"Sunstroke" (1925)
The story "Sunstroke" is undoubtedly a masterpiece of Bunin's prose. It is difficult to find a story that, in such a concise form and with such force, would convey the drama of a man who suddenly knows true, all too happy love; so happy that if the intimacy with the little woman lasted another day (both of them know this), and the love that illuminated their entire gray life would immediately leave them, ceasing to be a sunstroke. The plot of the story is a small, brief episode that occurred during a journey along the Volga with a certain lieutenant and a little woman. We know almost nothing about the characters in the story. The woman is simple, cheerful, natural. Bunin gives her image extremely succinctly: cheerful laughter and simplicity, a gesture that betrays excitement, and the general impression of her appearance, given by the eyes of the hero: "everything was charming in this little woman." The detail of the portrait is very expressive, in which color and smell are combined, evoking complex associations with sunshine and freshness: “the hand, small and strong, smelled of sunburn.”
The relationship of the characters develops rapidly: having met in the evening, after three hours they succumb to madness and go to the dimly lit pier to spend the night in a hotel. The scene of love itself is shown in fragments, separate details, gestures, fragments are selected. dialogue: "... as soon as they entered ... the lieutenant ... rushed to her ...". Bunin does not let the heroes immediately understand what happened to them. The first word about some kind of eclipse, "sunstroke" is said by the heroine. Later, the lieutenant in bewilderment will repeat them: "Indeed, just some kind of sunstroke." The heroine repeatedly says that this has never happened to her, that what happened to her is incomprehensible, incomprehensible, unique.
It is said in a tongue twister about the parting of the heroes: already at ten o'clock in the morning, she washed up in five minutes and got dressed and was going to leave, and he easily agreed, drove to the pier, kissed him on deck, returned to the hotel easily and carefree. In terms of volume, this entire narrative takes up only a page, and this is the plot of the story, its initial source. Here we observe the compositional feature of Bunin's works about love: the selection of the most significant, critical episodes and the high plot speed in the transfer of the love story.
Further, the story develops as a reflection of those thoughts, thoughts and feelings of the main character that excite and touch him after parting with a stranger. Almost five pages of further text of the story "Sunstroke" describe the state after parting. Moreover, Bunin does not resort to traditional methods of psychological analysis: internal monologues, the author's analysis of the hero's state of mind. He draws us pictures of the external life surrounding the hero, draws them as they are seen by the character himself. Therefore, the writer pays special attention to the gestures of the hero, his facial expressions. Also important are his feelings, the most elementary ones spoken aloud, but for this reason meaningful phrases. And one more thing: all six pages of the story will be filled with sunlight, the whole plot takes place against the backdrop of an unbearably hot sunny day.
The sunshine, the blinding whiteness of the pages of the story, as it were, should remind us of a sunstroke that overtook the heroes. The lieutenant will now constantly return to the stranger by memory, sorting out some episodes, fragments related to her behavior, words, habits. And now the composition of the story will take shape as an image of the day, in which everything ordinary, previously seen, familiar is comprehended in a different way. From here begins the chain of endless and aimless wanderings of the lieutenant around the city, when he visits the summer market, which only yesterday was colored by the joy of the morning, sunny, hot, happy, and now everything is so stupid, absurd; the cathedral, where the evening service is already going on, which now seems to him too everyday, businesslike, and the entire Volga expanse now seems empty to the hero. He eats botvinya with ice, drinks, snacks on lightly salted cucumbers, and all the time he catches himself thinking about the mysterious stranger, that he will never see her again, that she is lost to him forever.
And in the further narrative, the presence of a person in the soul, in memory, and his absence in reality will intensify with every moment. And every action of the lieutenant will only bring him closer to the idea that he will not get rid of “this sudden, unexpected love In no way that will forever haunt his memories of what he experienced, about the smell of her tan and canvas dress, about the lively, simple and cheerful the sound of her voice."
Along with the understanding of the impossibility of forgetting what happened, getting rid of this sudden, unexpected love for the hero, comes a feeling of the uselessness of his entire future life. Love here in Bunin is a feeling that transforms the hero, at the cost of a "sunstroke" the hero comprehends that in human existence there is something uniquely beautiful, sublime, ideal. The artistic time of the story from the "instant", intensely experienced by the hero, expands to ten years of existence and further to eternity.
The story has a circular composition: at the beginning, a blow is heard on the pier of a moored steamer, and at the end, the same sounds are heard. Days passed between them. But in the minds of the hero and the author, they are separated from each other by at least ten years. After all that has happened, the lieutenant feels ten years older. And now another person is riding on the ship, who has comprehended some of the most important things on earth, who has become familiar with its secrets.
Summary of "Sunstroke"
The story "Sunstroke" by Bunin was written in 1925, published a year later in Sovremennye Zapiski. The book describes a fleeting romance between a lieutenant and a young married lady who met while traveling on a ship.
Main characters
lieutenant - A young man, impressionable and ardent.
Stranger - a young, beautiful woman who has a husband and a three-year-old daughter.
Summary
While traveling on one of the Volga steamships, the lieutenant meets a beautiful stranger who is returning home after a vacation in Anapa. She does not reveal her name to a new acquaintance, and each time she answers his insistent requests "" simple sweet laugh"».
The lieutenant is amazed by the beauty and natural charm of his companion. Ardent, passionate feelings flare up in his heart. Unable to contain them in himself, he makes a very unambiguous offer to the woman to go ashore. Unexpectedly, she easily and naturally agrees.
At the very first stop, they go down the ladder of the ship and find themselves at the pier of a small provincial town. Silently they go to a local hotel, where they shoot "" terribly stuffy, hotly heated during the day by the sun room"».
Without saying a word to each other, they "" so frantically suffocated in a kiss"", that in the future for many years they will remember this sweet, breathtaking moment.
In the next morning "" little nameless woman", quickly dressing and regaining her lost prudence, she is going on the road. She admits that she has never been in a similar situation before, and for her this sudden outburst of passion is like an eclipse," sunstroke"».
The woman asks the lieutenant not to board the ship with her, but to wait for the next flight. Otherwise "" everything will be ruined", and she wants to keep in her memory only this unexpected night in a provincial hotel.
The man easily agrees and escorts his companion to the pier, after which he returns to the room. However, at that moment he realizes that something in his life has changed dramatically. Trying to find the reason for this change, he gradually comes to the conclusion that he was head over heels in love with the woman with whom he spent the night.
He rushes about, not knowing what to do with himself in a provincial town. The sound of the stranger's voice is still fresh in his memory, "" the smell of her tan and canvas dress"", the outlines of her strong elastic body. In order to be a little distracted, the lieutenant goes for a walk, but this does not calm him down. Unexpectedly, he decides to write a telegram to his beloved, but at the last moment he remembers that he does not know "" no last name, no first name"". All he knows about the stranger is that she has a husband and a three-year-old daughter.
Exhausted by mental anguish, the lieutenant boards the evening boat. It is comfortably placed on the deck and admires the river landscapes, "" feeling ten years older"».
They met in the summer, on one of the Volga steamers. He is a lieutenant, She is a lovely little, tanned woman (she said she was coming from Anapa). “... I'm completely drunk,” she laughed. - Actually, I'm completely crazy. Three hours ago, I didn't even know you existed." The lieutenant kissed her hand, and his heart sank blissfully and terribly ...
The steamer approached the pier, the lieutenant muttered pleadingly: "Let's get off ..." And a minute later they got off, on a dusty cab they reached the hotel, went into a large, but terribly stuffy room. And as soon as the footman closed the door behind him, both suffocated in the kiss so frenziedly that for many years they later recalled this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like it in their whole life.
And in the morning she left, she, a little nameless woman, jokingly calling herself "a beautiful stranger", "Tsarist Marya Morevna." In the morning, despite an almost sleepless night, she was fresh as at seventeen, a little embarrassed, still simple, cheerful, and - already reasonable: “You must stay until the next boat,” she said. - If we go together, everything will be spoiled. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It was as if an eclipse had come over me… Or, rather, we both got something like a sunstroke…” And the lieutenant somehow easily agreed with her, drove her to the pier, put her on the ship and kissed her on deck in front of everyone.
Just as easily and carelessly, he returned to the hotel. But something has already changed. The number looked different. He was still full of it - and empty. And the lieutenant's heart suddenly contracted with such tenderness that he hurried to light a cigarette and walked up and down the room several times. There was no strength to look at the unmade bed - and he closed it with a screen: “Well, that's the end of this“ road adventure ”! he thought. - And I'm sorry, and already forever, forever ... After all, I can’t come to this city for no reason at all, where her husband, her three-year-old girl, in general, her whole ordinary life! And the thought struck him. He felt such pain and such uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was seized with horror and despair.
“Yes, what is it with me? It seems not for the first time - and now ... Yes, what&-
nbsp;is it special? In fact, just some kind of sunstroke! And how can I spend a whole day in this outback without her? He still remembered all of her, but now the main thing was this completely new and incomprehensible feeling, which had not been there while they were together, which he could not have imagined when starting a funny acquaintance. A feeling that there was no one to talk about now. And how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment?...
I had to save myself, to occupy myself with something, to go somewhere. He went to the market. But at the market everything was so stupid, absurd, that he fled from there. I went into the cathedral, where they sang loudly, with a sense of accomplishment of duty, then circled around the small neglected garden for a long time: “How can you live in peace and generally be simple, careless, indifferent? he thought. - How wild, how absurd everything is everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck by this terrible "sunstroke", too much love, too much happiness!
Returning to the hotel, the lieutenant went into the dining room, ordered dinner. Everything was fine, but he knew that without hesitation he would have died tomorrow, if by some miracle he could return her, tell her, prove how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her ... Why? He didn't know why, but it was more necessary than life.
What to do now, when it is already impossible to get rid of this unexpected love? The lieutenant got up and resolutely went to the post office with a ready-made telegram phrase, but he stopped in horror at the post office - he did not know either her last name or her first name! And the city, hot, sunny, joyful, so unbearably reminded Anapa that the lieutenant, with his head bowed, staggering and stumbling, walked back.
He returned to the hotel completely broken. The room was already tidy, devoid of the last traces of her - only one forgotten hairpin lay on the night table! He lay down on the bed, lay with his hands behind his head and stared intently in front of him, then clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, feeling the tears roll down his cheeks, and finally fell asleep ....
When the lieutenant woke up, the evening sun was already turning yellow behind the curtains, and yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago. He got up, washed himself, drank tea with lemon for a long time, paid his bill, got into a cab and drove to the pier.
When the steamer set sail, a summer night was already turning blue over the Volga. The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.
The story "Sunstroke" by Bunin was written in 1925, published a year later in Sovremennye Zapiski. On our website you can read summary"Sunstroke", which is useful for both reader's diary as well as in preparation for a literature lesson. The book describes a fleeting romance between a lieutenant and a young married lady who met while traveling on a ship.
The main characters of the story
Main characters:
- The lieutenant is a young man, impressionable and ardent.
- The stranger is a young, beautiful woman who has a husband and a three-year-old daughter.
Bunin "Sunstroke" summary
I. A. Bunin "Sunstroke" summary for the reader's diary:
A young lady returns alone from a vacation to her city in the outback of Russia. On the way on the ship, she meets a young man, a lieutenant. The characters talk pleasantly for several hours and feel that they like each other. That same evening, the two of them get off the ship at a stop and go to the nearest hotel. Finally alone, they kiss passionately. They will remember this moment for the rest of their lives.
The heroes spend the night in an inn. In the morning, the lady asks the lieutenant not to go with her, but to wait for the next flight. She says that she has never allowed herself anything like this and does not want to arouse suspicion now. The woman admits that yesterday she and the lieutenant seemed to have had a sunstroke and they lost their heads. The lieutenant takes the lady to the steamer and kisses her goodbye.
Returning to the hotel, the man suddenly feels emptiness and loneliness. He almost cries with anguish, realizing that he will never see this woman whom he managed to fall in love with. At the same time, he does not even know her name (the woman did not want to give her name).
The lieutenant only knows the city where she lives with her husband and 3-year-old daughter. He realizes that this sudden love really hit him like a sunstroke. The next morning, the lieutenant boards the steamer and continues on his way. Sitting on deck, he yearns, feeling 10 years older.
Also Read: Story Antonov apples» Bunin wrote in 1900. The work is a lyrical monologue-reminiscence built using the “association technique”. On our website you can read. Retelling will help prepare for the lesson of literature, test work.
A short retelling of Bunin's "Sunstroke"
"Sunstroke" Bunin summary of the story:
They meet in the summer, on one of the Volga steamers. He is a lieutenant, She is a lovely, small, tanned woman returning home from Anapa.
I'm completely drunk, she laughed. - Actually, I'm completely crazy. Three hours ago, I didn't even know you existed.
The lieutenant kisses her hand, and his heart beats blissfully and terribly.
The ship approaches the pier, the lieutenant begs her to get off. A minute later they go to the hotel and rent a large but stuffy room. As soon as the footman closes the door behind him, both of them merge into a kiss so frenetically that they later remember this moment for many years: none of them has ever experienced anything like this.
And in the morning this little nameless woman, jokingly calling herself "a beautiful stranger" and "Tsarist Marya Morevna", leaves. Despite the almost sleepless night, she is fresh, as at seventeen, a little embarrassed, still simple, cheerful, and already reasonable: she asks the lieutenant to stay until the next ship.
There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It’s like an eclipse hit me… Or rather, we both got something like a sunstroke…
And the lieutenant somehow easily agrees with her, takes her to the pier, puts her on the ship and kisses her on deck in front of everyone.
Easily and carefree, he returns to the hotel, but the room seems to the lieutenant somehow different. He is still full of it - and empty. The lieutenant's heart suddenly shrinks with such tenderness that he has no strength to look at the unmade bed - and he closes it with a screen. He thinks this cute "road adventure" is over. He can't "come to this city, where her husband, her three-year-old girl, in general, her whole ordinary life."
This thought shocks him. He feels such pain and the uselessness of his entire future life without her that he is seized by horror and despair. The lieutenant begins to believe that this is really a "sunstroke", and does not know "how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment."
The lieutenant goes to the bazaar, to the cathedral, then circles around the abandoned garden for a long time, but nowhere does he find peace and deliverance from this uninvited feeling.
How wild, how absurd everything is everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck by this terrible “sunstroke”, too much love, too much happiness.
Returning to the hotel, the lieutenant orders dinner. Everything is fine, but he knows that without hesitation he would die tomorrow if it were possible by some miracle to return the “beautiful stranger” and prove how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her. He does not know why, but it is more necessary for him than life.
Realizing that it is impossible to get rid of this unexpected love, the lieutenant resolutely goes to the post office with a telegram already written, but he stops in horror at the post office - he does not know either her last name or first name! The lieutenant returns to the hotel completely broken, lies down on the bed, closes his eyes, feeling the tears rolling down his cheeks, and finally falls asleep.
The lieutenant wakes up in the evening. Yesterday and this morning he remembers as a distant past. He gets up, washes, drinks tea with lemon for a long time, pays for the room and goes to the pier.
The ship leaves at night. The lieutenant sits under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.
See also: The story was written in 1924, and touched on the author's favorite topic - a difficult love relationship. For better preparation for the literature lesson, we recommend reading the summary of "Mitya's Love" chapter by chapter. managed to very subtly and at the same time artistically convey the experiences of a young man who found himself face to face with unrequited love. A retelling of the story will also be useful for the reader's diary.
Contents of "Sunstroke" with quotes
While traveling on one of the Volga steamships, the lieutenant meets a beautiful stranger who is returning home after a vacation in Anapa. She does not reveal her name to a new acquaintance, and each time she answers his insistent requests “ simple sweet laughter.
The lieutenant is amazed by the beauty and natural charm of his companion. Ardent, passionate feelings flare up in his heart. Unable to contain them in himself, he makes a very unambiguous offer to the woman to go ashore. Unexpectedly, she easily and naturally agrees.
At the very first stop, they go down the ladder of the ship and find themselves at the pier of a small provincial town. Silently they go to a local hotel, where they shoot " terribly stuffy, hotly heated during the day by the sun room».
Without saying a word to each other, they so frantically suffocated in a kiss”, that in the future for many years they will remember this sweet, breathtaking moment.
In the next morning " little nameless woman”, quickly dressing and regaining the prudence that was lost, is going on the road. She admits that she has never been in a similar situation before, and for her this sudden flash of passion is like an eclipse, “ sunstroke».
The woman asks the lieutenant not to board the ship with her, but to wait for the next flight. Otherwise " everything will be ruined”, and she wants to keep in her memory only this unexpected night in a provincial hotel.
The man easily agrees and escorts his companion to the pier, after which he returns to the room. However, at that moment he realizes that something in his life has changed dramatically. Trying to find the reason for this change, he gradually comes to the conclusion that he was head over heels in love with the woman with whom he spent the night.
He rushes about, not knowing what to do with himself in a provincial town. The sound of the stranger's voice is still fresh in his memory, the smell of her tan and canvas dress”, the outlines of her strong elastic body. To get a little distraction, the lieutenant goes for a walk, but this does not calm him down.
Unexpectedly, he decides to write a telegram to his beloved, but at the last moment he remembers that he does not know " no last name, no first name". All he knows about the stranger is that she has a husband and a three-year-old daughter.
Exhausted by mental anguish, the lieutenant boards the evening boat. It sits comfortably on deck and admires the river scenery, " feeling ten years older».
Conclusion
In his work, Bunin describes different aspects of love, which can bring not only joy and joy, but also deep suffering.
This is interesting: Being in Paris, the writer was very homesick, which prompted him to write a touching work, a brief for the reader's diary absorbed his best moments.
Video summary Sunstroke Bunin
This story is amazing, original and very exciting. It is written about sudden love, about the emergence of feelings for which the characters were not ready and they do not have time to figure it all out. But main character and does not suspect what suffering will have to go through, from the moment of parting with a beautiful young stranger.
Ivan Alekseevich Bunin
"Sunstroke"
They met in the summer, on one of the Volga steamers. He is a lieutenant, She is a lovely little, tanned woman (she said she was coming from Anapa). “... I'm completely drunk,” she laughed. “Actually, I went completely crazy. Three hours ago, I didn't even know you existed." The lieutenant kissed her hand, and his heart sank blissfully and terribly ...
The steamer approached the pier, the lieutenant muttered pleadingly: "Let's get off ..." And a minute later they got off, on a dusty span they reached the hotel, went into a large, but terribly stuffy room. And as soon as the footman closed the door behind him, both suffocated in the kiss so frenziedly that for many years they later recalled this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like it in their whole life.
And in the morning she left, she, a little nameless woman, jokingly calling herself "a beautiful stranger", "Tsarist Marya Morevna." In the morning, despite the almost sleepless night, she was fresh as at seventeen, a little embarrassed, still simple, cheerful, and - already reasonable: “You must stay until the next boat,” she said. “If we go together, everything will be ruined. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It was as if an eclipse had come over me… Or, rather, we both got something like a sunstroke…” And the lieutenant somehow easily agreed with her, drove her to the pier, put her on the ship and kissed her on deck in front of everyone.
Just as easily and carelessly, he returned to the hotel. But something has already changed. The number looked different. He was still full of her - and empty. And the lieutenant's heart suddenly contracted with such tenderness that he hurried to light a cigarette and walked up and down the room several times. There was no strength to look at the unmade bed - and he closed it with a screen: “Well, this is the end of this“ road adventure ”! he thought. “Forgive me, and already forever, forever ... After all, I can’t come to this city for no reason at all, where her husband, her three-year-old girl, in general, her whole ordinary life!” And the thought struck him. He felt such pain and such uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was seized by horror and despair.
“Yes, what is it with me? It seems not for the first time - and now ... But what is special about her? In fact, just some kind of sunstroke! And how can I spend a whole day in this outback without her? He still remembered all of her, but now the main thing was this completely new and incomprehensible feeling, which had not been there while they were together, which he could not have imagined when starting a funny acquaintance. A feeling that there was no one to talk about now. And how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment...
I had to save myself, to occupy myself with something, to go somewhere. He went to the market. But at the market everything was so stupid, absurd, that he fled from there. He went into the cathedral, where they sang loudly, with a sense of accomplishment of duty, then circled around the small neglected garden for a long time: “How can you live in peace and generally be simple, careless, indifferent? he thought. “How wild, how absurd everything is everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck by this terrible “sunstroke”, too much love, too much happiness!”
Returning to the hotel, the lieutenant went into the dining room, ordered dinner. Everything was fine, but he knew that without hesitation he would have died tomorrow, if by some miracle he could return her, tell her, prove how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her ... Why? He didn't know why, but it was more necessary than life.
What to do now, when it is already impossible to get rid of this unexpected love? The lieutenant got up and resolutely went to the post office with the phrase of the telegram already ready, but he stopped in horror at the post office - he did not know either her last name or her first name! And the city, hot, sunny, joyful, so unbearably reminded Anapa that the lieutenant, with his head bowed, staggering and stumbling, walked back.
He returned to the hotel completely broken. The room was already tidied up, devoid of the last traces of her - only one forgotten hairpin lay on the night table! He lay down on the bed, lay with his hands behind his head and stared intently in front of him, then clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, feeling the tears rolling down his cheeks, and finally fell asleep ...
When the lieutenant woke up, the evening sun was already turning yellow behind the curtains, and yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago. He got up, washed himself, drank tea with lemon for a long time, paid the bill, got into a cab and drove to the pier.
When the steamer set sail, a summer night was already turning blue over the Volga. The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older. retold Natalia Bubnova