The story "Poor Lisa" was published in 1792 in the Moscow Journal, which was published by Karamzin. It was "Poor Lisa" that made the author popular.
Karamzin is an innovative writer. He is rightfully considered the founder of Russian sentimentalism. Readers took the story enthusiastically, because society longed for something like that. Preceded to sentimentalism, the classicist trend based on rationality, tired the readers of the teachings. Sentimentalism (from the word of “sense”) reflected the world of feelings, heart life. There were many imitations of "Poor Liza", a kind of mass literature, which was in demand by readers.
"Poor Liza" is the first Russian psychological story. Feelings of heroes are revealed in dynamics. Karamzin even invented a new word - sensitivity. Lisa's feelings are clear and understandable: she lives with her love for Erast. The feelings of Erast are more complex, he himself does not understand them. First he wants to fall in love simply and naturally, as he read in novels, then discovers a physical attraction that destroys platonic love.
The social problems of the story lie in the class inequality of lovers, which leads not to a happy ending, as in old novels, but to tragedy. Karamzin raises the problem of human value regardless of class. The moral side reveals the responsibility of the person for those who trust him, "an unintentional evil", which can lead to tragedy.
Although the writer's attention is focused on the psychology of the characters, the external events that lead the heroine to death are important for the plot. The plot of the story is simple and touching: the young nobleman Erast is in love with the peasant girl Lisa. Their marriage is impossible because of class inequality. Erast is looking for a pure fraternal friendship, but he does not know his own heart. When relationships grow into intimate ones, Erast grows cold towards Liza. In the army, he loses a fortune in cards. The only way to improve things is to marry a rich elderly widow. Lisa accidentally meets Erast in the city and thinks that he fell in love with another. She can not live with this thought and is stoked in the very pond near which she met her beloved. Erast is aware of his guilt and suffers for the rest of his life.
The main events of the story take about three months. Compositionally they are decorated with a frame connected with the narrator's image. At the beginning of the story, the narrator reports that the events described at the lake happened 30 years ago. At the end of the story, the narrator again returns to the present and remembers on Lisa's grave about Erast's unhappy fate. In the text Karamzin uses internal monologues, the narrator's voice is often heard. Landscape sketches harmonize with the mood of the characters and are consonant with events.
Karamzin was an innovator in the literature. He was one of the creators of the modern language of prose, close to the spoken language of an educated nobleman. So they say not only Erast and the narrator, but also the peasant Lisa and her mother. Sentimentalism did not know historicism. The life of the peasants is very conditional, they are some free (not serfs) pampered women who can not cultivate the land and buy rose water. Karamzin's goal was to show feelings that are equal for all estates, which can not always control a proud mind.
