Happiness
Author: Alexander Kuprin
Read “Happiness” by Alexander Kuprin in Russian and English in Bibliott on your phone and tablet.
Languages: RU, English
Genre: Fairy tale, Satire, Short story
Free to read
A cruel tzar demands that poets and sages define happiness and turns their answers into cruel punishments, until a real wise man sets immortal human thought against royal power.
Characters
- the tzar — the ruler who demands a definition of happiness: A cruel, jaded ruler who turns unwelcome answers into punishments.
- the real wise man — the prisoner who asserts the immortality of thought: A calm thinker who preserves his inner freedom after a year of darkness, deafness, and blindness.
- the other poets and sages — successive respondents asked to define happiness: Anonymous flatterers, idealists, and sufferers propose power, wealth, health, love, and other answers.