Ivan Bunin (1870–1953)
Author of The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories
About the Author
Ivan A. Bunin was little known in the United States until he received the Nobel Prize for literature, the first Russian writer to do so. By then he had decades of extensive literary activity behind him. In the intensely group-oriented literary milieu of turn-of-the-century Russia, Bunin largely show more remained a loner, working within the realist tradition in prose but enriching it with a powerful lyric element. He traveled abroad a great deal and used exotic locales as settings for many of his works. An outspoken opponent of the Bolsheviks, he emigrated to Paris and ironically, years after his death, he became celebrated in the Soviet Union as a major writer. Bunin's themes are diverse, ranging from a changing Russia to the universal human experience. Born into an impoverished rural-gentry family, he often wrote about the decline and passing of a way of life. Sometimes his depiction of provincial Russia is elegiac; at other times it is violent and tragic, as in the novella Dry Valley (1911]). A number of his works, such as the remarkable short story "The Gentleman from San Francisco" (1915), may be read as allegories of human encounter with the transcendent. In later years, Bunin grew increasingly preoccupied with problems of sexual attraction and death, evidenced in his last collection of stories, Dark Avenues (1930). In 1933 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Bunin died in 1953. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Ivan Bunin
Verzamelde werken. Dl. IV: Brieven ; Vervloekte dagen ; Herinneringen ; De schaduw van de vogel ; Gedichten (2002) 35 copies
The Liberation of Tolstoy: A Tale of Two Writers (Studies in Russian Literature and Theory) (2001) 9 copies
Господин из Сан-Франциско 8 copies
El Maestro novela 7 copies
Vas, Gospod iz San Francisca 4 copies
Избранное 4 copies
EN EL CAMPO 4 copies
Suure paastu esmaspäev 2 copies
Aprile 2 copies
Sobranie sochineniˆi [in 4 volumes] 2 copies
The Dreams of Chang 2 copies
Czara życia i inne opowiadania 2 copies
Nathalie 2 copies
Fiesta. Vida de Jesús. Una aldea. 2 copies
Антоновские яблоки 2 copies
Róża Jerycha : opowiadnia i szkice 2 copies
De zaak Kornet Jalagin 1 copy
Byn ; Suchodol 1 copy
Případ korneta Jelagina 1 copy
Opere 1 copy
Повести и рассказы 1 copy
Повести и рассказы 1 copy
Vesnice 1 copy
Stihotvorenija 1 copy
" O liubvi". 1 copy
Избранные сочинения 1 copy
Una buena vida 1 copy
BUN Una aldea - Sujodol - El maestro - En el campo (Los Premios Nobel de Literatura) (Tomo II) 1 copy
Окаянные дни 1 copy
ছায়া বীথি 1 copy
アントーノフカ 1 copy
Memorias 1 copy
Собрание сочинений том 9 1 copy
Тъмни алеи 1 copy
Избранное Поэзия. Проза 1 copy
Избранные сочинения 1 copy
Собрание сочинений В 5 т 1 copy
Spegeln och andra noveller 1 copy
Nacht, nieuwe maan, mistral 1 copy
Детство 1 copy
В такую ночь 1 copy
Чистый понедельник 1 copy
Стихотворения 1 copy
Стихи. Проза. 2 тома 1 copy
Собрание сочинений том 7 1 copy
POVÍDKY Z DÁLEK, MOŘÍ A CEST 1 copy
Nuvele si povestiri (2 vol.) 1 copy
Viata lui Arseniev 1 copy
Applied Motion Study: A Collection of Papers on the Efficient Method to Industrial Preparedness (Classic Reprint) (2015) 1 copy
Valitut kertomukset 1 copy
The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories (Mint Editions (Short Story Collections and Anthologies)) (2020) 1 copy
Zlaté dno 1 copy
Рассказы Selected Stories 1 copy
El señor de San Francisco 1 copy
Темные аллеи 1 copy
Valitut kertomukset 1 copy
Ivan Bunin 1 copy
SUDOJOL 1 copy
الدروب الظليلة 1 copy
Poeziya i Proza 1 copy
Récits 1 copy
Versuri 1 copy
Küla : [romaan] 1 copy
El sagrament de l'amor 1 copy
Zapomniana fontanna 1 copy
Pripovetke 1 copy
Notas autobiogràficas 1 copy
Późna godzina 1 copy
Życie Arsieniewa : młodość 1 copy
Vode mnoge 1 copy
a proposito di cechov 1 copy
Избранные произведения 1 copy
Избранные Сочинения 1 copy
Associated Works
World Poetry: An Anthology of Verse from Antiquity to Our Time (1998) — Contributor — 496 copies, 2 reviews
Fifty Years: Being a Retrospective Collection of Novels, Novellas, Tales, Drama, Poetry, and Reportage and Essays: All Drawn from Volumes Issued during the Last Half-Century by… (1965) — Contributor — 56 copies
Bijt me toch, bijt me! De mooiste dierenverhalen uit de Russische Bibliotheek (2013) — Contributor — 5 copies
Story in America, 1933-1934: Thirty-Four Selections from the American Issues of "Story," the Magazine Devoted Solely to the Short Story (1934) — Contributor — 3 copies
50 seltsame Geschichten — Contributor — 1 copy
Los premios Nobel de literatura. En la ciudad / Elias Portolu / El Maestro — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Бунин, Иван Алексеевич
- Birthdate
- 1870-10-22
- Date of death
- 1953-11-08
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Moscow University
- Occupations
- writer
journalist
poet - Awards and honors
- Nobel Prize (Literature, 1933)
- Relationships
- Muromtseva, Vera (common-law wife)
- Short biography
- Iván Alekseyevich Bunin (1870–1953) fue un escritor ruso, reconocido por su prosa poética y su maestría en la narrativa breve. Nacido en Vorónezh, Rusia, provenía de una familia noble empobrecida. Bunin destacó por sus cuentos y novelas que exploraban la naturaleza humana, la vida rural rusa y la melancolía de la sociedad en transformación.
En 1933 se convirtió en el primer escritor ruso en recibir el Premio Nobel de Literatura, principalmente por su habilidad para retratar la belleza de la vida y la profundidad psicológica de sus personajes. Tras la Revolución Rusa, Bunin emigró a Francia, donde vivió hasta su muerte en 1953, manteniéndose crítico con el régimen soviético y preservando la tradición literaria rusa en el exilio. - Nationality
- Russia
- Birthplace
- Voronezh, Russia
- Places of residence
- Yelets, Russia
Kharkov, Russia
Moscow, Russia
St. Petersburg, Russia
Grasse, France - Place of death
- Paris, France
- Burial location
- Cimetière de Sainte Genevieve des Bois Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois, Departement de l'Essonne, Île-de-France,
- Associated Place (for map)
- Russia
Members
Reviews
With this sturdy collection of short stories, it is easy to get the feel for the darker side of Bunin’s work. In it are a slew of great short-short pieces of sexual epiphany so startling and real that they each seem like gems of experience, encapsulated in brief encounters.
Bunin is a master of description like his predecessors, but he does it in his own way. He does not shy away from showing people as they are. One gets a sense of place from his work that makes all of his characters feel show more real. His mastery lies in the details he builds up around these miserable and joyous people. Many of the characters bleed into one another – one gets a sense of an aristocratic man, engaging in many many fateful encounters with prostitutes and other women of good faith, falling in and out of love over and over again, and carrying away a tremendous burden of having betrayed them all.
Bunin, it seems was a man overburdened with love. He must have loved women and loved the world, to depict them both with so much devotion and splendor. Of course there are real women characters in his fiction too, I think, and not just the stock of the genre trade. They breathe and live their own lives and enact their form of revenge on the male characters, and entice and speak their minds. All in all a lot of them are more engaging than the male counterparts. But in the end the perspective is old-fashioned and male.
The whole collection is infused with energy – even though there is very little explicitness in its pages, it steams and is steeped in this tension throughout. It goes to show that Ivan Bunin uses these scenarios as a canvas for his immaculate skill as a painter of words, that he cooks up these shallow schemes and semi-plots as a mere ploy to get to the beauty and the livid imagery he has stored up in his head. One cannot help but admire the way he has transcended the confines of Chekhov’s strict guidelines of short story writing. The starkness of Chekhov’s descriptions becomes all too evident. But you cannot really emulate Bunin successfully. His resemblance to Chekhov is like a Melville’s to Hemingway. show less
Bunin is a master of description like his predecessors, but he does it in his own way. He does not shy away from showing people as they are. One gets a sense of place from his work that makes all of his characters feel show more real. His mastery lies in the details he builds up around these miserable and joyous people. Many of the characters bleed into one another – one gets a sense of an aristocratic man, engaging in many many fateful encounters with prostitutes and other women of good faith, falling in and out of love over and over again, and carrying away a tremendous burden of having betrayed them all.
Bunin, it seems was a man overburdened with love. He must have loved women and loved the world, to depict them both with so much devotion and splendor. Of course there are real women characters in his fiction too, I think, and not just the stock of the genre trade. They breathe and live their own lives and enact their form of revenge on the male characters, and entice and speak their minds. All in all a lot of them are more engaging than the male counterparts. But in the end the perspective is old-fashioned and male.
The whole collection is infused with energy – even though there is very little explicitness in its pages, it steams and is steeped in this tension throughout. It goes to show that Ivan Bunin uses these scenarios as a canvas for his immaculate skill as a painter of words, that he cooks up these shallow schemes and semi-plots as a mere ploy to get to the beauty and the livid imagery he has stored up in his head. One cannot help but admire the way he has transcended the confines of Chekhov’s strict guidelines of short story writing. The starkness of Chekhov’s descriptions becomes all too evident. But you cannot really emulate Bunin successfully. His resemblance to Chekhov is like a Melville’s to Hemingway. show less
Энциклопедия очень жестокой, беспощадной, изломанной и трагичной любви...
После прочтения этой книги возникает лишь один вопрос: "Есть ли на свете счастливая любовь?". Та, про которую можно сказать "Жили они долги и счастливо, и умерли в один день."?
Для себя могу выделить show more четыре рассказа, после которых я откладывала книгу и размышляла о том, что же именно я сейчас прочитала: "Кавказ", "Галя Ганская", "Генрих", "Часовня". show less
После прочтения этой книги возникает лишь один вопрос: "Есть ли на свете счастливая любовь?". Та, про которую можно сказать "Жили они долги и счастливо, и умерли в один день."?
Для себя могу выделить show more четыре рассказа, после которых я откладывала книгу и размышляла о том, что же именно я сейчас прочитала: "Кавказ", "Галя Ганская", "Генрих", "Часовня". show less
Although only a short read (135 p.) I found it hard to plough through this one. There's no real plotline, rather it's a snapshot of brutal rural Russian life in the lead-up to the Revolution. The cold and the hunger; the ignorant and superstitious conversations of the peasants; the landowners starting to be afraid of their workers...
Certainly the descriptions bring this era to life:
'After the blizzards, harsh winds blew across the hardened, grey, icy crust on the fields and tore away the show more last brown leaves from the shelterless oak thickets in the gullies...icy, slippery mounds grew up around the ice holes; paths were trampled through the snowdrifts- and the humdrum life of winter set in. Epidemics began in the village: smallpox, fever, scarlatina...Around the ice holes from which the whole of Durnovka drank, above the stinking, dark, bottle-coloured water, peasant women stood for days on end, bent over and with their skirts tucked up above their grey-blue, bare knees...It was getting dark at three o'clock, and shaggy dogs sat on roofs that were almost the same level as the snowdrifts.'
Sometimes our lead characters -two brothers in their fifties- muse on the meaning of life:
'My life ought to be described. But what was there to describe? Nothing. Nothing or nothing worthwhile. After all, he himself remembered almost nothing of that life. He'd completely forgotten his childhood, for example; just from time to time some summer's day would come to him, some episode...Ask him now: do you remember your mother? - and he'd reply: I remember some bent old woman...she dried dung, stoked the stove, drank in secret, grumbled...And nothing more.'
Perhaps should be evaluated more as a piece of poetry in prose form than a narrative show less
Certainly the descriptions bring this era to life:
'After the blizzards, harsh winds blew across the hardened, grey, icy crust on the fields and tore away the show more last brown leaves from the shelterless oak thickets in the gullies...icy, slippery mounds grew up around the ice holes; paths were trampled through the snowdrifts- and the humdrum life of winter set in. Epidemics began in the village: smallpox, fever, scarlatina...Around the ice holes from which the whole of Durnovka drank, above the stinking, dark, bottle-coloured water, peasant women stood for days on end, bent over and with their skirts tucked up above their grey-blue, bare knees...It was getting dark at three o'clock, and shaggy dogs sat on roofs that were almost the same level as the snowdrifts.'
Sometimes our lead characters -two brothers in their fifties- muse on the meaning of life:
'My life ought to be described. But what was there to describe? Nothing. Nothing or nothing worthwhile. After all, he himself remembered almost nothing of that life. He'd completely forgotten his childhood, for example; just from time to time some summer's day would come to him, some episode...Ask him now: do you remember your mother? - and he'd reply: I remember some bent old woman...she dried dung, stoked the stove, drank in secret, grumbled...And nothing more.'
Perhaps should be evaluated more as a piece of poetry in prose form than a narrative show less
Good but repetitive. Maybe I'd have been better spacing the stories out once a year for the next twenty to get more enjoyment out of it.
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 249
- Also by
- 31
- Members
- 1,979
- Popularity
- #12,994
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 28
- ISBNs
- 313
- Languages
- 21
- Favorited
- 12
