I finished reading A Bitter Fate by Alexey Pisemsky, a play published in 1859. I read a translation by Alice Kagan and George Rapall Noyes that is included in Masterpieces of the Russian Drama.

The play tells the story of a love affair between a serf and a landowner and its tragic consequences. It’s been referred to as the first time peasants were written as complex characters in Russian theater. Interestingly, it was published a couple of years before Russian serfdom was ended in 1861.

I am somewhat surprised it passed the Tsar’s censors, in that characters of the nobility and government are not cast in a very flattering light. The characters in general, of all social classes, feel like real people, and therein lies a great strength of the play.

“I didn’t go to look for life there, sir, I sought death.—Perhaps wild beasts would tear me to pieces, I thought….One can run away and hide himself from human judgment, but never from that of God!”