And from Turgenev's dark alleys the main idea. "Dark Alleys": analysis of the story by Ivan Bunin. The plot of the story "Dark Alleys"

One of the main themes of I. Bunin’s work is the theme of love. A series of short stories is dedicated to this topic. Dark alleys" Bunin considered this book the most perfect in artistic skill. “All the stories in this book are only about love, about its “dark”
and most often in very dark and cruel alleys,” wrote Bunin. The collection “Dark Alleys” is one of the last masterpieces of the great master.
The story “Natalie” is entirely devoted to the theme of love. But love in the story appears to us not from the psychological side, but from the irrational side. That incomprehensible essence of hers, which will overtake her like an obsession, swoops in from nowhere and
carries heroes towards fate. This is exactly what happens with Vitaly, Sonya and the beautiful Natalie. It is characteristic of Bunin that he always shows the most irrational events in the most realistic tones. For Ivan Bunin, the world, given and unchangeable, rules over man. Therefore, the heroes are neither philosophical nor religious. “Having arrived home for the holidays, I decided that the time had come for me to be like everyone else, to violate my purity, to look for love without romance...” Arriving at his uncle’s estate and meeting Sonya there, Vitaly already knew for sure that he wanted to change his life, to become “like everyone else.” Bunin seems to be showing us two completely different personalities- the same person and another, changed one: “... blushed at the free conversations of his gymnasium comrades” - and - “... that summer! I wouldn’t blush anymore.” It is important to note that the conversation between Vitaly and Sonya at their first meeting is very relaxed, no embarrassment is felt on either his or her part. Most main theme their conversation is love, from everyone
young topics (about dad, about dinner...) they switch to this one. Sonya tells him about Natalie, her friend from high school, immediately setting him up: “You will go crazy with love for her, and you will kiss me. You will cry on my chest from her cruelty, and I will console you.” She does this so as not to interfere with their future “romance.”
In the story you can notice the extraordinary dynamism of the action. I. Bunin immediately, at the beginning of the story, lays out all the facts.
Events develop very quickly, sequentially, “flowing” from one to another. The hero is haunted by thoughts of love. Even during a conversation with his uncle, he thinks about Natalie and Sonya, he waits for what will happen next. He feels like he already loves them both. But Vitaly hasn’t seen Natalie yet, he doesn’t depend on her yet.
The narration is told from the world of the protagonist, and he himself says about himself: “Imagination has always been alive in me...”, therefore the story “Natalie” is full of colorful descriptions of everything that happens and everything surrounding the characters. The description of the appearance of Sonya and Natalie, Vitaly’s attitude towards them is completely different, different as much as they are different from each other. Two completely opposite people. He calls Sonya a “woman” and Natalie a “teenager.” “... and why did you punish me like that?
God, for which he gave two loves at once; so different and so passionate, such painful beauty of Natalie’s adoration and such bodily rapture of Sonya?” - Vitaly already honestly talks about his love for both girls. But still true love given to a person only once in his life. And this love of Vitaly is for Natalie. Let us remember that after breaking up, so to speak, with her, he will never remember his passion and physical affection for Sonya, but will always love Natalie. Even during a conversation with Natalie in a birch alley, when he confessed his feelings to her, he completely renounced Sonya in words, and the next morning with all his soul: “... I’m not connected to Sonya forever...”. But at the same time, Natalie moved away from him, I think she was afraid of him, afraid of her feelings, because she also loved: “Yes, yes, I love you...”. It turns out that Sonya destroyed this foreshadowed happiness of two lovers, but, on the other hand, thanks to Sonya, he met Natalie, thanks to her, Vitaly received plenty of “love without romance”, was ready to admire Natalie and devote himself to her.
Love in I. Bunin’s portrayal is tragic. Great love is incompatible with ordinary, normal life. But love, despite all the tragedy, is the greatest happiness of human life. “...Is there such a thing as unhappy love? ...Isn't it the most sorrowful
doesn’t music give happiness in the world?”

I. A. Bunin is the first of the Russian writers to receive Nobel Prize, who achieved popularity and fame at the world level, having fans and associates, but... deeply unhappy, because since 1920 he was cut off from his homeland and yearned for it. All stories from the emigration period are imbued with a feeling of melancholy and nostalgia.

Inspired by the lines of the poem “An Ordinary Tale” by N. Ogarev: “The scarlet rose hips were blooming all around / There was an alley of dark linden trees,” Ivan Bunin conceived the idea of writing a cycle of love stories about subtle human feelings. Love is different, but it is always a strong feeling that changes the lives of heroes.

The story “Dark Alleys”: summary

The story “Dark Alleys,” which bears the same name in the cycle and is the main story, was published on October 20, 1938 in the New York edition of “New Earth.” The main character, Nikolai Alekseevich, accidentally meets Nadezhda, whom he seduced and abandoned many years ago. For the hero then it was just an affair with a serf girl, but the heroine seriously fell in love and carried this feeling throughout her life. After the affair, the girl received her freedom, began to earn her own living, and now owns an inn and “gives money on interest.” Nikolai Alekseevich ruined Nadezhda’s life, but was punished: his beloved wife abandoned him as vilely as he himself had once done, and his son grew up to be a scoundrel. The heroes part, now forever, Nikolai Alekseevich understands what kind of love he missed. However, the hero cannot even in his thoughts overcome social conventions and imagine what would have happened if he had not abandoned Nadezhda.

Bunin, “Dark Alleys” - audiobook

Listening to the story “Dark Alleys” is extremely pleasant, because the poetic nature of the author’s language is also evident in the prose.

Image and characteristics of the main character (Nikolai)

The image of Nikolai Alekseevich evokes antipathy: this man does not know how to love, he sees only himself and public opinion. He is afraid of himself, of Nadezhda, no matter what happens. But if everything is outwardly decent, you can do as you please, for example, break the heart of a girl for whom no one will stand up. Life punished the hero, but did not change him, did not add strength of spirit. His image personifies habit, the routine of life.

Image and characteristics of the main character (Nadezhda)

Much stronger is Nadezhda, who was able to survive the shame of an affair with the “master” (although she wanted to kill herself, she came out of this state), and also managed to learn to earn money on her own, and in an honest way. Coachman Klim notes the woman’s intelligence and fairness; she “gives money on interest” and “gets rich,” but does not profit from the poor, but is guided by justice. Nadezhda, despite the tragedy of her love, kept it in her heart for many years, forgave her offender, but did not forget. Its image is the soul, the sublimity, which is not in origin, but in personality.

The main idea and main theme of the story “Dark Alleys”

Love in Bunin’s “Dark Alleys” is a tragic, fatal, but no less important and beautiful feeling. It becomes eternal, because it remains forever in the memory of both heroes; it was the most precious and brightest thing in their lives, although it is gone forever. If a person has ever loved like Nadezhda, he has already experienced happiness. Even if this love ended tragically. The life and fate of the heroes of the story “Dark Alleys” would be completely empty and gray without such a bitter and sick, but still stunning and bright feeling, which is a kind of litmus test that tests a human personality for strength of spirit and moral purity. Nadezhda passes this test, but Nikolai does not. This is the idea of the work. You can read more about the theme of love in the work here:

Botova Yulia

“Dark Alleys” was written in 1937 - 1949. Built on a single theme - love, they represent not only a single whole, but also a certain stage in Bunin’s work. The stories of “Dark Alleys” seemed to flow from everything that was created immediately before them, and absorbed the lyricism organically inherent in the writer’s talent. The originality, originality, and extraordinary frankness of the book made it a masterpiece. late creativity writer and became for many the work with which the name of Bunin is associated.

The study of I. A. Bunin’s cycle “Dark Alleys” is of great interest, since it is associated with the solution of many important problems of modern literary criticism, in particular the solution to the problem of the prose cycle.

The choice of topic is due to the fact that it involves consideration of the history of the development of the cycle as a genre phenomenon in Russian literature and the history of the study of the cycle in literary criticism. Besides this, this topic allows us to turn to the work of I. A. Bunin of the late emigrant period and identify some problems associated with the features of the novelistic cycle.

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City Department of Education

urban district of Saransk

Municipal educational institution "Yalga secondary school"

City scientific and practical conference

“City schoolchildren – science of the 21st century”

Research work
“Dark Alleys” by I. A. Bunin: problems of the originality of the novelistic cycle

Completed: 11th grade student

Botova Yulia

Supervisor: literature teacher

Khalzova N.S.

Saransk, 2010

Page

Introduction 3

1. Prose cycle as a genre phenomenon 5

1.1. Scientific controversy about the composition and structure of cycle 5

2. Cycle-forming factors in “Dark Alleys” by I. A. Bunin 10
2.1. Thematic unity of the stories of cycle 10

Introduction

“Dark Alleys” was written in 1937 - 1949. Built on a single theme - love, they represent not only a single whole, but also a certain stage in Bunin’s work. The stories of “Dark Alleys” seemed to flow from everything that was created immediately before them, and absorbed the lyricism organically inherent in the writer’s talent. The originality, originality, and extraordinary frankness of the book made it a masterpiece of the writer’s late work and became for many the work with which Bunin’s name is associated.

The choice of topic is due to the fact that it involves consideration of the history of the development of the cycle as a genre phenomenon in Russian literature and the history of the study of the cycle in literary criticism. In addition, this topic allows us to turn to the work of I. A. Bunin of the late emigrant period and identify some problems associated with the features of the novelistic cycle.

We have studied the critical and research literature dedicated to or directly related to a given topic. First responses to something new original work appeared during the life of I. A. Bunin. The first serious response to the cycle after the death of the author was an article by G. Adamovich, in which he spoke out against critical statements about the “Dark Alleys” that existed at that time. G. Adamovich denies the opinion that the range of Bunin's creativity has narrowed and his passion for love stories borders on the obsession with an obsession.

In the 1960s and 70s, little was written about “Dark Alleys”; A notable phenomenon against this background can be called the work of M. I. Iofyev, which analyzes the works of both the pre-revolutionary period of creativity and the emigrant era. The researcher turned directly to the entire “Dark Alleys” cycle. There are interesting comments in the work of L.K. Dolgopolov, who included Bunin’s book in a number of remarkable cycles “ Silver Age" Major studies dedicated to creativity Bunin, including the “Dark Alleys” cycle, appeared in the last 10-15 years. Among them are the works of O. N. Mikhailov, A. A. Saakyants, L. A. Smirnova. IN present moment There is no monograph devoted to our topic. Interesting comments about the “Dark Alleys” cycle can be found in the articles recent years, owned by O. V. Slivitskaya, I. Sukhikh and others.

Relevance of the topicdue to the fact that, having been created in the 30-40s of the 20th century, “Dark Alleys” were not sufficiently studied due to historical conditions in our country. And such a question as cyclicality of this work, began to be developed by researchers only in recent years.

The purpose of the work is to consider “Dark Alleys” as a novelistic cycle, identifying its features.

In accordance with this topic, we have set specific tasks:

identify the problem of the originality of the novelistic cycle “Dark Alleys”;
determine the controversy surrounding the structure and composition of the cycle;
identify cycle-forming factors in the book.

Research methods:structural, linguistic-stylistic, biographical.

Work structure:the work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, and a list of sources used.

1. Prose cycle as a genre phenomenon

1.1 Scientific controversy about the composition and structure of the cycle “Dark Alleys”

The cycle of stories “Dark Alleys” was written by I. Bunin in exile. His prose of this period is distinguished by a deeply subjective vision of the world. His stories of this time are characterized by an appeal to memory, to the past, to the emotions of a person inextricably linked with the irrevocable world. Most of the stories in the book “Dark Alleys” were created by the writer in a very difficult time - during the Second World War, in occupied France.

Contact with the world was maintained through letters that Bunin received and wrote almost daily. Boris Nikolaevich and Vera Andreevna Zaitsev, Mark Aleksandrovich Aldanov, Nadezhda Aleksandrovna Teffi, Fyodor Avgustovich Stepun - the letters of these people, scattered across different continents, found each other even during the war and post-war times. In one of his letters in 1952 to F. A. Stepun, philosopher, sociologist, literary critic, and historian, I. A. Bunin presents the composition and structure of the collection.

“Book “Dark Alleys”

Dark alleys. Caucasus. Ballad. Styopa. Muse. Late hour. Russia. Gorgeous. Stupid girl. Antigone. Emerald. Guest. Wolves. Business cards. Zoyka and Valeria. Tanya. In Paris. Galya Ganskaya. Henry. Natalie. On a familiar street. River tavern. Kuma. Start. "Oak trees." Young lady Clara. "Madrid". Second coffee pot. Iron Wool. Cold autumn. Steamship "Saratov". Crow. Camargue. One hundred rupees. Revenge. Swing. Clean Monday. Chapel.

Bunin considered almost two-thirds of the listed stories in the book to be the most and especially valuable. And this revealed the writer’s attitude towards “Dark Alleys” as “the last literary joy”, the best of everything he had written.

"When we for a long time we are alone, we fill the void with ghosts” - that’s why I make up stories most of all,” -Bunin wrote to his closest people. (From a letter to the Zaitsevs dated July 14, 1944). It was these “stories,” “gags,” as he called them, that made up a tragic book about love, death, separation, and the irrevocability of the past.

“This whole book is called after the first story - “Dark Alleys” - in which the “heroine” reminds her first lover how he once read her poems about “Dark Alleys” (“The scarlet rose hips were blooming all around, There were alleys of dark linden trees. .."")(Inaccurate quote from N. P. Ogarev’s poem “An Ordinary Tale”) - Defining the main pathos of the cycle, Bunin writes:“And all the stories in this book are only about love, about its “dark” and most often very gloomy and cruel alleys.”(From a letter to Teffi dated February 23, 1944).

While in exile, Bunin could only publish his stories in foreign publishing houses. Bunin's friends made attempts to publish his stories in the USA and France. But his fate was “extraordinarily sad” last book" Stories at that time were of little interest to publishers, while Bunin then had only “ little novel, too small for a separate publication." The writer reasoned this way:“If the publisher is interested, and the publication is more or less worthwhile, and most importantly not fraudulent, and pays something in advance, then you can add several stories to this little novel, under the cover of Natalie, novel, also love stories, 25 of them, what I wrote for lately in my “trans-alpine solitude.”(From a letter to the Zaitsevs dated November 8, 1943). .

It was not published in this form either in France or in the USA, but in New York in 1943 the first volume of the book “Dark Alleys” was published, which included the “little novel” “Natalie” along with other love stories. The book consisted of two sections and included the following works:

Dark alleys. Caucasus. Ballad. April. Styopa. Muse. Late hour.
Russia. Tanya. In Paris. Natalie.

According to the assumption of Bunin, who sent other stories to the publishers, the book should have included the following works: “Mother’s Chest”, “On the Pavement Street”, “Antigone”, “Smaragd”, “Guest”, “Business Cards”, “Wolves”, “Zoyka and Valeria”, “Galya Ganskaya”, “Henry”, “Three rubles”, “On such a night...”, “Three rubles”, “Lita”, “April”.

The Novaya Zemlya publishing house, which published Bunin’s “Dark Alleys” (New York, 1943), accompanied the book with an afterword: “Dark Alleys” is published without the author’s proofreading. The publishing house, unfortunately, does not have the opportunity to communicate with I. A. Bunin. Meanwhile, it was forced to divide the book famous writer into two volumes. This volume contains only half of the stories that make up this book. Its author, naturally, does not bear any responsibility for its section and for other shortcomings that the publication may have. The editorial board of Novaya Zemlya considers itself obligated to bring this to the attention of readers in the hope that they, like Ivan Alekseevich Bunin himself, will take into account the exceptional conditions of our time. May 1943. From the publisher." .

It’s easy to imagine how Bunin, who, by his own admission, reacted to the publication of texts without author’s proofreading,"idiotic, psychopathic about his lyrics"(From a letter to M.A. Aldanov dated July 31, August 1, 1947) and understood that“Sometimes ten wrong or unnecessary words spoil the whole music.”Having received the book in 1945, Bunin exclaims in one of his letters to Aldanov:“I really regret that I decided to do thisedition! And then there’s the publisher’s “afterword”: “we’ll publish the rest of the stories as a separate book.” God forbid, I’m very afraid - what if they really publish it! I don’t want this under any circumstances!”(Dated August 16, 1945).

The second edition of Dark Alleys took place in 1946 in Paris.

Bunin excluded the story “April” from the first section. The content of the second section has been significantly expanded compared to the first edition of the book. In the second edition, the story “Mom’s Chest” was called “Beauty”, the story “On the Pavement Street” was called “Fool”; The composition of the section has been changed. The story “Three Rubles” was removed from the book. The story “Lita” was not published at all during Bunin’s lifetime. The third section appeared for the first time, which included 18 stories.

Dark alleys. Caucasus. Ballad. Styopa. Muse. Late hour.
Russia. Gorgeous. Stupid girl. Antigone. Emerald. Guest. Wolves. Business cards. Zoyka and Valeria. Tanya. In Paris. Galya Ganskaya. Henry. Natalie.
On a familiar street. River tavern. Kuma. Start. "Oak trees." Young lady Clara. "Madrid". Second coffee pot. Iron Wool. Cold autumn. Steamship "Saratov". Crow. Camargue. One hundred rupees. Revenge. Swing. Clean Monday. Chapel.

In addition to publishing “Dark Alleys” in book form, individual works, included in its composition, were also published independently. The stories “Caucasus”, “Ballad”, “Styopa”, “Muse”, “Late Hour” were published in Paris in 1937. In 1942 - “Rusya”, “Wolves”, “In Paris”, “Natalie”. In 1945 - “Madrid”, “Second Coffee Pot”, “River Tavern”, “Oaks”, “Steamboat Saratov”, “Clean Monday”. In 1946 - “Galya Ganskaya”, “Revenge”.

In literary criticism, the problem of the composition of the “Dark Alleys” cycle has not been completely resolved.

The question of inclusion or non-inclusion of later stories in the cycle - “In the Spring, in Judea” (1946) and “Overnight” (1949) - deserves special discussion.

Firstly, it should be noted that already in 1943 (at the first edition), “Dark Alleys”, according to the author’s plan, was a BOOK, although most of the stories included in the subsequent edition were not written (the entire third section in the second edition - 1946 - written after May 1943). Nevertheless, the stories that supplemented the book at the will of the author organically entered the cycle.

Secondly, Bunin was very attentive to the choice of stories included in the cycle, the composition of the book, and the place of the stories within each section. Apparently, with the advent of new stories, the concept of the book also changed. As a result, as we have already said, the stories “April” and “Three Rubles” were excluded from the book. The stories "On a Night Like This..." and "Lita", which were sent to the USA for the first edition, were not included in the book (at the behest of the publishers, who published only a small part of the stories) and never appeared in the second edition (already apparently at the will of the author). Thus, it can be assumed that the stories “In the Spring, in Judea” and “Overnight,” written after the second edition of the book, complemented its general concept, soas BY THE WILL OF THE AUTHOR they should have been included in the book in its subsequent editions. In the 1946 edition, Bunin made handwritten corrections and wrote on one of the pages: “At the end of this book (following the chronology) it is necessary to add “In the spring, in Judea” and “Overnight.” The texts of these stories are taken from my collections (of the same titles), published by Chekhov Publishing House in New York.”

This publication of “Dark Alleys” - the first in Russia - marked the beginning of a tradition that exists to this day: the stories “In Spring, in Judea” and “Overnight” are formally included in the cycle, but are not touched upon in scientific research. And the stories “Young Lady Clara”, “Guest”, “Iron Wool” are not included in the publications, but are considered in the works of scientists.

Characteristic from this point of view is the opinion of I. Sukhikh: “Included in posthumous editions according to the author’s wishes, the later stories “In the Spring, in Judea” and “Overnight” do not have a permanent place and generally seem alien in the collection.”

Even in the publications of recent years, the tradition of excluding three stories - “Young Lady Clara”, “The Guest”, “Iron Wool” - is preserved, and this has become so accepted that it is already perceived as the author’s intention. An example of this is the annotation to one of the editions of Bunin’s works: “The volume was compiled prose works, written by Bunin after leaving Russia. Among them are the book “Dark Alleys” (printed in full) and other stories that brought Bunin worldwide fame...”, with 37 stories published.The situation with the 1982 edition is even more incomprehensible: the compiler A.K. Baboreko included 37 stories in the 3-volume collected works, although he writes in the comments: “The thirty-eight stories that made up the collection “Dark Alleys” were written in 1937 - 1945.” That is, not theoretically included in the collection, the stories “In the Spring, in Judea” and “Overnight” were published in the 3rd volume of the publication. But other stories were not published - “Young Lady Clara”, “The Guest”, “Iron Wool” - apparently due to moral considerations.

In the 6-volume collected works of Bunin in 1988, editors Yu. Bondarev, O. Mikhailov, V. Rynkevich included 40 stories in the “Dark Alleys” cycle. But already in the 1991 edition, the same O. N. Mikhailov, in a commentary to I. A. Bunin’s book “Selected Works,” writes: “Thirty-seven short stories in this collection provide a magnificent variety of unforgettable female images..." and includes 37 stories.

40 stories of the cycle were published in 1994, and the composition, preface to the publication and notes belong to the same O. N. Mikhailov.

We believe that the cycle is conscious creative act, that is, we consider author's cycle, Therefore, we consider included in the book “Dark Alleys” 40 stories, including “In the Spring, in Judea” and “Overnight”, which meet the requirements of the unity of the cycle - their correspondence to the cycle-forming factors.

Based on the above facts, we can make the assumption that the “Dark Alleys” cycle was compiled according to the author’s plan, that the composition and structure are based on the author’s concept. We will try to determine the main content of this concept in the following sections of our work.

2. Cycle-forming factors in “Dark Alleys” by I. A. Bunin

1.1. Thematic unity of the stories in the cycle

In an article from 1955, G. Adamovich testifies to how this book was received: “Many respectable people shook their heads sadly and, without denying the artistic merits of the stories, were surprised at their themes, their character...”. Most researchers agree that all the themes of the cycle can ultimately be reduced to the theme of love and death, but each scientist views it in his own way.

Speaking about love in the “Dark Alleys” cycle, L. Smirnova notes that Bunin is inclined to emphasize the randomness, sometimes even the frivolity of the first embrace, caused by a sensual impulse. “But if such an impulse leads to deep excitement, tenderness, admiration, self-forgetfulness, then it inevitably ends in “love that remains somewhere in the heart for the rest of your life.”

In many stories, L. Smirnova believes, Bunin “writes about distortion, death natural gift love".

In one case, the seduction of young Galya Ganskaya is regarded as a trifle by an adult, talented artist("Galya Ganskaya"). Out of revenge for the man who rejected her, she thoughtlessly, selfishly gives herself to Valeria Levitsky (“Zoika and Valeria”).

In another case, Bunin’s version of stories about corrupt women who habitually and meekly, not even without satisfaction, perform the duties of their humiliating craft (“Madrid”, “The Second Coffee Pot”) is frightening.

“And a completely inhuman appearance is awarded to those who, apart from carnal, animal instincts, do not experience anything ("Ballad", "Styopa", "Muse", "Antigone", "Overnight")."

Quoting an excerpt from Bunin’s letter (“And is this only depravity, and not something a thousand times different, almost terrible...”), L. Smirnova then asks: “But is it possible that when the “terrible” becomes the only content of the relationship, in Do spiritual illnesses of the individual and society not manifest themselves? Bunin conveyed his thoughts in those stories where we are talking about “remarkable natures”, about the struggle between the light and dark principles of life (“Natalie”, “Clean Monday”).”

In the cycle of stories "Dark Alleys" Bunin does not tell different love stories, but creates a mosaic picture here, where each link is independent and at the same time necessary for recreating the general state of the world. It is catastrophic not at all due to some mysterious, fatal inseparability of love and death. And because of the very real destruction of spiritual values, their “replacement” with hasty and frivolous pleasures.

O. Mikhailov speaks about another reason for the closeness of love and death: “Their involvement seemed to be a particular manifestation of the general catastrophic nature of existence, the fragility of existence itself.” The scientist speaks about love as “light breathing”, “a short dazzling flash that illuminates the soul of lovers to the bottom”: “...the theme of pure and beautiful love. Unusual strength and sincerity of feeling are characteristic of the heroes of these stories."

The philosophy of love in the true sense of the word, from Mikhailov’s point of view, is “a natural fusion of the frankly sensual and the ideal,” so the impression is created: “the spirit penetrates the flesh and ennobles it.” We agree with the opinion of O. N. Mikhailov and consider the view of L. A. Smirnova not entirely correct, who views the ideal and the sensual not in unity, but in confrontation, and only in the victory of “high feeling” over “purely carnal pleasures” does she see human overcoming “imperfections of one’s consciousness” (“Natalie”).

A. A. Saakyants writes about the “harmony of two opposite principles”: “Bunin is attracted by genuine earthly love, which, as he believes, is a fusion, the inseparability of “earth” and “sky,” a certain absolute of love.”

A modern researcher of “Dark Alleys” I. Sukhikh writes: “The sun and the luminaries of his world are driven by love-passion, the indivisible unity of the spiritual and the carnal, a feeling that does not know about morality and responsibilities, about duty, about the future, recognizing only the right to meet, to a fight between him and her, into painful, sweet mutual torture and pleasure."

IN scientific literature There is different points views on the nature of the doom of love in Bunin’s stories.

O. V. Slivitskaya states: “If fate sends love, which by the highest human standards is love, that is, a personal, humane feeling, including Eros (which is also poetic as an intense manifestation of life), but also much more, then this love intensifies the feeling of life so much that on its own it is no longer able to quench and exhaust it. So the feeling of life grows in spirals, increasing to an unbearable acuteness. An excess of life leads to death, because the “extremes” converge. Therefore... the hero of Bunin’s short story is his. falling in love with Natalie pushed me towards Sonya... And that means a catastrophic resolution of the situation is inevitable."

O.N. also speaks about the impossibility of long-term existence of such love. Mikhailov: “Something external, which does not even require explanation, is ready to invade and stop what is happening if love itself cannot exhaust itself,” - so O.N. Mikhailov defines the basis of the motif of “Dark Alleys” - “hidden and existing independently of the love plot. It is this that determines the final tonality of the work." Another motif in the stories of "Dark Alleys" is "the vicissitudes of love, its ebbs and flows, its surprises and whims" - against the backdrop of the first, tragic. "This is not just rock (like the ancient one), written "in line" for heroes - death and collapsedo not flow from love, they invade from the outside and independently of it. It’s more like fate..." 5, 236]. I. Sukhikh speaks about fate: “Separation, like a clockwork, is built into the happiest meeting. Crazy fate is watching around every corner."

Thus, in the scientific literature there is no unambiguous view of the nature of the doom of love in the stories of the cycle. The feeling of life, strengthened by love, leads to death - this opinion of O. V. Slivitskaya is probably close to the view of A. A. Sahakyants: “... love is short-lived. Moreover: the stronger, more unusual it is, the sooner it is destined break off." The opposite point of view - about the independence of death and ruin from love - belongs to O. Mikhailov. I. Sukhikh speaks of the obvious doom of any meeting. L. Smirnova reflects on the suicide of some heroes Bunin's stories(“Galya Ganskaya”, “Zoyka and Valeria”): “and it seems to happen unexpectedly, after long, usually fluid, filled with everyday details - days, which is often seen as the intervention of “fate”. In fact, here an instantaneous outbreak of unbearable, incompatible with life, pain."

Speaking about “fate,” O. Mikhailov argues that here “reflects Bunin’s idea of the general catastrophic nature of existence, the fragility of everything that hitherto seemed established, unshakable, and, ultimately, sounds reflected and indirectly, an echo of great social upheavals, which the new, twentieth century brought to humanity." L. Dolgopolov agrees with him: “... Bunin not only writes about the unfortunate woman, tragic love. In his novels and stories of the emigrant period, he creates a generalized psychological, and in the most serious cases, a unique historical type of person of the 20th century, in which national Russian traits are generalized to pan-European traits, and the drama of fate itself is presented as characteristic feature era as a whole."

A.A. Sahakyants explains the writer’s view of love as a lightning: “it flashed and disappeared” by its “poetic, emotional nature.” “Bunin, by the nature of his nature, acutely felt all the instability, instability, drama of life itself... and therefore love in this unreliable, although wonderful world turned out, in his opinion, to be the most fragile, short-lived, doomed."

Words that can serve, according to A. A. Saakyants, “the epigraph, the cross-cutting theme and the tuning fork of “Dark Alleys”, are the words from Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”: “Love does not understand death. Love is life.”

The researcher calls Bunin's cycle an "encyclopedia of love." “The most varied moments and shades of feelings that arise between a man and a woman occupy the writer; he peers, listens, guesses, tries to imagine the whole “gamut” of complex relationships between the hero and the heroine. They are the most different, the most unexpected. Poetic, sublime experiences in stories.” Russia", "Late Hour", "Cold Autumn". Contradictory, unexpected, sometimes cruel feelings ("Muse"). Quite primitive drives and emotions (stories "Kuma", "Beginning") - right down to animal instinct ("Young Lady Clara ", "Iron Wool)".

Speaking about love as a “lightning” of happiness, Sahakyants notes that such love can illuminate a person’s entire memory and life. “So, throughout her life, Nadezhda, the owner of the inn, carried her love for the “master” who once seduced her in the story “Dark Alleys.” For twenty years, “he”, once a young tutor in her family, has not been able to forget Rusya... And the heroine of the story “Cold Autumn”... believes that in her life there was only that cold autumn evening, and the rest is just “unnecessary” dream"" .

Reflecting on the pages of the story "Tanya", the author of the article notes that "to tie oneself up, to destroy oneself forever" for the hero does not mean marriage with a maid, but that "to tie oneself up forever" even with the woman one loves means "to kill the very Love, to turn the feeling into habit, celebration into everyday life, excitement into serenity.” Other researchers also talk about the reasons for the separation of heroes in Bunin’s cycle.

I. Sukhikh means "riddle" female soul"The main theme of the book. Most of all, in his opinion, the author is interested in the mystery of Woman, the mystery of Eternal Femininity. The author of the article polemicizes with A. A. Sahakyants: "The opinion of the book as an “encyclopedia of love” seems, however, exaggerated. The definition that Bunin found back in 1916 is more precise: not an encyclopedia, but a grammar of love, not accumulation and the desire for completeness, but, on the contrary, a search in the diversity of particular, unique stories a certain formula, paradigm, archetype that defines and explains everything." Late Bunin writes about the incomprehensible. But for him it does not exist in the purple shine of the black soil, not in the Stranger with blue bottomless eyes onon the far shore, and in the wife of the secretary of the zemstvo district government, whom he accidentally met on a Volga steamer.

“In “Dark Alleys” there is no happy and long-lasting love... Lust - this is how a person is designed - is satisfied quickly. Love also does not last long. Sunstroke As a rule, there are two endings: parting (for a long time or forever) or death (parting forever).

They part forever in “Styopa”, “Muse”, “Business Cards”, “Tana”, “Clean Monday”.

They die even more often - they die during childbirth, in war, they simply close their eyes in a subway car, commit suicide, kill wives, mistresses, prostitutes. ...The world of “Dark Alleys” is ruled by love and death.”

Despite the noted tragic connection between love and death, many scientists talk about a bright impression from the stories of the cycle. G. Adamovich says about Bunin and his cycle “Dark Alleys”: “Towards the end of his life, he became, as it were, less absentminded than he had been before, and with greater exclusivity or persistence than before, he began to peer into the source and root of being, leaving its shell." Such a source, according to Adamovich, was for Bunin “love - a great happiness, a “gift of the gods,” even if it is not shared. That is why Bunin’s book emanates happiness, that is why it is imbued with gratitude to life, to the world, in which, for all its happiness comes from imperfections."

L. Smirnova, in her study of Bunin’s work, also writes about the joy given by love. “Bunin writes about the unforgettable, which has left a deep mark on human soul. Often the very moment of memory is captured, a sad touch to a long-gone joy. It is given by love, and preserved for the rest of one’s life by a special, sensory memory, which makes one perceive differently over the years much of what is “left behind.”

Thanks to this sensory memory of what was once felt, touched, the past, overshadowed by young, strong feelings, is depicted as a truly finest hour, merging with the smells, sounds, colors of nature. Or, on the contrary, the earthly and heavenly elements predict misfortune with thunderstorms and autumn cold. In such a “frame”, love is perceived as part of a large harmonious world, accordingly irresistible, eternal in its truth, but always experienced by a person as a discovery.

On a thematic basis, we offer the following conditional classification of the stories included in the “Dark Alleys” cycle.

1. Love "heavenly"

“Late Hour”, “Cold Autumn”, “Russia”, “Dark Alleys”, “Tanya”, “Clean Monday”, “Henry”, “Natalie”, “In Paris”, “Galya Ganskaya”, “Chapel”.

2. Love "earthly"

Hobby (“Business Cards”, “Madrid”, “Smaragd”, “In
no familiar street", "Raven", "Muse", "Zoyka and Valeria", "Wolves", "Rechnoy"
tavern", "Revenge", "Second coffee pot", "Caucasus", "Swing").

Passion (“Dubki”, “Kuma”, “Antigone”, “Camargue”, “Spring in Judea”, “Steamboat “Saratov”).

Lust (“Styopa”, “Young Lady Clara”, “Guest”, “Fool”, “Iron Wool”, “Ballad”, “Overnight”, “Beginning”).

3. “Heavenly” love is sublime, poetic. She gave happiness - brief, unforgettable. This is love that time has not destroyed, love that death has not defeated. (Cold autumn)

The heroine of the story “Cold Autumn” recalls the late evening of one very cold and early autumn - then she said goodbye to her beloved, who was leaving for the war. She describes in detail this piece of the past: the glass fogged up from the heat in the house, and the clear icy stars sparkling “brightly and sharply,” and “the air is completely winter.” And the heroine does not talk about her love, but remembers what she felt and thought then (“my soul was getting heavier, I responded indifferently,” she answered, “frightened by my thought,” I cried bitterly”) - the sadness of parting against the backdrop of a bright, illuminating eventhis separation of love... The description of the subsequent thirty-year life takes up less space in the story than this evening - because only he WAS in life, the rest is an “unnecessary dream.”

In "The Late Hour", as in some other stories, the hero travels into the past. The old, familiar city, the streets, the monastery, the market - everything is the same. And a lace of memories is woven about what was here once upon a time, at such a late hour.

What the hero sees is reflected in his memory as if in a mirror. It is reflected associatively: behind every object there is a picture, behind every step there is a path to the past... And the lace of the story is woven like a patterned motley shadow: the present is the past, the present is the past...“And ahead, on the hill, the city is darkened by gardens. A fire tower sticks out above the garden. My God, what an unspeakable happiness it was! It was during the night fire that I first kissed your hand, and you squeezed mine in response...” “And I walked in the shadows, he walked along the spotted sidewalk - it was see-throughly covered with black silk lace. evening dress, very elegant, long and slender." "And the night was almost the same as that one. Only that one was at the end of August, when the whole city smells of apples that lie in mountains in the markets, and it was so warm that it was a pleasure to walk in just a blouse, belted with a Caucasian strap...". And the eternal star in the eternalin the world was as radiant as before, but now - “mute, motionless”, because the world had changed: it no longer had the radiant twinkle of her eyes - the only thing that was in the world for him then.

In addition to “heavenly” love, Bunin also depicts “earthly” love - so different: frivolous, promising, desperate, strange, crazy (or thoughtless), inexplicable, instinctive. Love is diverse, life is vast...

The story "Kuma" is reminiscent of Chekhov's plays: an outwardly calm flow of life with its private dramas. There is no traditional description for Bunin (except for a short description of the night with constant quiet rain), the story of betrayal is conveyed in the dialogue of the characters. And traditional for the beginning of the play -"Evening at the end of June. The samovar has not yet been removed from the table on the terrace. The hostess is peeling berries for jam. The husband's friend, who came to visit the dacha for a few days, smokes and looks at her sleek round arms, bare to the elbows. (An expert and collector of ancient Russian icons, an elegant and lean man with a small trimmed mustache, with a lively look, dressed as if for tennis.)". And the banal story would have ended very banally if not for the last phrase of the hero:“And there I am, in these patent leather boots, in a riding habit and in a bowler hat, I’ll probably immediately hate her fiercely.”. The hero's awareness of the vulgarity of the situation, the unnecessary connection and its continuation - in the bitter, angry confidence of disappointment.

Thus, Bunin managed to show different sides of love - and very often it is associated with death. This theme, present in each story, unites them into a single cycle.

In the scientific literature there are different points of view on the image of the author in the “Dark Alleys” cycle. Scientist V.V. Krasnyansky believes that in the 30-50s there was a change in the author’s style and these stylistic features“predetermined by the different correlation between the sphere of the author’s speech and the speech of the characters, the “construction” of the author’s image.” The scientist compares two stories by Bunin, similar in theme and composition - “The Grammar of Love” (1915) and “Dark Alleys” (1938).

In the first story, the author is close to the lyrical hero, “Bunin begins to describe as if from the character’s point of view, the landscape description is permeated with the character’s subjective plan. In “Dark Alleys” the author’s distance from the characters is manifested not only in the fact that the author and main character never get close, but are equally distant from all the characters in the story. In "The Grammar of Love" the author is close to the main character, but does not get closer to the sphere of the third character.

The portraits of the heroes in these stories are given differently. In "The Grammar of Love" the main character - "a certain Ivlev" - is designated conventionally as a lyrical hero; portraits of other characters are given subjectively, through his perception.

In “Dark Alleys” it’s the other way around: portrait characteristic both the coachman and the main character are given outwardly objectified: the hero is “a slender old military man, in a large cap and a Nikolaev gray overcoat with a beaver stand-up collar, still black-browed, but with a white mustache that was connected to the same sideburns...” and another the character is a coachman: “On the box of the tarantass sat a strong man in a tightly belted overcoat, serious and dark-faced, with a sparse pitch beard, looking like an old robber...”

Thus, the story “The Grammar of Love” is a transitional stage from the lyrical story of the early period (90-900s) to the objectified narrative in Bunin’s late short story (ZO-50s), believes V. V. Krasnyansky.

Speaking about the image of the author in the story “Caucasus,” researcher O. V. Slivitskaya notes that the narrative is “transferred to the author”: “In the final fragment, after a long pause in events, there is a sharp jump in the plot. Its tragic denouement is presented through a meager enumeration of facts. And this can explained by the fact that, although the narrator was not a witness to these events, he could have been aware of them. But where then are such rare, but salient details as those that on his last day the husband swam, put on a snow-white jacket, and drank. coffee with chartreuse and shot himself with two pistols? If before this the story was strictly consistent with “I am the Form” and everything was in the awareness of the narrator - a participant in the events, then these details indicate that the narrative was entrusted to the author and not the conventional one. the author, namely Bunin. Because these details “do not serve” the event and do not enhance its tragic meaning, and do not contrast with it. They also have something independent of the events and free from a narrow aesthetic purpose, something that. testifies to the beauty and sweetness of existence, which goes back to the world of Bunin in its integrity..."

Thus, O.V. Slivitskaya clearly distinguishes between the narrator and the author. Meanwhile, there is also the problem of distinguishing between the protagonist and the narrator. I. Sukhikh speaks about this: “Bunin’s narrator and the main character either coincide or diverge.”

Bunin himself insisted on the fictionality of most of the plots of “Dark Alleys”:“...And suddenly the plot of “The Muse” came to mind - how and why, I don’t understand at all: here, too, it was completely made up...” - “Ballad” was made up from word to word - and all at once in one hour...” - "In the New Journal" (second book) - "Natalie". And again, again: no one wants to believe that everything in it, from word to word, is “made up, as in almost all of my stories, both previous and present.”. In 1947, Bunin admitted:"...only God knows where it [the fiction] came from when I took up the pen, very, very oftenstill not knowing at all what would come of the story that had begun, how it would end (and very often it ended, completely unexpectedly for me, with some clever shot, which I did not expect). How can I, after this, after such joy and pride of mine, not be upset when everyone thinks that I paint “from nature,” what happened to me, or what I knew and saw!”.

Thus, Bunin denied the autobiographical nature of his stories. However, A.A. Sahakyants finds autobiographical features that Bunin endowed with his heroes. So, the hero of the story “Tanya” Pyotr Alekseevich said: “I don’t have a home... I’ve been traveling from place to place all my life... In Moscow I live in rooms...” - and A.A. Sahakyants notes: “Autobiographical detail: Bunin did not have his own house, his own apartment, he lived with friends, with relatives, in hotels.”

The hero of the story “Henry,” the poet, “young, vigorous, dry-bred,” said: “And I hated all these Fra Angelico, Ghirlandaio, Trecento, Quattra Cento and even Beatrice and Dry-faced Dante in a woman’s hood” - A. A. Sahakyants quotes V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina, who, recalling a trip to Italy in 1909, writes that Bunin once “began to say that he was so tired of lovers of Italy who began to rave about trecento, quattrocento, that “I’m about to hate Fra Angelico, Giotto and even Beatrice herself, together with Dante." There are also statements from the hero in this story that are close to Bunin: ""Human wives, a network of human seduction!" This "network" is something truly inexplicable, divine and devilish, and when I write about it , I’m trying to express it, I’m reproached for shamelessness, for low motives... Vile souls!” (V.I. Odoevtseva quotes Bunin’s words: “...and they, idiots, believe that this is pornography and, moreover, senile, powerless voluptuousness.” Here I would like to point out the words of G. Adamovich: “And the reproaches of shamelessness, obviously and those that reached Bunin himself, we will leave on the conscience of those who considered it necessary and possible to do them..." Bunin's hero continues:"Well said in one old book: “The writer has such every right to be bold in his verbal depictions of love and its faces, which at all times was granted in this case to painters and sculptors: only vile souls see vileness even in the beautiful or terrible.”.

At the beginning of 1920, I. A. Bunin left his homeland. While in exile, he wrote many literary masterpieces, including the cycle of stories “Dark Alleys.”

All the stories in this collection are united by one theme - the theme of love. WITH different sides the writer illuminates this feeling, shows all its subtlest shades. However, revealing the theme of love, Bunin unwittingly exposes many moral problems. They sound especially poignant in the story “Beauty”.

This is one of the most short stories cycle, but in depth, in the severity of the issues raised in it, it, perhaps, surpasses many others. In a few lines, the writer was able to succinctly speak about the main human values: about good and evil, about love for one’s neighbor.

At the center of the story is a fairly typical life story. An elderly widower with a seven-year-old son remarried. His new wife I took it to everyone. She is young, unusually beautiful, and economical. But the child, the son of a widower from his first marriage, was not to her taste. She “quietly hated him.” The author does not give any reasons for this, because they simply did not exist. I hated everything.

The further narration about the fate of the little hero evokes a bitter feeling of compassion for him. First, the “beauty” transfers him to sleep “from his father’s bedroom to the sofa in the living room,” and then completely sends him to sleep in the corridor, where the maid spreads an old mattress for him on the floor.

The child finds himself in “complete loneliness in the whole world”, he is abandoned by everyone, betrayed by his own father, who, out of lack of will and cowardice, pretends that he does not notice anything at all. “Beauty” pretends to be guided by practical considerations: the boy, supposedly, can wear out all the velvet on the sofa. In fact, she simply cannot, and does not try, to overcome within herself the evil that makes an innocent little person unhappy.

From now on, the child’s life is gray and monotonous. He either sits in the corner on the floor in the living room, or draws on a slate board, or reads (in a whisper!), or looks out the windows. He makes his own bed and diligently puts it away in his mother’s chest.

The author's compassion is heard in every word. It is no coincidence that Bunin uses so many words with diminutive suffixes (“ugo-lok”, “houses”, “little book”, “bed”, “dob-rishko”). The writer does not give direct assessments of what is happening, but he masterfully makes one feel the horror of the situation in which the child finds himself.

The story has a short title: “Beauty.” And this name makes you think about a lot. What is beauty for Bunin and is it worth much? external beauty when there is moral ugliness behind it - the author turns his reader to these questions.

The image and problematics of I. A. Bunin’s collection “Dark Alleys”. According to many connoisseurs of Bunin's work, this writer is in love with love. For him, this is the most wonderful feeling on earth, incomparable to anything else. Many of his works are imbued with themes of love, spiritual unity of two people who found each other in this harsh, motley world.

The writer never tired of repeating that every strong love avoids marriage. An earthly feeling is only a short flash in a person’s life, and Bunin tries to preserve these wonderful moments in his stories. Even before the appearance of “Dark Alleys,” he writes: “Blissful hours pass, and it is necessary, necessary ... to preserve at least something, that is, to oppose death, the fading of the rose hips.” The last image is taken from N. Ogarev’s poem “An Ordinary Tale.” This is where the name “Dark Alleys” came from. Bunin strives in his stories to stop the moment, to prolong the flowering of the rose hips, because the falling of the flowers is inevitable.

In the collection “Dark Alleys” it is impossible to find a single story where love would end in marriage. Lovers are separated either by relatives, or by circumstances, or by death. It seems that death for Bunin is preferable to a long family life side by side. He shows us love at its peak, but never at its fading, since fading does not happen in his stories. Only the instantaneous disappearance of a bright flame by the will of circumstances.

Female images in Bunin's works are depicted with his characteristic sensitivity, subtlety and penetration. Nude female body often appears in Bunin's stories. But even here he knows how to find the only correct expressions, so as not to descend to ordinary naturalism. And the woman appears as beautiful as a goddess, although the author is far from turning a blind eye to shortcomings and overly romanticizing nudity. The image of a woman is the attractive force that constantly attracts Bunin. He creates a gallery of such images, each story has its own. Simple girl from the village in the story “Tanya” is as beautiful as the bright Spanish woman from “Camargue”.

The writer also addresses the fates of fallen women; they are no less interesting to him than ladies who keep up appearances. Love makes everyone equal. Prostitutes do not cause disgust, and on the contrary, the behavior of some women from “decent” families is perplexing. Social status ceases to matter when feelings come into play.

All the images delight, it seems that the author is in love with each of them. It is possible that he embodied real-life personalities on paper. All the feelings that these women experience have a right to exist. Let it be the first timid love, passion for an unworthy person, a feeling of revenge, lust, worship. And it makes absolutely no difference whether you are a peasant, a prostitute or a lady. The main thing is that you are a woman.

The male images in Bunin's stories are somewhat darkened, blurred, and the characters are not too defined. It doesn't matter. It is much more necessary for the writer to understand what feelings these men experience, what pushes them towards women, why they love them. The reader does not need to know what this or that man is like, what he looks like, what his advantages and disadvantages are. The man participates in the story insofar as love is a feeling between two.

Bunin is interested in how the feeling of love influences the destinies and behavior of people, how their external appearance and internal content change. After all, another wonderful classic - F. M. Dostoevsky - wrote: “Love is so omnipotent that it regenerates ourselves...”.