The main characters met by chance in December. Listening to a lecture by Andrei Bely, the young man laughed and spun so that the girl who appeared next to her, first looking at him with some bewilderment, finally laughed too. After that, every evening he went to the heroine’s apartment, which she rented only because of the beautiful view that opens to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
In the evening, lovers went to dinner at expensive restaurants, went to various concerts, visited theaters ... He did not know how this relationship would end, and even tried not to allow such thoughts in her, because she would forever stop talking about the future. So begins Bunin "Clean Monday." A brief summary of the story published in 1944 is presented to your attention.
Heroine
The heroine was incomprehensible and mysterious. The relationship of the lovers was uncertain and strange, so the young man was constantly in painful expectation, unresolved tension. However, every hour shared with the heroine was happiness for him.
The girl was in Moscow alone (her father, an enlightened man from a merchant noble family, was a widower and lived in Tver already at rest), studied courses (simply because she liked the story) and constantly studied the beginning of one melody - “Moonlight Sonata” , just the beginning. He gave her flowers, fashion books and chocolate, in return receiving only an absent-minded and indifferent "Thank you ...". It seemed that she was not interested in anything, was not needed, but she nevertheless chose certain flowers, read all the donated books, ate chocolate, dined with appetite.
Only expensive fur and clothing were her only apparent weakness, which notes Bunin ("Clean Monday"). The summary would not be complete without a description of the characters of the boy and the girl.
Two opposites
Both heroes were healthy, rich, young and very good-looking, so much that at concerts and restaurants they were escorted with enthusiastic looks. He was from somewhere in the Penza province, he is beautiful with "Italian" southern beauty. The character of the hero was appropriate: cheerful, lively, constantly ready for a smile. The beauty of the girl was somehow Persian, Indian, and as far as he was restless and talkative, she was so thoughtful and silent.
Doubts of the hero
Describing the summary of Bunin's story "Clean Monday", it is necessary to note the doubts that sometimes owned the hero. Even when he suddenly kissed her impulsively and hotly, she did not resist this, but she was always silent. And when she felt that the hero was unable to cope with herself, she moved away silently, went to her bedroom and dressed for leaving. The girl said she was not suitable for a wife. The young man thought: "It will be seen there!" - and never after that he started talking about marriage.
Sometimes, however, this situation was unbearably painful for the gentleman. He began to think that it was not love. Saying about this girl, the hero replied that no one really knows what love is. After that they all evening again spoke only about an outsider, and the young man was again glad that he was just nearby, hears her voice, looks at his lips, which he kissed an hour ago.
Forgiveness Sunday
We continue to describe the main events of the story created by Bunin ("Clean Monday"). A summary of them is as follows. Two months of winter passed, January and February, and then Shrovetide. The heroine dressed in all black on forgiveness Sunday, saying that tomorrow is clean Monday, and gave her gentleman the idea to go to the Novodevichy Convent. He looked at her in surprise, and she talked about the sincerity and beauty of the funeral of a certain schismatic archbishop, about the singing of the church choir, about visiting the Kremlin cathedrals alone ... Then they walked for a long time along the Novodevichy cemetery, visited the graves of Chekhov and Ertel, long and unsuccessfully they were looking for the house where Griboedov lived, after which they headed to the Okhotny Ryad, to the tavern.
It was warm and there were many cab drivers. The heroine said that this Russia was now preserved only somewhere in the northern monasteries, and that someday it would go to the most deaf of them. Again he looked at her with concern and surprise: what is wrong with her today, again a quirk? The hero asks himself this question, and with it Bunin.
Clean monday
A summary of further events is as follows. The next day, the girl asked me to take her to the theater, to the skit, although she said that there was nothing worse than him. Here she constantly smoked and carefully looked at the actors who were grimacing to the friendly laughter of the audience. One of them looked with pretense of greed at her, and then, falling to his arm, asked about her gentleman: "What is this handsome? I hate." Leaving the cabbage at three in the morning, she half-jokingly, half-seriously said that the actor was, of course, right, "of course, beautiful." Against the habit, that night she let go of the crew.
In the apartment, the heroine immediately went to the bedroom, took off her dress and, in her shoes, combing her black hair with a comb, standing in front of the dressing table, said: "He said that I thought little of him. No, I thought."
Parting
In the morning, the hero woke up, feeling her gaze on himself. The girl said that she was leaving for Tver in the evening, and did not know for how long, she promised to write as soon as she arrived.
Here are the further events of the story, their summary. "Clean Monday" Bunin I. A. continues as follows. The letter received two weeks later was concise - a firm, albeit affectionate, request not to wait, not to attempt to see and find the heroine. The girl said that while she was a novice, and then, perhaps, she decided to become a nun. He disappeared for a long time in taverns, dropping more and more. Then he began to recover a little - hopelessly, indifferently ...
Two years later
Almost 2 years have passed since that day. On such a quiet evening, the hero took the cab and headed for the Kremlin. Here he stood without praying for a long time in the Cathedral of the Arkhangelsk, after which he traveled a lot, like two years ago, in the dark streets and cried.
The summary of Clean Monday is drawing to a close. The young man decided to stay at the Martha-Mariinsky monastery, where the girl’s choir sang with emotion and sorrow. At first, the janitor did not want to let him in, but nevertheless agreed for the ruble, sighing in dismay. Here the banners and icons carried from the church appeared, a string of nuns with candles stretched.
He looked at them, and suddenly one of the girls raised her head and looked at him in the darkness, as if seeing. What could she distinguish how she felt the youth's presence? He turned and inaudibly stepped out of the gate.
So ends his story Bunin I.A. ("Clean Monday"). The chapter summary is interesting and intriguing.