The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea

The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea

1916 title page
Author	Nikolai Leskov
Original title	Сказ о тульском косом Левше и о стальной блохе
Translator	Isabel Hapgood (1916)
Publication date	1881

"The Tale of Cross-eyed Lefty from Tula and the Steel Flea" (Russian: Сказ о тульском косом Левше и о стальной блохе, Skaz o Tulskom kosom Levshe i o stalnoy Blokhe),^[1] The Tale of the Crosseyed Lefthander from Tula and the Steel Flea or simply Levsha (Russian: Левша, left-handed), variously translated as The Lefthander, Lefty, The Steel Flea or The Left-handed Craftsman is a well-known 1881 skaz (story) by Nikolai Leskov. Styled as a folk tale, it tells a story of a left-handed arms craftsman from Tula (traditionally a center of the Russian armaments industry) who outperformed his English colleagues by providing a clockwork steel flea they'd made with horseshoes and inscriptions on them.