Anton apples

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ivan Bunin in 1901 in a photo of Maxim Dmitriev

Antonäpfel , also The Antonower Äpfel ( Russian Антоновские яблоки , Antonowskije jabloki ), is a short story by the Russian Nobel Prize winner for literature Ivan Bunin , which was written in 1900 and appeared in the October issue of the magazine Schisn that same year .

Edition history

Bunin worked on the text over the years. A comparison of the two translations into German from 1903 (translator Georg Polonskij) and from 1982 (translator Georg Schwarz) also shows serious differences in the plot.

overview

Russia towards the end of the 19th century: The text is worth reading in two ways.

First, there are the autumn and early winter impressions in the manor house of a manor and the hunting in its surroundings. Anyone who carries around similar impressions, for example, can recognize the described apple scents as not entirely unknown thanks to the mastery of the author.

And secondly, in this almost wistful reminiscence, the reader gets an insight into the social environment of that time. The last of the four chapters begins with the sentence: “The smell of the Antonäpfel disappears from the houses of the landowners.” The narrow text deals with memories of the first-person narrator and with beautiful ones. The quoted paragraph closes: "... the life of such a poor owner of small goods is also beautiful!" In 1900 the narrator can no longer experience the nobles because they are mostly extinct in the described area around Oryol . In the first three chapters, he pays homage to the appearance of the landed nobility, i.e. his relatives, especially his late brother-in-law Arseni Semyonytsch, who lived self-sufficiently on an estate near Vyselki during his lifetime. While that is serfdom abolished since 1861, but the male servants still attracts respectful cap when a gentleman, as the narrator, the court enters.

reception

The short story was received controversially.

  • 1906, Alexander Kuprin parodies the text in his newspaper article “И. А. Бунин. Пироги с груздями “(for example: IA Bunin: Pie with mushrooms ).
  • 1982, Kasper writes
    • Bunin said in a letter that he could forget the hated serfdom if he sang about the smell of the Anton apples.
    • With the poetic image of the scent of apples, Bunin laments a lost time.
    • Gorky described such a conservative view of the past as "not at all democratic".

German-language editions

Used edition
  • Anton apples. German by Georg Schwarz pp. 139–158 in: Iwan Bunin: Antonäpfel. Stories 1892-1911. Editing and epilogue: Karlheinz Kasper . 536 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1982

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see the history of the edition (Russian)
  2. ↑ Edition used, p. 155, 10. Zvo
  3. ↑ Edition used, p. 155, 17. Zvo
  4. ↑ Russian Выселки (in the district of Kromy / Oblast Orjol )
  5. ↑ see reviews and Kuprin's parody (Russian)
  6. ↑ Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 523, 13. Zvo
  7. ↑ Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 524, above
  8. ↑ Gorki, quoted by Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 524, 4. Zvo