetery in Saint Petersburg, in the section reserved for literary figures.

Reviews

[Ilse · Rating 4 out of 5]

In those days everything had to be done just right and very fast, so as not to lose a minute that might be useful to Russia.

The Steel Flea (aka The tale of the Cross-Eyed, Left-Handed Gunsmith from Tula and the Steel Flea) was first published in Russian in 1881. A satiric folk tale, it reflects a view on Russian issues which can be read as a possible mockery of the beliefs propagated in the light of the debate that arose in the nineteenth century between Westernizers and Slavophiles on which path Russia was to follow and on the nature and values of Russian identity. As both intellectual groups disapproved of Nikolay Leskov (1831-1895), for ideological reasons or for his irreverence towards the existing order, one can image to some extent the tickling strength of Leskov’s satire in the eyes of his contemporaries.



Leskov’s picaresque tale comprises quite some amusing, absurdist passages, twists and puns while at the same time testifying of Leskov’s deep understanding of and sympathy for the common people of Russia, satirising Russia’s technological and social backwardness at that time contrasting it with the more advanced state of an industrialised, western country. By sending Emperor Aleksandr the First and his escort the Cossack Platov to London followed by the visit of a humble Russian craftsman, the gunsmith ‘Lefty’ from Tula, Leskov illustrates and mildly denounces the narrow-minded-ness, misplaced pride and lack of vision of the Russian monarchs and ruling classes who are blind for the need of social and technical progress, particularly when comparing the bad working conditions of the Russian working class with the one of the English workers which becomes obvious when the Russian gunsmith gets taken around by his English hosts:

‘Lefty looked at all their production: he really liked their metallic mills and their soapy-rope factories, and the way they managed things – especially the way they took care of their workers. Every one of their workmen was always well fed, none was dressed in rags, each one had on a capable everyday jacket and wore thick hard-nail boots with iron caps, so that he wouldn’t stump his toes anywhere on anything. Along with his work he got teachings instead of beatings, and he worked with comprehension’.



While the fixation of the czar and his entourage on the miniscule prop of the story - a dancing steel flea fabricated by the English - in itself is funny enough (it reminded me of flea circus jokes of my childhood in which the jester asked his target to hold the little jacket of the flea that got too hot somersaulting from the left to the right hand) and illustrative of the mentality Leskov seems to criticize, Leskov stylistically enhances the story by brewing a grotesque and clever cocktail of folk wisdoms, hyperboles and peculiar word play (Gorky admired his skills as a wordsmith).



'The Gunsmiths replied, 'Worthy old man we feel the gracious word of the Emperor, and we never can forget it, because he puts his hope in his own people, but what can we do about it in this here case we can't say in just one minute, because the English nation ain't stupid either; they've even sort of cunning, and their art is full of horse sense.'

While Nikolay Leskov is regarded as an influence on Andrei Bely, Isaac Babel and Maxim Gorky, the latter and Anton Chekhov perceived Leskov as the most ‘Russian’ of the 19th century Russian writers. Leskov had the opportunity to travel the country thoroughly while working as an agent envoy for the English trading company Scott & Wilkins, gathering from the remote regions of Russia a treasure trove of experiences and impressions he forged his stories from.

Underneath the humoristic tone, the playfulness, the naiveté of the somewhat simple-minded narrator and farcical exposure of the boastfulness on Russian traditions and proclamation of the superiority of all things Russian from Russian womanhood, vodka to religion, individual tragedy, crushing injustice and bigotry is lurking. Conclusively Leskov alludes on the future loss of the human soul in the mechanisation of labour, paying tribute to craftsmanship and human ingenuity.
(***1/2)
(Illustrations by the Kukryniksy collective)

[Fionnuala]

What a bizarre little novella.
Its bizzarity is summed up well by the full title, The Tale of the Cross-Eyed, Left-Handed Gunsmith from Tula and the Steel Flea.
That title is not just bizarre, it might even be one of the most unbelievable titles ever. I mean, what kind of skill could a gunsmith have if he's both cross-eyed AND left-handed! And should we care where he comes from? He sounds about as ridiculous as the notion of a flea made from steel. A flea is far too minuscule to replicate in something as solid as steel. Not to mention the fact that this steel flea is supposed to have a clockwork mechanism in its belly that makes it danse. Yes, if we are to believe Nicolai Leskov, this flea fairly hops! As people often say, if you believe that you'll believe anything.

There's an Emperor in this story too, believe it or not. No, not that Emperor. This one is Emperor Aleksandr the First of Russia. Here he is, in a new suit of clothes:



However, according to Nicolai Leskov, Alexandr was a teenie tiny bit impressionable. Well actually, Leskov implies he was inclined to believe just about anything! And history tells us that people were ready to believe just about anything about Aleksandr. For instance, that he didn't die of typhoid while travelling in the Crimean region in 1825 but went off to live in a cave as a hermit!



But back to the story of the steel flea and Lefty, the cross-eyed gunsmith. Yes, Nicolai Leskov tells us his gunsmith from Tula was called Lefty. And although he was cross-eyed, he was very good at sharpening things, which reminded me immediately of a character called Ilya whom I met recently in Between Dog and Wolf, who was one-eyed and one-legged, and could sharpen things pretty well, though not nearly as well as our Lefty (and Ilya's story is told in the same kind of skaz lingo* as Lefty's which I find just superblous—at least in translation!).

So Lefty could sharpen things down to the most minuscule sharpness, a bit like another unbelievable character in another unbelievable story. I'm thinking now about the second policeman in The Third Policeman, who could file things down so small, the point of them couldn't be seen with the naked eye.

The steel flea couldn't be seen with the naked eye either, believe it or not. No, in order to see the flea, even if you were the Emperor himself, you needed a nitroscope. Yes, a nitroscope, because, you see, the flea was a nymphusorial flea, and you can only see nymphusoria with a nitroscope.
I hope you're still following all this, because, believe it or not, there will be a point at the end (though you may need a nitroscope...).

So Lefty didn't actually make the steel flea, in case you are presuming he did. No, he was far too busy sharpening bigger things out of steel to have time to make a dancing flea, as the English gunsmiths, whom the Emperor visited in the 1820s, found time to do.

But when it was required, our Lefty proved he could do better than the English though his workshop in Tula wasn't nearly as well furnished or bright or modern as the English ones. The odds should have been stacked against Lefty, just as they would be stacked against the Russians when fighting the English in the Crimean war a few decades later. Howandsoever, Lefty succeeded in bettering the workmanship of the steelflea-smiths, and in the process, he found something tiny but important where no one was looking for it. Yes, sometimes a tiny detail can change the way big things work—if only sharp people like Lefty would be put in charge of more important things than minuscule steel fleas.

And there lies the point of this story. I hope you won't be needing a nitroscope...


* Skaz is an oral form of narrative particular to Russia, containing a lot of slang and humour.

[Nataliya · Rating 3 out of 5]

So apparently I’ve been on a Leskov streak lately, having just read the bleak and disturbing Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. I guess it’s never a bad thing to be on a Russian classics streak, right?

The Steel Flea, or rather The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea, Leskov’s best- known story, was in some shape or form familiar to me since childhood. I’m pretty sure my mother told me a kid-appropriate version of this tale since I certainly did not remember the actually devastating ending.

I mean, what else would you expect from a Russian classic? Smiles and joy? Pffffftttt. As if.

Told in the tone and language of a folk tale, it’s a story of a tsar taken in by the supposed technological superiority of the English — they managed to make a dancing steel flea that you can’t quite see without a microscope, after all — and his councilor who decides to prove the (obvious, duh!) superiority of the Slavic craftsmen by seeing what Russian craftsmen could do. And, as it’s typical for Russian tales, a supposed nobody - a plain dirty and shabby cross-eyed left-handed weaponsmith — put those uppity foreigners into their place by - wait for it - “for these rascals have shod the English flea with horse-shoes!” Oh yeah, and they did it without any microscopes.

[...] and having completely freshened themselves up, they began to interrogate the left-handed man: Where and what he had studied, and to what point he was acquainted with arithmetic?

The left-handed man replied: "Our learning is single: we can read the Psalter and the Polusonnik, but we know no arithmetic whatever."

And that’s all I recalled until this read — a tale of ingenuity that figuratively smacks the uppity foreigners right on the nose. A funny anecdote told to a giggly child. A snappy punchline, a satisfied triumph of homegrown ingenuity over foreign uppity. A Slavophiles up-yours to the Westernizers.

But, as I said, Russian classics don’t do simple joy.

And all that bravura and supposed superiority of the Russianness takes a step back once Lefty, having put the foreigners in their place, sees the treatment of workers there as compared to that in the Fatherland, with the contrasting approaches laid bare.

“He inspected all their products, and their metal foundries, and their soap and saw-mills, and all their domestic arrangements pleased him exceedingly, especially those pertaining to the maintenance of the workingman. Every laborer among them is always well fed, clothed not in rags but each in a capable every-day waistcoat, and shod with stout boots with iron caps, so that their feet might never receive any shock from anything. And they work not ​at haphazard but after training, and understand their business.”

Forget the “uproariousness” promised by the story blurb. The actual tale of Lefty, the Tsar and the Englishmen packs enough satire, criticism of backwardness and squalor and narrowmindedness, and realistically sad and very much non-fairytale ending that puts a huge damper on any gleeful joy you may be feeling.

Seriously, it’s very much not an uproarious tale. It’s a clear-eyed bitter satire by a man who loves his country and yet sees its flaws without any hint of rose-tinted view. And although the folksy style and deadpan humor and neverending colloquialisms intermixed with wordplay and a bit of absurdism are entertaining, the seriousness and bleakness keeps coming to the surface.

“The Englishman hastened to Count Kleinmichel and made a row: "How can they treat him so? He has a human soul," says he, "even if he has only a sheepskin coat."

For this bit of reasoning they immediately chased the Englishman away,—because he had dared to mention the human soul.”

And damn, I preferred the happy humorous memories I had as a kid to what it actually turned out to be — but the combination of bleak reality and delightfully playful ironic satire works very well. There’s no moralizing, no authorial judgement — instead, just as in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Leskov lays the story out and trusts you to make your own conclusions. No surprise for a man who was accused of being both too conservative and too liberal, too Slavophilic and too much of a Westernizer. This story is full of both admiration for that Russian spirit and condemnation of those contemporary to Leskov ways (many of which remain the same, really). And it’s quite good and clever, although not the hilariously entertaining story from my childhood memories.

3.5 stars.

Find its full text in English on Project Gutenberg site: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/61172

[Darwin8u · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's true," said Lefty, "that everybody's got the same Gospel, but our books are thicker than yours, and our faith is fuller."
- Nikolai Leskov, The Steel Flea



I adored The Steel Flea (1881) aka The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea aka Tale of the squint-eyed, left-handed man from Tula and the steel flea aka Levsha or The Lefthander or Lefty or The Left-handed Craftsman. The type of story is known as a Skaz in Russia. Gogol and Leskov were both masters of Skaz (an oral form of narrative that uses humor, dialect, and slang to develop a story and character).



I would tell you exactly how funny and clever the story is, but for two things: 1) I don't want to ruin the story by giving away any details (you need to examine this flea with your own literary microscope), and 2) you might already know the story. I've heard various forms of this story in the last several years. It feels like a fairy tale that you read and although you weren't aware of knowing it, everything about it feels familiar. It has contains archetypes of the West/Russia relationship and Russia's relationship with its artisans, craftsmen, and people.

[Michelle Curie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining short story about a Russian craftsman on a mission to outdo the British by creating a better version of their finest invention: a metal flea. First published in 1881, this gives an insight into the relationship Russia has with the West, stylized as an amusing folk tale.



Nikolai Leskov's arguably finest piece of writing certainly doesn't have an easy publication history, as it was attacked from both Leftists (for being to aggressively nationalist) and Right Movements (for making common people's lives seem gloomy). Reading it a century and a half later allows us to see the cunning writing for what it was: a brilliant masterful interplay of neologisms and humor and two grand nations fighting over something as unimportant as a steel flea.

In 2015 Penguin introduced the Little Black Classics series to celebrate Penguin's 80th birthday. Including little stories from "around the world and across many centuries" as the publisher describes, I have been intrigued to read those for a long time, before finally having started. I hope to sooner or later read and review all of them!

[Gastón V. A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cruza entre leyenda y parábola, "La pulga de acero" resulta una novela corta, de narración ágil, con mucho humor (neologismos como burodocumentos, verdabuelos, etc.; integran tradición e ironía), buenos personajes, argumento atrapante, crítica cáustica (como bien se expresa en la sinopsis). Muy recomendable.

Una vez más, la literatura (en este caso, a más de 140 años de su publicación) atraviesa el tiempo (el tiempo circular o el tiempo como en un cuento de Abelardo Castillo: como un río) y ayuda a una reflexión demasiado actual: las máquinas y los/as seres humanos:

"Aunque las máquinas favorecen el aumento de los salarios (sic: nota del que escribe la reseña en la que cuestiona tal aumento), no favorecen la audacia de los artistas, la cual a veces transgredía las normas e inspiraba la fantasía popular para elaborar leyendas tan fabulosas como la que nos ocupa.
Los trabajadores, por supuesto, saben apreciar las ventajas, las comodidades prácticas que les proporciona la ciencia mecánica, pero evocan a sus antepasados con orgullo y amor. Esta es su épica; una épica, por lo demás, dotada de una genuina «alma humana»."

Después de esta primera lectura de Leskov, comienzo a entender un poco más a Walter Benjamin y a su tesis sobre la narración épica en extinción.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A humorous classic of Russian literature that covers the period early to mid 1800s. Russia has defeated Napoleon but still suffers from an inferiority complex that everything in the West is better. Alexander I was Tsar but suffered from increasing mental problems which saw him slide from reforms and brilliance to paranoia and inconsistency. After his death his brother Nicholas I became Tsar who was an engineer and a great supporter of industrialisation.
In this short story Alexander I visits England and is given a steel flea that can only be seen under a powerful microscope. When wound up the flea can do a little dance. Impressed by the English inventiveness he asks his Russian tradesmen to come up with something that would surpass the English.
The story features Lefty the tradesman and how talented nobodies are ignored by Russian society, invented words that make sense, a warning of Russian ignorance about modern arms and the never ending mistrust that exists between Russia and the West (and vice versa).

[Thomas Hübner · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://www.mytwostotinki.com/?p=1344

The 19th century was an extraordinarily rich period for Russian literature. Among the numerous gifted and productive authors of that period is at least one that - according to my impression - is not valued and read outside Russia as much as he would deserve it: Nikolay Leskov.

His probably best work The Steel Flea (full title: The Tale of the Cross-Eyed Left-Handed Gunsmith from Tula and the Steel Flea) contains on about 50 pages everything that makes this author so interesting in a nutshell, such as: a folk-like story about an unsung Russian everyday-life hero of the past; a narrative spiced with mild irony; a playful voice that uses many neologisms that are so up to the point that many of them achieved proverbial status and found their way into everyday communication of many Russians; a not condescending sympathy of the author/narrator with the "ordinary people".

What is it about: Czar Alexander I (we are in the 1820s, more than half a century before Leskov wrote the story) is visiting England, then the technically most developed country; he is accompanied by Platov, a Cossack ataman, who represents the ordinary Russian that is proud and less easy to impress than the Czar by the display of technical superiority with which the English hosts shower their Royal guest. While the Czar views everything he sees as a sign of the hopeless inferiority and backwardness of his country, Platov makes it clear to the Czar that he thinks otherwise (ironically his opinion is confirmed in one instance much to the embarrassment of the hosts.)

As a gift, the Czar receives a tiny steel flea that can even perform a dance when properly wound up. How this complicated and perfectly crafted mechanism that can be seen properly under a strong microscope only is constructed is not revealed and leaves the Czar wondering how such a miracle of engineering was possible.

After the coronation of Alexander's brother Nikolay a few years later, the steel flea becomes a political issue. Platov, in the meantime retired, is re-activated to service in order to investigate if somewhere in Russia craftsmen can do something that even "tops" the English feat of the dancing steel insect. Platov finds in Tula a left-handed and cross-eyed craftsman who, together with several of his colleagues indeed "improves" the English invention. (You have to read by yourself how.)

In the end, the Russians have a field day to see the impressed English who cannot believe their eyes when a Russian delegation with Lefty is visiting the island. So impressed are they this time that they try to lure the nameless Lefty to stay in England; but to no avail: the man from Tula is homesick and returns to Russia, where he dies soon after his arrival as a consequence of a drinking contest with a sailor. The last important message he has and that could have change the fate of Russia is not delivered.

In the end, Leskov tells his readers:

Lefty's real name, like the names of many of the greatest geniuses, has been lost to posterity forever; but he is interesting as the embodiment of a myth in the popular imagination, and his adventures can serve to remind us of an epoch whose general spirit has been portrayed here clearly and accurately.

It goes without saying that Tula no longer has such master craftsmen as the legendary Lefty: machines have evened up the inequalities in gifts and talents, and genius no longer strains itself in a struggle against diligence and exactness. Even though they encourage the raising of salaries, machines do not encourage artistic, daring, which sometimes went so far beyond ordinary bounds as to inspire the folk imagination to create unbelievable legends like this one.

One of the things I like particularly are Leskov's neologisms that are translated quite ingeniously in the edition I had at hand. For example: the steel flea and its dance can be seen properly only when viewed under a strong microscope, or nitroscope - as the narrator says (it seems Leskov was the Godfather of nanotechnology); and when the steel flea is dancing, he is doing it in various fairiations.

Another thing I found amusing was the fact that the steel flea, a childish toy after all, becomes a state affair and the main object of national pride of two European leaders and their nations they represent; on a more serious note: how much better seem these old times to be where a Russian leader paid attention to the shoe strings of a tiny steel flea - especially considering most of the Russian leaders that came later... - !

Leskov had a difficult time as a writer in his days. The progressives viewed him as a conservative, the conservatives suspected him to be a leftist; the Slavophiles considered him as a propagandist of Western modernism, and the Westerners saw in him a romantic that was spreading nostalghia for Russia's backwardness. A writer whose work is still so fresh and who was caught between so many stools is definitely worth it to be read again.

My edition was the one from Penguin's "Little Black Classics". This series contains many (re-)discoveries; the small format and limited number of pages make it (together with the very attractive price) the perfect companion for the daily commuting routine or on other occasions. When you carry (like me) always at least one book with you to use every opportunity for reading, this is an excellent series for you.

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

An amusing short story, a tale of English craftsmanship, which impresses the Russian Czar with their very small, mechanical dancing steel flea(!). Russian craftsmen are called on to 'improve' the flea, which is then returned to England. A good little story with detail.
What I am not enamoured with are the repetitive mistranslations - I can't figure out if they are purposeful of not??? Eg grasp port (= passport), thirst mate (= first mate), nitroscope (= microscope),fariations (= variations), etc.

[PineHill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really get what the was trying to tell me with this. But maybe that's just me.

[Andrés Cabrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decía Walter Benjamin en "El narrador" que Leskov era el último de la estirpe de los narradores antiguos. Hijo de la vieja usanza, híbrido entre aquel que arrastra consigo la tradición, ese pasado que nos constituye y despliega sus alas sobre nuestro presente (lejanía temporal), y ese otro que concibe los parajes más distantes (la lejanía del espacio) para brindar consejo a quienes lo escuchan. Ahora bien, ese consejo es siempre "la continuación a una historia que está por venir", y sólo existe la historia que cada uno vive: la de la propia vida, que se construye con el trajinar de los pasos.

En este caso, la historia de Leskov conmueve; al tiempo que resuena fuertemente en el presente que vivimos. No es casualidad que Benjamin dijese que "La pulga de acero" es la mejor de las historias del narrador ruso: en ella, el ruso apela a la singularidad como atributo particular del ser humano, deslindándola de la técnica, que homogeniza la existencia. Asimismo, queda claro que no existe altruismo en el patriotismo irreflexivo; más cuando lo único que se busca es la reafirmación de un atributo de la identidad y no el bienestar para el mayor número de personas. En últimas, el patriotismo no viene siendo más que egoísmo, sobre todo si proviene de los representantes del Estado, quienes se ven directamente beneficiados del triunfo amparado en la bandera.

[JK · Rating 3 out of 5]

A clever, amusing little tale of patriotism, one-up a ship, and the everyday man, The Steel Flea is impressive in quite how much of a story is given to us in fifty pages.

Each page felt entirely bonkers, with the reader having to interpret what's going on, and decipher the words being used. Once used to this, however, it becomes thoroughly entertaining and comic. Leskov's humour is subtle, yet endearing, and I'm sure I would have been even more tickled had I even the smallest ounce of knowledge on the political climate at the time.

Although a good place to start investigating Leskov's political commentary, I wouldn't say it's a great place to start in Russian literature; I've definitely read better. What's wonderful about it, though, is the commentary on the relations between Russia and England at the time, and the incredible showcasing of the underdog and his fate.

[Theresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strange little tale, amusing but sometimes hard to follow--maybe something is lost in translation. I am interested to try Leskov's The Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, since Shostakovich was inspired to write an opera based on it. I found a translation of it by Pevear and Volokhonsky here:
https://hudsonreview.com/2013/02/the-...

[[ J o ] · Rating 2 out of 5]

Amusing in parts, though the mistakes became annoying after a while. Rather longer than it needed to be with an odd ending.

[Alejandro Cobo · Rating 3 out of 5]

La pulga de acero es un cuento largo producido por Nikolái Leskov, autor ruso de segunda mitad del siglo XIX no muy conocido por estos lares, pero que últimamente se está dando a conocer al verse publicada algunas de sus obras.
El relato es fácil de leer – no tanto de traducir al inventarse Leskov varias palabras – que nos cuenta la historia de un diminuto regalo realizado por los ingleses al Zar Alejandro para sorprenderle y que vislumbre la técnica más avanzada que ellos poseían con respecto a la más tradicional Rusia. Esta “pulga” pasa a manos del sucesor de Alejandro, su hermano Nicolás, que apostando por los suyos manda a unos artesanos de Tula que hagan mejoras al diminuto regalo para que luego pueda regocijarse ante esos hombres de occidente de que en Rusia también se pueden crear sorprendentes artilugios y no cuento más para no destripar toda la historia que, por cierto, se lee de una tacada.
Este cuento, redactado más como si fuera contado que escrito, es por un lado un confrontación de la manera de ser rusa con respecto a la de Occidente y por otro lado es una crítica a la compleja burocracia rusa de entonces, que más que solucionar problemas los aumentaba (uy, esto me suena)
En cuanto a mis impresiones pues decir que es un relato que ha pasado sin pena ni gloria. Vale, está bien para un ratillo, pero tiene muchas papeletas de que al igual que ha pasado por mis ojos pase por mi memoria y sea rápidamente olvidado. Un 5,5

[El Convincente · Rating 3 out of 5]

¿Cuánta de la gracia de Quevedo sobreviviría en una traducción al inglés leída en el siglo XXI por un británico sin ningún conocimiento de castellano ni de historia de España?

Pues también tengo la duda de cuánta de la gracia de Leskov he encontrado yo en mi lectura de La pulga de acero.

[Maud · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story was so much fun. I had no idea where this would go, a steel flea... And???? But I really liked the characters and their attitude towards the flea and how amazing or not it is. The ending hasn't much to do with the flea anymore but I really liked it. It is hard to say more because I don't want to spoil it but I can tell you that so far the Little Black Classics written by Russians have been such a pleasant surprise and I definitely intend to dive into Russian classics at some point!

[Marjolein (UrlPhantomhive) · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Steel Flea is a piece of Russian comedy for a change. I am more familiar with Russian tragedy, but since this in essence is still a satire or social commentary it is not unlike the other Russian authors that I read.

It is a short tale of Russian worker who aims to outdo the British and their best invention - a miniature Steel Flea. Clearly a parable for the late 19th century, I found this edition quite nice but not much more than that.

~Little Black Classics #40~

[Erick Abanto López · Rating 4 out of 5]

¡Me rindo a este pequeño relato!

Un deleite sencillo, sin pretensiones pedagógicas ni estéticas. Casi una fábula, de esas que se cuentan para aligerar temas complejos, para graficar cambios irreversibles o para consentir por un ratito a la nostalgia. O para mucho más. De aquí se pueden sacar todos los temas que uno quiera, pero creo que el encanto, más allá del ejercicio crítico, está en su inconfundible tono de relato popular, de esos que se cuentan siempre, y que siempre cuando se cuentan, suelen ser alterados. Un postre de aquellos, fino y grácil. No es hilarante como dice la sinopsis, no tiende a la comedia. Tiende a la derrota involuntaria, un poco a la parodia triste, a ese tono ribeyriano de curiosidad y fracaso, de ilusión vana, frustrada, de esperanza boba, de oportunidad perdida.



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// aquí iré agregando mi comentario del libro /


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[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely bizarre, yet hilarious short story.

“…genius no longer strains itself in a struggle against diligence and exactness”

& a personal favourite that made me giggle:
“Even with a Polish thirst, you have to let the host drink first.”

[Ana Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

A duras penas, el soberano consiguió pillar la llave y sujetarla entre los dedos índice y pulgar. Cogió la pulga con el otro pulgar y en cuanto introdujo en ella la llave, sintió que comenzaba a mover las antenas y después a agitar las patitas, y por fin, de pronto, saltó, y de un brinco hizo una danse directa y dos probariaciones a un lado, y después al otro, y así, en tres probariaciones, bailó por todo el escenario.
Inmediatamente, el soberano ordenó que se diera a los ingleses un millón en la moneda que ellos quisieran: si lo deseaban, en monedas de plata de cinco kópeks o si no, en billetes pequeños.

Leskov es sin duda ingenioso, a veces ácido, mordaz, capaz de describirnos situaciones a primera vista chuscas pero de una desconcertante crudeza, que hablan sin decirlo a las claras (evitando la censura) la no muy fácil situación en la que estaba sumida la mayoría de sus queridos compatriotas.

Ensalza y se burla al mismo tiempo, se ríe de lo que adora, critica mientras adula, y es quizás esa ambigüedad, esa compleja e ingeniosa lectura del mundo, lo que lo hizo estar al margen de la gran cultura rusa.

Su pulga es un relato entretenido, curioso, engañosamente chabacano y tan distinto en verdad a la elegante literatura de sus contemporáneos, que a su lado parece incluso asaz seria.

En todo caso, creo que los elogios que se le hacen a esta pulga en el prólogo se vuelan. E incluso si el gran Chéjov dijera alguna vez considerar a Leskov su maestro, yo estoy más bien de acuerdo con la opinión de Nabokov, considerándolo no un mal escritor, pero sí un escritor de segunda categoría. Es disfrutable e inteligente, sí, pero no mucho más.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story presents the classic nineteenth century literary view of the Russian people -- they may be crude, dirty, violent, poorly mannered and uneducated, but their simplicity and natural cleverness is beautiful and will ultimately triumph over the decadent West. Leskov gives us colorful characters and a fun story that makes its point through the words and actions of the characters without beating the reader over the head.

[Faran · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was inclined to give it a 4, but I know that if I understood Russian the language tricks that Leskov pulled off would make this story worth beyond a five. Even in English, it is very entertaining and one of the most creative stories I've encountered.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short book which could have been shorter.

[manuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entretenido y curioso. Cuando uno lee novelas e historias contemporáneas al momento de su escritura resulta interesante como se aprecia el punto de vista de ciertas cosas que luego se confirman o se demuestran equivocadas.
La forma de contar las historias me ha resultado muy similar a unos cuentos rusos que leí de pequeño.
También es interesante como critica esta obra a la forma de ser de los rusos y a sus gobernantes de forma indirecta al criticar el modo de vida de los ingleses.
Le doy 4 estrellas **** por que me lo he pasado bien leyendo esta novelita de unas 130 páginas.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5.

Muy original, tanto la idea de la trama como el estilo del autor a la hora de presentarla; un relato diferente en tono y menos destacado de la lit rusa clásica que es como un soplo de aire fresco.

[Electra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mon premier Leskov et pas le dernier.
My first Leskov and not the last one.

[Tobi ﾄﾋﾞ · Rating 4 out of 5]

very strange story

[Roselyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's all the same where a man dies.Its all God's will alone.

This is a translated work and the original title is "The Tale of Cross-Eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea"(uff can you think of a book title longer than this ?).

This is my second satirical fiction in Black Classics series.The first being "The Nose" by Gogol.

Emperor Aleksander (note the spelling ) the First, takes Cossack Platov to visit Europe to see their marvels.The emperor sees Europeans as genius and is constantly complaining how the Russians need to learn from them.As the trip gets extended ,we find Platov most of the time drinking grape vodka and trying to belittle Europeans and smash their lies.As the trip is about to end ,the emperor is gifted or trickly made to buy a steel flea which can only be seen through a nitroscope.(note not a microscope).As the story progresses we see the entry of lefty (again note the protaganist name ) and see platov drinking more vodka and readers being given a moral to this folk tale.

Mistranslation / Humorous Translation:

This edition is translated by William Edgerton, I first started making notes of these spellings when I read 

The emperor said, "That's just prejundunce"(p 4)

As I progressed through the story I noted more of these like  genuwine Molvo sugar  (p7),dansez(p 8),fairations (p 9), nitroscope (p10),. Calumnist (p36,),Daily Telegraft (p36), land lubber (p 45),thirst mate (p 45).

I got confused when I read these words and had difficulty in trying to understand several of these invented words like nymphusoria,nitroscope and many of which I have noted above. I was amazed at the eye power of lefty who could see what a nitroscope(it's microscope if you were wondering ) couldn't.And seriously how delicate are these hands of workers who build this dainty steel flea which can be seen dancing through a microscope sorry nitroscope.(Imagine building something this small by human hands).
Both the writer and translator have done a witty job.I know there are more of jokes I must have missed,I am not sure why translator twisted or didn't correct spelling of these .. humour or something else ?It's time like these I feel I read with the writer or translator to know what they meant at so and so place(sighs).I also wondered naming characters as Lefty was like author telling  'pun intended'.

Russians and English Custom Comparison :

As the story starts off we see Aleksander take side of English people telling how superior they are in everything, and Cossack proving them wrong.Then through the  lefty's eyes we see writer covering more of these ,which include how Russians and English vary in taking tea, how they propose girls,women fashion , champagne color all these are said in tone of favor to the Russians.As the events proceed further the writer is honest in acknowledging how English treat their workers better than Russians - like no physical torture , better conditions for the workers etc.

Christianity ,Tula and Industralization :

There is a lot of religious reference in the book.For instance like how the workers of Tula take blessings from saint before they commence their work.I was interested due to this to know what major religion in Russia is ,it is Orthodox Christainity.

The book has  reference praising the brilliance of Tula Craftsmen and how Craftsmen like Lefty have ceased to exist with Industralization and coming of machines.Tula now is known as  industrial city in Russia.

And did you Tolstoy was born and buried here.Tolstoy was a fan of Leskov.

Moral of the Story:

There is a lesson at the end of story ,which tells the reason for failure of Russians in the Crimean war.Crimean war happened from 1853 to 1856.The Russians lost to alliance of Ottomanian empire ,French and British.Russian lost control of  the Danube and Black Sea because of it.

In short it was a good read and making me aware several things about Russia.

[Adibah Atiqa (persephtiyareads) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t stop thinking about this book and how it impacted the way I see a lot of things especially patriotism and progress of machine industry.

Here’s what I annotate on the last page;

‘Machine doesn’t have ‘human soul’ like craftsman do. Human indeed is a beautiful creature, striving towards progression but ones who end up always not appreciating what they’re been gifted when machine can do it for them. Craftsmen’s life is a tragedy and lost in history.’