Summary of "The Gentleman from San Francisco" I.A. Bunin

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

In 1915, a short story by I. A. Bunin "The Gentleman from San Francisco". When reading the title of the work, thoughts immediately come to an exciting plot, where a mysterious citizen from a distant country becomes the protagonist of amazing and somewhere dangerous events …. However, the plot of the story is far from the intended options. Who is this man from San Francisco? A summary will help us understand. It's easy.

Passing on the summary of "The Gentleman from San Francisco", it should be noted that the author, introducing the main character, warns the reader from the first lines that no one remembered the name of this person, neither in Naples nor in Capri. On the one hand, this seems surprising - it cannot be that a person in whose life there were no discrediting acts, who has a good strong family, wife and daughter, whose aspirations weredirected to work and later on a well-deserved rest, could not be remembered by others. But continuing to read line after line, you understand that his life was so colorless and empty that, on the contrary, if someone remembered his name, it would be amazing. All his life he strove to work tirelessly, but not in order to come to well-deserved success, some unprecedented achievements and discoveries, but in the end - to inner satisfaction that life was not lived in vain, but to catch up with respected people and then to the end of his days to be in the same pleasures and idle pleasures as other "respectable" citizens. And now comes that long-awaited moment in his life, when, it seemed, a lot had been done, and his condition approached the figure when he could afford to go on a long journey. And again, the journey across the ocean in his understanding is not new lands, not acquaintance with another culture and distant traditions, but rather an indispensable attribute of the life of any rich person.

The main character, together with his wife and adult daughter, boards the famous ship "Atlantis" and goes to the Old World. He plans to visit the cultural monuments of Italy and Ancient Greece, participate in car and sailing races in Nice and Monte Carlo, enjoy the delights of young Neapolitan women and be sure to swim in the waters of the English Isles, and acquaintance with the local sophisticated society can bring considerable benefits both for himself, and for his daughter - a girl of marriageable age … And it seemed that nothing and no one could interfere with his plans - after all, hedreamed all my life.

Continuing the summary of "The Gentleman from San Francisco", we are transferred to the steamer that carries our hero and his family to Naples.

Life on the ship, which resembles a real hotel with all the amenities and all sorts of entertainment, is measured. In the morning - a mandatory two-hour walk on deck to stimulate appetite, then breakfast, after breakfast everyone looks at the latest newspapers, again a walk and a short rest under the rugs in long chairs on deck … Second breakfast is replaced by hot tea with biscuits, conversations - walks, and at the end day comes that long-awaited moment, the real apotheosis of everything - a hearty lunch and an evening of dancing.

Soon, the floating hotel arrives in Italy, and the San Francisco citizen finds himself in the midst of his dream come true: Naples, expensive hotel, helpful staff, the same serenely luxurious lifestyle, breakfasts, dinners, dances, visits to cathedrals and museums… But the pleasure from life that he dreamed of is not felt: it is constantly raining outside, the wind is howling, and there is endless despondency around. And the nameless man with his family decides to go to the island of Capri, where, as they assured, it is sunny and warm. And again they are on a small steamer, sailing in the hope of finding that oasis in the desert, to which they have been going for so long. But terrible pitching, gales and seasickness do not bode well…

Capri welcomes a gentleman from San Francisco, but, as the main character himself notes, miserable shacksfishermen on the coast are only annoyed and feelings far from the expected admiration.

But, having arrived at the hotel, where he was greeted with all due honors and even more, the gentleman is sure that annoying feelings are behind him, and only pleasure and pleasure are ahead. He prepares for dinner with all pomp, shaves, washes, puts on a tailcoat, ball shoes, fastens cufflinks … Without waiting for his wife and daughter, he goes down to a cozy reading room, sits down, puts on pince-nez, opens a newspaper … And here something terrible and unexpected happens - in front of everything becomes cloudy with his eyes, and he, all wriggling, falls to the floor … There is noise around, surprised exclamations and cries, but compassion and a desire to help are not felt in them. No, rather fear and disappointment that the evening is hopelessly ruined, and maybe even have to leave the hotel.

A gentleman from San Francisco is taken to a very small and damp room, where he soon dies. The women, wife and daughter, who came running in horror, no longer hear those helpful and obsequious notes in the owner’s voice, only irritation and displeasure at the fact that the hotel’s reputation can be forever ruined. He does not allow his body to be moved to another room and refuses to help with the search for the coffin, offering a long box of bottles instead. This is how the protagonist spends his last night on Capri - a cold, musty room and a simple box. It would seem that this summary of "The Gentleman from San Francisco" comes to an end. But do not rush, because ahead, albeit minor scenes, but the mostdeep, leading the reader to the most important thing…

The next day, the wife, daughter, and the dead old man, as the author now calls him, are sent back to San Francisco by steamboat. Finishing the summary of “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, one should certainly describe the same “Atlantis”, on board of which there are the same idle faces, the same breakfasts and walks, and the same heroes …. But no one suspects, and no one is interested in what is happening in the soul of each of those present and who is hidden in a tarred coffin deep below in a dark, cold hold …

In conclusion, I would like to say that if I. A. Bunin called his work differently, and, say, instead of "The Gentleman from San Francisco" at the moment you would read "A Citizen from San Francisco", a short the content, the main idea of the work would not have changed. Dullness, emptiness and aimlessness of existence lead to only one end - in the far hold there is a coffin not with a person, but with a body without a name …