Short stories
Voice of Conscience
Խղճմտանքի ձայներ
Krikor Zohrab · 1909
Opening lines
Հաճի Տյուրիկը, սպասուհիների միջնորդը, տասնհինգ օր աշխատելեն վերջ միայն հաջողեցավ ձեռք ձգել կեսարացի Ղազար էֆենտիի կնոջ, Սուրբիկ հանըմին, Քատըգյուղի ամենեն հարուստ տիկիններեն մեկուն, ուզած սպասուհին:
Hadji Turik, the go-between for servant girls, only managed after fifteen days of effort to find the servant wanted by the wife of Ghazar Effendi of Caesarea, Surbik Hanım, one of the richest ladies of Kadıköy.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from hy.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Seventeen short stories on the daily life of the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century. A light idyll such as Rehan sits alongside Le Sac noir, a tale of despair in which one measures what hardship does to a mind, and Arménissa opens onto the religious divisions of the community; others touch on class, piety, mourning and the place of women. Plot counts for little in them, emotion and atmosphere for a great deal.
Context
The collection was published in Constantinople in 1909, shortly after the author's return, and was followed in 1911 by two other volumes; together, they bring together most of his short stories, first published in periodicals. The author aligns himself there with the French realism of Maupassant, Daudet and Zola, and shows a sympathy for the condition of women that made him a feminist voice of his time. Jack Antreassian gave an English translation of it.
Who it is for
Short stories, written precisely and without pathos, in Western Armenian. Nothing in them requires prior knowledge; yet the author's fate in 1915 changes the reading.
Prizes and reception
The book that founded the reputation of the “prince of the Armenian short story”, regarded together with the next two collections as a high point of that literature.