In this story by Ivan Bunin, a Russian woman reflects on a cold autumn morning thirty years earlier when she saw her fiancé off to war, never to return. After this, despite moments of happiness, her life spirals downward … she loses her parents and the family estate during the Revolution, ekes out a living in a Moscow market, marries but loses her husband two years later, and toils to raise his nephew’s infant daughter. She struggles on thanks to his commitment to wait for her in the afterlife. Themes include love, death, loss, time, memories, displacement, perseverance.. More…
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Cleansing Monday
In this story by Ivan Bunin, a young Russian man suffers through a long, frustrating relationship with an enigmatic woman he is deeply in love with. She claims to have no interest in marrying and rejects all attempts at sexual contact. He endures, hoping she will change her mind. Although she is very religious, they smoke, drink and go to seedy taverns together. To his surprise, one Clean Monday (or rather the morning after) she gives herself to him. That evening, she leaves his life forever. Themes include love, frustration, loss, religious devotion, nostalgia (life in pre-revolutionary Moscow). More…
In Paris
In this story by Ivan Bunin, a well-to-do, middle-aged Russian exile becomes “animated” for the first time in years when he encounters a sophisticated Russian waitress in a Paris restaurant. Both live in isolation and solitude, having fled their homeland for supporting the wrong side in the Russian Civil War. A date at the cinema predictably leads to a steamy romance. The woman moves in with the man, but it is not until the tragic final paragraph that readers can appreciate how much she loved him. Themes include loss, isolation and loneliness, sexuality, love, mortality, despair, a community in exile. More…
Mitya’s Love
This story by Ivan Bunin portrays the depths of love, and how insecurity and jealousy can destroy it. The story opens with a young Russian man (Mitya) so hopelessly in love with a woman that his jealousy stifles their relationship. They decide to separate for a short period to test their feelings, and he returns to his family estate in the countryside. The separation is torture as she fails to respond to his increasingly desperate letters, and when a “Dear Mikya” note finally arrives, things don’t end well. Themes include passion, sexuality, unrequited love, insecurity, jealousy, obsession, temptation, despair, death. More…
The Gentleman from San Francisco
In this story by Ivan Bunin an overweight, fifty-eight-year-old industrialist who had grown rich off the sweat of Chinese immigrants treats himself and his family to a two-year trip around the world. He only makes it as far as Capri, where he dies of a heart attack. The story is a biting satire of the opulent lifestyles and arrogance of the mega-rich, living in their ivory towers indifferent to the “lesser” people who toil to make their lifestyles possible. Themes include greed, social class, vanity, superficiality, moral decay, self-aggrandizement vs. spiritual enlightenment, death as a leveler. More…