The Peasant Marey (russian: Мужик Марей ''Muzhik Marey''), written in 1876, is both the "best-known autobiographical account" from the '' Writer's Diary'' of

Fyodor Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (, ; rus, Фёдор Михайлович Достоевский, Fyódor Mikháylovich Dostoyévskiy, p=ˈfʲɵdər mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ dəstɐˈjefskʲɪj, a=ru-Dostoevsky.ogg, links=yes; 11 November 18219 ...

, and a frequently anthologized work of fiction. This "double encoding" arises from its framing as both

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

, narrated by the fictional prisoner Goryanchikov from ''

The House of the Dead ''The House of the Dead'' is a horror-themed light gun shooter video game franchise created by Sega in 1996. Originally released in arcades, it utilizes a light gun on the platform, but can be played with standard controllers on consoles and a ...

'', and as reminiscences of Dostoevsky himself, as a way to evade censorship. "The Peasant Marey" is preoccupied mainly with a childhood memory, when the speaker was nine and living with his father in Tula province. The boy is frightened by rumors of a wolf prowling the countryside, and finds refuge with one of his father's

serfs Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...

, Marey. Recollected 20 years later, the incident takes on the significance of an

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

myth Myth is a folklore genre consisting of Narrative, narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or Origin myth, origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not Objectivity (philosophy), ...

.Morson, introduction to ''A Writer's Diary'', pp. 26–27.

Plot summary

The story opens around the holiday season of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

, with the narrator wandering the prison camp. After a Polish political prisoner utters his hatred for the low bred convicts (both the Pole and the narrator are nobles), the narrator heads back to the bunks to rest. As he lies in his bed, he vividly recalls a memory from his early childhood. While playing near a birch wood, he had heard the shout "Wolf! Wolf!" Panicked, he runs away from the wood, finally coming across the peasant Marey. Marey comforts the boy, blessing him and reassuring him that there is no wolf. The boy is mollified by the peasant's genuine concern and benevolent nature, and eventually returns to playing. The narrator returns from his memory to prison, reminded of the Russian peasantry's deeper wisdom despite their apparent lack of refinement, and laments that the Polish prisoner has never seen this cultured side. Still, he is sad to imagine that the drunken peasant might be the same Marey he had encountered earlier.

References

*Magarshack, David, ''The Best Stories of Fyodor Dostoevsky'' (New York: The Modern Library, 2005), xi-xxvi.

External links

* '"The Peasant Marey," English translation by Kenneth Lantz
text
and published version in the appendix to ''The House of the Dead'' and ''Poor Folk'
p. 425ff.
and in ''A Writer's Diary'' (Northwestern University Press, 1994), introduction by Gary Saul Morson
p. 351ff.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peasant Marey, The 1876 short stories Short stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky