Suchodol (Ivan Bunin)
Suchodol ( Russian Суходол , The dry valley ) is a short story by the Russian Nobel Prize winner for literature Ivan Bunin , which was published in 1912 in the April issue of Westnik Evropy .
The story of the unrequited love of the maid Natalja for her landlord Pyotr Petrovich Khrushchev ends tragically.
content
The plot runs for years. It will end in the late 1850s, when the Crimean War is over and rumors of peasant liberation are making the rounds.
Natalja, small, skinny and suntanned, is orphaned. The landlord had sent the father to the military as punishment and the mother, a poultry maid, had died of fright when a hail had killed her huge turkey flock to the last chicken.
Natalja steals a small collapsible mirror from Pyotr Petrovich. Then the girl is shaved with sheep shears the head, it will be in front of everyone in Zwillichhemd set to a dung cart and brought into the steppe to the Vorwerk Soschki. Natalja has to stay on the farm for two years. During this time, the feast of Mary's Protection and Intercession is celebrated on the Suchodol estate on the Kamenka . Pyotr Petrovich, master of 400 serfs, invited countless guests and forced them to spend the night. In the early morning following the holiday, the mentally disturbed grandfather Pyotr Kirillytsch Khrustschow is found dead by his illegitimate son Gerwaska. Gerwaska, a cousin of Nataljas, had taken the amulet and wedding ring from the dead man, had fled and cannot be found. Gerwaska comes to Natalja on the run and reports in fine detail how he "pushed his father to death". Natalja has to be silent if she is dear to life. When Gerwaska leaves, he recommends Natalja to get the landlord out of her head. Natalja cannot do that. But the cousin's advice was not bad: Pyotr Petrovich Khrushchev marries Sukhodol Klawdija Markovna and goes to the Crimean War.
When Natalja was allowed to leave the Vorwerk and return to Suchodol, she described Bunin as "a young girl ..., of medium height, somewhat slender and slim, who looked calm, reserved and friendly." Klawdija Markovna, "small, plump, very lively and pregnant", reigns on Suchodol.
Klavdija Markovna gives birth to a son, the young landlord, as he is soon to be called. Natalja feels that her youth is going away. Pyotr Petrovich Khrushchev is wounded. Natalja has nightmares at night. A huge, gray billy goat, indecently excited, throws himself against the girl's chest with full force and describes himself as her bridegroom. The dream comes true: The “sinful monk” Juschka, formerly a farmer, is tolerated by Klawdija Markovna. The lecherous idler Juschka spreads out in the house and in the summer, from Elias on, sprinkles Natalja every night until she feels pregnant. In September Pyotr Petrovich Khrushchev comes out of the war. A ball lightning rolls out of one of the ovens and sets the manor house on fire. Natalja had an early abortion out of shock .
Economically, the Suchodol estate, where the French had lived for eight years, is going downhill. Four years after returning home from the war, Pyotr Petrovich went to a lover's house in the Lunewo farm in winter. On the way home, he is killed with his hoof by a stumbling companion horse. Natalja kisses the icy, blood-streaked head and breaks out into crazy laughter.
Pyotr Petrovich's son grows up and becomes a train conductor. The good goes to waste. Natalja dies.
shape
The story of the death and decline of the Suchodol family, whose forefathers came from the Kursk area, is repeated. For example, the story of the manslaughter Gerwaska is told over and over and new details are brought up every time. Repetition is the magic word in this text. For example, the fact that the Khrushchev family has come to the table with whips on their knees is repeatedly brought up in new versions.
Of course the text is - how could it be different with Bunin? - secondary roles. Only Aunt Tonja was chosen as an example. The aunt, originally Mistress Nataljas, plays the piano in a servants' hut, ecstatic. After unhappy love for the officer Woitkewitsch, a comrade of Pyotr Petrovich, she lost her mind. In doing so, she met with approval from Woitkewitsch. After the fire mentioned above, a trip to the relics of a saint in Voronezh will help . After that, Aunt Tonja, from a purely external point of view, becomes calm. The madness still shines out of her eyes. Finally, Aunt Tonja, vegetating in poverty, takes care of the survival of the remaining Sukhodol chickens in the icy Russian winter. The aunt dies.
Incidentally, the text belongs to Bunin's subtle - because subtle - constructs. Here is a small example: Bunin's thesis of consanguinity . Because the servant Gerwaska is the biological son of Mr. Khrustschow (and also cousin of Natalja), a basic sentence becomes understandable: "... the blood of the Khrustschows has always mixed with that of the court servants ..."
Self-testimony
- Bunin on the narrative concern: “In no other country is the life of the nobility and the peasants so closely linked as here. One and the other have the same Russian soul. "
filming
- November 24, 2011, Russia : Suchodol , feature film by Streljanaja Alexandra with Jana Jessipowitsch as Natalja.
reception
- Gorky read from the sympathy and sympathy with which Bunin described the past world Suchodol.
- According to the memories of Bunin's wife Wera Muromzewa-Bunina (1881–1961), the figure of Aunt Tonja was designed after Bunin's aunt Varvara Nikolajewna Bunina.
- 1982. Kasper writes, "since she [Natalja] submits to the inevitable , the servant is doomed to perish, as is the rule of the Khrushchevs."
German-language editions
- Used edition
- Suchodol. German by Georg Schwarz . P. 433–519 in: Iwan Bunin: Antonäpfel. Stories 1892–1911. Editing and epilogue: Karlheinz Kasper . 536 pages. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1982
Web links
- The text
- Entry in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
- Entries in WorldCat
- Review of the 2011 edition at perlentaucher.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ eng. Dry Valley (novel)
- ↑ Russian Каменка
- ↑ Edition used, p. 478, 4th Zvo
- ↑ Edition used, p. 437, 19. Zvo
- ↑ Bunin, quoted by Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 532, 20. Zvo
- ↑ Russian Александра Стреляная
- ↑ Russian Есипович, Яна Вячеславовна
- ↑ Feature film entry in the IMDb
- ↑ Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 533, 7th Zvu
- ↑ Russian Муромцева-Бунина, Вера Николаевна
- ↑ Russian Варвара Николаевна Бунина
- ↑ Russian Суходол (повесть)
- ↑ Kasper in the afterword of the edition used, p. 533, 10th Zvu