The Robber Bride and Orikhiv

The Robber Bride is a Margaret Atwood novel first published by McClelland and Stewart in 1993. Set in present-day Toronto, Ontario, the novel begins with three women (Roz, Charis, and Tony) who meet once a month in a restaurant to share a meal.

Contents 1 Plot summary 2 Film adaptation 3 Sequel 4 References 5 External links

Plot summary

During one outing, the three friends see Zenia, a long-dead university classmate who had stolen, one by one, their respective beaux. The novel alternates between the present and flashbacks featuring the points of view of Tony, Charis, and Roz, respectively. Zenia has given each woman a different version of her biography, tailor-made to insinuate herself into their lives. No one version of Zenia is the truth, and the reader knows no more than the characters.

Their betrayals by Zenia are what initially bring the three together as friends and bind their lives together irrevocably; their monthly luncheons began after her funeral. The novel, like other works by Atwood, deals with power struggles between men and women; it is also a meditation on the nature of friendship, power, and trust between women. Zenia's character can be read as either the ultimate self-empowered woman, a traitor who abuses sisterhood, or simply a self-interested mercenary who cunningly uses the "war between the sexes" to further her own interests. One reading posits Zenia as a kind of guardian angel to the women, saving them from unworthy men.

Atwood claims that of all the characters she has written, she identifies most "with Zenia. She is the professional liar, and what else do fiction writers do but create lies that other people will believe?"

In the novel's present, Roz, Charis, and Tony each individually confront Zenia in a Toronto hotel room, where she tells each of them that the men they'd been with got what they deserved, and gives various versions of her earlier staged death, each as implausible as the accounts of her life.

Canadian literary critic Brian Busby claimed in his book Character Parts: Who's Really Who in Canlit that the character of Zenia was based on journalist Barbara Amiel. Film adaptation

A film adaptation of The Robber Bride, starring Mary-Louise Parker as Zenia, Wendy Crewson as Roz, Greg Bryk as Henry, Shawn Doyle as John, Susan Lynch as Charis, Amanda Root as Tony, Tatiana Maslany as Augusta and Brandon Firla as West, aired on CBC Television in January 2007 and the Oxygen Network in March 2007.

The adaptation altered the plotline, choosing not to show Roz, Tony and Charis' childhood flashbacks and adding several new characters. As well, Augusta is taken by Zenia and the Toxique has been changed to Absinthe. Sequel

In 2014, Atwood published the short story "I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth", which revisits Roz, Tony and Charis in the present day, when Charis believes that her new pet dog Ouida is possessed by the spirit of Zenia. Originally published by the Canadian magazine The Walrus, the story also appears in her 2014 short story collection Stone Mattress.

Orikhiv and The Robber Bride

Orikhiv was originally founded on about 1793 near the Konka River; it was incorporated in 1801. It is situated about 50 km (31.07 mi) southeast of Aleksandrovsk (today Zaporizhya), and almost the same distance north of the Molochna Kolonia (Milk Colony). In 1818 Orikhiv appeared to be a place where military personnel of the Czar was stationed; an officer from Orikhiv came out to finalize arrangements for the Czar's visit to Lindenau in May of that year. As early as 1836 a "Salt Road" (Tschumakemveg) connected Orikhiv with Perekop to the south, the road running through the Molochna Kolonia. This road was still shown on maps of 1852. In 1850 Orikhiv was within the boundaries of Taurida, near the northeast border of that province. When the railway was built connecting Aleksandrovsk to Berdyansk it went through Orikhiv, presumably helping the development of the city and giving an easy access to the port at Berdyansk.

The first Mennonites likely settled in Orikhiv as early as the 1830s. By 1852 there were two windmills in Orikhiv owned by Mennonites (Kornelius Ediger and Kornelius Heinrichs) as well as a treadmill and oil press operated by Aaron Wiens. In the 1860s a number of families moved from Schoenwiese of the Khortytsia Colony to Orikhiv. Among these was Johann Heinrich (Ivan Andreievitch) Janzen, who built two large steam-powered flour mills and encouraged other Mennonite businessmen to follow his example.

By 1874 the small Mennonite community, in cooperation with the equally small Lutheran group, had built a church and a school. Apparently the Mennonites and Lutherans had joint services in the church, but for major festivals the Mennonites tended to go to their home churches, for many this being Schoenwiese in the Chortitza Colony. They also went back to their home churches to allow the young people to meet prospective marriage partners.

In 1874 Johann Heinrich (Ivan Andreievich) Janzen was elected mayor of Orikhiv. Despite some opposition from the business community because Janzen was German, the governor of the province encouraged him to continue in his position, Orihiv being one of the few cities with a positive balance sheet despite an aggressive school building program. Janzen retired in 1899. At the end of the nineteenth century, of a population of 10,000, there were only about 200 "Germans" in total (called niemsty), which included approximately equal numbers of Mennonites and Lutherans. Only one Mennonite estate, Rosenheim (Epp) was listed as being close to Orihiv, while Wintergruen Estate was 14 verst east-southeast of the city. These estates no longer exist.

Peter Kondratyevitch Pavlenko was principal of the Halbstadt Zentralschule in 1909 and 1910, also teaching in the areas of mathematics and pedagogy; before that he had been on the faculty of the secondary school in Orikhiv. In 1918-1919 Orikhiv was in the centre of the area controlled by the anarchist Nestor Makhno, so it likely suffered the usual consequences of being occupied by his army. During the subsequent Civil War it was overrun a number of times as the vicissitudes of war caused frequent changes in the struggles between the Whites and the Reds. Orikhiv was the base from which the Red Army surged southward to finally defeat the Mennonite Selbstschutz -eventually leading to the capitulation in Gnadenfeld, Molotschna.

Orikhiv attained city status in 1938. In 1972 it was the capital of the Orikhiv Region of Zaporizhia Oblast. In 1990 the population was 21,200. Main industries produced clothing, machinery and building supplies. There is a metallurgy plant, "Orikhiv Quarry of Molding Materials," which deals with refractory materials, and a sugar refinery. The city also has a regional museum. There are no obvious traces of the Mennonite past remaining.
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