Ivan Bunin
Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin was a distinguished Russian writer, notable for being the first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1933. Born into a noble yet impoverished family in Voronezh, Russia, he received a classical education and initially gained recognition through translations of Western poets such as Longfellow and Byron. Bunin's literary prowess was marked by his mastery of the novella, with significant works including "The Village" and "The Gentleman from San Francisco," the latter of which is celebrated for its deep symbolism and exploration of themes like vanity and loss.
Throughout his life, Bunin faced personal and political challenges, particularly during the tumultuous times of the Russian Revolution, which forced him into expatriation. He spent much of his later years in France, where he experienced both health struggles and poverty but remained committed to aiding refugees during World War II. His writing reflects a profound appreciation for the beauty of human experience, even amidst sorrow. Bunin's last work, "Memories and Portraits," was published in 1950, and he passed away in relative obscurity in Paris three years later. His legacy endures through his influential stories and poetry, which continue to resonate with readers worldwide.
Ivan Bunin
Russian short-story writer, novelist, and poet
- Born: October 22, 1870
- Birthplace: Voronezh, Russia
- Died: November 8, 1953
- Place of death: Paris, France
Biography
Ivan Alexeyevich Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1933), led a hard life despite his international acclaim as one of the very finest writers of the novella. Born to a noble but poor family in Voronezh, Russia, Bunin was privately tutored in his native Yelets district before continuing his studies briefly at the University of Moscow. He first attracted attention with his translations of works by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Lord Byron. For this work he was awarded the Pushkin Prize, the top honor of the Russian Academy. He seemed, with these translations and his own poems, to be continuing the classical tradition of Russian literature, but during the next few years his verse took a shift toward the symbolic.
He first won popular fame in Russia with the publication of his long, pessimistic novel The Village. Six years later, his reputation became international with the publication of “The Gentleman from San Francisco.” This tale was specially cited by the Nobel Committee and was long a model for aspiring writers. Its surface, so apparently realistic and detailed, is actually a brilliant method of sustaining the symbolism of Bunin’s theme of the hollowness of vanity. His rich American, after many years devoted solely to business, retires to Capri, where he plans to lead a gala life. He immediately dies, however, and is carried back across the Atlantic, having missed out on life entirely. In describing the voyage back, the ship, the weather, and the ocean become symbolic.
In 1898, Bunin married the daughter of a Greek refugee and settled down to a quiet life of travel and writing. With the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, Bunin, who was a conservative despite not having been completely accepted by the czarist regime, became an expatriate. Leaving Moscow in 1918, he lived abroad, mainly in Paris. During World War II, he resided in the south of France, in ill health and poverty, his days additionally clouded by the illness of his wife. Nevertheless, he is reported to have helped many refugees fleeing from the Nazis during the occupation.
Bunin’s attitude toward life was never bitter; though full of the knowledge of the sadness the world can bring, he yet maintained a sense of the nobility and beauty of human endeavor. His last work was Memories and Portraits, published in 1950. Three years later, he died of a heart attack, in relative obscurity, in his Paris home.
Author Works
Short Fiction:
“Na kray sveta” i drugiye rasskazy, 1897
Pereval: Rasskazy, 1892-1902, 1912
Sukhodol, 1912 (novella; Dry Valley, 1935)
Sukhodol: Povesti i rasskazy, 1911-1912, 1912
Izbrannyye rasskazy, 1914
Zolotoye dno: Rasskazy, 1903-1907, 1914
Chasha zhizni: Rasskazy, 1913-1914, 1915
The Gentleman from San Francisco, and Other Stories, 1922
The Dreams of Chang, and Other Stories, 1923
Fifteen Tales, 1924
Sny Changa: Izbrannyye rasskazy, 1927
Grammatika lyubvi: Izbrannyye rasskazy, 1929 (The Grammar of Love, 1934)
The Elaghin Affair, and Other Stories, 1935
Tyomnyye allei, 1943, 1946 (Dark Avenues, and Other Stories, 1949)
Petlistyye ushi i drugiye rasskazy, 1954
Rasskazy, 1955
The Gentleman from San Francisco, and Other Stories, 1975
In a Far Distant Land: Selected Stories, 1983
Sunstroke: Selected Stories of Ivan Bunin, 2002
Long Fiction:
Derevnya, 1910 (The Village, 1923)
Mitina lyubov’, 1925 (Mitya’s Love, 1926)
Del korneta Yelagina, 1927 (The Elaghin Affair, 1935)
Zhizn Arsenyeva: Istoki dney, 1930 (The Well of Days, 1933)
Zhizn Arsenyeva, 1939 (includes Zhizn Arsenyeva: Istoki dney and Lika; The Life of Arseniev: Youth, 1994)
Poetry:
Stikhotvoreniya, 1887-1891, 1891
Pod otkrytym nebom: Stikhotvoreniya, 1898
Listopad: Stikhotvoreniya, 1901
Stikhotvoreniya, 1912
Izbrannyye stikhi, 1900-1925, 1929
Stikhotvoreniya, 1961
Nonfiction:
Okayannyye dni, 1935 (Cursed Days: A Diary of Revolution, 1998)
Osvobozhdeniye Tolstogo, 1937 (The Liberation of Tolstoy: A Tale of Two Writers, 2001)
Vospominaniya, 1950 (Memories and Portraits, 1951)
O Chekhove: Nezakonchennaya rukopis’, 1955
Pos serpom i molotom, 1975
Ustami Buninykh, 1977-1982 (3 volumes)
Miscellaneous:
Stikhi i rasskazy, 1900
Sobraniye sochineniy, 1902-1909 (5 volumes)
Rasskazy i stikhotvoreniya, 1907-1910, 1912
Sukhodol: Povesti i rasskazy, 1911-1912, 1912
Ioann Rydalets: Rasskazy i stikhi, 1912-1913, 1913
Polnoye sobraniye sochineniy, 1915 (6 volumes)
Gospodin iz San Frantsisko: Proizvedeniya, 1915-1916, 1916
Sobraniye sochineniy, 1934-1939 (12 volumes)
Sobraniye sochineniy, 1956 (5 volumes)
Sobraniye sochineniy, 1965-1967 (9 volumes)
Sochineniya, 1982 (3 volumes)
Bibliography
Bayley, John. “The Backward Look.” The New York Review of Books, vol. 42, 1995, 31-33. Provides a biographical background to Bunin’s writing.
Connolly, Julian W. Ivan Bunin. Twayne, 1982. An introduction to Bunin’s art for the general reader, focusing on his primary ideological positions and charting his evolution as an artist. The study includes a brief biographical sketch but is primarily organized around thematic discussions of Bunin’s major prose works in chronological order.
Cravens, Gwyneth. “Past Present.” The Nation, vol. 256, 1993, pp. 173-74. Discusses the style and themes of several of Bunin's works.
Gross, S. L. “Nature, Man, and God in Bunin’s ‘The Gentleman from San Francisco.’” Modern Fiction Studies, vol. 6, no. 2, 1960, pp. 153-63. An analysis of “The Gentleman from San Francisco,” focusing on its alleged pessimistic outlook.
Kryzytski, Serge. The Works of Ivan Bunin. Mouton, 1971. This work combines biographical and critical approaches, following Bunin’s career chronologically and commenting on each important work and its themes, influences, and overall significance.
Marullo, Thomas Gaiton. “Crime Without Punishment: Ivan Bunin’s ‘Loopy Ears.’” Slavic Review, vol. 40, no. 4, 1981, pp. 614-24. Compares “Loopy Ears” with Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski.
Marullo, Thomas Gaiton. If You See the Buddha: Studies in the Fiction of Ivan Bunin. Northwestern UP, 1998. Part of the Studies in Russian Literature and Theory series, this is an examination of Bunin’s works. Includes bibliographical references and an index.
Minot, Susan. “Ivan Bunin.” The Paris Review vol. 37, 1995, pp. 152-53. A brief discussion of Bunin by a noted short-story writer, commenting on his life and writing.
Poggioli, Renato. “The Art of Ivan Bunin.” In Harvard Slavic Studies. Vol. 1, edited by Horace G. Lunt et al, Harvard UP, 1953. An overall assessment of Bunin’s short stories and novels, concluding with an in-depth examination of The Village and Dry Valley.
Struve, Gleb. “The Art of Ivan Bunin.” Slavonic and East European Review vol. 11, no. 32, 1933, pp. 423-36. In this introductory essay on Bunin, Struve, an expert on emigré Russian literature and a translator of Bunin’s work, offers a chronological analysis of the author’s works, summarizing his most important features. Written two decades before Bunin’s death, the essay could not assess his later works.
Woodward, James B. Ivan Bunin: A Study of His Fiction. U of North Carolina P, 1980. A detailed and comprehensive study of Bunin’s fiction. Woodward treats all important aspects of Bunin’s fiction chronologically, combining critical examination and description and reevaluating earlier judgments on Bunin.