The Jewess
Author: Alexander Kuprin
Read “The Jewess” by Alexander Kuprin in Russian and English in Bibliott on your phone and tablet.
Languages: RU, English
Genre: Essay, Historical, Short story
Free to read
A young army doctor stopping overnight in a poor Jewish settlement undergoes a fleeting moral awakening before his hostess’s beauty and a persecuted life foreign to his own.
Characters
- Kashintzev — a young army doctor: An observant, complacent traveller whom a chance halt briefly unsettles from habitual indifference.
- Etlia — Khatzkel's wife and the hostess of the inn: Her beauty, dignity, and reserve become the focus of Kashintzev's moral shock.
- Movsha Khatzkel — the impoverished innkeeper: The ingratiating, persistent host tries to please his guest amid poverty and police abuse.
- Pavel Afinogenytch Irissov — the local police inspector: A boastful official who embodies the authorities' routine violence toward the settlement.
- Trokhim — a drunken peasant from Oriekh, a horse-thief nicknamed Khvost: He sleeps and curses at the inn table until the inspector drives him out.