Summary Poor Lisa Karamzin
N. M. Karamzin
Poor Liza
The author discusses how good the neighborhood of Moscow is, but best of all about the Gothic towers of the C… new monastery, hence the whole of Moscow with an abundance of houses and churches, a multitude of groves and pastures on the other side, “more dense greenery of ancient elms, the golden-domed Danilov monastery glistens, “and further on, Vorobyovy Gory stands on the horizon.
Wandering among the ruins of the monastery, the author imagines his former inhabitants, but more often he is attracted to his memories of the lamentable fate of Liza: I love those things that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow! “Fathoms in seventy from the monastery is an empty, dilapidated hut The beautiful and kind Lisa, with her old mother, lived in it for thirty years before her father, who loved work and was a well-to-do villager, but after his death his wife and daughter became poor. They rented land and lived on
Once in Moscow, selling lilies of the valley, Lisa met a handsome and amiable young man who gave her a ruble instead of five cents, but Lisa refused and took what was supposed to. The young man asked her where she lives. Liza went home. She told her mother about what had happened, and she praised her daughter for not taking money from Lisa. Next day Lisa carried the best lilies of the valley to the city, but she did not sell them to anyone, but threw them out so that they would not get to anyone if she had not found the former young man. The next evening a young man visited their poor dwelling. Lisa treated him with milk, and her mother managed to tell her about her grief. A young man tells his mother that Lisa should sell her work only to him. This will save the girl from going to Moscow. For from time to time he will come and buy the products of her labor on the spot. The old
He was a fairly wealthy nobleman, intelligent and kind. He led a distracted life, often bored. Having met Lisa, he seriously took a great interest in the girl, decided to leave “the big light” for a while.
Lisa fell in love. She grieved that Erast is not a simple peasant. But soon he appeared himself, confessed her love and broke up the girl’s longing. Lisa wants to tell her mother about her happiness, but the young man asks not to tell her anything, “for old people are suspicious.”
Young people are seen every day. Erast is admired by his “shepherdess”, so he calls Liza.
Liza woo a rich peasant, but she refuses. Liza and Erast became close. Erast has changed to his beloved, she ceased to be for him a symbol of integrity, these feelings were no longer new to him. He began to avoid Lisa. They did not see him for five days, and on the sixth he came and said that he was going to war; he left Lisa’s mother money so that the girl in his absence did not go to trade. At parting, young people cry bitterly. Two months have passed. Lisa went to the city to buy rose water, which her mother treats her eyes. In the city she saw Erast in a magnificent carriage. Lisa caught up with him at the gate of the house and hugged her. Erastus says that he is engaged and should marry. He gives the girl a hundred rubles and asks to leave him alone. Erast was lost to pay debts, he is forced to marry “an elderly rich widow.” Lisa gives money to Anyuta’s friend, that she carried them to her mother, and she herself rushed into the waters of the pond. She was buried right there, under an oak tree. Mother, having learned of her daughter’s death, also died. The hut is empty. Erast until the end of life was unhappy. He considered himself a murderer of a girl. Erast himself told the author this sad tale and led him to the grave of Liza. The author ends the narrative with the phrase: “Now, maybe, they are already reconciled.”
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