Ivan Bunin: Russian Requiem, 1885-1920: A Portrait from Letters, Diaries, and Fiction

He was the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and was regarded by many of his contemporaries as the rightful successor to Tolstoy and Chekhov as a master of Russian letters. Yet Ivan Bunin has largely escaped the attention of Western readers and critics. Thomas Marullo begins this fascinating re-creation of Bunin's life when he was just fifteen years of age. Drawing from Bunin's correspondence, his diaries, and his stories, and translating most of this material into English for the first time, Mr. Marullo gives us a compelling picture of a writer searching for himself amidst a society experiencing momentous change. Bunin alternated between periods of despair and joy throughout most of his life. He stood for traditional Russian values in a time of complete upheaval—in the "dark night" between the twilight of imperial Russia and the dawn of the new Soviet state—and he despised the revolutionaries who sought to overturn the ways he cherished. His life and art come alive in this immensely successful book. "It engages the reader from the first page, conveying the taste and feel of Russian society from the late nineteenth century to the Revolution. Marullo has an eye for the perfect quotation. One understands the spirit of this brilliant and complex writer, and how Bunin's works emerged from his life and milieu."—Gary Saul Morson, Northwestern University. Illustrated with photographs.