Les Pauvres Gens
"Poor Folk" explores poverty and the relationship between the poor and the rich, common themes of literary naturalism. Largely influenced by Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat", Alexander Pushkin's "The Stationmaster" and "Letters of Abelard and Heloise" by Peter Abelard and Héloïse d’Argenteuil, it is an epistolary novel composed of letters written by Varvara and her close friend Makar Devushkin. The name of the book and the main female character were adapted from Nikolai Karamzin's "Poor Liza". Additional elements include the backgrounds of the two protagonists and the tragic ending, both typical characteristics of a middle-class novel.