This extensive traveling afforded him the opportunity of making acquaintance with the life of all classes of the population.

He began to write in 1860, but a few incautious words, in 1862, raised a storm against him in the liberal press, which accused him of instigating the police to their attacks upon young people.

As Count Tolstoy remarked to me, this incident prevented Lyeskoff ever receiving the full meed of recognition which his talent merited; a large and influential section of the press was permanently in league against him.

This, eventually, so exasperated and embittered Lyeskoff that he really did go over to the conservative camp, and the first result of his wrath was the romance "No Thoroughfare," published in 1865.

Its chief characters are two ideal socialists, a man and a woman, recognized by contemporaries as the portraits of living persons.