Ivan Bunin is the first Russian writer to receive the high title of Nobel Laureate. This award was given not only to the magnificent master of the word, the subtle connoisseur of the language, piercing lyrics, but also to all Russian art in his person, that beautiful literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries that he represented. The writer had a difficult fate. Not recognizing the revolution of the 17th year, the bloody terror of the civil war, Bunin left Russia, not yet knowing that separation from it would poison his continued existence for many years. But even there, in a foreign land, Ivan Alekseevich remains true to himself, completely Russian in spirit, essentially a man, and every line of his, written after his departure, about Russia.
general characteristics
The collection “Dark Alleys” by critics is called the author’s “swan song”. Indeed, he had never painted with such lyric piercing souls, so subtly and chastely, with such boundless longing and sadness about the most mysterious, bright and bitter feeling - the feeling of love. Yes, love is irrational, it does not lend itself to logical calculations and is not squeezed into the
Procrustean bed of mercantile thoughts about marriage, material interests, or any obligations. It looks like a butterfly flying, circling snowflakes or apple petals under a gust of wind, it is like a
sunstroke, striking suddenly, from nowhere - and on the spot, said Ivan Bunin. Dark Alleys, a storybook named after one of them, describes different facets of this feeling. But they are all united by one common thought: love is equal to tragedy, people's happiness is impossible in this world, it is too fragile and breaks under the blows of circumstances like a magical, alluring sparkling, but such fragile crystal ball.
"There were dark linden alleys ..."
But back to the cycle. In a very difficult period for himself, Bunin wrote “Dark Alleys”. Their summary can be defined as an encyclopedia of various love dramas. The work was created during the Second World War, when France suffered from Nazi occupation, and the writer's heart was compressed from anxiety for the fate of the motherland. Ivan Alekseevich himself is experiencing hopeless poverty, he is completely lonely, very often hungry, physically and mentally exhausted. There is no place to wait for help, and only your favorite work helps you not to finally fall into despair. The cry of the soul, a desperate thirst for understanding, sympathy, human warmth, real feelings - this is what Bunin filled “Dark Alleys”. A summary of each short story boils down to just that.
Here is the first story of the collection, which gave the name of the cycle. His hero, a once brave officer, and now an old man tired of life, still young and attractive, recognizes his first love, the maid of his mother, Nadezhda, in the hostess of the inn. Once she was thin, unusually pretty, and young Nikolai went crazy about her. But, as usual, feelings and poems about "dark alleys" have sunk into oblivion. Heroes married a woman of his circle, but unsuccessfully. The son grew up a scoundrel and a mole, his wife left, and he is deeply lonely and unhappy. Such is the payment for the betrayal of love, for the betrayal of the most holy - yourself, your "I".
The story “Rus” corresponds to the same topic - a subtle psychological drama that Bunin told us. "Dark Alleys" (a brief summary of "Rus" we will now consider), can be called a metaphor.
This is not only a poetic line - these are alleys of souls, heroes, their most distant corners, secret dreams, suffering, memories. Because often the plot is given in retrospect, as a narration of past events, no, no, and even the heroes popping up in the minds of regret about what could come true, but did not come true. A note of nostalgia, longing for the past and awareness of the impossibility of happiness in the future - this is the whole of Bunin, “Dark Alleys”. A brief summary of “Rus” allows you to catch this longing from the very first lines: a steamboat, wonderful Russian river landscapes, a married couple who had recently been married. And the hero’s memory of a passionate love for a girl who once lived here - in the places that he swims. Carefree student years, drunk from kisses of the night, a hot girl’s body, the first experience of bodily intimacy, crazy pleasure and the same sharp pain from the fact that extraneous evil forces tear the lovers apart. "And happiness was so possible ... So close ..." But it did not happen.
And yet, despite the general tragic tone, the Dark Alleys leave a special, enlightened feeling. No wonder the writer himself called them his best book. The collection really tells us about the gentle and the beautiful, which sometimes gives unbearable grief, but is also the greatest happiness - about Love. Love for woman and homeland.