Article menu:

Story by I. Bunin " Antonov apples"is noticeably different not only from traditional stories, but also from traditional literature in particular. Distinctive Features The plot and features of the image became the reason that the story attracted the attention of readers and literary researchers.

History of creation and prototypes of heroes

I. Bunin’s story “Antonov Apples” did not become a work created in one go. His “birth” was preceded by long haul.

In one of his letters to V.V. Pashchenko, dated August 14, 1891, Bunin describes his impression of autumn days, held on the estate of brother Evgeniy Alekseevich. From the letter we learn that Bunin was always reverent about autumn - it was his favorite time of year. While visiting his brother, he not only enjoyed delightful autumn paintings, but also enhanced them with the aroma of Antonov apples. Nine years later, these memories became key in creating the story.

Bunin did not make public the prototype of the main character, but such a personality was discovered by researchers. Vera Nikolaevna Muromtseva, the wife of I. Bunin, after the death of her husband, in her work dedicated to the life and work of Bunin, indicated that the prototype of the hero was A.I. Pusheshnikov is a relative of Bunin.

Plot Features

The unusual nature of Bunin’s story lies primarily in the fact that in “Antonov Apples” there is no traditional plot as such. At its core, the story contains a fragmentary image of memories lyrical hero.

Dear readers! On our website you can familiarize yourself with summary the story “Easy Breathing” by Ivan Bunin - in miniature.

All these moments are united by the personality of the main character and the general emotional mood. The story completely lacks plot dynamics. The plot of the work consists of the accumulation of various memories, the key element to the appearance and functioning of which was the smell of Antonov apples, which changes in the same way as the events in the hero’s life.

Symbolically, Bunin associates summer with the heyday of landownership - it is at this time that the smell of apples is especially significant and strong. However, gradually the gold of autumn changes from gray to gray and unsightly colors - thus achieving the harmony and cyclical nature of nature.

The story consists of four parts. In the first, the reader learns about nostalgic memories of the village and carefree life, and here the image of Antonov apples appears.

In the second part we will learn about the autumn season. Wealthy old women and men care about the shroud and gravestone. Here the lyrical hero is transported in memories to the estate of Anna Gerasimovna, his aunt. This part reinforces the image of Antonov apples, which for the hero become the key moments of autumn.

On our website you can read the analysis of the story “Clean Monday”, written by Ivan Bunin, a talented classic author.

In the third part, the reader sees a different autumn - cold and damp. The hero is transported to the estate of Arseny Semenovich and indulges in memories of hunting and past enthusiasm.

The final, fourth part tells about the autumn blues and despondency - at this time Antonov apples no longer smell. The hero is upset by the decline and lack of landownership.

It was no coincidence that the novel was divided into four parts - with their help the author depicts life cycle and the onset of maturity instead of youth.

Theme and idea of ​​the work

Despite the lack of a traditional plot, the story traditionally has a theme and an idea.
The theme of “Antonov Apples” is the hero’s regret at the desolation of the landowners and their estates. Nostalgia for a wonderful time overwhelms the main character.

An accompanying element is the theme of the harmony and sublimity of nature.

A lyrical tonality, based on the patriarchal depth of national consciousness, is characteristic of I. Bunin’s prose, which is always turned to the past. As if picking up the Turgenev baton, the writer speaks with incommensurable melancholy about the ruin, the emptying of the noble nests that were once the stronghold of Russia, its cultural component.

Sometimes there are no words to convey all the pain and joy, sadness and tenderness - all the feelings associated with memories of the past, slipping away at the behest of indomitable time, so memory clings to all aspects of perception (vision, hearing, touch, smell). It is precisely this kind of world, sensual, material, that is woven in Bunin’s story "Antonov apples", written between 1898 and 1900.

Everything is subject to Bunin’s poetic prose: capturing the variety of shades of color ( black-lilac poneva, gray-iron stallion), and the play of chiaroscuro ( “someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from wood...while giant shadows walk through the apple trees”), and synesthetic metaphors based on co-sensation ( sundresses smelling of paint, clear, icy, heavy water).

Through this variety of details and signs, we are shown the inner richness, intensity of spiritual life and depth of the narrator’s experiences. The hero himself seems to be hidden from the reader, his story is unknown, only that the men call him barchuk. The emphasis is only on his memories and associations associated with the past, with the taste, smell, and appearance of Antonov apples.

The beginning of the story is based on poetic device - gradations, replete with repetition of words "I remember". It seems as if the hero is afraid that at least one shade of feeling will escape from his memories.

The story has several parts. IN first part- memories of the village, men, the joy and carefreeness of life, accompanied by the crunch of Antonov apples.

Part two- autumn time, associated with the story of ancient old women, decorously preparing a gravestone and a richly decorated shroud for themselves, and about rich men. Here the hero’s memories are transferred to the estate of his aunt, Anna Gerasimovna, who is described with nostalgic longing for the light, spacious and blue sky, the clear distance, the well-trodden road. There, in the lost world, every little thing is imbued with poetry and beauty, even telegraph poles "like silver strings", and the falcons sitting on them - "black icons on music paper» . But the most precious, important autumn memory is the smell of Antonov apples.

Third part - "the fading spirit of the landowners", deepening colors cold autumn, dead and anxious, waiting for the first rays of the winter sun, the proximity of loss. The anxious rhythm of the hunt, the estate of Arseny Semenovich, hospitality, the bliss of youth and noble life, honoring its ancient roots and Russian culture.

Part four- bitter melancholy that there is no longer the smell of Antonov apples, just as there are no old people or landowners.

The four parts of the story are the circle of life, a run from youth to maturity for the hero, from full life to decline for noble Russia.

Leaving, dissolving into cruelty new reality, Russia was imprinted in Bunin’s story in the smell, taste, and appearance of Antonov apples. The first snow, dark windows of houses, gentle sounds of a guitar and the last lines of the story... “I covered the road with white snow”.

• Analysis of the story “Easy Breathing”
• “Dark Alleys”, analysis of Bunin’s story
• Brief summary of Bunin’s work “Caucasus”

I breathed sharply with coolness

The smell of decay hits my face;

But I wasn’t looking for spring decorations,

And memories of past years.

E.A.Baratynsky

I.A. Bunin is often called the last Russian classic, a representative of the outgoing noble culture. His works are imbued with a tragic sense of the doom of the old world, close and dear to the writer, with whom he was connected by origin and upbringing: “The spirit of this environment, romanticized by my imagination, seemed to me all the more beautiful because it disappeared forever before my eyes.” An elegiac motif of longing for the past runs through all of Bunin’s work.

In the story “Antonov Apples” the writer recalls the old, good time, when the nobility was at the ideal time of its existence. “I remember a large room, illuminated by the pre-autumn sun...” - this is how a detailed, slow and unhurried narrative begins. Bunin’s lyrical prose is generally impossible to read quickly: the constant interpenetration from the present to the past is disrupted. This is one of the main problems of the writer’s work - the need to connect times and generations, to preserve the memory of a bygone culture. The author emphasizes the idea of ​​the doom of beauty in the “iron” age, the displacement of everything lost, aesthetic, by a crude thirst for profit. And all that remains from the old world is the subtle smell of Antonov apples. The smell is ethereal, and therefore nothing remains of the previous way of life.

At the beginning of the story we note the technique of anaphora, characteristic of poetic works: “I remember a large, all golden, dried up and thinning garden, I remember maple alleys, the subtle aroma of fallen leaves and the smell of Antonov apples.” A number of nouns attract attention here. Behind each of them is a visible image, colored with bright epithets (“fresh, quiet morning", "Golden Garden", etc.) This makes prose work like a poem. Here you can see an undoubted similarity with “Poems in Prose” by I.S. Turgenev. Not only a love of words and beauty united the two great writers - they were also brought together by a passion for hunting. It is no coincidence that Turgenev called his cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter,” and Bunin noted that “for recent years only one thing supported the fading spirit of the landowners - hunting.” Hunting is an ancient and favorite pastime of Russian nobles. Bunin calls the autumn season “golden”. A large hunting scene is given against the background of the beginning of October - the farewell holiday of autumn. The writer makes us, as it were, accomplices of this joyful, exciting spectacle, hence the narration in the 2nd person: “You are riding a horse, you feel “sweet fatigue,” “you won’t notice how you will drown... in a sweet, healthy sleep...”.

The landscape sketch of the 1st part (exposition) is replaced by portrait sketches. Bunin lovingly shows an old man, a long-liver, who lived in Vyselki, where “from time immemorial” the peasants were “famous” for their age and “wealth.” Such longevity was considered a sign of a happy, prosperous life; the author describes in detail the

good courtyards, depicts the measured, leisurely existence of wealthy men. It is important for Bunin to compare this familiar way of life with life landed nobility using the example of his aunt Anna Gerasimovna.

The story is based on the author’s impressions of visiting his brother’s estate. Before us, against the backdrop of an open area, a “spacious and deep” sky (a favorite image of Bunin’s prose and poetry), the aunt’s estate appears. The description of the estate is typical, we saw something similar in both Turgenev and L. Tolstoy: white lordly two-story house with columns, neglected garden with a pond, linden alley, bench. The narrative includes a description of the interior: old “mahogany” furniture, “blue and purple glass windows, dried linden blossom” outside the window frames. We pay special attention to the library - grandfather’s books in thick bindings that “smell so nice.” This collection of books highlights the interests and hobbies of the nobles. Sometimes the choice of volumes is random: “satirical and philosophical works Voltaire”, and next to them are your loved ones romantic works Zhukovsky and Pushkin. “And the old, dreamy life rises before you,” and you imagine how “aristocratically beautiful heads,” sadly and tenderly looking from portraits in tarnished gilded frames, thoughtfully froze over the open pages.

The ellipsis that ends Chapter 3 is significant. This is a longing for a bygone life, the symbol of which for Bunin was the smell of Antonov apples: “These days were so recent, and yet it seems that almost a whole century has passed since then.” Therefore, the next chapter is based on contrast: exquisitely aristocratic “ the life of the fathers" and the "beggarly small-scale life" of the "children." But in this too, Bunin knows how to find attractive features. Hence the abundance exclamation sentences: “The small-scale life is good too!” (these words sound like a refrain), “It will be a glorious day of hunting!” The usual sound of autumn work merges with the sounds of hunting horns in the fields. And although small-scale families still gather together and disappear for whole days in the snow-covered fields, now they “drink with their last money,” and their song about the violent wind is full hopeless sadness:

Opened my gates wider,

The path was covered with white snow...

The ending of the story is symbolic. It echoes the beginning. There is the cool silence of the morning, here it is late evening, when they “glow in the dark” winter night outbuilding windows." This is the dawn and dusk of noble life, and more and more often, towards the end of the story, ellipses appear. If at the beginning of the work they give the character of memories, now they carry in themselves understatement and sadness for a bygone noble life, for a vanished youth.

Thus, the work reflected the main theme of I.A. Bunin’s work in the 900s - the theme of Russia’s patriarchal past. The writer regrets his passing life, idealizing the noble way of life. His best memories are associated with the smell of Antonov apples. But Bunin hopes that, along with the dying Russia of the past, the roots of the nation will still be preserved in its memory.

Analysis of I. A. Bunin’s story “Antonov Apples”

I breathed sharply with coolness

The smell of decay hits my face;

But I wasn’t looking for spring decorations,

And memories of past years.

E.A.Baratynsky

I.A. Bunin is often called the last Russian classic, a representative of the outgoing noble culture. His works are imbued with a tragic sense of the doom of the old world, close and dear to the writer, with whom he was connected by origin and upbringing: “The spirit of this environment, romanticized by my imagination, seemed to me all the more beautiful because it disappeared forever before my eyes.” An elegiac motif of longing for the past runs through all of Bunin’s work.

In the story “Antonov Apples,” the writer recalls the good old days, when the nobility was at the ideal time of its existence. “I remember a large room, illuminated by the pre-autumn sun...” - this is how a detailed, slow and unhurried narrative begins. Bunin’s lyrical prose is generally impossible to read quickly: the constant interpenetration from the present to the past is disrupted. This is one of the main problems of the writer’s work - the need to connect times and generations, preserving the memory of a bygone culture. The author emphasizes the idea of ​​the doom of beauty in the “iron” age, the displacement of everything lost, aesthetic, by a crude thirst for profit. And all that remains from the old world is the subtle smell of Antonov apples. The smell is ethereal, and therefore nothing remains of the previous way of life.

At the beginning of the story, we note the technique of anaphora, characteristic of poetic works: “I remember a large, all golden, dried up and thinning garden, I remember maple alleys, the subtle aroma of fallen leaves and the smell of Antonov apples.” A number of nouns attract attention here. Behind each of them is a visible image, colored with bright epithets (“fresh, quiet morning”, “golden garden”, etc.) This makes the prose work look like a poem. Here you can see an undoubted similarity with “Poems in Prose” by I.S. Turgenev. Not only a love of words and beauty united the two great writers - they were also brought together by a passion for hunting. It is no coincidence that Turgenev called his cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter,” and Bunin noted that “in recent years, only one thing has supported the fading spirit of the landowners - hunting.” Hunting is an ancient and favorite pastime of Russian nobles. Bunin calls the autumn season “golden”. A large hunting scene is given against the background of the beginning of October - the farewell holiday of autumn. The writer makes us, as it were, accomplices of this joyful, exciting spectacle, hence the narration in the 2nd person: “You are riding a horse, you feel “sweet fatigue,” “you won’t notice how you will drown... in a sweet, healthy sleep...”.

The landscape sketch of the 1st part (exposition) is replaced by portrait sketches. Bunin lovingly shows an old man, a long-liver, who lived in Vyselki, where “from time immemorial” the peasants were “famous” for their age and “wealth.” Such longevity was considered a sign of a happy, prosperous life; the author describes in detail the

good courtyards, depicts the measured, leisurely existence of wealthy men. It is important for Bunin to compare this familiar way of life with the life of the local nobility using the example of his aunt Anna Gerasimovna.

The story is based on the author’s impressions of visiting his brother’s estate. Before us, against the backdrop of an open area, a “spacious and deep” sky (a favorite image of Bunin’s prose and poetry), the aunt’s estate appears. The description of the estate is typical, we saw something similar in both Turgenev and L. Tolstoy: a white two-story manor house with columns, a neglected garden with a pond, a linden alley, a bench. The narrative includes a description of the interior: old “mahogany” furniture, “blue and purple glass windows, dried linden blossom” outside the window frames. We pay special attention to the library - grandfather’s books in thick bindings that “smell so nice.” This collection of books highlights the interests and hobbies of the nobles. Sometimes the choice of volumes is random: “satirical and philosophical works of Voltaire,” and next to them are the favorite romantic works of Zhukovsky and Pushkin. “And the old, dreamy life rises before you,” and you imagine how “aristocratically beautiful heads,” sadly and tenderly looking from portraits in tarnished gilded frames, thoughtfully froze over the open pages.

The ellipsis that ends Chapter 3 is significant. This is a longing for a bygone life, the symbol of which for Bunin was the smell of Antonov apples: “These days were so recent, and yet it seems that almost a whole century has passed since then.” Therefore, the next chapter is based on contrast: exquisitely aristocratic “ the life of the fathers" and the "beggarly small-scale life" of the "children." But in this too, Bunin knows how to find attractive features. Hence the abundance of exclamatory sentences: “The small-scale life is good!” (these words sound like a refrain), “It will be a glorious day of hunting!” The usual sound of autumn work merges with the sounds of hunting horns in the fields. And although small-scale families still come together and disappear for whole days in the snow-covered fields, now they “drink with their last money,” and their song about the wild wind is full of hopeless sadness:

Opened my gates wider,

The path was covered with white snow...

The ending of the story is symbolic. It echoes the beginning. There is the cool silence of the morning, here it is late evening, when “the outbuilding windows glow in the darkness of the winter night.” This is the dawn and dusk of noble life, and more and more often, towards the end of the story, ellipses appear. If at the beginning of the work they give the character of memories, now they carry in themselves understatement and sadness for a bygone noble life, for a vanished youth.

Thus, the work reflected the main theme of I.A. Bunin’s work in the 900s - the theme of Russia’s patriarchal past. The writer regrets his passing life, idealizing the noble way of life. His best memories are associated with the smell of Antonov apples. But Bunin hopes that, along with the dying Russia of the past, the roots of the nation will still be preserved in its memory.

“Antonov Apples” by I. Bunin is a panoramic image of the life of landowners, in which there was also room for a story about peasant life. The peculiarity of the work is its rich landscape sketches, from which unique autumn smells emanate. This is a striking example of poetic prose in Russian literature. The story is in Unified State Exam program, so it is important to remember the basic information about it. Studying “Antonov apples in 11th grade. We offer qualitative analysis works by I. Bunin.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing - 1900.

History of creation- In 1891, I. Bunin visited his brother Evgeniy’s estate. Once, going outside, the writer caught the smell of Antonov apples, which reminded him of the times of the landowners. The story itself was written only 9 years later.

Subject- Two themes can be distinguished in the story: autumn in the village, the free life of landowners, filled with the romance of the countryside.

Composition- The organization of the story is special, since the outline of the events is very poorly represented in it. Main role memories, impressions play, philosophical reflections, based on landscapes.

Genre- Story-epitaph.

Direction- Sentimentalism.

History of creation

The history of the creation of the work is connected with the writer’s trip to his brother Eugene. In a country estate, I. Bunin caught the smell of Antonov apples. The aroma reminded Ivan Alekseevich of the life of landowners. This is how the idea for the story arose, which the writer realized only nine years later, in 1900. “Antonov Apples” became part of the cycle of epitaphs.

The story was first seen by the world in the year it was written in the magazine “Life”, published in St. Petersburg. Critics received it positively. But the publication did not mark the end of the work. I. Bunin continued to polish his creation for twenty years, so there are several versions of “Antonov Apples”.

Subject

To capture the essence of the story “Antonov Apples,” its analysis should begin with a description of the main problem.

The entire piece is covered autumn theme . The author reveals the beauty of nature at this time and the changes that autumn brings to human life. A. Bunin proceeds to describe the life of the landowner. Important role The image of Antonov apples plays a role in the development of both themes. These fruits symbolize childhood, antiquity, and nostalgia. IN symbolic meaning hiding and meaning of the name story.

The peculiarities of the work are related to the fact that the lyrical component plays a leading role in it. It’s not for nothing that the author chooses the first-person narrative form singular. This way the reader can get as close as possible to the narrator, see the world through his eyes, observe his feelings and emotions. The narrator of the work resembles the lyrical hero whom we are accustomed to seeing in poems.

At first the narrator describes early autumn, generously “sprinkling” the landscape folk signs. This technique helps to recreate a rustic atmosphere. The image of Antonov apples appears in the initial landscape. They are collected by peasants in the gardens of bourgeois gardeners. Gradually, the author moves on to a description of a bourgeois hut and a fair near it. This allows you to introduce colorful peasant images. The first part ends with a description of an autumn night.

Second part begins again with landscape and folk signs. In it. I. Bunin talks about long-lived old people, as if hinting at how much weaker his generation is. In the same part, the reader can find out how rich peasants lived. The narrator describes their life with delight, not hiding the fact that he himself would like to live like that.

Memories take the narrator back to the times when his landowner aunt was alive. He enthusiastically tells how he came to visit Anna Gerasimovna. Her estate was surrounded by a garden in which apples grew. The hero describes in detail the interior of his aunt’s house, drawing special attention to smells, the main one being the aroma of apples.

Third part I. Bunin’s work “Antonov Apples” is a story about a hunt, this is the only thing that “sustained the fading spirit of the landowners.”

The narrator describes everything: getting ready for the hunt, the process itself and the evening feast. In this part, another hero appears - the landowner Arseny Semenovich, who pleasantly surprises with his appearance and cheerful disposition.

In the final part the author talks about the death of landowner Anna Gerasimovna, landowner Arseny Semenych and the elderly. The spirit of antiquity seems to have died along with them. All that was left was nostalgia and “small-scale life.” Nevertheless, I. Bunin concludes that she is also good, proving this with a description of small-scale life.

Issues The work is concentrated around the motif of the extinction of the landowner spirit and the death of antiquity.

Story idea- to show that the old days had a special charm, so descendants should preserve it at least in memory.

Main idea– a person cherishes those memories that are cherished in his heart from childhood and youth.

Composition

The compositional features of the work are manifested both at the formal and semantic levels. It is written in the form of memories of a lyrical hero. The main role in the story is played not by events, but by non-plot elements - landscapes, portraits, interiors, philosophical reflections. They are closely intertwined and complementary. The main tool for their creation is artistic media, the set of which includes both original and folklore ones.

It is difficult to single out the elements of the plot - exposition, plot, development of events and denouement, since they are blurred by the indicated non-plot components.

Formally, the text is divided into four parts, each of which is devoted to certain memories of the narrator. All parts are connected main theme and the image of the narrator.

Genre

Analysis plan literary work necessarily includes genre characteristics. “Antonov Apples” is an epitaph story. In the work it is impossible to identify specific storylines, all the characters are connected with the narrator, the system of images is unbranched. Researchers consider the story an epitaph, since it we're talking about about the “dead” landowner spirit.