Alyosha the pot
Aljoscha der Topf ( Russian Алёша Горшок , transcription: Aljoscha Gorschok , transliteration: Alëša Goršok ) is a short story by Lev Tolstoy , written at the end of February 1905 and published posthumously in 1911.
In it Tolstoy offers praise for the modesty of the common man.
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As a child, Alyosha got his nickname in the village after breaking a pot full of milk.
The father brought the 19-year-old in as a house servant with a merchant in the city. Aljoscha, always willing to work, immediately carried out the most varied of orders with the confirmation “I can do it”.
Aljoscha does not get his wages in hand. The father has it paid off regularly. Aljoscha falls in love with the young cook Ustinja - an orphan. The couple want to get married. The merchant only employs single people. When Aljoscha's father comes to town again - he wants to collect the son's wages - the merchant complains to him about Aljoscha's intention to marry. The father forbids the son to marry. Aljoscha accepts it. It just wasn't meant to be. Ustinja, who has overheard everything, cries.
At the end of the following winter, Aljoscha fell from the roof of the house while clearing the snow and died of the consequences of the fall. Before his death he said goodbye to Ustinja: “Thank you Ustyusha for having pity on me. You see, it was better not to let us marry, it would be over with that anyway. Now everything is good."
reception
- Gisela Drohla wrote in 1961 that there was a house servant in Yasnaya Polyana who would have been called the pot and quotes Alexander Blok : "The most brilliant thing I have read is Tolstoy's Aljoscha the pot ".
- Philipp Witkop calls the story in his biography about Leo Tolstoy a masterpiece .
German-language editions
- Alyosha the pot. German by Arthur Luther . P. 90–97 in: Gisela Drohla (Ed.): Leo N. Tolstoj. All the stories. Eighth volume. Insel, Frankfurt am Main 1961 (2nd edition of the edition in eight volumes 1982)
- Alyosha the pot. Translated from the Russian by Hermann Asemissen . Pp. 260–267 in: Eberhard Dieckmann (Ed.) Lew Tolstoi. Haji Murat. Late stories (contains: Hajji Murat. After the ball. The fake coupon. Alyosha the pot. What for? The divine and the human. What I saw in dreams. Father Vasily. Power of the child. The monk-priest Iliodor. Who are the murderers? Conversation with a stranger. The stranger and the farmer. Songs in the village. Three days in the country. Children's wisdom. Grateful soil. Chodynka. Unwanted. Post-legacy records of the monk Fyodor Kuzmich. All the same. There are no guilty parties in the world ). 623 pages, vol. 13 by Eberhard Dieckmann (ed.), Gerhard Dudek (ed.): Lew Tolstoi. Collected works in twenty volumes . Rütten and Loening, Berlin 1986 (used edition)
- The stories. Vol. 2. Late stories. 1886 - 1910 (contains: The canvas knife . The death of Ivan Ilyich . The Kreutz sonata . The devil. Master and servant . Father Sergei. After the ball . Haji-Murad . The fake coupon. Aljosha the pot. Kornej Wasiljew. The strawberries. For what? The divine and the human. What I saw in a dream . On the Chodynka field ). Artemis and Winkler, Düsseldorf 2001. 813 pages, ISBN 978-3-538-06906-0
Web links
- The text
- Алеша Горшок (Толстой) (Russian)
- Alyosha the Pot (English)
- online at Lib.ru / Classic (Russian)
- online at RVB.ru (Russian)
- Entry in the work list
- Entry at fantlab.ru (Russian)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieckmann in the appendix to the edition used, p. 603, below, as well as Russian rvb.ru
- ↑ Edition used, p. 266, 9. Zvu
- ↑ Drohla in Vol. 8, p. 280, penultimate entry in the eight-volume edition mentioned below
- ↑ see also notes by Marietta Boiko on the text at RVB.ru
- ^ Philipp Witkop: Leo Tolstoi. Biography , p. 260, 17th Zvu