Novel
Камінна душа
Not translated into English
Hnat Khotkevych · 1911
Opening lines
Отже, сьогодні новий ксьондз служив по раз перший службу у церкві.
So today the new priest served the liturgy in the church for the first time.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from ukrlib.com.ua
Synopsis
Maroussia, an orphan, has married the priest Vassyl and arrives with him and her mother-in-law at Kryvorivnia, a Hutsul village in the Carpathians, where he has received his parish. The priest, awkward and withdrawn into his duties, is hardly liked; his young wife, who takes an interest in the customs of the mountains, quickly wins over the villagers. In the evening, she watches to see whether the oprychky, the brigands of the heights, are prowling around the house. Then she meets their leader, Dmytro.
Context
The story starts from a popular mountain song, that of the oprychky chief Marousiak and the priest's wife. Its author lived from 1906 to 1912 in Kryvorivnia, the village where he sets the action, and collected there the legends and songs of the Hutsuls, whose speech he carries into the dialogues. The book appeared in 1911 in Chernivtsi, from the presses of the Rouska Rada society. Stanislav Klymenko made a film of it, directed in 1988 at the Dovzhenko studios and released in 1989.
Who it is for
Nearly four hundred pages in the original edition, with dialogue in the Hutsul dialect. The oprychok is the brigand of the Carpathians, at once a thief and a defender of the highlanders against the lords.
Prizes and reception
Ivan Kochelivets regarded it as its author's highest literary achievement, and it is counted among the central books of his work.
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