The Fool (novel)

The Fool (Խենթը, Khenté, Armenian pronunciation: [χɛntʰə]) is an 1880 Armenian language novel by the Armenian novelist Raffi, one of the best-known novels by one of Armenia's greatest novelists.[1] The plot is based on the last Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), the plot tells a romance set against the background of the divided Armenian nation.

For similarly named novels, see Fool (novel) and Fool (disambiguation).
The Fool
AuthorRaffi
Original titleԽենթը / Khenté
LanguageArmenian
GenreHistorical fiction
PublisherMshak
Publication date
1880
Media typePrint

The novel was translated into Russian and published in 2006.[2]

Setting and structure

The novel is set in three districts near the border between the Russian and Ottoman Empires: Bayazit, Alashkert, and Vagharshapat.

The novel opens with four fast-paced chapters describing the Turkish siege of Bayazit, an historic episode from the last Russo-Turkish war.[3] After a harrowing depiction of the battle, its outcome is left in suspense as chapter five suddenly shifts the focus to an earlier time to tell the story of a village in Alashkert and a romance caught in the treacherous sociopolitical crosscurrents of the war. The succeeding twenty-nine chapters present a rich ethnographic account of country life in this particular region of Western Armenia, while depicting the ideological themes that dominated Armenian life at the time through a set of powerful, competing actors. The novel concludes in Vagharshapat [Etchmiadzin].

Translations

French translation

The French translation was completed by Mooshegh Abrahamian as Le fou : Conséquences tragiques de la guerre russo-turque de 1877-1878 en Arménie in 2009.[4]

English translations

Jane Wingate (1950).

Donald Abcarian (2000).[5]

Kimberley McFarlane and Beyon Miloyan (2020).[6]

Literature
  • Raffi (2006). Хент [The Fool] (in Russian). Moscow: YuniPress SK. ISBN 5-91152-040-0.

References
  1. Ronald Grigor Suny - They Can Live in the Desert but Nowhere Else : A History of the Armenian Genocide - 1400865581 2015 Page 76 "The novels of Raffi, particularly Khent (The Fool) published in 1880, had their loyal readers both in [...]"
  2. Raffi 2006.
  3. Report on the Russian army and its campaigns in Turkey in 1877-1878 by F. V. Greene, D. Appleton & Company, New York, 1879, http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000007718525;view=1up;seq=411 p. 385
  4. Published by Bleu Autour
  5. Khente [The Fool]. English translation: Raffi, The Fool, trans. Donald Abcarian (Princeton: Gomidas Institute, 2000)'
  6. Sophene Armeniaca


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