The Gentleman from San Francisco and Other Stories (Classic, 20th-Century, Penguin)

This collection of stories reads like a collection of diary entries with lots of descriptive passages. The themes of life and death will make you think about concepts that you knew but this is a different take and I found myself reading some paragraphs, several times over. This collection will certainly encourage me to read more of what Bunin had written.

I'm glad I returned to Ivan Bunin, whom I had not read since my early teens. Although some 25 years have passed, I could soon recognize the refined, poetic, and quiet style of this Russian author. This collection of 17 short stories, of assorted subjects and tonalities, includes several very remarkable ones. Among them is the story that gives the book its title, which tells of a nouveau riche's fatal family travel around the Mediteranean. Others are: "The Primer of Love", located in a remote Russian town, about the discovey of a peculiar book in the house of a recently deceased man; "Chang's Dreams", about a retired and alcoholic ship captain and his dog; "Mitya's Love", almost a short novel, a "slit your veins" tale of adolescent love and all the pain it may entail, as well as about the possible fatal consequences that the insecurities of young passion may cause. In the whole book in general, but noticeably in this story, Bunin's capacity for description, especially of a Nature in perpetual change, shines in astonishing and beautiful paragraphs. Sexual anxiety and the abrupt waking-up to carnal passion are constantly present during the narration."Night" is, in my opinion, a small masterpiece, actually more a prose poem than a tale, the reflections of an artist as he contemplates the sea from a terrace, on a placid night. It might just be the transcription of Bunin's own thoughts. Finally, "Zoyka and Valeria" is another stroy about juvenile love, with a countryside weekend as landscpae and another sexual initiation as detonator.Certainly a great storyteller, Bunin has a fine, deceitful style: in spite of the apparent placidity and poetic beauty of the tales, these frequently treat asphyxiating, unnerving situations. Excellent edition of great stories.

Bunin reminds us that meaning is there each day for us to discover and embrace if we can only be a little less self-absorbed for a moment.

Haven't read all the stories, but I had to buy this book for a Russian literature. Not as many people know Bunin, but he's definitely an awesome, very under-appreciated author (but seeing as he got a Nobel prize in literature, he still is recognized). Love his narration style as it feels like he's filming a scene in a movie (we studied in class that this was as film was becoming more and more available).

Ivan Bunin was a Nobel prize winner in the 30s and his stories are in short - vivid and painfully realistic. love it.

The book arrived today, Thursday 23 May 2019, in an oversize, blue & white, bubble-plasic bag. The small paperback inside, a penguin paperback, was badly crushed. Perhaps? the bag was so large the books shifted and did not remain flat but was maimed. I am very disappointed. Please communicate with me concerning my options. Thank you.

Forgotten writer.

Ivan Bunin's one major message is Horace's Carpe Diem. You should `enjoy your life, because you're earlier dead than you think.' `Even today people still marvel above all else at death and refuse to accept it.'One of the characters in this book expresses it also as follows: `I'm suffering from a fatal disease. And I assure you that I go on living as if there were nothing the matter.' (`At Sea, at Night')How should you enjoy yourself? By the prime of love (`Late Hour'), and one of its ingredients, sex: `When you love someone no power on earth can make you believe that you may not be loved in return.' But this love can also be violent (`The Riverside Tavern').Sex is enjoyed in furtive encounters with `the shamelessness of the purest innocence' (`Zoyka and Valeria'), lonely women on a journey (`Sunstroke', `Visiting Cards') or plain adultery (`The Caucasus'). Ivan Bunin's eroticism is outspoken. He enjoys all parts of the female body.Those who cannot enjoy life, those who don't master the art of love, those who cannot accept that love sometimes dies (`Mitya's Love'), those who cannot overcome the death of a loved one and those who go to war (`A cold Mountain'), are doomed.Also doomed are the `Modern Men' with their stupid arrogance, like `The Gentleman of San Francisco', who forgot to live.The longest story in this bundle is `Mitya's Love', Bunin's version of Goethe's Werther combined with elements of Tolstoy's `The Devil'. Mitya is Bunin's anti-hero because he cannot overcome an unanswered love. However, the story is not totally convincing. It is too long and the introduction of the sexual element is rather forced.This book is a very worthwhile read.