"The Poor People" is a short story written by Victor Hugo in 1854, translated into Russian by Lidia Veselitskaya,[1] and then rewritten or retold by Leo Tolstoy in 1908. It is the story of a woman, the protagonist ("Zhanna", "Jeanne" or "Jeanna", depending on the translator), her husband, their five children, and how some romantic feelings survive amidst their struggle in poverty.[2] According to Sophia Tolstoy, in the story, the wife of another fisherman dies while giving birth, and Jeanne must take in the children.[3]
According to American philologist John Andrew Frey, the work was first published in 1854 in the series "Legends of the Centuries."[1][2]
It was republished in 1967 by University of California Press[4] and in 2000 by Zondervan Publishing House.[5]