Line #9 Literature/TheOrphanageGirls


1	''The Orphanage Girls'' (Russian: Приютки) is a 1907 young adult novel by Creator/LidiaCharskaya, chronicling the life of village girl Dunya Prokhorova in an all-girl city orphanage.
2
3	!! Tropes featured in the novel:
4	* AffectionateNickname: Yelena Dmitriyevna isn't called anything but [[HonoraryAunt Aunt Lyolya]].
5	* AnimalLover: Masha Ryzhova, a dull and apathetic girl who at first doesn't seem to care about anything beyond sleep and food, is revealed to be very fond of animals, and in the end happily goes to work at a farm.
6	* BelatedChildDiscipline: Natasha Rumyantseva is a very spoiled but lowborn ward to a wealthy family. Her guardians die intestate and she is sent to a working-class orphanage, where she has to learn discipline and responsibility for the first time in her life. Sadly, it all hits a ResetButton after she is adopted by a rich guardian again.
7	* TheCobblersChildrenHaveNoShoes: Baroness Sofia has a wonderful relationship with the orphanage girls whom she adores and a strained relationship with her own daughter.
8	* CoolTeacher: Aunt Lyolya and Antonina Nikolaevna are good teachers and care for their students a lot.
9	* CountryMouse: Having spent her early years in a village, Dunya is scared by life in the town, never really adjusts to it, and plans to become a teacher and work in a village school.
10	* EnthusiasticNewbieTeacher: In the beginning of the story, Antonina Nikolaevna is barely out of college and, as she is assigned as a tutor to the eldest grade, she treats them like friends of her age rather than like students. It gets downplayed later on as the story spans nine years.
11	* EvilOrphanageLady: Downplayed with Pavla Artemyevna, who doesn't lead the orphanage but looks like she wishes she ''did''; she is a SadistTeacher who delights in scaring her pupils senseless and tries to assign punishment even to the girls not under her jurisdiction (she is only the tutor of the middle grade, but she also has a great deal of authority as a sewing teacher).
12	* GlamorousSingleMother: Widowed Baroness Sofia can afford to lead a life of luxury herself, provide for her daughter, ''and'' sponsor an orphanage.
13	* GruesomeGrandparent: Dunya's grandmother was stern and quick to get angry, so Dunya doesn't miss her half as much as she misses her father.
14	* HeartwarmingOrphan: Dunya is a lovable, friendly, hard-working girl.
15	* HotGuyUglyWife: Walter is very handsome and Nan exceedingly ugly (when Dunya first sees them next to each other, she is startled by the contrast). Nevertheless, they are genuinely in love.
16	* ICantBelieveAGuyLikeYouWouldNoticeMe: Nan is overwhelmed with happiness after learning that Walter loves her, because she is an ugly, aloof grump and he is kind, handsome and already a rising-star composer.
17	* IncorruptiblePurePureness: Yelena Dmitriyevna is an angelic, self-sacrificing AllLovingHeroine who sees the best in everybody and treats people with unending kindness.
18	* KissingCousins: Nan and her cousin Walter fall in love and get engaged.
19	* LikeMotherUnlikeDaughter: Sweet, friendly, beautiful Baroness Sofia and her daugher Nan, an ugly IceQueen, couldn't be less similar.
20	* LonelyRichKid: For a long time, Nan, despite being born into riches, is lonelier than any of the orphanage girls, feeling nobody loves her at all.
21	* MomLooksLikeASister: Baroness Sofia is so youthful, both in looks and in personality, that she is said to look like her own daughter's sister.
22	* OrphanageOfLove: Apart from Pavla Artemyevna, the purser and the music teacher, the orphanage staff are extremely kind to the girls and help them as much as they can, and the main trustee Baroness Sofia cares for the girls a lot, sponsors the orphanage and helps the girls to find work afterwards. Eventually, Pavla Artemyevna and the purser also undergo TookALevelInKindness.
23	* ParentalSubstitute: As she has lost her mother when she was a baby, Dunya considers kind, selfless Aunt Lyolya her mother.
24	* ParentsAsPeople: Baroness Sofia has the best of intentions and really is a very nice woman, but she hasn't the slightest idea of how to deal with someone like her own daughter.
25	* RagsToRiches: Natasha Rumyantseva undergoes it twice – first, when she, a coachman’s daughter, is taken in by a wealthy aristocratic couple, second, when she is at the orphanage and her previous guardians’ equally rich friend finds and adopts her.
26	* RuleOfThree: The orphanage is divided into three large "grades" (eldest, middle, youngest), each of whom is headed by a tutor.
27	* SickeninglySweet: InUniverse. Dunya is wary of Baroness Sofia due to the latter's overly saccharine manner.
28	* TakingTheVeil: Sonya Kuzmenko ends up running away from the orphanage to enter a convent, because she is a model student and the administration and teachers won’t let her leave.

Context Literature / TheOrphanageGirls