Tale " Poor Lisa”, which became a model of sentimental prose, was released by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin in 1792 in the Moscow Journal. It is worth noting Karamzin as an honored reformer of the Russian language and one of the most highly educated Russians of his time - this is an important aspect that allows us to evaluate the success of the story in the future. Firstly, the development of Russian literature had a "catching up" character, since it lagged behind European literature by about 90-100 years. While in the West sentimental novels were being written and read with might and main, clumsy classical odes and dramas were still being composed in Russia. Karamzin's progressiveness as a writer consisted in "bringing" sentimental genres from Europe to his homeland and developing a style and language for further writing such works.

Secondly, the assimilation of literature of the late 18th century by the public was such that at first they wrote for society how to live, and then society began to live according to what was written. That is, before the sentimental story, people read mostly hagiographic or church literature, where there were no living characters or lively speech, and the heroes of the sentimental story - such as Lisa - gave secular young ladies a real scenario of life, a guide of feelings.

History of the creation of the story

Karamzin brought a story about poor Lisa from his many trips - from 1789 to 1790 he visited Germany, England, France, Switzerland (England is considered the birthplace of sentimentalism), and upon his return he published a new revolutionary story in his own journal.

"Poor Lisa" - no original work, since Karamzin adapted his plot for Russian soil, taking it from European literature. We are not talking about a specific work and plagiarism - there were many such European stories. In addition, the author created an atmosphere of amazing authenticity, drawing himself as one of the heroes of the story and masterfully describing the situation of events.

According to the memoirs of contemporaries, shortly after returning from a trip, the writer lived in a dacha not far from the Simonov Monastery, in a picturesque, calm place. The situation described by the author is real - the readers recognized both the surroundings of the monastery and the “lizine pond”, and this contributed to the fact that the plot was perceived as reliable, and the characters as real people.

Analysis of the work

The plot of the story

The plot of the story is love and, according to the author, utterly simple. The peasant girl Liza (her father was a prosperous peasant, but after his death the economy is in decline and the girl has to earn money by selling needlework and flowers) lives in the bosom of nature with her old mother. In a city that seems huge and alien to her, she meets a young nobleman, Erast. Young people fall in love - Erast out of boredom, inspired by pleasures and a noble lifestyle, and Liza - for the first time, with all the simple, ardor and naturalness " natural man". Erast takes advantage of the girl's gullibility and takes possession of her, after which, naturally, he begins to be weary of the girl's company. The nobleman leaves for the war, where he loses his entire fortune in cards. The way out is to marry a rich widow. Lisa finds out about this and commits suicide by throwing herself into a pond, not far from the Simonov Monastery. The author who has been told this story cannot remember poor Liza without holy tears of regret.

For the first time among Russian writers, Karamzin unleashed the conflict of a work by the death of the heroine - as, most likely, it would have been in reality.

Of course, despite the progressiveness of Karamzin's story, his characters differ significantly from real people, they are idealized and embellished. This is especially true of the peasants - Lisa does not look like a peasant woman. It is unlikely that hard work would have contributed to the fact that she remained “sensitive and kind”, it is unlikely that she would conduct internal dialogues with herself in an elegant style, and she could hardly keep up a conversation with a nobleman. Nevertheless, this is the first thesis of the story - "and peasant women know how to love."

main characters

Liza

The central heroine of the story, Liza, is the embodiment of sensitivity, ardor and ardor. Her mind, kindness and tenderness, the author emphasizes, are from nature. Having met Erast, she begins to dream not that he, like a handsome prince, will take her to his world, but that he should be a simple peasant or shepherd - this would equalize them and allow them to be together.

Erast differs from Lisa not only in social sign but also in character. Perhaps, the author says, he was spoiled by the world - he leads a typical lifestyle for an officer and a nobleman - he seeks pleasures and, having found them, cools to life. Erast is both smart and kind, but weak, incapable of action - such a hero also appears in Russian literature for the first time, a type of "disappointed aristocrat's life." At first, Erast is sincere in his love impulse - he does not lie when he tells Lisa about love, and it turns out that he is also a victim of circumstances. He does not stand the test of love, does not resolve the situation "like a man", but feels sincere torment after what happened. After all, it was he who allegedly told the author the story of poor Lisa and led him to Liza's grave.

Erast predetermined the appearance in Russian literature of a number of heroes like "superfluous people" - weak and incapable of key decisions.

Karamzin uses "speaking names". In the case of Liza, the choice of the name turned out to be "double-sided." The fact is that classical literature provided for typing techniques, and the name Lisa was supposed to mean a playful, flirtatious, frivolous character. Such a name could have a laughing maid - a cunning comedy character, prone to love adventures, by no means innocent. Having chosen such a name for his heroine, Karamzin destroyed the classical typification and created a new one. He built a new relationship between the name, character and actions of the hero and outlined the path to psychologism in literature.

The name Erast was also not chosen by chance. It means "beautiful" in Greek. His fatal charm, the need for novelty of impressions lured and ruined the unfortunate girl. But Erast will reproach himself for the rest of his life.

Constantly reminding the reader of his reaction to what is happening (“I remember with sadness ...”, “tears are rolling down my face, reader ....”), the author organizes the narrative in such a way that it acquires lyricism and sensitivity.

Quotes

"Mother! Mother! How can this be? He is a gentleman, and among the peasants ...". Liza.

"Nature calls me into its arms, to its pure joys," he thought, and decided - at least for a while - to leave the great light..

“I can’t live,” thought Liza, “it’s impossible!.. Oh, if only the sky would fall on me! If only the earth would swallow up the poor woman! Liza.

"Now, maybe they've already reconciled!" author

Theme, conflict of the story

Karamzin's story touches on several themes:

• The theme of the idealization of the peasant environment, the ideality of life in nature. The main character is a child of nature, and therefore, by default, she cannot be evil, immoral, insensitive. The girl embodies simplicity and innocence due to the fact that she comes from a peasant family, where eternal moral values ​​are kept.
• The theme of love and betrayal. The author sings of the beauty of sincere feelings and sadly talks about the doom of love, not supported by reason.
• The theme of the opposition of the village and the city. The city turns out to be evil, a great evil force capable of breaking a pure creature from nature (Lisa's mother intuitively feels this evil force and prays for her daughter every time she goes to the city to sell flowers or berries).
• Topic " little man". Social inequality, the author is sure (and this is an obvious glimpse of realism) does not lead to the happiness of lovers from different backgrounds. Such love is doomed.

The main conflict of the story is social, because it is precisely because of the gap between wealth and poverty that the love of the heroes dies, and then the heroine. The author exalts sensitivity as the highest value of a person, affirms the cult of feelings as opposed to the cult of reason.

Lisa is the main character in N. M. Karamzin's story "Poor Liza", a poor young peasant woman from a village near Moscow. Liza was left early without her father, who was the breadwinner of the family. After his death, he and his mother quickly became impoverished. Lisa's mother was a kind, sensitive old woman, but already unable to work. Therefore, Lisa took on any job and worked without sparing herself. She wove canvases and knitted stockings, picked berries and flowers, and then sold them in the city. The main character traits of Lisa are sensitivity, naivety, purity and the ability to love devotedly. She sees only the good in people, although her mother warned her that there are also “evil” people who can offend.

One day, while selling flowers in Moscow, she met a young rich nobleman who asked to continue selling her products only to him. Lisa's mother was pleased with this news, because her daughter would no longer have to travel to the city so often. Lisa's new acquaintance named Erast begins to visit the girl often and the young people fall in love. They often meet and walk by the pond. However, Erast subsequently betrays Liza. Having said that he is leaving for the service, he no longer returns to her. During his service, he played cards a lot and lost his entire fortune. As a result, he had to marry a rich widow. Lisa's heart could not stand such news, and the girl drowned herself in a deep pond.

After her death, other girls, unhappy in love, began to come to the grave of the girl. Erast was unhappy until the end of his life and considered himself guilty of Lisa's death.

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin is the largest historian of his time, as well as a writer of the era of sentimentalism.

Karamzin's work interested me, as he is such a versatile and amazing person that Russian people simply have to know about the activities of their compatriot. Karamzin was a poet, journalist, public figure and reformer of the Russian literary language.

He was born on December 1, 1766 in a noble family near Simbirsk, and therefore he received a good education. At first he studied at a private boarding school in his native city, and later in Moscow at the boarding school of I. M. Shaden, after which he entered Moscow University. After serving a year after university in the Preobrazhensky Regiment, he devoted himself entirely to literature, and later to historical essays.

In 1792, "Poor Liza" was written, which was the first work of that time written in the genre of Russian prose.

The narration of this story begins thirty years after the events. His memories take place in Moscow near the Simonov Monastery, where once a peasant girl Liza lived in a poor house with her mother. They lived in poverty, as their husband and father died long ago and there was no one to help. At the age of fifteen, Lisa had to weave canvases, knit stockings, and sell all sorts of things in Moscow. On one of those days, while selling lilies of the valley in Moscow, she met Erast. Erast bought her flowers and wanted to give a whole ruble for them, but the girl did not take such a large payment, but took only real value a bunch of a few cents. This artlessness and simplicity of the grandfather interested Erast. A day later, he appeared under the windows of her hut. Soon, the young nobleman and the peasant girl began to meet often, confessed their love to each other. So a week passed. A week later, Lisa told Erast that her mother was forcing her to marry another, the one who had proposed to her. But for her it is unbearable, because she loves her Erast.

Since then, their love has become even stronger, and the girl, not knowing what she was doing, gave Erast her innocence. Since then, Erast's interest in Lisa began to gradually fade away, as happens with those who got what they wanted. She no longer captivated him as much, as she ceased to be a pure angel. Less and less he began to see her and, finally, said that he would not come to her for a while, as things military service they require it. Lisa believed him and said goodbye with tears.

After some time, the poor girl met a carriage with Erast in Moscow, but he coldly informed her that he was engaged to another and soon the wedding, gave Liza a hundred rubles of money and sent her home. He himself was forced to marry a rich old widow. Poor Liza could not endure her grief and threw herself into the river, where she immediately drowned. The mother, having learned about what happened to her daughter, also died of grief. The hut is empty.

On such a tragic note, this work ends. Nobody has happiness.

Heroes this work are ordinary people. The peasant woman Lisa and her mother, the nobleman Erast, and the narrator, who tells about the unfolding events. The story is sad and even tragic.

So Lisa is a poor peasant woman fifteen years old. This is an honest girl who worked from dawn to dusk, earning a living for herself and her mother. With all her heart she fell in love with Erast. When he confessed his love to her, her heart and soul were given to him forever. She fulfilled all the desires of her lover, and therefore ceased to be interesting to him. The tragedy of this work is not only that the young nobleman defamed the girl, depriving her of innocence, but that he abandoned her in the end.

I think that even if Lisa had not lost her innocence at the moment when she found out that her beloved was engaged to another, she would still drown herself, since she could not imagine happiness with another.

Erast is a young nobleman. He has a good heart, and therefore stops near Lisa for the first time. However, the character of the young man is windy, capable only of entertainment and revelry. Communication with a poor girl is interesting to him only at first, as a new extraordinary adventure in his life. At first, he perceives Lisa as a bright angel of purity. However, as soon as all the desires of the young man were satisfied, the halo of magic immediately flew off, and the girl became ordinary, like many others. Again, Erast became interested only in revelry and cards. The lost estate and the resulting debts were the result of his rampant lifestyle. Erast is also unhappy, as he is forced to marry an old widow only to get rid of debts.

The main character in this story is the narrator. No, this is not a story on behalf of Karamzin, this is a separate actor. It is his memoirs that we read. The narrator describes the beauty of Moscow very beautifully, especially the Simonov Monastery.

Since the work "Poor Lisa" is sentimental prose, we often read about how everyone takes turns crying from an overabundance of feelings. And the mother, and Liza, and even Erast are too sensitive heroes. However, despite such tearful pages, I really liked the work.

This work is recommended for study at school in the ninth grade. I believe that at this age it is a good time to study such works, since girls at this age should already think about their honor and have a correct judgment about it. Therefore, the story of Liza is, of course, tragic, but useful for young girls to read. After all, a girl must observe herself in purity and innocence.

Young men should also understand the dangers of a riotous lifestyle. After all, Erast drove himself into a debt hole. I had to work myself, like a real man, and not spend all my time on entertainment events.

I would compare this work with Shakespeare's foreign work "Romeo and Juliet". In this work, the lovers are also young, like Erast and Lisa, and the ending of their story is also tragic. Here, however, Erast remains actually alive, but the feeling is that he, too, seemed to have died. After all, marrying an old woman is like burying yourself alive. So I feel sorry for poor Erast too. After all, he cannot be called a completely negative character. He has a kind, sympathetic heart, does not spare money for his beloved and is ready to buy every day all her knitted socks and all flowers sold. We must pay tribute to Lisa, who does not seek to take extra money from her lover. She takes exactly what she earns. So why are two lovers with a lot of virtues and positive qualities, waiting for such a difficult and tragic ending?! I believe that the frivolity and spinelessness of Erast is to blame. Lisa's mother can also be blamed for such a finale, who, after the death of her father, gave up so much that the poor girl had to earn money for both of them herself. In addition, the mother saw Erast more than once and knew about the relationship between two young hearts, so she could warn her daughter about the possible expected consequences of the meetings of a man and a girl in private.

Liza (Poor Liza) is the main character of the story, which, along with other works published by Karamzin in the Moscow Journal (Natalya, the Boyar's Daughter, Frol Silin, a Benevolent Man, Liodor, etc.), is not just brought literary fame to its author, but made a complete revolution in the public consciousness of the 18th century. Karamzin, for the first time in the history of Russian prose, turned to a heroine endowed with emphatically mundane features. His words "... and peasant women know how to love" became winged.

The poor peasant girl Liza is left an orphan early. She lives in one of the villages near Moscow with her mother - "a sensitive, kind old woman", from whom she inherits her main talent - the ability to love. To support himself and his mother, L. takes on any job. In the spring she goes to town to sell flowers. There, in Moscow, L. meets the young nobleman Erast.

Tired of the windy secular life, Erast falls in love with a spontaneous, innocent girl with the "love of a brother." So it seems to him. However, soon platonic love turns into sensual. L., “completely surrendering to him, she only lived and breathed them.” But gradually L. begins to notice the change taking place in Erast. He explains his cooling by the fact that he needs to go to war. To improve things, Erast marries an elderly rich widow. Upon learning of this, L. drowns himself in the pond.

Sensitivity - so on the tongue late XVIII in. determined the main merit of Karamzin's stories, meaning by this the ability to sympathize, to discover "the tenderest feelings" in the "bends of the heart", as well as the ability to enjoy the contemplation of one's own emotions. Sensitivity is also a central character trait of L. She trusts the movements of her heart, lives by "gentle passions." Ultimately, it is ardor and ardor that lead L. to death, but morally it is justified.

Karamzin was one of the first to introduce the opposition of the city and the countryside into Russian literature. In Karamzin's story, a village man - a man of nature - turns out to be defenseless, falling into an urban space, where laws operate that are different from the laws of nature. It is not for nothing that L.'s mother says to her (thereby indirectly predicting everything that will happen later): “My heart is always out of place when you go to the city; I always put a candle in front of the image and pray to the Lord God that he save you from all trouble and misfortune.

It is no coincidence that the first step on the road to disaster is the insincerity of L.: for the first time she “retreats from herself”, hiding, on the advice of Erast, their love from her mother, to whom she had previously confided all her secrets. Later, it was in relation to his dearly beloved mother that L. would repeat the worst act of Erast. He tries to "pay off" L. and, driving her away, gives her one hundred rubles. But L. does the same, sending her mother, along with the news of her death, those "ten imperials" that Erast gave her. Naturally, L.’s mother needs this money just as much as the heroine herself: “Lizina’s mother heard about the terrible death of her daughter, and her blood cooled with horror - her eyes closed forever.”

The tragic outcome of the love of a peasant woman and an officer confirms the correctness of her mother, who warned L. at the very beginning of the story: “You still don’t know how evil people can offend the poor girl." General rule turns into a concrete situation, poor L. herself takes the place of the impersonal poor girl, and the universal plot is transferred to Russian soil, acquiring a national flavor.

For the arrangement of characters in the story, it is also essential that the narrator learns the story of poor L. directly from Erast and himself often comes to be sad at Liza's Grave. The coexistence of the author and the hero in the same narrative space before Karamzin was not familiar to Russian literature. The narrator of "Poor Liza" is mentally involved in the relationship of the characters. Already the title of the story is built on the connection own name the heroine with an epithet characterizing the sympathetic attitude of the narrator towards her, who at the same time constantly repeats that he has no power to change the course of events (“Ah! Why am I writing not a novel, but a sad story?”).

"Poor Liza" is perceived as a story about true events. L. belongs to the characters with a "registration". “... Increasingly, it attracts me to the walls of the Si ... new monastery - a memory of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa,” - this is how the author begins his story. For a gap in the middle of a word, any Muscovite guessed the name of the Simonov Monastery, the first buildings of which date back to the 14th century. (to date, only a few buildings have survived, most of them were blown up in 1930). The pond, located under the walls of the monastery, was called Lisiny Pond, but thanks to the story of Karamzin, it was popularly renamed Lizin and became a place of constant pilgrimage for Muscovites. In the minds of the monks of the Simonov Monastery, who zealously guarded the memory of L., she was, first of all, a fallen victim. In essence, L. was canonized by sentimental culture.

First of all, the same unfortunate girls in love as L. herself came to cry at the place of Liza's death. According to eyewitnesses, the bark of the trees growing around the pond was mercilessly cut with the knives of the "pilgrims". The inscriptions carved on the trees were both serious (“In these streams, poor Liza passed away for days; / If you are sensitive, a passer-by, take a breath”), and satirical, hostile to Karamzin and his heroine (of particular fame among such “birch epigrams” was the couplet: "Erast's bride died in these streams. / Drown yourself, girls, there is enough space in the pond").

Karamzin and his story were certainly mentioned when describing the Simonov Monastery in guidebooks around Moscow and special books and articles. But gradually these references began to take on an increasingly ironic character, and already in 1848 in the famous work of M.N. heroine. As sentimental prose lost its charm of novelty, "Poor Lisa" ceased to be perceived as a story about true events, and even more so as an object for worship, but became in the minds of most readers (a primitive fiction, a curiosity, reflecting the tastes and concepts of a bygone era.

The image of "poor L." immediately sold out in numerous literary copies of Karamzin's epigones (compare at least Dolgorukov's "Unfortunate Lisa"). But the image of L. and the ideal of sensitivity associated with it received serious development not in these stories, but in poetry. The invisible presence of "poor L." tangibly in Zhukovsky's Rural Cemetery, published ten years after Karamzin's story, in 1802, which laid, according to V. S. Solovyov, "the beginning of truly human poetry in Russia". Three major poets of the Pushkin era turn to the very plot of a seduced peasant woman: E. A. Baratynsky (in the plot poem "Eda", 1826, A. A. Delvig (in the idyll "The End of the Golden Age", 1828) and I. I. Kozlov (in the "Russian story" "Mad", 1830).

In Belkin's Tales, Pushkin twice varies the plot outline of the story about "poor L.", reinforcing its tragic sound in " stationmaster” and turning it into a joke in “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman”. The connection between "Poor Liza" and "The Queen of Spades", whose heroine is named Lizaveta Ivanovna, is very complex. Pushkin develops the Karamzin theme: his “poor Lisa” (like “poor Tanya”, the heroine of “Eugene Onegin”) is experiencing a catastrophe: having lost hope for love, she marries another, completely worthy person. All the heroines of Pushkin, who are in the "force field" of the heroine of Karamzin, are destined to be happy or unhappy - but life. “Back to the Roots”, P. I. Tchaikovsky returns Pushkin’s Lisa to Karamzin, in whose opera The Queen of Spades Liza (no longer Lizaveta Ivanovna) commits suicide by throwing herself into the Winter Canal.

The fate of L. in different versions of its resolution is carefully spelled out by F. M. Dostoevsky. In his work, both the word "poor" and the name "Lisa" acquire a special status from the very beginning. The most famous among his heroines - the namesakes of the Karamzin peasant woman - are Lizaveta ("Crime and Punishment"), Elizaveta Prokofievna Yepanchina ("The Idiot"), Blessed Lizaveta and Liza Tushina ("Demons"), and Lizaveta Smerdyasha ("The Brothers Karamazov"). But the Swiss Marie from The Idiot and Sonechka Marmeladova from Crime and Punishment would also not exist without Lisa Karamzin. The Karamzin scheme also forms the basis of the history of the relationship between Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova - the heroes of Leo Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection".

In the XX century. "Poor Liza" has by no means lost its significance: on the contrary, interest in Karamzin's story and his heroine has increased. One of the sensational productions of the 1980s. became the theatrical version of "Poor Lisa" in the theater-studio of M. Rozovsky "At the Nikitsky Gates".

Many people remember N.M. Karamzin according to his historical works. But he also did a lot for literature. It was through his efforts that a sentimental novel was developed, which describes not only ordinary people but their feelings, suffering, experiences. brought together ordinary people and the rich as feeling, thinking, and experiencing the same emotions and needs. At the time in which Poor Liza was written, namely in 1792, the emancipation of the peasants was still far away, and their existence seemed something incomprehensible and wild. Sentimentalism, however, brought them into full-fledged feeling heroes.

In contact with

History of creation

Important! He also introduced the fashion for little-known names - Erast and Elizabeth. Practically unused names quickly became common nouns, defining the character of a person.

It was this seemingly simple and uncomplicated completely fictional story of love and death that gave rise to whole line imitators. And the pond was even a place of pilgrimage for unfortunate lovers.

It's easy to remember what the story is about. After all, her story is not rich or vicissitudes. Annotation to the story allows you to find out the main events. Karamzin himself summary would pass like this:

1. Left without a father, Lisa began to help her impoverished mother by selling flowers and berries.
2. Erast, conquered by her beauty and freshness, offers her to sell goods only to him and then asks her not to go out at all, but to give him goods from home. This rich but windy nobleman falls in love with Lisa. They begin to spend evenings alone.
3. Soon a wealthy neighbor woo Lizaveta, but Erast comforts her, promising to marry himself. There is closeness, and Erast loses interest in the girl he ruined. Soon the young man leaves for service. Lizaveta is waiting and afraid. But by chance they meet on the street, and Lizaveta throws herself on his neck.
4. Erast announces that he is engaged to another, and orders the servant to give her money and take her out of the yard. Lizaveta, having handed over the money to her mother, rushes into the pond. Her mother dies from a stroke.
5. Erast is ruined by losing at cards and forced to marry a wealthy widow. He does not find happiness in life and blames himself.

Selling flowers to the city

main characters

It is clear that the characterization of one of the heroes of the story "Poor Lisa" will be insufficient. They must be evaluated together, influencing each other.

Despite the novelty and originality of the plot, the image of Erast in the story "Poor Liza" is not new, and a little-known name does not save either. Rich and bored nobleman tired of accessible and cutesy beauties. He is looking for bright sensations and finds an innocent and pure girl. Her image surprises him, attracts and even awakens love. But the very first closeness turns the angel into an ordinary earthly girl. He immediately remembers that she is poor, uneducated, and her reputation has already been ruined. He runs from responsibility, from crime.

He runs into his usual hobbies - cards and festivities, which leads to ruin. But he does not want to lose his habits and live with his beloved work life. Erast sells his youth and freedom for the wealth of a widow. Although a couple of months ago he dissuaded his beloved from a successful marriage.

Meeting with his beloved after separation only tires him, interferes. He cynically throws money at her and forces the servant to take the unfortunate woman out. This gesture shows the depth of the fall and all its cruelty.

And here is the image main character Karamzin's story is distinguished by its freshness and novelty. She is poor, works for her mother's survival, and yet is gentle and beautiful. Its distinctive features are sensitivity and nationality. In Karamzin's story, poor Liza is a typical village heroine, poetic and with a tender heart. It is her feelings and emotions that replace her upbringing, morality and norms.

The author, generously endowing the poor girl with kindness and love, seems to emphasize that such women are inherent in natural that does not require restrictions and teachings. She is ready to live for her loved ones, to work and keep joy.

Important! Life has already tested her for strength, and she withstood the test with dignity. Behind her image, honest, beautiful, gentle, it is forgotten that she is a poor, uneducated peasant woman. That she works with her hands and sells what God has sent. This should be remembered when the news of the ruin of Erast becomes known. Lisa is not afraid of poverty.

The scene describing how the poor girl died is full of despair and tragedy. believer and loving girl It is clear that suicide is a terrible sin. She also understands that her mother will not live without her help. But the pain of betrayal and the realization that she is disgraced is too hard for her to experience. Lisa took a sober look at life and honestly told Erast that she was poor, that she was not a match for him, and that her mother had found her a worthy groom, even if she was unloved.

But the young man convinced her of his love and committed an irreparable crime - he took her honor. What for him was an ordinary boring event turned out to be the end of the world for poor Lisa and the beginning of a new life at the same time. Her most tender and pure soul plunged into the mud, and a new meeting showed that her beloved appreciated her deed as licentiousness.

Important! The one who wrote the story "Poor Lisa" realized that he was raising a whole layer of problems and in particular the theme of the responsibility of rich bored noblemen to unfortunate poor girls whose fates and lives are broken from boredom, which later found its response in the work of Bunin and others.

Scene near the pond

Reader reaction

The audience received the story ambiguously. Women were compassionate and made a pilgrimage to the pond, which became the last refuge of the unfortunate girl. Some male critics shamed the author and accused him of excessive sensitivity, of abundant tears that flow constantly, of the picturesqueness of the characters.

In fact, behind the external cloying and tearfulness, in which every critical article is full of reproaches, lies the true meaning, understood by attentive readers. The author pushes not only two characters, but two worlds:

• Sincere, sensitive, painfully naive peasantry with its touching and stupid, but real girls.
• Good-natured, enthusiastic, generous nobility with pampered and capricious men.

One is hardened by the difficulties of life, the other is broken and frightened by the same difficulties.

Genre of the work

Karamzin himself described his work as a sentimental fairy tale, but it received the status of a sentimental story, since it has heroes acting for a long time, a full-fledged plot, development and denouement. Heroes live not in separate episodes, but a significant part of their lives.

Poor LISA. Nikolai Karamzin

Retelling Karamzin N. M. "Poor Liza"

Output

So, the question: "Poor Liza" - is it a story or a story, was decided long ago and unambiguously. The summary of the book gives the exact answer.