Literature / Princess Dzhavakha

Princess Dzhavakha (Russian: Княжна Джаваха) is a 1903 novel for children and young adults by Lidia Charskaya and her best-known work.

This book is the story of the childhood of Nina Dzhavakha, a princess of mixed Russian, Georgian and Tatar descent. She loses her mother very early and grows to be a headstrong Tomboy Princess who adores riding and has all sorts of (sometimes very dangerous) adventures.

In the second part, she has to leave her beloved Georgia to study in Saint-Petersburg, where things immediately go downhill. Her proud and passionate nature that earned her respect in the mountains makes her a laughingstock at the institute, and she has to deal with severe depression and loneliness.

The story went on to become part of a series describing the adventures of several generations of the Dzhavakha family. The series includes the following books (in the usually recommended reading order):

• Princess Dzhavakha (1903)
• Memoirs of An Institute Girl (1901)
• Lyuda Vlassovskaya (1904)
• The Second Nina (1907)
• The Dzhavakha Nest (1911)
• Deli-akyz (1915)
• The Evenings of Princess Dzhavakha (1916, a fairytale collection with the Dzhavakha household featured as Framing Device)

---

Tropes commons to the novel and its sequels

In General

• Ascended Extra: Several characters appearing in the early novels play a larger part in the sequels.
  • Downplayed with Nina, since she is a prominent character in Memoirs of an Institute Girl, but in Princess Dzhavakha she is the central heroine, and the later books also make her family the focus of the plot.
  • Bella and Izrail are mostly in the background in Princess Dzhavakha and absent in Memoirs of an Institute Girl, but they are major characters in Lyuda Vlassovskaya.
• Halfway Plot Switch: Done back and forth throughout the series, between "adventures in Caucasus" and "Boarding School drama", until by The Dzhavakha Nest it becomes "Boarding School drama in Caucasus".
• Outliving One's Offspring: Several instances, shown heartbreakingly.
  • Yelena Dzhavakha outlives one of her sons, and her daughters-in-law, and her grandson Dato, and her grandson Yuliko. Even though she seems more concerned that the line is dying out, it is still terrifying.
  • Magomet outlives his daughter Mariam and doesn’t even get to see her final moments: he appears galloping on a foam-covered horse in the morning after her death. Then he loses his granddaughter Nina, and then his younger daughter Bella is killed along with her husband during a storm.
  • Georgy loses Nina and is absolutely crushed by the loss, so much that her teachers and classmates are frightened of how he looks. Like Magomet, he arrives too late even to say goodbye.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Several men in the service of Nina’s father. She would love to be one, too.
• Series Continuity Error: Although the series is generally consistent, there are some (relatively minor) things that don't match.
  • Nina's backstory and appearance in Memoirs of an Institute Girl compared with Princess Dzhavakha (see Early-Installment Weirdness below).
  • Lyuda's last name is spelled differently in different novels; it can be Vlasovskaya or Vlassovskaya.
  • Magomet and his daughters are stated to be either Tatar or Lezgin.
  • In The Evenings of Princess Dzhavakha, Grandmother Yelena, Yuliko, Bragim and Rodam are completely absent, though the story takes place after their arrival. Even the chapter where Nina is sick, bedridden and facing an operation has no mention of them.
• Too Good for This Sinful Earth: Nina’s mother Mariam, Dato Dzhavakha, Nina Dzhavakha, Bella and Izrail.

Princess Dzhavakha

• Affectionate Nickname: Nina has a couple for her institute friends – Fairy Irene for Irina Trachtenberg and Little Daw for Lyuda.
• Berserk Button: Don’t say a word against Nina’s family in her presence. Not even as a joke.
• Braids of Action: Nina’s properly tomboyish hairstyle.
• Converting for Love: Nina's Tatar mother Mariam converted from Islam to Christianity to marry her father, which caused a huge quarrel between her and her family that lasts several years.
• Cool Big Sis: Bella, Nina's kind and fun-loving aunt, is only six years older then her, and they view each other more like sisters.
• Cool Horse: Shaly, Nina’s beloved stallion.
• Culture Clash:
  • The various nations of the Caucasus can have vastly different views and behavior and don't always get on well. It shows within Nina's family due to her Georgian father with a good deal of Russian ancestry marrying a Tatar girl.
  • It goes on worse at the institute. Nina takes her classmates’ teasing far too seriously, while they think her haughty and bad-tempered.
• Daddy's Girl: After the death of her mother, Nina bonds closely with her father.
• Doting Grandparent: Nina's maternal grandfather Magomet is a badass who adores his granddaughter (even during the time when he refuses to speak to her mother).
• Dramatically Missing the Point: Irene thinks that running away from home and getting captured by bandits is awfully exciting. Nina reminds her that had it not been for Magoma, she would have been killed.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: At the institute, Nina is often torn between her loyalty to Lyuda (her classmate and best friend) and to Irina (a seventeen-year-old who visits her at the hospital and whom she worships afterwards).
• Grande Dame: Yelena, Nina's paternal grandmother, who is shocked at Nina's Tomboy Princess attitude.
• Granny Classic: Barbale, a servant in the Dzhavakha household whom Nina sees as practically family (and who is a stark contrast to her real grandmother).
• Lovable Rogue: Nina sees that Abrek isn’t to be trusted, but she likes him anyway for training her in dzhigitovka (trick riding), working as her guide in the mountains, and plainly being charismatic. Subverted cruelly when he is revealed to be working for bandits and very nearly murders Nina.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: A non-romantic example with Nina and her sickly cousin Yuliko. It takes a very long while for them to stop fighting, let alone become friends.
• Mood Dissonance: Invoked by the institute’s geography teacher Alexey Ivanovich, who is the friendliest, jolliest, and strictest teacher of the school.
• Morality Pet: Played with. It’s implied Abrek is fond of Nina (his genuine anxiety during her illness in The Evenings of Princess Dzhavakha confirms it), but not enough to prevent him joining the bandits and eventually trying to kill her.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Nina has this reaction after she runs away from home and hears that her father fears she has drowned in the Kura.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: When Bekir seems to consider releasing Nina for a ransom after all, his younger brother Magoma pleads with him to do it. Bekir is outraged that a younger brother lectures the elder one and hands Nina over to Abrek.
• Not So Stoic: Magomet is stern and composed, except when it concerns his daughters or granddaughter.
• Off to Boarding School: Nina's grandmother threatens to send her off to an institute if she continues to fight with Yuliko. Later, Nina does go to an institute, but to one of her father's choice and without protest.
• Parent with New Paramour: Nina’s father Prince Georgy courts a blond baroness whom Nina dislikes. When he announces he will marry her, Nina runs away from home, and Georgy ends the relationship.
• Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Bella and Izrail get married because of their parents' agreement, but they don't mind too much and are well matched. Later books show them deeply in love with each other.
• Revenge Before Reason: When Nina accidentally reveals her true identity to the bandits, Bekir realizes that Prince Dzhavakha is one of the richest men out there and will pay the earth for his daughter’s safe return. However, Abrek insists on killing her in revenge for his humiliation at the Dzhavakhas’ hands.
• Sacred Hospitality: One of the chief principles that everyone in Nina's homeland, whatever their faith and nationality, agrees upon. Even verbally fighting with a guest (even if it's a Spoiled Brat like Yuliko) is considered horrifyingly low.
• Spare to the Throne: Yuliko used to be the second child and his brother Dato was to inherit the title. Everyone doted on Dato and ignored Yuliko (who loved his brother too and wasn't vexed), but then Dato died and Yuliko suddenly became his grandmother's darling. In his loneliness and feeling that he was only loved as the Last of His Kind, he lashed out at everyone and embraced the Spoiled Brat role.
• Sweet Polly Oliver: When Nina runs away from home, she disguises herself as a sazandar (minstrel boy).
• Token Good Teammate: Magoma, one of the bandits who saves Nina's life and helps her run away.
• Thicker Than Water: Nina despises Yuliko but takes his side when Bella's friends quarrel with him (especially since they insult their entire family and not just him).
• The Tragic Rose: Nina's mother associated herself with a black rose that withered after getting carried away from her native mountains into a green vale.
• Try to Fit That on a Business Card: Nina’s full title is Princess Dzhavakha ogly Dzhamata. She doesn’t like it when girls at the institute find it funny.

Memoirs of an Institute Girl

• Early-Installment Weirdness: Concerning Nina.
  • Nina's backstory has some differences from the established "Dzhavakha Nest" continuity: she says that her father is in Dagestan (he isn't there and has no plans to go there in Princess Dzhavakha), that it was her grandmother who sent her Off to Boarding School (which she ultimately didn't, it was her father's decision), and that her aunt Bella is dead (she dies much later between the events of Lyuda Vlassovskaya and The Second Nina).
  • Nina is described, from her first appearance, as chalk-pale, thin and fragile. A girl who rode in the mountains all day long in the very hot Georgian sun would hardly look like that, even after two months spent in Saint-Petersburg.
• I Should Write a Book About This: It turns out Nina has been writing the story of her life, which she gives to Lyuda before she dies.
• Incurable Cough of Death: Poor Nina has it in the second semester, foreshadowing the tragic end.
• Survivor Guilt: Lyuda has a major case of it after Nina dies, even feeling bad about being top of the class months later, because had Nina lived, she would have been the best.

Lyuda Vlassovskaya

• Child Marriage Veto: Izrail’s father pressures him to set Bella aside and take another wife who would bear him children. Izrail refuses point blank.
• Law of Inverse Fertility: Try as she might, Bella can’t conceive, even though: a) both she and Izrail want kids; b) Izrail’s family coldens towards her a lot when they begin to suspect she is infertile.

The Second Nina

• Replacement Goldfish: Nina Bek-Izrail is adopted by her uncle in her deceased cousin’s place. She knows it, and, though everyone in the household loves her, their Self-Serving Memory paints Nina Dzhavakha as a perfect, sinless angel, and she is depressed that she can never really live up to that standard.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Bella and Izrail, after being frequently appearing supporting characters in Princess Dzhavakha and major ones in Lyuda Vlassovskaya, are revealed to be dead in the first chapter.
• Together in Death: Bella and Izrail perish together during a thunderstorm in the mountains.

The Dzhavakha Nest

Deli-akyz

The Evenings of Princess Dzhavakha

• The Bad Guy Wins: In Old Gud, the mountain spirit Gud is fully successful in breaking up the girl he loves and her fiancé forever. Some people say he even manages to kidnap and marry the girl, since the latter’s never been heard of since; however, Barbale prefers to believe the girl died and he’s still looking for her.
• Day in the Life: Most of the chapters go on like this: "Princess Dzhavakha has a normal day, some minor adventure occurs which reminds others of some legend, Barbale proceeds to tell Nina the legend".
• Gilded Cage: The Water King’s Bride is about a beautiful girl who marries the amazingly rich and powerful water king. She ends up terribly lonely, bored by all the beauty, luxury and magic around her, and only wishing she could go back to her poor old father and the free life in the mountains.
• Interquel: The Framing Device stories take place somewhere during the first part of Princess Dzhavakha.
• Kill the Ones You Love: In The Stone Dzhigit, Gaiane asks her beloved Gremia to kill her rather than let her fall into the enemies’ hands. He flings her off the mountain.
• Mood Whiplash: In Silly Dev, Nina is sick with quinsy and everyone in the house is besides themselves with fear for her, and then Barbale proceeds to tell her the funniest story in the book. It is done deliberately – not only does the tale cheer Nina up, but she laughs so hard her abscess gets opened without surgery.