Ioan Slavici’s collection Nuvele din popor (Novels from the People), published in 1881, includes Moara cu noroc (The Lucky Mill). Slavici
(1848-1925) was a Transylvanian, and he became a highly influential writer in
Romania. The Lucky Mill is the best known of his works outside that country,
probably because it seems to be about the only one to have been translated; it
is available in a 1919 edition published by Duffield and Company.
The
Lucky Mill (a
building which turns out to be anything but) follows the fortunes of Ghitza in
a rural part of Transylvania. Ghitza has
recently come to run the eponymous Lucky Mill, near the town of Ineu, with his
wife Anna and two children. The mill is
actually an inn, and Ghitza is doing well there. One of the locals is Lica; he is ostensibly a
pig herder (apparently quite a big deal) but has a significant side-line as a
brigand. He is someone you want to keep
on the good side of if you know what is good for you.
There is a minimal police presence in
the area, and the influence of Lica is stronger, with those in power ready to
turn a blind eye to injustice as long as it is worth their while. Lica is able to exploit Ghitza, first
threatening to reduce his custom by having the herders boycott the inn, then
implicating Ghitza in his nefarious deeds, which eventually include murder and
theft. Having corrupted him, Lica uses Ghitza
to launder the proceeds of crime, and finally seduces Anna, the licentious
atmosphere of the inn having created the conditions for her growing attraction
to Lica and her eventual spiral into immorality. She is aware that Lica is a bad boy, but
considers him more of a man than her husband, while Ghitza doesn’t help by pushing
her away in his preoccupation with Lica.
Despite his best efforts Ghitza is
unable to escape his tormentor, but is himself ambivalent, fearful of
implication in illegality but greedy for its proceeds. He even begins to regret having a family as
he finds it hampers his criminal association.
A policeman, Pintea, who wants to destroy Lica, finds himself helpless
in the face both of Lica’s cunning and official indifference. Ghitza is finally the means of Lica’s
undoing. He is appalled at what he has
done and wishes to make amends after being acquitted when put on trial, while
also taking revenge on Lica for having brought him low.
The title is ironic as the inn brings no
luck. The novel climaxes with Anna
murdered by Ghitza, Ghitza murdered by Lica’s henchman Renz on Lica’s orders,
and Lica committing suicide by bizarrely hurling himself at an oak tree and
cracking his head. It is mayhem in a
harsh universe, with due punishment for malefactors, even Anna for an act of adultery
Ghitza could have prevented. The story
ends with the inn having been burnt down on Lica’s orders and Anna’s elderly
mother and their children wandering off who knows where. Greed and weakness of character have
propelled Ghitza’s downward spiral and led ineluctably to ruin for all.
An accurate assessment of The Lucky Mill’s merits by readers
lacking Romanian may need to wait until it is translated again, but on this
showing Slavici has been so concerned with the plot that he has somewhat
neglected character, with the exception of his dashingly wicked brigand. Ghitza seems to oscillate between a sense of
purpose and helplessness, often within a few lines, making it difficult to pin him
down as having a consistent personality.
An introduction by translator A. Mircea Emperle notes a Romanian
nationalist resurgence which was creating a distinctive literature freed from
imitating foreign authors, but perhaps imitation would have improved the
psychological precision.
The novel’s strength lies in the
combination of realistic action – sometimes surprisingly graphic, not least the
murder of a widow and her five-year-old son, with Pintea carrying the woman’s
corpse on his shoulder at night – and the mythic landscape in which it is
set. Reading the Lucky Mill makes one want to visit those forests and experience
the wildness of the region: in fact at Ineu can be found Hanul Moara Cu Noroc,
a water mill converted into an hotel and restaurant, so one can get close to
the spirit of the original, hopefully minus the robbery, murder and arson. There is a 1955 film adaptation of the novel,
available on YouTube though minus English subtitles.
(This was first published on The Joy of Mere Words, 14 November 2017)
