Moara cu noroc
Ioan Slavici
Moara cu noroc
19 chapters
3.20from 15,559 ratingson Goodreads
Ghiță gives up an honest trade as a shoemaker to take on an isolated inn on the road through the Transylvanian hills, certain he can make his family comfortable in a few years. Then Lică Sămădăul, a pig dealer who runs everything on that road, makes the inn his own. Ghiță learns what he will agree to for money some time before he learns what it costs.
About the book
First published in 1881, Moara cu noroc follows Ghiță, a shoemaker who takes over an isolated inn with his wife Ana and their family in the hope of becoming more prosperous. The inn succeeds, but its location places Ghiță within the sphere of Lică Sămădăul, a powerful and intimidating figure connected to the region’s pig herds and trade. Ioan Slavici builds the story around the gradual pressure that money and fear place on an ordinary household. Ghiță wants both security and independence, yet each accommodation makes the next decision harder. The novella examines greed, suspicion, authority and the damage caused when material ambition begins to outweigh trust.
Characters
Ghiță — Innkeeper
A shoemaker turned innkeeper whose hope for prosperity exposes him to dangerous compromises.
Ana — Ghiță’s wife
Ghiță’s devoted wife, increasingly troubled by the secrecy and tension surrounding their new life.
Lică Sămădăul — Pig herdsman
A feared and charismatic authority among the region’s pig herdsmen, accustomed to obedience.
Pintea — Gendarme
A gendarme with personal knowledge of Lică who is determined to hold him accountable.
The old woman — Ana’s mother
Ana’s mother, who joins the family at the inn and voices caution about the pursuit of wealth.
About the author
Ioan Slavici (1848–1925) was a Romanian writer, journalist and teacher, born in Transylvania when it was still under Austro-Hungarian rule. He is one of the founders of Romanian realist prose: his village stories are about what money does to people who have never had any, told without sentiment about peasant life and without excusing anybody. He was imprisoned more than once for his journalism, in Hungary before the First World War and in Romania after it. His best-known works are the novella Moara cu noroc and the novel Mara.