Many wonderful works were written by Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Natalie (short summary of the story) will be of primary interest to us today. The plot, the main characters are waiting for the reader in this article.
Chapter 1. The Dark Prediction
It all starts with the fact that a young gymnasium student by the name of Meshchersky firmly decided to put an end to his inexperience and innocence in sexual terms. Moreover, he was not looking for love, but only for carnal satisfaction. Therefore, he began to passionately search for a girlfriend for these purposes, making visits to relatives and friends. The searches of the female body brought the “pale young man with a burning eye” (V. Bryusov) to the estate of his maternal uncle.
The train was late, but Sonia Cherkasova, daughter of her uncle and, accordingly, the cousin of the protagonist, waited patiently for Meshchersky Victor Petrovich. Young people quickly found a common language and agreed that their "romance will begin right tomorrow."
But the most important thing is not that the dreams and aspirations of the young man came true, but what came next. Sonya said quite calmly: Tomorrow Meshchersky will fall in love with Natalie, or Natasha Stankevich, the cousin's friend. Then Sonya also without a shadow of doubt reports: the young man will suffer according to Natalie, and seek solace in Sonya's arms.
Meshchersky only laughed.
The reader, probably, already understands what the Russian classic wrote - I. A. Bunin. “Natalie” (a brief summary will try to reveal and show this) is a work about the tragedy of involving people in a love triangle.
Chapter 2. Love joys are not hastily and the bifurcation of the protagonist
You should immediately make a reservation and say that we concentrate only on the main line of the story - love-erotic.
So, in the second chapter, the main event of the whole story takes place - the first meeting of Meshchersky with Natalie. The girl is really gorgeous. It is really very difficult not to fall in love with her at first sight.
Most of the events of the chapter occur in the head of the protagonist. After drinking coffee and eating countless sandwiches with butter, he dreams of Sonya all morning. Then she suddenly sees Natalie in a negligee, a young man liked her very much. And the fantasy began to work in two directions. On the one hand, he dreamed of leisurely carnal pleasures with Sonya, and on the other hand, was imbued with a pure spiritual erotic desire for Natalie. Sonia, of course, is a pity, but "what is given does not attract."
The described state of affairs is the main result of the second chapter. There were other events, their reader can find out if the full version of the story that Bunin left to the descendants turns to. “Natalie” (a brief summary is meant) moves further in the plot plan.
Chapter 3. Meshchersky renounces love for Sonya
The main tragedy of love is that even the most passionate one, it sooner or later turns into a routine. So, for example, the main character at the beginning of the story passionately wanted a young female body to satisfy his needs. But after some time, secret meetings with Sonya became boring to him.
Sonya began to suspect that her cousin was using her, and he felt deeper feelings for Natalie. At the same time, others began to think that between a cousin and brother is not just kindred love. Therefore, Sonya herself tells the hero of the story to spend more time with Natalie. And he is glad. At one of these meetings, Meshchersky almost confesses love to Natasha and renounces love for Sonya. Viktor Petrovich claims that his cousin has purely platonic and kindred feelings. This, of course, is not true.
I recall the work of S. Maugham “Rain”, the moral of the story of an English classic is approximately the following: all men are bad people and are very greedy for what is forbidden and forbidden. All the same, it should be noted that a rather bold composition for his time was written by I. A. Bunin (Natalie). The summary of the story reached the middle.
Chapter 4. “Yes, yes, I love you”
The subtitle best illustrates the main event of the story: Natalie confesses to Meshchersky in love. But all this was by no means as fast as it seems.
Sonya fell into the period that every woman has from time to time. The hero was, on the one hand, annoyed that he could not eat his cousin, and on the other hand, he was glad that he could finally confess to Natalie in his feelings.
Since then, the interaction of the elements of the love triangle began. After some time, Sonya came out of her room, and Natasha, on the contrary, lay that day and left her room only in the evening.
Vitaly Petrovich said that he wants to leave in the near future, but his uncle rebelled. After the indirect recognition of the young man, the girl (Natalie) changed her anger to mercy, but continued to avoid the Meshchersky society. And only under the incomplete moon in the late evening, according to all the laws of the genre, does she admit to him her feelings. And here the third player intervenes - Sonya Cherkasova. Intrigue, as we see, was added to the story of Natalie by Bunin. The summary of the work is steadily moving towards the finale.
Chapter 5. Inertia of habit pushes away the happiness of Meshchersky
This chapter is the smallest of all. It captures a well-known phenomenon: when a habit takes precedence over courage and determination and as a result almost destroys the possibility of happiness.
The main character came into his room, and a storm had already started outside, as if illustrating the young man’s internal state, and there Sonya was waiting for him - that girl who had not been with him for five days. Of course, she asked to caress her. Viktor Petrovich without desire began to do what he had been doing all this time. And then Natalie finds them.
Chapter 6. Ball and funeral
A year after the well-known events, Natasha got married, she chose her cousin Viktor Petrovich as her husband. Someone may find here a trace of female treachery, but we do not undertake to judge whether it was or just so the map lay down.
Our hero graduated from high school and was a metropolitan student. The fate of the Christmas holidays threw him in his native Voronezh, where he expected to have a lot of fun with the same students as he did.
Of course there was a ball. Victor Petrovich, being there, saw that his adored Natalie, with whose loss he was almost used to it, was dancing gracefully with her husband. Without delaying the matter, the young man decided to get drunk and, perhaps, with luck, die from it. Bad luck.
Another year and a half passed. The sad news came from the house of a cousin and Natalie: the husband of Meshchersky’s love died of a stroke without suffering a long time. Victor had to come.
One can imagine what atmosphere reigned in the house of the deceased, but in this chapter it is only important that when Viktor Petrovich expressed his condolences to the widow, she showed no interest in communication either on the day of the funeral, or the next.
Chapter 7. Not too happy reunion
Some more time has passed. Our hero is already 26. He is actually married, but not legally, on his servant, he has a small son. He can do almost everything except an official marriage to another woman. If this event happens, his current wife will drown in a pond with her child.
Viktor Petrovich has a crazy thought: “Why not stop by your cousin - Natalie?” He was just returning from his overseas trip. No sooner said than done. He appeared to her. At first, the conversation did not go, then they confessed to each other in everything, the hero told her about the marriage he had fallen from despair. Cousin told Victor not to worry about anything. And lovers finally became lovers, though secret.
But one cannot say that history has a happy ending: after some time, Natalie died from premature birth.
So Ivan Bunin wrote “Natalie”. The summary was not too concise, but a person who is not interested in the sophisticated style of the Russian classic can limit himself to our retelling. And this is a definite plus of the latter.