A Living Relic (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Ivan Turgenev
- First Published: 1874
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The 1850's
- Setting: The village of Alekseyevka, in Belyov province, Russia
- Principal Characters: Pyotr Petrovich, Ermolay, Lukerya, Vasily Polyakov, Agrafena, Father Aleksey
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Values, Suffering, Poverty or poor people, Upper classes, Russia or Russian people, Peasantry or peasants, Relics or sacred objects
- Locales: Russia
The Story
The title, “A Living Relic,” refers to a paralyzed serf girl, Lukerya, whom the narrator, Pyotr Petrovich, unexpectedly encounters lying alone and abandoned in a small shed on one of his mother's farms. Pyotr is stunned by the sight of the immobile, mummylike body that lies before him and cannot believe that the half-dead creature is the same lively, beautiful, robust young girl who loved to sing and dance a mere six years ago, when she lived in his mother's manor house as one of her household serfs.
Pyotr's compassion for the girl grows as he questions her...
[The entire page is 1375 words long]
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