"Mr. Prokharchin" is the first work by Dostoevsky in which his long line of symbolic Elijahs begin to make their appearance. Elijah the Prophet (as perceived among Russian peasants and commoners) became a major leitmotif in many of Dostoevsky's most famous works, including Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Eternal Husband, The Landlady and The Village of Stepanchikovo. Nevertheless, the many allusions to the folkloric Elijah went unnoticed by literary scholars for a century after Dostoevsky's death. This edition of Mr. Prokharchin includes an essay by Robert Mann elucidating the tale's Elijah theme. The Constance Garnett translation (published 100 years ago) has been edited and somewhat modernized.
