"Antonov apples": a summary of the story of Ivan Bunin

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The story "Antonov apples" Bunin wrote in 1900. The author gradually immerses the reader in his nostalgic memories, creating the right atmosphere by describing sensations, colors, smells and sounds.

"Antonov apples": summary (1 chapter)

The lyrical hero recalls how they used to live in a landowner's estate. He recalls the early warm autumn. The garden is dry, it has thinned out. There is a subtle smell of fallen leaves and the aroma of antonovka. Gardeners sell apples right in the garden, then they put them in carts and send them to the city.

Running out into the night garden and talking with the watchmen, the hero looks for a long time into the deep and dark blue of the sky strewn with stars. Looks until the ground begins to spin under their feet. And there will be no feeling of happiness.

"Antonov apples": summary (Chapter 2)

If there is a good harvest of Antonov apples, there will be a harvest for bread. So it will be a good year.

The hero remembers his village Vyselki, which was considered rich during the lifetime of his grandfather. The age of old men and women lasted a long time there, which was considered the first sign ofwelfare. The houses of the peasants were solid, brick. The life of middle-class nobles was not much different from the life of rich men. Anna Gerasimovna, the hero's aunt, had a small, solid, though old estate. Centennial trees surrounded her.

Aunt's garden was famous for its wonderful apple trees, the singing of nightingales and doves, and the thatched roof of her house was incredibly thick and very high. Under the influence of time, it hardened and blackened. The house smelled mainly of apples, and then other scents were already felt: the smell of mahogany of old furniture and lime blossom.

"Antonov apples": summary (Chapter 3)

The hero-narrator also remembered his late brother-in-law - Arseny Semenovich. He was a landowner and a desperate hunter. Many people gathered in his spacious house. At first they all had a hearty dinner together, and then they went hunting. The horn has already sounded in the yard, the many-voiced barking of dogs is heard. The owner's favorite black greyhound jumped on the table and eats the hare baked with sauce right from the dish. The hero recalls how he rides on a strong, squat and terribly evil Kyrgyz: trees flash before his eyes, and in the distance you can hear the barking of dogs and the cries of other hunters. Dampness draws from deep ravines, smells of mushrooms and damp tree bark. It starts to get dark, the whole gang of hunters tumble into the bachelor estate of someone from the company and sometimes live with him for several days.

If you spend the whole day hunting, the warmth of a densely populated house becomes especially pleasant.

If you accidentally oversleep the hunt, then you will spend the whole day in the owner's library, leafing through magazines and books of past years, looking at the notes of previous readers in the margins. Sad memories of her grandmother's polonaises, that she played the clavichord, and her languid reading of Pushkin's poems will fill the soul.

And the old dreamy life of the nobility rises before my eyes… Beautiful soul women and girls then lived in large and rich noble estates! Their portraits still look from the walls today.

"Antonov apples": summary (Chapter 4)

But the old people all died in Vyselki, Anna Gerasimovna also died out, Arseniy Semenovich put a bullet in his forehead.

The time is coming for poor, impoverished nobles who own small estates. But this life, small local, is good! The hero had the opportunity to observe the life of a neighbor, being his guest. Rising early, he orders the samovar to be put on immediately. Then, putting on his boots, he goes out onto the porch, where the hounds come running to him. Yes, it promises to be a wonderful day for hunting! But, the hunter laments, one must hunt along the blackthrope with greyhounds, and not with hounds, and he does not have them! As soon as winter sets in, again, as in ancient times, the small estates all come together. They drink for the rest of the money and disappear for days on end hunting in the fields in the winter. And in the late evening, the windows of some deaf farmstead, glowing in the dark, can be seen far away. In the wing, a shaky fire burns dimly, smoke swirls, they sing there, and a guitar sounds …

“Antonov apples”… a brief description is not capablerecreate the world of an old noble estate. Is it possible, while reading it, to penetrate deep into the subtlest Bunin's lyrics, where all the old events are experienced by the reader as if they were happening before his eyes?