I. Розділ 1
. . . . , . . : „“. , . ?
A 1920s city novella for C1
A Sentimental Story Сантиментальна історія
Mykola Khvylovy, 1928
Mykola Khvylovy’s complete 1928 novella in Ukrainian, not an adaptation, in the text of the 1928 Kharkiv edition. For advanced learners (C1) who want to see Soviet Ukraine of the 1920s through the eyes of a young woman from the provinces: about 16,800 words in ten chapters, about 3 to 5 hours of reading.
- C1
- 16 800 words
- 3-5 hours
Will this text hold?
B2
Earlier
At B2 the story is easy to follow, but the 1928 spelling (инший, радости, провінціяльний), the 1920s office words (діловод, місцком, радслужбовці) and Bianka’s long reflective paragraphs will stop you on almost every page.
B2C1
This text
At C1 it reads over a few evenings, a chapter or two at a time: the dialogue scenes move fast, and the reflective passages of chapters I and IV are worth taking slowly.
Check this passageC2
With room to spare
At C2 the language sets no obstacles; what remains is the irony: Bianka’s self-mocking voice and the way she repeats other people’s words with “він так і сказав” (“those were his very words”).
Start readingOne word in nine has 9 letters or more (11.0%), as in Khvylovy’s I (Romanticism) (11.1%) and more than Zakhar Berkut (10.4%) or Boa constrictor (10.0%); Intermezzo has 6.3%. Sentences average 11 words, but almost half the paragraphs (250 of 571) are dialogue lines, so the narrated passages are longer and denser than the average suggests. The vocabulary is that of a 1920s Soviet office and city: діловод (office clerk), установа (institution), місцком (local trade union committee), радслужбовці (Soviet office workers), виконком, Раднарком. The 1928 edition keeps the spelling of its time: инший and иноді for інший and іноді (25 times), радости and невинности for радості and невинності, провінціяльний, спеціяльно and діялог for провінційний, спеціально and діалог. Old words also return again and again: мисль (29 times) for думка, город (23 times) for місто. The difficulty is even: every chapter has 10% to 12% long words. Hence C1. This is the catalogue’s assessment, not a certificate.
- 16 800
- words
- 11
- words in an average sentence
- 3-5
- hours of reading
- 1928
- Державне видавництво України
Державне видавництво України, 1928. Wikisource
What it is about, without the ending
Bianka is seventeen and cannot stand her sleepy provincial town any longer. One early morning she leaves her mother and their little white house and takes the train to the big city of Z, hoping to find there a “distance” she cannot name and a great man who will change her life. Her school friend Lizbet gets her a job as a typist in a Soviet office. Around her are the pompous clerk Kuk, who courts every young typist, a cynical grey-eyed journalist who pinches her arms, and her neighbour Comrade Uliana, a communist with a broken nose who mourns the lost ideals of the civil war. One evening in a park Bianka meets Chargar, a famous painter, and falls in love with him. But Chargar is cold and evasive, and the more frankly she speaks to him, the further he withdraws. Over a year in the city her romantic dream is tested against the everyday life of the 1920s. What happens next is not revealed here.
Compare two places
Сантиментальна історія
V. Розділ 5
— , — . — , ! , , . ! ( „“). , , , — . , , … ?
. . , , , .
Choose an underlined word.
The spelling of 1928
Провінціяльний is today’s провінційний (“provincial”). The 1928 spelling wrote я after і in many borrowed words: спеціяльно for спеціально, геніяльний for геніальний, діялог for діалог. Expect some twenty such words in the novella, along with инший for інший and радости for радості. Note also ґанок (“porch”): the letter ґ, for a hard g, is standard Ukrainian today too.
Kuk’s office Russian
The clerk Kuk mixes Russian into his Ukrainian, and Khvylovy makes fun of it: Нє for ні (“no”), сливки художества for вершки мистецтва (“the cream of the art world”), and Бульйонський ліс, a garbled Булонський ліс (the Bois de Boulogne in Paris). The narrator flags his words with “він так і сказав” (“those were his very words”), a phrase that returns throughout the novella.
Chapters
Translation while you read
The book stays free on every plan. Reader, €1 a month, removes the daily limit on words and sentences.
Reader
€1 a month
Bianka’s reflective passages are where whole-sentence translation in Reader helps most, for example “Я хотіла прилучити чистий, я сказала б, святий романтизм своєї натури до заголеної й брудної правди життя, але це моє бажання розбивалось об глуху стіну наманікюреного віку” (“I wanted to bring the pure, I would even say holy, romanticism of my nature to the bare and dirty truth of life, but this wish of mine broke against the blank wall of a manicured age”).
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Is this the original or a learner adaptation?
It is the original, not a learner’s version: Mykola Khvylovy’s complete novella, first published in 1928, in all ten chapters. The text follows volume II of Khvylovy’s Works (Державне видавництво України, Kharkiv, 1928) as transcribed on Wikisource, so the spelling is that edition’s, starting with the title: the edition prints «Сантиментальна історія», while modern Ukrainian writes «Сентиментальна історія». Inside you will find инший for today’s інший, иноді for іноді, радости for радості, провінціяльний for провінційний.
Is there an audiobook?
A Sentimental Story has no audiobook on MovaReader: the novella is read on screen. Tap a word to see its translation; you will need it for words such as атрамент (ink, an old word) or дичавина (wildness, backwardness), both on the first pages.
Can I translate a whole sentence?
Yes, with the Reader plan. It helps in Bianka’s longer narrated passages, for example “Мені було дуже неприємно вислухувати цю парикмахерську пошлятину, і я поспішала від нього відійти” (“It was very unpleasant to listen to this barbershop vulgarity, and I hurried to get away from him”). Without the plan, single words are translated up to the daily limit.
How many hours does it take?
The whole novella takes about 3 to 5 hours: the pace of someone reading with translation of new words, slower than a native speaker’s. Most chapters have about 1,200 to 2,200 words, so one chapter makes a sitting; chapter IX is the longest (about 2,800 words) and chapter X the shortest (under 300).
Where does the text get easier?
It is fairly even. Chapters I and II have the longest sentences (about 13 and 12.5 words on average); from chapter III they settle at 10 to 12 words, and chapter VIII, rich in dialogue, is the lightest at under 10. The share of long words stays between 10% and 12% in every chapter.
Will my place in the book be saved?
Yes. Once you sign in, the reader keeps your last place and the words you opened. Any chapter also opens from the contents on this page, for example chapter V (V. Розділ 5).