Hearts in exile

"Hearts in exile" by John Oxenham is a novel written in the early 20th century. Set in late-Tsarist Russia, it centers on Hope Arskaïa, a resolute idealist devoted to “the people,” and the two men who love her: earnest Paul Pavlof and wealthy Serge Palma. When Hope marries Serge on the condition that his fortune support her social work, all three are drawn into the ruthless machinery of repression and Siberian exile. The story explores love, sacrifice, and moral courage under autocracy. The opening of the novel follows Paul’s restrained proposal and Hope’s refusal in favor of a marriage of duty to Serge, whose money can further her humanitarian work in Odessa. Serge grows into her mission, but after a high-profile assassination the crackdown begins; he is arrested and vanishes, while Hope’s desperate search ends in collapse and a frail recovery as she gives birth in the countryside. The scene shifts to Tomsk’s forwarding prison and the Great Siberian Road, where Paul—himself seized under administrative process—encounters a grim procession of convicts, a kindly old man with a squeaking barrow, a child clinging to her cat, a failed mass escape, and a brutal reprisal that turns one prisoner into an avenger. As the convoys push east and the two men meet again in the stockade, Paul quietly resolves the triangle by trading places with Serge: he takes the harsher road to Kara, while Serge is assigned to the provinces with a real chance to slip away and find Hope.

Hearts in exile, by John Oxenham. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #76194.