In Grasse, on the Cote d'Azur, during the terrible war, Bunin received inspiration. He wrote the storybook “Dark Alleys,” which he later considered his best work. These are heart-breaking tales of love that always ends tragically. This is what gives all the stories multidimensionality and content.
The second part of the collection opens with a short story by Bunin - “Rus”, the brief content of which describes the sudden love of two completely young girls and young men.
Unplanned stop
The train just left Moscow and suddenly stopped near Podolsk, waiting for the oncoming courier. Two handsome ladies and a gentleman stepped out of the compartment, who stopped at the ajar window.
The man unexpectedly said that in his youth he lived in these boring places, moonlighting as a tutor. The lady, with some toxicity, suggested that there was a bored girl. The man only partially agreed. He said that the girl did not miss at all, and at night they rode on an old leaking boat on an overgrown swampy lake. And all around - only silence, the squeak of mosquitoes, and dragonflies fly everywhere. The lady continued to inquire about the girl’s appearance with a certain amount of jealousy and resentment, because she had never heard of her before. So continues his story Bunin "Rus." The summary will consist in showing the inevitability of a quick end to this barely emerging love. The man dryly answered his wife’s questions about the appearance of the girl, who was dark, dark and strict with her face, as on the icons, with a long black scythe and walking in poverty in a simple yellow sundress. Outwardly, she looked like a mother, who was a strange and melancholy woman, silent. In her company, a young man, a tutor of their youngest son, felt tense. The train started, and the husband and wife headed for the compartment. The woman continued to question why they had not married. To get rid of, the man said rather rudely that he had left, and it was all over.
Overwhelming memories
The wife quickly fell asleep, and the husband lay and smoked, and before him, from the depths of his subconscious, precious pictures of the past surfaced, which he seemed to hide forever, but which he stood up now in a wail. So Bunin continues the story “Rus” (a short summary of the story can be described in the words of another poet: my past rose as yesterday.) Here is summer rain. Rusya, all wet with fresh odorous thick rain and infinitely beautiful, runs into the room, and the young man, distraught with inexpressible happiness, rushes to take off her wet shoes. And a black cock with a green-metallic tint that ran in at that time - everything remained in my memory. The smallest detail.
How did the novel begin?
Russia was the first to pay attention to a young man. Her first desire was to attract his attention. Her feeling seemed to induce a young man who was not expecting anything. He only responded to her actions without showing initiative himself. As Bunin shows, Rusya (a brief summary of the story says this) with all the unspent fervor of her youth gave herself up to the feeling that came to her. She flirted flirtatiously with the young man, asking what he reads, sneered at every occasion, waiting for an answer, and finally invited him to ride the boat. Fearing refusal to her feeling, she adopted a constant mocking tone in the conversation: well, she won’t be interested in me, and I don’t really need to.
First boat trip
Only on the boat, when the young man threw a huge snake out of it, Rusya spoke for the first time simply, as they would say now, without “jokes”, and for the first time they looked into each other's eyes. Rusya was striking in its beauty before, but now he thought of it for the first time with tenderness.
And she took his cap, pressed it to her chest and promised to protect it. Again the young man's heart trembled. Suddenly an unreliable old boat began to collapse, and the young people involuntarily found themselves very close. Kisses were inevitable in this couple who did not know what she was doing. So says Bunin. Russia, the summary of the story reveals this in its entirety, completely forgotten in its happiness.
Ride at night
The next day in the garden, Rus asked him about whether he loves. And, not realizing the report, the young man lied that from the first meeting. But, as Bunin shows, this was not. The girl initially interested him a little. Only the efforts made by her aroused his attention and reciprocal feeling. At night, Rusia (Bunin) - a brief summary cannot miss this detail - being careful because her mother is watching her, she came to the boat with a blanket so that they would not freeze and sailed to the other side. The young people were all alone. And again, Russia took the initiative, spreading a plaid and pulling the young man to her.
Bunin will subtly and chastely describe the manifestation of their love and the naive words of Russia that they are now married. The happiness of both was fragile and unbearable - this is a summary of the story "Rus." Bunin found such words about a young couple that you believe in the purity and naivety of youth.
Shameful end
Only a week passed, and young people sat in the house and examined the pictures. Suddenly, with soft steps, the mother of Rus burst into the room with a scarer in her hands, who scared the sparrows, and shot, then hit the young man in the forehead and started screaming out loud that Rus would stay with her forever: "Choose, daughter, or he, or me."
In the car again
Yes, all this was, but only twenty years ago. Remained the bitterness of unfulfilled. He drank a lot in the restaurant, his wife was familiar and inevitable, with which he did not experience the fullness of life. An ordinary dozen woman with whom you can only exist calmly. The happiness described by Bunin ("Dark Alleys", "Rus"), the summary of the story shows that he does not and never will. The inevitability of the end must be remembered even in the sweetest moments. Love is one of our most tragic feelings.