The boy with the Lord Jesus at Christmas
The Boy with the Lord Jesus for Christmas ( Russian : Мальчик у Христа на ёлке, Maltschik u Christa na jolke ) is a Christmas story that Fyodor Dostoyevsky began to write on December 30, 1875 and which appeared in January 1876 in the collection of a writer's diary .
A freezing little boy dreams of how Jesus invites him to a party under the Christmas tree.
action
“… On Christmas Eve in a very big city and in terrible cold”, a boy of no more than six noticed that his sick mother died in a rented bed in a basement apartment. The little, scantily clad boy is hungry and goes out into the dark street. A few streets further he stops in front of a house. A decorated Christmas tree shines behind large window panes. A little girl is dancing underneath. Music comes out of the house. The boy goes in, is yelled at, receives a kopeck from a lady and is pushed out into the cold. Outside, a big boy assaults him. The little one manages to escape into a strange courtyard. There he hides behind wood and freezes to death in the night. Before the little one sees his mother again “by the Lord God in heaven”, he gets warm and falls asleep. “'Come to me to the Christmas tree, my child!' suddenly a soft voice whispers above him. "
shape
The frame turns the story into an accusation against the society in which Dostoevsky lives: while writing, Dostoevsky has in mind those little boys who are sent off as beggars by drinkers - mostly factory workers - and have to bring home a few kopecks to buy brandy. At home these little beggars and thieves, around eight years old, expect nothing but hunger, cold and beatings. The even younger children of the poor are in no way better off: Newborns freeze to death in baskets, abandoned in front of the apartments of Petersburg officials. Some foundlings are handed over to Finnish farmers by the Russian authorities . Some of these children die. Others die with their mother - for example during a famine.
German-language editions
Used edition
- The boy with the Lord Jesus at Christmas. German by Hermann Röhl . P. 253-259 in: Fjodor Dostojewski: The dream of a ridiculous man. Little prose . Epilogue: Ralf Schröder . (Also contains: Records from the underground . The crocodile . Bobok . The centenarian . The gentle one . A ridiculous man's dream ). 349 pages, RUB vol. 600 (2nd edition), Reclam, Leipzig 1985
Web links
- The text
- Мальчик у Христа на ёлке (Достоевский) (Russian)
- online at litmir.info (Russian)
- online at Lib.ru / Classic (Russian)
- Entry in the list of works Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian)
- Entry in dostojewski.eu