| A Bitter Fate | |
|---|---|
 Ilya Repin's portrait of Polina Strepetova (a famed actress) as Lizaveta, the protagonist of A Bitter Fate. | |
| Original title | Russian: Горькая судьбина |
| Written by | Aleksey Pisemsky |
| Original language | Russian |
| Subject | Serfdom in Russia |
| Genre | Realistic tragedy |
A Bitter Fate (Russian: Горькая судьбина, Gorkaya sudbina), also translated as A Bitter Lot, is an 1859 realistic play by Aleksey Pisemsky.[1] It is a story of a peasant woman, who, while her husband was away for quitrent works, had been seduced by a young pomeshchik and had brought him a child. The four-act play tackles Russian serfdom and the social and moral divisions that it creates.[1] With the exception of Leo Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness (1886), it is the only major play to dramatise the experiences of Russian serfs in the history of Russian realistic drama.[2]
It was started in early 1859 in St. Petersburg, finished on 19 August and first published by Biblioteka Dlya Chteniya in November that year,[3] It has been described as a masterpiece of the Russian theatre and the first Russian realistic tragedy.[4] The play is available in English translation in Masterpieces of the Russian Drama, Volume 1, edited by George Rapall Noyes, Dover Publications, 1961.
- ^ a b Banham (1998, 861) and Moser (1992, 273).
- ^ Moser (1992, 274).
- ^ Yeryomin, M.P. Commentaries to Горькая судьбина. The Selected Works by A.F. Pisemsky. 1959 // А.Ф.Писемский. Собр. соч. в 9 томах. Том 9. Издательство "Правда" биб-ка "Огонек", Москва, 1959
- ^ Banham (1998, 861) and Eriksen, MacLeod, and Wisneski (1960, 471).