Novel
Külmale maale
Not translated into English
Eduard Vilde · 1896
Opening lines
Juba esimesed orelihääled tõid Jaanile pühalikult liigutatud tuju. Tema rinda asus see lapselik haledus iseendast, mis tuleb raskest haigusest toibunud inimesele peale, kui ta tunneb oma kehanõrkust, oma väetisust.
The very first notes of the organ filled Jaan with a solemn emotion. There settled in his breast that childlike pity for himself which comes over a person who has recovered from a grave illness, when he feels the weakness of his body, his frailty.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from archive.org
Synopsis
Towards the cold land: Jaan, who lives with his mother and three younger siblings in the sauna of a farm, is recovering from a long illness; the little ones are hungry, and the days of work given to him by Virgu Andres, the village elder, are not enough. Anni, Andres's daughter and his childhood friend, would like to help him, but he refuses charity. Suspected of theft for no reason, then deprived of work, he ends up agreeing to hide at home what some scoundrels have stolen in the area, and the honest boy is drawn into the spiral.
Context
The novel first appeared as a serial in the Postimees, of which Vilde was then editor and for which he wrote it after his working day, then in volume form the same year, under the label of “village tale”. Its author had just left the sensational crime story for critical realism, and he raises here the question of whether poverty makes the thief; the culprit remains, to the end, an honest boy. The book has been reprinted about ten times and is on the school curriculum.
Who it is for
Four hundred pages in Estonian, never published in French or in English. One should know that the title is the formula by which banishment to Siberia was designated.
Prizes and reception
It was with him that critical realism became the dominant current in Estonian letters.