Zhaneta

The novel “Jeaneta” is one of the best works from the writer’s émigré period, his last major book—by Alexander Kuprin. The protagonist is a Russian emigrant, the old professor Simonov, quietly, poorly, and aimlessly spending the remainder of his days in a foreign Paris. Fate shaped the professor’s life in such a way that he couldn’t preserve his own family and couldn’t remain in his homeland. Deprived of love and communication from his two own daughters who remained in Russia—where his path is closed—Professor Simonov sincerely becomes attached to a small neighbor girl, Jeaneta, the daughter of a street newspaper vendor. Kuprin describes the touching friendship between Simonov and Jeaneta, whom the professor sincerely wants to help understand the beauty of the world. However, the story of the Russian old man and the French “princess of four streets” ends tragically. The girl is taken away from Paris, and Simonov is left alone again. The novel was written and first published in 1932–1933 in the Paris journal “Sovremennye Zapiski” (“Modern Notes”). It was included in the eponymous collection published in Paris in 1934.