The inevitable lot of a person who sees in his surroundings something alien and distant, or, at best, extraneous to his soul. Only love gives happiness to the communion of souls, but even this happiness is transitory and short-lived. This is the main idea expressed in the story "In Paris". Here, the motive of loneliness finds a new expression in the theme of the forever lost homeland, life, aimlessly flowing in a foreign land. This story is a gem of artistic expression.

Two Russians meet in Paris. He is a former general, writes the history of the first imperialist and civil wars "by order of foreign publishers." She is a waitress in a small Russian restaurant. But who they are now does not matter, except perhaps that very sparingly, in passing, is told about their biographies.

But these biographies are not fraught with anything unexpected. In them is the fate of the white emigration, who lost their strength of mind in wandering around foreign countries.

The path of the hero of the story passed through Constantinople. Here his young wife, like many other Russian women, succumbed to the temptation of an "easy" life, left him for a Greek millionaire, an insignificant boy. Nothing is said about her further fate, but one can assume the worst, knowing what often awaited women there who had strayed from their native shore.

With an unhealed wound of her memory, a former general lives out his life in Paris. He lives far from all sorts of political quarrels, as if secluded in himself, waiting for a meeting with a woman who is just as lonely and close to him in spirit.

Chance meetings with a half-hour stay in cheap hotels are increasingly moving this dream away from him. And yet it is carried out, short-lived happiness comes.

Even less is known about the fate of the heroine of the story. She is married, but the stormy waves of the sea of ​​\u200b\u200blife threw her husband into Yugoslavia, while she settled in Paris. And everything here before meeting the hero gives off a bitter aftertaste of banality. Meeting a young Frenchman who turns out to be a pimp, working as a saleswoman in a large department store, getting fired, another step "down" - serving in a restaurant.

Probably, in the simplicity of the plot of the story "In Paris", in its very ordinary theme, in the development of relations between its heroes devoid of any accidents, there is part of the secret of its wise beauty. Bunin deliberately adheres to the template in everything, until the fire of love ignites from a spark.

Even for an artistic portrait of the hero, the writer does not look for any pretext, "hook". The description of his appearance begins with the very first word of the story. The direct bearing of the officer, bright eyes, looking "with dry sadness", immediately speak of the former profession, years of trials, and lasting mental pain. And it is immediately reported that he rented a farm in Provence, trying to manage the household, but turned out to be unsuitable for such a life, taking out of it only the habit of inserting caustic Provencal jokes into the conversation.

A drizzling rain, a long autumn evening when a lonely person does not know what to do with himself, a sad showcase of stale dishes of a small restaurant, a small hall with several tables - this is by no means a poetic setting where a long-awaited and belated love is born, where two tormented souls find each other .

The theme of loneliness is increasingly intertwined with the theme of newfound happiness. He and she feel the need to talk about being alone because they are no longer alone. In them, in essence, the joy of overcoming grief sings. And this conversation ends like this: “Poor! she said, squeezing his hand. This word contains both maternal tenderness, and nascent love and a deep understanding of the suffering of another person.

The writer sets off the beauty of their feelings with the dreary routine of the surrounding reality, in which they are no longer alone. So, at his house "in the metallic light of a gas lamp, rain fell on a tin vat of garbage." But they hardly notice this and, going up the elevator, they quietly kiss.

Opponent of faded idyllicness in descriptions of love relationships, Bunin supplements the story of the love of his characters with a description of the awakening of sensuality. He creates for lonely people who have found each other that fullness of happiness, which is impossible for a long time, must inevitably collapse, either by the will of fate, or by the evil of an unsettled life.

The writer stops the flowing narration smoothly and calmly, in order to announce in the next two or three lines after the love scene that his characters have agreed and, just in case, he put the money he earned in the bank in her name. At the same time, he recalls a bitter French proverb: “Even donkeys dance for love,” and adds: “I feel like I'm twenty years old. But you never know what can be ... ".

The interval in the narrative is nevertheless marked, and marked tragically. The love story began in the fall, and "... on the third day of Easter, he died in a subway car - while reading a newspaper, he suddenly threw back his head to the back of the seat, turned his eyes ...".

So, autumn, winter, spring - this is a short period of happiness, love, about which - and this is important - nothing has been said. And what can you say about shared love, when two people are isolated in it from the whole world, when the struggle constantly going on in it is regarded as an evil that must be shunned. If Ivan Bunin tried in his stories, and especially those written at a time when fascism spread its black wings over Europe, if he tried to indulge in idyllic dreams, his works about modernity would have sounded differently. One cannot indulge in long joy when the world is groaning from uncertainty and sadness. The writer weighed his attitude to life on the scales of his own conscience. And it was extremely difficult. One stroke in the story is also very characteristic. As already mentioned, his hero writes the history of the civil and the first world wars. And the story, although the action in it refers to the period preceding the Second World War, was written in November 1940, when France was already groaning under the Teutonic boot. This is reflected in the story only indirectly, in the tragic intensity of the ending.

These lines are perhaps the most tragic of all written by Bunin. A huge gift of found happiness turns into an unbearable pain of loss, a return to the loneliness of the heroine of the story - Olga Alexandrovna, who knows how to survive. But there is something else in the final lines. Here are the lines:

“When she, in mourning, returned from the cemetery, it was a lovely spring day, in some places spring clouds floated in the soft Parisian sky, and everything spoke of young, eternal life - and of her, finished.

At home, she began to clean the apartment. In the corridor, in a poster, I saw his old summer overcoat, gray, with a red lining. She took it off the hanger, pressed it to her face and, pressing it, sat on the floor, twitching all over with sobs and screaming, begging someone for mercy.

In this comparison, perhaps, the whole of Bunin, with his love of life, with his horror in the face of death. More than once, apparently, the aged writer had the thought: is it really possible that young life will still awaken in the spring, and I will not? And along with it, another arose: but still life is beautiful, and I lived it not in vain, I will leave a particle of myself to people!

The story "In Paris", having raised the favorite theme of love by Yunin to the highest point of artistic perfection, did not, however, exhaust it. The writer's aesthetic attitude to life does not change, but he finds new and new angles in highlighting the main thing, in his opinion, that determines the thoughts and feelings of a person. Various variations of the Bunin theme arise from the infinitely shifting relationships of characters and situations, from the artistic and stylistic decisions of this or that story.

Some of them are elegiac, covered with quiet sadness of memories of the motherland and young love. Most typical in this respect short story“In one familiar street”, prompted, like the story “Dark Alleys”, in verse. The story may not be autobiographical, but Bunin undoubtedly experienced something similar to the one described in his youth. And the story begins as if the writer is talking about himself. He walks along the Parisian boulevard in the spring and recalls the verses:

In a familiar street
I remember the old house
With a high dark staircase
With a curtained window...

By association with poetry, a memory arises. And then the prose text is interspersed with the poetic one. Prose starts from verse, complements it and argues with it. A person, as it were, cultivates the beauty of feelings in his soul. Reality is poorer than the poetic representation of it, than the poet's re-creation of it. But is it important, since a person experiences the delight of possession, acquires his beloved? The poems speak of the beauty of a loose braid, and the hero of the story recalls a braided blond pigtail "rather poor." The verses speak of a "miracle girl", but there was a girl with a common people's face, transparent from hunger. The verses speak of a kiss that is not childishly fiery, and the kisses of the girl from the memories were tender, like weak girls kiss. The verses say: “Listen, let's run away!”, but in life there was nowhere to run and there was no reason to.

All these comparisons of life, decorated by the poet, with life as it is, create an amazing artistic effect. Poems contribute to creating a mood in the story, but they are not the ones that touch, but the young love described by Bunin, touches because only a person who has never loved will not get excited when he reads: “There were these weak, sweetest lips in the world, they were from an excess of happiness that spoke to the eyes hot tears, heavy languor of young bodies, from which we bowed our heads on each other's shoulders ... ".

According to Bunin, by nature, man was created for happiness and for the affirmation of beauty on earth. A person's need for happiness, his desire to create beauty are indestructible, although the "evil" reality constantly crushes his hopes, overturns his plans. The evil surrounding a person does not exist, according to Bunin, isolated from a person, it penetrates a person, distorts him, gives rise to some kind of irrationality in him, leading him, in turn, to evil, destruction.

And this is not the only misfortune that lies in wait for a person. Often love leads to destruction and grief, yes, the same love that reveals the beauty of the universe to a person gives him short days happiness. And here Bunin has no contradiction. After all, love does not take into account formal moments, it arises not only when a person has the “right” to love. And since life is badly arranged, there are constant clashes between a person's natural desire for happiness and slavery legalized in love, between freedom and possessiveness in love. Ownership, as the evil of life, standing in the way of human happiness, is one of the main motives of a number of the best stories from the concluding cycle "Dark Alleys". These include "Galya Ganskaya", "Dubki", "Steamboat" Saratov "," Raven "and standing somewhat apart" Clean Monday".

In the story "Galya Ganskaya" a kind of special case is taken. There are, in fact, no grounds for a tragic outcome, except that passion turns

a person into an owner, striving to possess completely to the point of death.

With a few exceptions, the whole story, which is conducted on behalf of his hero - an Odessa artist, is devoted to the disclosure of one character, one passion, the depiction of one figure. This is a kind of psychological and artistic portrait, conveying the spiritual and physiological formation of a young girl, her passionate nature, which caused the last tragic gesture.

The hero of the story visited Paris twice and imagined himself to be a sort of irresistible heartthrob and trendsetter. And yet he spares the innocence of the girl who came to his studio. The hero, in essence, is a decent person, and youth simply boils in him, and the girl is very pretty. Nevertheless, even in moments of sensual “madness”, he cannot forget that her father always accepted him with open arms and once said to them, young artists: “Oh, oh, what a girl is growing with me, my friends! I'm afraid for her!"

Artist whole year avoids meeting with the girl, fearing that he will not be able to restrain himself a second time. But life goes on as usual, and he meets her again by chance. The first meeting did not pass, and could not pass in vain for her, for this addicting, passionate nature, experiencing, in addition to everything, the time of maturation. With extraordinary accuracy of psychological and plastic details, the external manifestations of that "secret" force that pushes young people into each other's arms are transmitted. However, this second meeting is just another step towards rapprochement. Young people do not see each other for six months. And when again, and again by chance, they meet at the same cafe, the inevitable happens. He invites her to him, and they draw closer, for they have come close to the line beyond which this should have happened.

Meetings between the artist and Gali Ganskaya continue. And there is nothing unusual about their love story, from the very beginning until the turn leading to tragedy. There is only a love story, of which there are many, told by a sharp-sighted artist. But here an absurd turn takes place in it, which clarifies a lot and motivates the tragic outcome.

The artist is going to leave for a short time in Italy. He has not yet had time to inform his beloved about this. She learns of his impending departure by the side, and the following explanation occurs between them:

You, they say, are leaving for Italy the other day?

Yes, so what?

Why didn't you say a word to me about this? Would you like to leave secretly?

God be with you. Just now I was going to go to you and tell you.

With dad? Why not me alone? No, you're not going anywhere!

I freaked out like a fool.

No, I'll go.

No, you won't.

And I tell you that I will go.

Is this your last word?

Last, but understand that I'll be back in a month, a lot in a month and a half. And in general, listen, Galya ...

I am not Galya. Now I understand you - everything, I understand everything! And if you now began to swear to me that you will never go anywhere and forever, it makes no difference to me now. That's not the point anymore!

This most important dialogue in the story is at first glance insignificant. In fact, he belongs to those "passing" places that play a special and most important role in Bunin's works, revealing the most important thing in the simplest. Like an insignificant dialogue in the story "In Paris", a clash over a trifle between the heroes of the story "Galya Ganskaya" reveals a lot in the character of the heroine, in the disparity of their feelings.

Galya and her lover feel differently and think in different categories. She gave herself undividedly to her love, for such is her nature, and the slightest encroachment on her feelings raises suffering in her soul, which she is unable to cope with. In essence, this, of course, is a manifestation of that possessiveness in love, which does not bring peace and joy into it. But Bunin does not blame his heroine and only talks about one more case among hundreds of other options, when short-lived happiness turns into death.

You can not blame the artist, beloved of Hanska, the writer tells us, he was captivated by the charm, beauty, passion of the girl. But to love the way she loved, apparently, did not know how. It was perfectly normal for him to inform her, somewhat belatedly, of his departure, but for her it was a revelation, the realization that he loved her differently than she loved him. And that was exactly what she couldn't bear.

The story of "Dubki" is filled to the brim with tart passion, the appeal of sex, jealousy. Small in size, it is artistically one of the best late stories of the writer. Human feelings are depicted in it in extreme tension, and the image of a woman at the center of the story is a wonderful success.

In "Dubki" everything, except for the heroine, is very Russian, traditional. This is a visit to the native estate of the landowner's son, a young cornet, the nature of the middle lane, described more than once, mighty, hundred-year-old oaks, like guards guarding the crumbling grandfather's house, and a peasant hut nearby, where she lives in solitude with her husband - Anfisa.

The plot of "Dubkov" is consonant with the story "Mitya's Love". There, the headman brings Mitya to the secluded hut of the forester Tryphon, where his daughter-in-law Alenka lives. This visit is associated with the need to finally agree with Alenka on a meeting with Mitya. But Bunin, apparently, was captivated by the possibility of recreating passionate love in the enchanted atmosphere of a secluded hut, perched in an overgrown and deserted park of a ruined estate.

However, for the conceived "burning" novel, he needed not a broken and primitive wench Alenka, but a woman capable of hidden and strong passion. And Bunin goes to the "experiment". He abandons the type of Russian peasant woman common in his stories and creates an image that confirms the position that there are no rules without exception. Anfisa looks like a Spaniard. For her artistic portrait and the disclosure of her passionate nature, at the first meeting alone with her beloved, Bunin finds a new and interesting artistic device. The hero of the story sees her in the red smoke of a torch. She is whitewashed and rouged in a rustic way, but she is beautiful even in this costumed guise. “Everything looms, trembles in this brilliance, in smoke, but the eyes are visible through them - they are so wide and intent! sleeves, in a coral necklace - a resin head that would do honor to any secular beauty, smoothly combed in the middle, silver earrings hang in the ears ... Seeing me, she jumped up, instantly threw off my snow-covered hat, fox undercoat, pushed me to the bench, - everything is as if in a frenzy, contrary to all my previous thoughts about her proud impregnability, - she threw herself on her knees to me, hugged me, pressing her hot cheeks to my face ... ".

Until that moment, not a word about love had been said between the lovers. He asks why she was hiding, and the young woman explains this by the constant presence of her husband, who has an eagle eye that notices everything. And she did not give herself away because she was strong in character.

This explanation, coming directly from the heroine, is very substantially supplemented by the entire artistic fabric of the story. Anfisa has no hope for happiness. Moreover, she rushes towards love, fully aware that this threatens her with death. But the power of love, the aversion to a hateful life with a middle-aged and stern husband is so great that she is the first to throw herself into the arms of her beloved.

In Bunin's stories, people who are obsessed with passion die because they find themselves between a rock and a hard place: their feelings and the institutions of society.

Bunin is not going to combine a young nobleman and a peasant woman in a happy marriage, he has already expressed his opinion on this matter in the first work of the cycle - the story "Dark Alleys". But there could be happiness, and this is the most important thing in a difficult life of a person. But a woman lives with an unloved husband, and he regards her possession as his most legitimate right. She is his slave, and he, in fact, the slave owner, can manage her life.

There was no betrayal, but Anfisa's husband, Lavr, had long suspected that his wife and barchuk loved each other. Although the story does not mention this, but his departure, apparently, is a way to catch an unfaithful wife. He suddenly returns and, entering the hut, behaves as if the set table, the dressed-up wife and the presence of the young master are a common thing, which does not embarrass him at all. He calmly explains why he returned, and then politely sees the guest out.

The massacre of Lavr with his wife is not shown, but it is said that he strangled her with a belt on an iron hook in the door lintel. And having committed a brutal murder in cold blood, he tries to evade responsibility and, among other things, says to the peasants: “I dressed up for some reason, blushed - and hangs, a little does not reach the floor ... Witness, Orthodox.”

Already in the most clumsy explanation lies a confession. But even without him, the guilt is undeniable. The peasants look at the Lavr and say:

Look what you've done to yourself! And what is it with you, headman, your whole beard is torn out in tufts, your whole face is cut from top to bottom with claws, your eye is bleeding? Knit it guys!

The story concludes with a brief maxim: "He was beaten with whips and sent to Siberia, to the mines."

The theme of possessiveness, limited by the framework of love, does not acquire the significance of direct social generalizations by the writer. Sometimes it is not even easy to determine what is the attitude of the writer to the hero who wants to completely own a woman, who sees in this his legal right. The writer, of course, does not approve of extreme measures - murder. But Anfisa is so good that to some extent one can understand Lavr, who is convinced that his wife does not love him, is ready to give herself to another.

The story "Dubki" is close in theme to the story "Steamboat" Saratov ". Its action takes place in the living room of a secular kept woman. The cruelty and ignorance of village life gives rise to the law of the owner, but the same law of the owner rules in the so-called intelligent circles. big city, where the woman is also a slave, is also the subject of sale. The social motives of the crime in Steamboat Saratov are more clearly revealed than in Dubki. The crime committed by the officer - the murder of a kept woman who intends to leave him for her previous lover - appears in the story as a derivative of the crime of a society in which such mores can reign.

The woman tells the officer that she is breaking up with him, and he does not believe her at first. A dialogue takes place that does not seem to prepare a tragic denouement. The officer is amused, ironic, even insults the woman. In the heat of an argument, she says to him:

I saw him - and, of course, secretly, not wanting to cause you suffering - and then I realized that I never stopped loving him.

He narrowed his eyes as he chewed on the cigarette holder.

That is his money?

He is not richer than you. And what do I care about your money! If I wanted...

I'm sorry, only cocottes say that.

And who am I, if not a cocotte? Do I live on my own, and not on your money?

He muttered in an officer's patter:

In love, money doesn't matter.

But I do love him!

And I, then, was only a temporary toy, fun from boredom and one of the profitable keepers?

You know very well that it is far from fun, not a toy. Well, yes, I'm a kept woman, and yet it's vile to remind me of this.

In the story “Steamboat Saratov” the main place is occupied by dialogue. With his help, the characters are outlined, and he also creates a dramatic situation with its tragic ending.

It is difficult for the reader to condemn either of the two characters. Who is to blame: a woman or a man? There is no clear answer to this question in the story. And this is far from accidental, because, thinking, the reader begins to look for the truly guilty.

There are no positive characters in the story. Both actors, just as in "Cornet Elagin", are the product of a certain environment where morals reign, disfiguring the human soul. An unoccupied young woman, who is supported by one or another man, is languishing from the uncertainty of her position. She deceives herself and her lovers for internal self-justification. She even believes that she made a mistake, that she loved one, was carried away by another, and then realized that she loved an abandoned lover.

In the story "Steamboat" Saratov ", Bunin is looking for some new angle of coverage of life, confirming his main thesis about the short-lived happiness of a person. But here, too, he, as an artist, creates another indictment against society, even if he does not set himself such a main task.

In a dispute between an officer and a kept woman who is about to leave him, Bunin follows the logic of feelings embracing his heroes, but this logic itself is a derivative of the conditions that shaped their characters, their worldview.

Having "bought" a woman, the officer is outraged by her "black betrayal". And according to the moral principles of the society where he lives, the truth is on his side. Perhaps there would not have been a tragedy if the woman had not met with an opponent behind his back. Then it was logical for everyone to get together, talk heart to heart, and another man would “outbid” a woman from him. Thus, the laws of the owner, the laws of sale and purchase, would be observed. But “treason” is not the only cause of the tragedy; proprietary interests are intertwined with love interests in the conflict.

Treating a woman of the demi-monde, whom it is not customary to love in society as a “decent” lady, in a carefree and easy way, the officer, in the moments when he loses her, suddenly feels that she means more to him than he previously thought. In the heat of the collision, the woman insults him, squeamishly says: "Drunken actor." And when he tries to turn her to face him, he swings at him. And he shoots.

This is immediately followed by an epilogue - a scene on the Saratov steamer, the meaning of which is confirmed, in particular, by the very title of the story.

“In December of the same year, the steamer of the Volunteer Fleet “Saratov” sailed in the Indian Ocean to Vladivostok. Under the hot awning stretched over the forecastle, in the motionless heat, in the hot half-light, in the brilliance of mirror reflections from the water, naked convicts sat and lay on the deck to the waist, with half-shaven, terrible heads, in trousers made of white canvas, with shackle rings on their ankles. bare feet. Like everyone else, he was naked to the waist and he was thin, brown from sunburn. It was dark and only half of his head was short-cropped, his thin cheeks that had not been shaved for a long time were blackened red with coarse hair, his eyes sparkled feverishly. Leaning on the railing, he stared intently at the thick blue wave flying deep below, along the high wall of the side, with humps, and from time to time spat there. This epilogue is perceived as a contrast to the previous one, when the narrative takes on a new and deep meaning in the light of the final ending - one of the very important aspects of the artistic style of Ivan Bunin. The ending in “Steamboat Saratov” seems to throw a bridge into the terrible future of the hero, predicting what lies ahead for him. And right there with new force the question posed earlier arises: is this person really guilty, and is he guilty?

The ending consists of two complementary and reinforcing parts. The first one gives the general picture. In the second, the hero of the story is brought into view, outwardly no different from other prisoners. But we saw him as a brilliant officer, and his appearance, prepared by the first part of the ending, causes excitement, no matter how we imagine him.

Bunin's disharmonious solution to the theme of love is given in a very original way in the beautiful story "The Raven". In it, most clearly of all Bunin's works of the emigrant period, that evil force appears that deprives a person of happiness. The theme of buying and selling in love, begun in Steamboat Saratov, is socially posed much sharper in the story The Raven. Here evil is already personified in the figure of a tsarist provincial bureaucrat holding a high position.

The artistic portrait of this pillar of the provincial yurocracy is given a significant place by no means for artistic "discoveries".

The image of the "raven" is symbolic, the external resemblance to a bird of prey is supported by certain spiritual properties. The description says: “Even in the bureaucratic society to which he belonged, there was no person heavier, more gloomy, silent, coldly cruel in slow words and deeds. Short, stocky, slightly stooped, coarse black-haired, dark with a long shaven face,

big-nosed, he really was a perfect raven, especially when he was in a black tailcoat at the charity evenings of our governor's wife, he stood stooped and firmly near some kiosk ... ".

In the ruling provincial spheres there could be officials of different characters, but the highest power that ruled them created from them performers of cold and cruel, completely incapable of reckoning with people's feelings. It is in this sense that the artistic portrait of the tsarist official is symbolic, which is called not by name, but by the perception of his son - “a raven”.

The pernicious pressure of the unrighteous arrangement of life is transferred by the writer from the social plane to the everyday one.

Arriving from Moscow for the holidays in his father's house, the hero of the story finds a new governess there. Two young creatures are drawn to each other, and again, in a very lyrical sound, the theme of short-lived happiness arises. Young love is a kind of island of tenderness in the cold and gloomy house of the "crow", where his cruel will is ready to suppress all life. Nervousness is introduced into this lyrical atmosphere by the hero's sister Lily - a despotic and eccentric girl who clearly inherited many of her father's character traits.

But now the owner proceeds to fulfill his plan. A timid and lovely girl seems to him a suitable slave wife. He is absolutely not inclined to reckon with the difference in years, her feelings. However, he does not want to go into such "details". Money is what, in his opinion, human relations are measured. And he methodically prepares the "purchase" operation. He conducts a conversation with her in an instructive tone, thereby slightly covering his intentions, giving them a kind of decent look. And then he does not miss the opportunity to belittle her, talking about her poverty, offering to dream of wealth.

The image of the "raven" is unique in the gallery of characters created by Bunin in the last period of his work. And in its outline, the main role belongs to vocabulary. Here is one of its most characteristic examples:

Blond, dear Elena Nikolaevna, either black or pixie suits... If only a black satin dress with a scalloped, standing collar a la Mary Stuart, studded with small diamonds would suit your face very much ... or a medieval dress of pixie velvet with a small neckline and ruby cross-stitched ... A coat of dark blue Lyon velvet and a Venetian beret would also suit you ... All this, of course, is a dream, ”he said, grinning. “Your father receives only seventy-five rubles a month from us, and he has five more children besides you, less small or small, which means that you will most likely have to live in poverty all your life.

In this monologue - the whole person. In slow, somewhat old-fashioned speech, in all its inner essence, the unshakable self-confidence of a conservative and cruel egoist is expressed. At the same time, this is a vile bargain-purchase, where a dilemma is posed before the victim, who still has little understanding of life: wealth or poverty. "Raven", in fact, does not hope for an immediate solution to the issue, but he sets the snares in advance, being convinced that the victim will fall into them sooner or later.

Some frivolous rake would try to seduce the girl with an expensive gift. But the "raven" acts methodically, inevitably, like that bureaucratic system, of which he is a typical representative.

The theme of a short-lived love between a girl and a boy acquires a stronger social sound in the story than in previous stories. "Raven" is a violent and active social force that breaks the happiness of two young creatures. Still not knowing anything about the love that had arisen between them, this provincial despot, seeing a possible rival in his son, leads an attack on him. One evening, in his usual mocking tone, he says that he will not leave anything to his son, since, they say, “a waste of the first degree” will come out of him.

What follows is a very concise account of the short happiness of young people. These are random and joyful touches of hands, the first quivering kiss and inexpressible longing that embraces lovers. And that's all ... "Raven" "covers" them, and the reprisal is not long in coming. He orders his son to leave for the Samara estate, threatening, in case of resistance, to completely deprive him of his inheritance and, by agreement with the governor, expel him by stage. Consequently, violence against the human soul is being prepared with the direct support of those in power.

The young man is deprived of the opportunity to resist, and at night he forever leaves such an inhospitable father's house.

The story's ending is somewhat unusual for Bunin. The hero sees her and her father in the box of the Mariinsky Theater, already a wife and husband. Description of her appearance and the story ends. She carries herself easily, at ease. She is charming, wearing a dress of crimson velvet, stabbed on the left shoulder with a ruby ​​agraph, and a ruby ​​cross shimmers with dark fire on her neck. This is exactly one of those outfits with which the “raven” seduced her, a young girl.

It seems that there are no tragedies. Everything has entered into a certain life track. The young man works in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, she lives in luxury. But the reader, who is familiar with Bunin's views on love, will himself conclude that under the cover of external well-being two people live with unhealed spiritual wounds ...

Stories of lonely people

I have a girlfriend, 29 years old, single and never been in a serious relationship. Small in stature, plump and frankly speaking “for an amateur” outwardly, she works in a state institution, receives little, lives in a hostel, has no education. We have been friends for 8 years and all this time she has been constantly looking for a man for herself and cannot find it in any way.

She came to visit me again, and, as usual, started a conversation that, looking at us, she really wants a family, a husband, kids and some kind of stability in life. That the years go by, but she does not get younger and prettier, but there is no happiness. Tearfully asked to help her, to introduce her to someone.

My husband works in a car service, I asked him if they had single smart guys. The husband replied that there is one very good guy, hardworking, not drinking, lonely, adequate. In general, we decided to try to work as cupids. Explained to the guy the essence of the matter, he agreed.

Invited a friend to talk, please and arrange a meeting. She came running joyful and began to ask who he was. I begin to explain, a tinsmith, sensible, her age, not married, no children, friendly with the head.

Then my friend changes her face and gives out a phrase from which I fall into a stupor: - “Why do I need a tinsmith? No, I don't need a tinkerer. I want a solid, director of some kind, handsome, smart, generous.” I was speechless.

One question spun on the tongue: “Why do you need a handsome, smart, single, rich director who is already middle-aged, not very beautiful, not rich, uneducated?”.

I didn’t want to destroy friendship and offend a person, she said nothing. Meanwhile, the guy was waiting for a meeting, and it was very embarrassing to explain to him the reasons for the refusal of his girlfriend. We decided to make a "knight's move", introduce me to another friend of mine.

Ordinary woman, 30 years old, average build, average appearance. I agreed with Yulia, she willingly agrees to a tinsmith, there is an exchange of phone numbers, a meeting.

According to a friend after the meeting, she is delighted with the guy, waiting for a second date. According to the guy - "She's nothing, but far from a model, not my type, I love tall, young, with a gorgeous body, erect breasts, a beautiful face and expensively dressed."

Three people who could potentially find family happiness for a long time, in pursuit of ideal partners, spend their years without noticing ordinary ordinary people.

And then these people come to visit us and say, “We envy you with white envy, you have a family, children, comfort, and we are alone and so unhappy.”

Despite the fact that my husband is far from being a director, and I am far from being a model. But we love each other, not made-up stupid standards.

In general, lonely people, stop living in illusions, wait for princes and princesses. Life runs so fast, you won’t have time to look back as old age is already. Look around, there may be wonderful people nearby, with a completely ordinary appearance and modest income.

Do not hesitate to sometimes critically look at yourself, ask yourself the question “Do I meet my needs myself?”.

Once upon a time there lived a man who became famous and was known throughout the village. His name was Ivan Semyonovich.
He was a very simple man, lived like everyone else, worked like everyone else, but, unfortunately, fate made him truly unhappy. And his grief, and sadness, he carried through his whole life.

He lived on the very outskirts, a small house was fenced with a makeshift fence, and beautifully carved gates. Behind the fence there was a beautiful garden, where several apple trees grew, small and well-groomed bushes of various berries, and he himself often liked to sit on his porch and cut out various figures. Neighborhood kids were very fond of visiting him, Ivan Semenovich gave the kids toys, naturally carved.
One day, a girl came to visit him, whom he knew from the cradle. This girl grew up, and has already entered the institute, having left for the city from her parents, but she remembered the old man and often visited. Her name was Irina.
Sitting down beside him on a bench, she leaned on her hands and asked what she had not dared to ask for many years.
- Ivan Semenovich, I've been thinking a lot, and I wanted to know everything ... Why do you live alone?
The old man put the toy aside and squinted. He turned away and was silent about something. The girl was seriously frightened, it seemed to her that he somehow pulled away and began to cry. She stood up and wanted to approach, but he muttered something to her in response. She decided to come closer, but the old man stubbornly hit the table and kicked the girl out the door.
- What kind of person are you? Be sure to stir up what you will not return, go away! Leave me alone!
The girl, taking a cape, ran out of the garden, only the gate knocked ..
For a whole week, grandfather Ivan did not receive guests, he sat and quietly went about his business. He was of course very concerned about what had happened and decided to ask for forgiveness.
Taking his cane, he went to the house. Approaching the door, he saw Irina washing the floor.
-Irina, forgive the old man! - she looked back, threw the rag on the floor, and went to the gate.
- Yes, I'm not offended - she answered him - I should not have just asked such questions.
- It's not your fault, come with me, I'll tell you everything.
Ivan Semenovich invited her to the house, the house had one room and a small kitchen with a stove.
Everything in the house was quite modest, in the old fashioned way. Putting the mugs on the table, he lit the stove and put on a large, heavy teapot. Then he shuffled to the rack, taking out a photo album from there.
He sat in front of Irina, and she opened her eyes in surprise, he never showed her photographs.
Scrolling through the first page flashed photos.
-These are my parents. Semyon Fedoseevich and Maria Yakovlevna. This is my brother, he was ten years younger than me. Mom could not get pregnant for a long time after me. I myself then 5 was with them and my brother was 6, then there was a sister, beautiful girl, blond, all laughed ...
But this is my bride, I loved her very much, they wanted to have a wedding with her, but it didn’t work out ...
- And what happened? Irina asked.
-Like what? The war happened, all my people died, and she. Then the heavy kettle began to boil, and he went to take it off the stove. After pouring tea into cups, he walked over and sat down at the table.
He began to remember:
- It happened in 1942. I was then 25 years old, and my brothers were 26, 29, 32, 35. The youngest was 15, and my sister was 8.
The older brothers went to the front, who fought near Stalingrad, who else where. And I stayed at home, to help my parents, to take care of the house.
But one day, in the morning, I decided to go to the river, I had to catch fish for dinner. The river was behind a high cliff.
I went at five in the morning, my beloved gave me a crust of bread with her, and hugged me tenderly. It was the last hug, and the last smile.
About twelve o'clock in the afternoon, I heard a piercing noise, from the direction of my village came the smell of smoke. Leaving his belongings on the river bank, he rushed there, ran with all his might, but suddenly stopped and fell to the ground. I can't put into words the horror I saw.
Everything around was blazing with fire, the Germans dragged people out of their houses, tore off the clothes of the girls, who were dragged to the side, raped. One German took my mother and decided to drag her into the burning house, but my fiancee rushed to the defense, and he punched her in the face and ordered her to be taken away. My mother was stripped and thrown into the fire, burned alive. My sister screamed and cried, they took her and a bullet in the forehead. My beauty is gone, my sister is still dreaming. Father was also taken somewhere.
I was so scared that in an instant I lost consciousness. I woke up in the evening when it started to rain. I got up and staggered forward somewhere. There was no one around, only a few houses survived. I went to look for at least something, but there was emptiness around, only a lot of dead bodies, I saw the body of my baby on the ground. Fortunately, my house survived, I went into the barn, took a shovel. In the backyard of the house, I dug a grave where I put my sister. He put up a sign. I did not stay at home for long, I collected my belongings, what was left, what the Germans did not take away. He looked around and left.
He went, it is not known where, and it is not known why. It was happening in my soul that I didn’t even know where I was going, just where my eyes were looking. I did not know how to live, and what to do, I was tormented by guilt ..
I took small breaks, ate berries and bread, slept high up in a tree. Then he woke up and moved on. A couple of days later, when I went out on some country road, I heard the roar of cars. I was lucky they were ours. After long interrogations, and finding out the circumstances of my appearance in the middle of that road, I was taken to a soldiers' camp, I slept for two days, and they fed me porridge. During these couple of days, I clearly knew what I want - to take revenge, and save those I can. I achieved that I was taken to the front, I went through the whole war, having received several shell shocks and wounds. But I never lost hope.
First of all, of course, I wanted to find my beloved, and save my father.
For a long time I stubbornly wrote reports on the search, often negative answers came. But I did meet her. When ours liberated Auschwitz. She was unrecognizable when I saw her, she was shaved bald, very thin, constantly coughing. I could not find and save my father.
After the war, we began to live in this village. Three years later, our daughter was born. During childbirth, my beloved died. A girl at the age of 2 was hit by a horse and died.
After that, I was alone for many years. And then he decided to somehow live on, but he could not get married. All I have left of my wife is this apple orchard.
Irina sat and wept bitterly, she did not understand how it was possible to endure all this.
Irina finished her tea, and they chatted just like that, from the heart until the very evening.
“But there were pleasant moments in my life,” said Grandfather, for example, I played the button accordion well, often played at weddings, and in the evenings. Youth passed on the collective farm, in the field. Work during the day and dance in the evening! How good and funny it was!
Looking at the time, Irina got ready to go home, thanked the old man, and left.
Soon Irina went to the city to study, but the old man remained, carving figures from wood.
He died five years later. Irina still keeps memories of this wonderful person.
Appreciate those around you.

We have published a book of incredible beauty and with deep meaning - "Starry, Starry Night". This book touches the heart of everyone who has picked it up at least once - and takes a part of it. Forever. The penetrating illustrations by Taiwanese artist Jimmy Liao immerse themselves in history completely and without a trace - it's a whole world. Magic. Understandable to everyone.

The story is so touching that the editor cried while reading it the first few times, then the marketer cried, and then the copywriter - twice (I confess, it's me). The book leaves no one indifferent.

The story of first love and loneliness

The girl who used to live with her grandparents in the mountains - where the stars are big and bright - moves to the city, to her parents' apartment. “Now I miss my grandfather. He stayed high, high in the mountains. And for my grandmother - she is high, high in the sky.

The city seems to her a cold and soulless place, mom and dad constantly swear, classmates do not let her pass at school. So she just hides in her world. Together with the kitten, which her mother brought her from a trip abroad, sometimes he turns into a thunder-a-a-a-bottom cat.

But everything changes when he moves into the next house new boy... "Dense snow was falling, and he lay so happy and carefree, as if he had fallen from another planet."

And then in this story something happened that should have happened to teenagers, each of whom was lonely and different from the others. It's so hard to see the stars in the city! The plan appeared by itself: "Let's run away!"

Moreover, there is no strength to listen to the quarrels of parents. And outside the city such a beautiful sky.

The most important question...

When you throw your head back to the starry sky, the world seems huge.

While I was preparing this post, I almost burst into tears for the third time. Never before had a children's book touched me so strongly. Maybe because she's not exactly a child? Or because too many difficult events have fallen to the lot of small heroes. Or it's all about Jimmy Liao's magical illustrations - even though I'm a copywriter, I have no words to describe them. You just need to look. Words flashed through my head from little prince”: “Only the heart is vigilant. You can’t see the most important thing with your eyes.” Yes, exactly ... Each page of this book should be considered in a special way - with the heart.

How this story will end, I will not say. Let me just say that the book is a surprise. And when you understand what he is - just goosebumps.

Simple but very layered, this story will appeal to both children and adults. And will be remembered for a long time. Certainly.

The last 6 years I celebrate New Year one. There are no decorations, garlands, champagne and traditional salad on the table. Usually on New Year's Eve I make myself shawarma and buy non-alcoholic beer. I wait until the firecrackers stop exploding on the street and go to bed. Fireworks love - beautiful. New Year is family celebration and I don't have a family. I do not plan to create it at once for several reasons. The main one is mental disorders. Examined - I'm not sick. But my mother also did not immediately manifest schizophrenia. But at the age of forty she was thoroughly banged. At older sister the same diagnosis - shiz. It's sad somehow. And not so much for themselves, but for loved ones. The sister's husband fiddles with her and suffers at the same time. It is obvious that he loves. If I didn't love it, I quit. Father left us for the same reason - mother's illness. And he left the girls with a sick man. Do not say anything - MA-LA-DETS!

I only dated girls high school and the first courses of the institute. And then there was a short break lasting 14 years. Over the years, he moved out from his parents, paid off his mortgage and lived happily ever after.