Cup of life

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin is the first Russian Nobel Prize laureate in literature, a poet and prose writer who became a classic writer during his lifetime. His short stories were compared to prose poems, and it is no coincidence that in Bunin’s collections, stories and short stories were often published along with poetry. “Poetic language should approach the simplicity and naturalness of colloquial speech,” wrote Bunin, “and the prosaic syllable should be characterized by the musicality and flexibility of verse.” In addition, many of Bunin’s stories have a lyrical and philosophical sound, which also determines his poetic work. Peering into the patterns of fate, the depths of memory and the past, pictures of nature, into the light and dark sides of the human soul, Bunin tries to express in his creativity the fragile charm and beauty of life, to capture the strange, endless fluidity of time, to touch the secrets of death and immortality. This edition presents Bunin's stories written in different years.