The white cat Sal-al was lying on the straw matting in the empty conservatory. She looked at us with a wicked, conceited expression as if all her appetites had just been satisfied. She was beautiful. Vesta and I both said, "I wish I were a cat! " Before we got to the last word we smiled at each other in annoyance, not liking the idea that most human beings think very much alike.Denton Welch
About This Quote
The story of "The White Cat" has been retold many times. It was written by the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev. It is very well known and can easily be found on the internet. The story takes place in the late 1800's during the time of the "Czar." A wealthy family owned a house, its surroundings, and an entire village.
The head of the family was an elderly woman called Nadyezhda Nikolaevna. Her husband was killed in a battle when she was only fourteen years old. After his death she was left with a young son and a young daughter to take care of.
Soon after taking over the household from her mother, Nadyezhda Nikolaevna married a man named Ivan Petrovich Khlensky. However, when her son came of age, he refused to marry in fear that he would not be able to take care of his wife and children in case something happened to him in his fifties. He wanted to marry a rich woman who could support them both in case he died in battle or something else should happen to him. So Nadyezhda Nikolaevna set out on a trip looking for a rich woman to marry her son.
She could not find one so she decided to go back home with her son and daughter and live off of their fortune for all their days together. Her husband took over running the household from his deathbed, but unfortunately died soon after. When Nadyezhda Nikolaevna came back home she insisted that her son marry a rich widow who could help them financially in case anything happened to her son during his lifetime.
So they brought in a rich widow who treated Nadyezhda Nikolaevna's children like their own and considered them as part of their family as if they were blood relations instead of just friends and relatives chosen for marriage. The widow treated Nadyezhda Nikolaevna's children like part of her own family, which made them happy since there weren't many people who would treat them so well rather than just leave them alone with nothing but the clothes on their backs and no money for food or housing while they were young and had nothing to eat besides bread and water that barely kept their stomachs full since they didn't have much money left over after paying for everything they needed at home or while traveling through town while searching for money for food or shelter if they went hungry while living off of other people's
Source: Maiden Voyage
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