Light Breathing and Other Stories

More about the book

This volume includes stories written over a period of forty-five years by Ivan Bunin (1870-1953), a major Russian prose writer and poet. The book opens with one of his best known early stories "Apple Fragrance". While poeticising the country estate life into which he had been born and which he loved for its lingering beauty even in its decline and impoverishment, Bunin was not blind to the shortcomings of this life. The theme that runs through his entire work is the theme of love. The boldness with which he describes love is combined with a classic clarity and perfection of verbal form, a style which was entirely novel and Bunin's own, and in which he remains unsurpassed. Included in this volume are his masterpieces "Light Breathing", "The Last Rendezvous", "Chang's Dreams", "Mitya's Love", "Sunstroke", and the stories from the book Shadowed Paths "Heinrich", "Tania", "Natalie", and others.