For What? (Russian: За что?) is a 1910 autobiographical novel by Lidia Charskaya, outlining the first fifteen years of her life and particularly her difficult relationship with her stepmother and her good and bad times at the Boarding School.
In 1912, 1913 and 1915 respectively, Charskaya published three sequels.
The novel and its sequels contain examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: As befits the time period when the platonic version of Sickeningly Sweethearts was a norm, there are loads of examples.
- Lida calls her father her "little sun", her governess Katiche, her older friend Big John, her stepmother, eventually, Mommy Nellie, and her son "the little prince".
- Sima Elskaya is nicknamed Volka (from "volya", which means "freedom" in Russian) for her independent and mischievous spirit.
- Both Sides Have a Point: The whole arc of Nellie and Lida. Lida is undoubtedly wrong for behaving horribly towards her stepmother just because the latter exists, but Nellie is also wrong when she is cold and formal towards her stepdaughter (because Nellie herself was brought up to behave like this) and, worse, forces Lida to address her father formally as well.
- Daddy's Girl: Lida is extremely devoted to her father.
- Gratuitous French: As befits the early-20th-century Russian aristocracy, people can switch to French at any moment. Lida finds it extremely annoying (but mostly because her stepmother does that).
- Infant Sibling Jealousy: Lida doesn't care much when her half-brothers are born, but she is absolutely hysterical when she gets a half-sister, since that means she is no longer the only daughter of the family.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Lida isn't evil, she is just very, very, very spoiled.
- Kissing Cousins: Alexey Voronsky's second wife is also his cousin.
- Real Name as an Alias: The nurse who cares for Lida is called Sister Anna. Her identity is kept a secret until the very end because Lida only knows her stepmother as Nellie.
- The Show Must Go On: Right when Lida's son has smallpox and is on the brink of death, his mother has to play the leading role in a comedy. She barely gets through the evening without breaking down.
- Spoiled Brat: Lida's mother dies in childbirth, and she is left in the care of her father and four doting aunts, all of whom bow to her every whim. She throws a tantrum every time anybody dares to show even the smallest amount of strictness towards her.
- Unexpected Kindness: In Big John, the sequel, Stern Teacher Fraulein Furst is forced to quit her job when the unruly and rioting class, of which she is the tutor, outright declares their hatred of her and, combined with her failing health, she can't bear it. To her unending astonishment, the only girl who runs to console her and apologise is Sima Elskaya, the worst troublemaker of the class whom she punished more often than anyone. Fraulein Furst bursts into tears and says Sima is the only student who loves her, though Sima, with her usual Brutal Honesty, says that no, she doesn't and she was as annoyed by her over-the-top Stern Teacher ways as everyone else, but what her classmates did was horrible.
- Unreliable Narrator: The story is narrated by Lida, and her opinions color the narration a lot. Especially in the early parts, when she is spoiled rotten and believes everyone who doesn't gush over her to be evil.
- Wicked Stepmother: Subverted. Nellie is very cold and distant towards Lida and deliberately sours her relationship with her father. Except that, as several characters point out, a lot of it is Lida's prejudice or justified anger at Lida's brattiness. Finally, when Lida has smallpox and Nellie nurses her back to health, the girl also realizes she was mistaken.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Lida thinks herself a good and pure fairytale princess horribly abused by an evil stepmother, while in fact she is a spoiled selfish girl who refuses to accept a good, though not faultless, Parental Substitute. Discussed in a later book: Lida genuinely doesn't like grand celebrations, but Nellie asks her to accompany the family to a ball, since if Nellie goes to the ball and Lida stays at home, everyone will think Nellie is the wicked stepmother who has forbidden her to go.
