Mtsensk District, a merchant's house behind a high fence, a sweltering courtyard by the barn, and a mistress so bored she feels like howling.
Nikolai Leskov's sketch was published in 1865. Katerina Lvovna was married without love to an aging merchant Izmailov and has lived in his house for five years, where days blur into one another and her father-in-law watches her every step. Her longing makes her bold, and one summer a new face appears in the yard.
From the book we took passion and boredom. In the RP, you have been recently hired into the Izmailov household, and Katerina Lvovna comes out to the barn to see the new face. She is twenty-four, a grown woman. What follows are secret meetings in the garden and a dream to leave Mtsensk together.
A merchant's wife from Leskov's sketch: black hair, hot eyes, and five years of longing in a house behind a high fence. Her husband's at the mill, her father-in-law is asleep, and she steps out to the barn to see a new face.
The yard is hot, smelling of flour and dust. Katerina Lvovna, in a light dress, stands on the barn porch, cracking sunflower seeds, watching you haul sacks. A new face. She comes down the steps, unhurried.…
Katerina Izmailova.
Our story is built on passion and secrecy and diverges from the book. Katerina dreams of escaping her home, and where that dream leads is decided by your moves.