« Antonov apples": artistic originality

Natalia Polyakova

One of the main features of I.A. Bunin’s prose, usually immediately noted by students, is, of course, the absence of a plot in the usual presentation, that is, the absence of event dynamics. Students who are already familiar with the concepts of “epic” and “lyrical” plot come to the conclusion that the plot in “Antonov Apples” is lyrical, that is, based not on events, but on the experience of the hero.

The very first words of the work: “...I remember an early fine autumn” - carry considerable information and give food for thought: the work begins with an ellipsis, that is, what is described has neither origins nor history, it is as if snatched from the very elements of life, from its endless stream. With the first word “remembered,” the author immediately immerses the reader in the element of his own (“me”) memories. The plot develops as a chain of memories and feelings associated with them. Since we have before us a memory, it follows that we are talking about the past. But Bunin uses present tense verbs in relation to the past (“it smells like apples,” “it’s getting very cold...”, “we listen for a long time and can hear the trembling in the ground,” and so on). For lyrical hero Bunin, what is described does not happen in the past, but in the present, now. This relativity of time is also one of the characteristic features Bunin's poetics.

A memory is a certain complex of physical sensations. The surrounding world is perceived by all organs human feelings: vision, hearing, touch, smell, taste.

One of the main leitmotif images in the work is probably the image of smell, which accompanies the entire narrative from beginning to end. In addition to the main leitmotif that permeates the entire work - the smell of Antonov apples - there are other smells here: “the strong waft of fragrant smoke of cherry branches”, “rye aroma of new straw and chaff”, “the smell of apples, and then others: old red furniture wood, dried linden blossom, which has been lying on the windows since June...”, “these books, similar to church breviaries, smell wonderful... Some kind of pleasant sour mold, ancient perfume...”, “the smell of smoke, housing” ...

Bunin recreates the special beauty and uniqueness of complex smells, what is called synthesis, a “bouquet” of aromas: “the subtle aroma of fallen leaves and - the smell of Antonov apples, the smell of honey and autumn freshness”, “the strong smell from the ravines of mushroom dampness, rotten leaves and wet tree bark."

The special role of the image of smell in the plot of the work is also due to the fact that over time the nature of smells changes from subtle, barely perceptible harmonious natural aromas in the first and second parts of the story - to sharp, unpleasant smells that seem to be some kind of dissonance in the surrounding world - in the second, third and fourth parts (“the smell of smoke”, “in the locked hallway it smells like a dog”, the smell of “cheap tobacco” or “just shag”).

Smells change - life itself, its foundations change. A change in historical structures is shown by Bunin as a change in the hero’s personal feelings, a change in worldview.

The visual images in the work are as clear and graphic as possible: “the black sky is lined with fiery stripes of falling stars”, “almost all the small foliage has flown off the coastal vines, and the branches are visible in the turquoise sky”, “the liquid shone coldly and brightly in the north above the heavy lead clouds blue sky, and from behind these clouds the ridges of snowy mountains-clouds slowly floated out”, “the black garden will appear in the cold turquoise sky and dutifully wait for winter... And the fields are already sharply turning black with arable land and brightly green with bushy winter crops.” Such a “cinematographic” image, built on contrasts, creates in the reader the illusion of an action taking place before the eyes or captured on the artist’s canvas: “In the dark, in the depths of the garden, - fairytale picture: as if in a corner of hell, a crimson flame is burning near the hut, surrounded by darkness, and someone’s black silhouettes, as if carved from ebony, are moving around the fire, while giant shadows from them walk across the apple trees. It will fall all over the tree black hand a few arshins, then two legs will be clearly drawn - two black pillars. And suddenly all this will slide from the apple tree - and the shadow will fall along the entire alley, from the hut to the gate itself...”

Color plays a very important role in the picture of the surrounding world. Like smell, it is a plot-forming element, changing noticeably throughout the story. In the first chapters we see “crimson flames”, “turquoise sky”; “the diamond seven-star Stozhar, the blue sky, the golden light of the low sun” - a similar color scheme, built not even on the colors themselves, but on their shades, conveys the diversity of the surrounding world and its emotional perception hero. But with a change in the worldview, the colors of the surrounding world also change, the colors gradually disappear from it: “The days are bluish, cloudy... All day long I wander through the empty plains,” “a low, gloomy sky,” “a gray-haired gentleman.” Halftones and shades (“turquoise”, “lilac” and others), present in abundance in the first parts of the work, are replaced by the contrast of black and white (“black garden”, “the fields are sharply turning black with arable land... the fields will turn white”, “snowy fields” ). On the black and white background, Bunin the painter unexpectedly applies a very ominous stroke: “a killed seasoned wolf stains the floor with its pale and already cold blood.”

But, perhaps, the most frequently encountered epithet in the work is “golden”: “large, all golden... garden”, “golden city of grain”, “golden frames”, “golden light of the sun”.

The semantics of this image is extremely broad: it has a direct meaning (“golden frames”), and a designation of the color of autumn foliage, and a conveyance of the emotional state of the hero, the solemnity of the minutes of the evening sunset, and a sign of abundance (grain, apples) that was once inherent in Russia, and a symbol of youth , the “golden” time of the hero’s life.

With all the variety of meanings, one thing can be stated: the epithet “golden” in Bunin refers to the past tense, being a characteristic of a noble, outgoing Russia. The reader associates this epithet with another concept: “golden age” Russian life, an age of relative prosperity, abundance, solidity and solidity of being.

This is how I.A. Bunin sees his passing century.

The element of life, its diversity, and movement are also conveyed in the work by sounds: “the cool silence of the morning is disturbed only by the well-fed cackling of blackbirds... voices and the echoing sound of apples being poured into measures and tubs,” “We listen for a long time and discern tremors in the ground. The trembling turns into noise, grows, and now, as if just outside the garden, the wheels are rapidly beating out a noisy beat, rumbling and knocking, the train rushes... closer, closer, louder and angrier... And suddenly it begins to subside, stall, as if going into the ground...”, “a horn blows in the yard and dogs howl at different voices,” “you can hear how the gardener carefully walks through the rooms, lighting the stoves, and how the firewood crackles and shoots.” All these infinitely varied sounds, merging, seem to create a symphony of life itself in Bunin’s work.

The sensory perception of the world is complemented in “Antonov Apples” by tactile images: “with pleasure you feel the slippery leather of the saddle under you,” “thick, rough paper” - and gustatory images: “all through and through pink boiled ham with peas, stuffed chicken, turkey, marinades and red kvass - strong and sweet, sweet...”, “... a cold and wet apple... for some reason will seem unusually tasty, not at all like the others.”

Thus, noting the hero’s instant sensations from contact with the outside world, Bunin strives to convey all that “deep, wonderful, inexpressible that is in life” 1.

With maximum accuracy and expressiveness, the attitude of the hero of “Antonov Apples” is expressed in the words: “How cold, dewy, and how good it is to live in the world!” The hero in his youth is characterized by an acute experience of joy and the fullness of being: “my chest breathed greedily and capaciously,” “you keep thinking about how good it is to mow, thresh, sleep on the threshing floor in sweepers...”

However, as most researchers note, in art world Bunin's joy of life is always combined with the tragic consciousness of its finitude. As E. Maksimova writes, “already early work suggests that the imagination of Bunin the man and Bunin the writer is entirely occupied by the mystery of life and death, the incomprehensibility of this mystery” 2. The writer constantly remembers that “everything living, material, corporeal is certainly subject to destruction” 3. And in “Antonov Apples,” the motif of fading, the dying of everything that is so dear to the hero, is one of the main ones: “The smell of Antonov apples disappears from the landowners’ estates... The old people on Vyselki died, Anna Gerasimovna died, Arseny Semyonich shot himself...”

It’s not just the old way of life that is dying - an entire era of Russian history is dying, the noble era, poeticized by Bunin in this work. Towards the end of the story, the motif of emptiness and cold becomes more and more distinct and persistent.

This is shown with particular force in the image of a garden, once “big, golden,” filled with sounds, aromas, but now “chilled overnight, naked,” “blackened,” and also artistic details, the most expressive of which is the “accidentally forgotten cold and wet apple found in the wet leaves,” which “for some reason seems unusually tasty, not at all like the others.”

This is how, at the level of the hero’s personal feelings and experiences, Bunin depicts the process of degeneration of the nobility taking place in Russia, which brings with it irreparable losses in spiritual and cultural terms: “Then you will start reading books - grandfather’s books in thick leather bindings, with gold stars on morocco spines ... Good... notes in their margins, large and with round soft strokes made with a quill pen. You unfold the book and read: “A thought worthy of ancient and modern philosophers, the color of reason and feelings of the heart”... and you involuntarily become carried away by the book itself... And little by little a sweet and strange melancholy begins to creep into your heart...

And here are magazines with the names of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, lyceum student Pushkin. And with sadness you will remember your grandmother, her polonaises on the clavichord, her languid reading of poetry from “Eugene Onegin.” And the old dreamy life will appear before you...”

Poetizing the past, her “past century,” the author cannot help but think about her future. This motif appears at the end of the story in the form of future tense verbs: “Soon, soon the fields will turn white, winter will soon cover them...” The technique of repetition enhances the sad lyrical note; images of a bare forest and empty fields emphasize the melancholy tone of the ending of the work.

The future is unclear and gives rise to forebodings. The image of the first snow covering the fields is symbolic: with all its ambiguity, students often associate it with a new blank sheet of paper, and if we consider that the date “1900” is placed under the work, the question involuntarily arises: what will he write? new century on this white, unstained sheet, what marks will it leave on it? The lyrical dominant of the work are the epithets: “sad, hopeless daring”...

The words of the song that ends the work:

Wide my gates dissolved,

White snow path- the road swept... -

Once again they convey the feeling of the unknown, the unclearness of the path.

The ellipsis with which the work begins and ends makes it clear that everything expressed in it, as already noted, is just a fragment snatched from the endless stream of life.

Based on the story “Antonov Apples,” students become familiar with main feature Bunin's poetics: the perception of reality as a continuous flow, expressed at the level of human sensations, experiences, feelings - and enrich their understanding of the genre of lyrical prose, especially clearly represented in the work of I.A. Bunin. According to the observation of Yu. Maltsev, in Bunin “poetry and prose merge into a completely new synthetic genre” 4.

References

1 Bunin I.A. Collection cit.: In 9 volumes. M., 1966. T. 5. P. 180.

2 Maksimova E. About miniatures by I.A.Bunin // Russian literature. 1997. No. 1.

3 BuninI.A. Collection cit.: In 9 vols. ... T. 6. P. 44.

4 Maltsev Yu. Ivan Bunin: 1870-1953. Frankfurt am Main-Moscow: Posev, 1994. P. 272.

Lyubov SELIVANOVA,
11th grade, OU No. 14,
Lipetsk
(teacher -
Lanskaya Olga Vladimirovna)

Composition of the story “Antonov Apples”

Most capaciously and completely philosophical reflections I.A. Bunin about the past and future, longing for the passing patriarchal Russia and an understanding of the catastrophic nature of the coming changes were reflected in the story “Antonov Apples,” which was written in 1900, at the turn of the century. This date is symbolic, which is why it attracts special attention. It divides the world into past and present, makes you feel the movement of time, and turn to the future. It is this date that helps us understand that the story begins (“...I remember an early, fine autumn”) and ends (“I covered the path with white snow...”) unconventionally. A kind of “ring” is formed - an intonation pause, which makes the narration continuous. In fact, the story, like herself eternal life, neither started nor finished. It sounds in the space of memory and will sound forever, since it embodies the soul of man, the soul of a long-suffering people. It reflects the history of the Russian state.

Particular attention should be paid to the composition of the work. The author divided the story into four chapters, and each chapter is a separate picture of the past, and together they form a whole world that the writer admired so much.

At the beginning of the first chapter described amazing garden, “big, all golden, dried up and thinned out.” And it seems that the life of the village, the hopes and thoughts of the people - all this seems to be in the background, and in the center is a beautiful and mysterious image of the garden, and this garden is a symbol of the Motherland, and it includes in its space Vyselki, which “... since the time of grandfather they were famous for their wealth,” and old men and women who “lived... for a very long time,” and a large stone near the porch, which the hostess “bought for her grave herself,” and “barns and barns covered with a hairstyle.” And all this lives together with nature as a single life, all this is inseparable from it, which is why the image of a train rushing past Vyselok seems so wonderful and distant. He is a symbol of a new time, a new life, which “ever louder and angrier” penetrates into the established Russian way of life, and the earth trembles like a living creature, and a person experiences some kind of nagging feeling of anxiety, and then looks for a long time into the “dark blue depths” ” sky, “overflowing with constellations,” and thinks: “How cold, dewy and how good it is to live in the world!” And these words contain the whole mystery of existence: joy and sorrow, darkness and light, good and evil, love and hatred, life and death, in them the past, present and future, in them the whole human soul.

Second part, like the first one, it starts with folk wisdom: “Vigorous Antonovka - for a cheerful year,” with good omens, with a description of a fruitful year - autumn, which was sometimes the patronal holidays, when the people are “tidy, happy,” when “the appearance of the village is not at all the same as at other times.” Heartfelt poetry warms the memories of this fabulously rich village with brick courtyards that were built by our grandfathers. Everything around seems close and dear, and above the estate, above the village, you can feel the amazing smell of Antonov apples. This sweet smell of memories with a thin thread binds the entire story into one whole. This is a kind of leitmotif of the work, and the remark at the end of the fourth chapter that “the smell of Antonov’s apples disappears from the landowner’s estate,” says that everything is changing, everything is becoming a thing of the past, that a new time is beginning, “the kingdom of small-scale landowners is coming, impoverished to the point of beggary.” . And further the author writes that “this beggarly small-scale life is also good!” And again he begins to describe the village, his native Vyselki. He talks about how the landowner's day goes, notices such details that make the picture of existence so visible that it seems as if the past is turning into the present, only in this case the familiar, everyday things are perceived as lost happiness. This feeling also arises because the author uses a large number of color epithets. Thus, describing the early morning in the second chapter, the hero recalls: “...you used to open a window into a cool garden filled with a lilac fog...” He sees how “boughs show through in the turquoise sky, how the water under the vines becomes transparent.” ; He also notices “fresh, lush green winter crops.”

No less rich and varied sound scale : you can hear “how carefully... a long convoy creaks along the high road,” you can hear “the booming sound of apples being poured into measures and tubs,” and people’s voices can be heard. At the end of the story, the “pleasant sound of threshing” is heard more and more insistently, and the “monotonous scream and whistle of the driver” merges with the roar of the drum. And then the guitar is tuned, and someone starts a song, which everyone picks up “with sad, hopeless daring.”

In Bunin's story, special attention should be paid to organization of space . From the first lines one gets the impression of isolation. It seems that the estate is a separate world that lives its own special life, but at the same time this world is part of the whole. So, the men pour apples to send them to the city; a train rushes somewhere into the distance past Vyselki... And suddenly there is a feeling that all connections in this space of the past are being destroyed, the integrity of being is irretrievably lost, harmony disappears, the patriarchal world is collapsing, the person himself, his soul is changing. That’s why the word “remembered” sounds so unusual at the very beginning. It contains light sadness, the bitterness of loss and at the same time hope.

The organization of time is also unusual. . Each part is arranged along a unique vertical: morning - day - evening - night, in which the natural flow of time is enshrined. And yet, the time in the story is unusual, pulsating, and it seems that at the end of the story it is speeding up: “the small estates come together to each other” and “disappear in the snowy fields for whole days.” And then only one evening remains in memory, which they spent somewhere in the wilderness. And about this time of day it is written: “And in the evening, on some remote farm, the outbuilding window glows far away in the darkness of the winter night.” And the picture of existence becomes symbolic: the road covered with snow, the wind and in the distance a lonely trembling light, that hope without which not a single person can live. And therefore, apparently, the author does not destroy the calendar flow of time: August is followed by September, then October comes, followed by November, followed by autumn by winter.

And the story ends with the words of a song, which is sung awkwardly, with a special feeling.

My gates opened wide,
Covered the path with white snow...

Why does Bunin end his work this way? The fact is that the author quite soberly realized that he was covering the roads of history with “white snow.” The wind of change breaks centuries-old traditions, established landowner life, and breaks human destinies. And Bunin tried to see ahead, in the future, the path that Russia would take, but he sadly realized that only time could discover it.

So, the main symbol in the story from the very beginning to the end remains image of Antonov apples . The meaning the author puts into these words is ambiguous. Antonov apples are wealth (“Village affairs are good if the Antonov apple is ugly”). Antonov apples are happiness (“Vigorous Antonovka – for a merry year”). And finally, Antonov’s apples are all of Russia with its “golden, dried up and thinning gardens”, “maple alleys”, with the “smell of tar in the fresh air” and with a firm consciousness of “how good it is to live in the world”. And in this regard, we can conclude that the story “Antonov Apples” reflected the main ideas of Bunin’s work, his worldview as a whole, reflected the history of the human soul, the space of memory in which the movement of existential time, the past of Russia, its present and future are felt.

Essay Bunin I.A. - Antonov apples

Topic: - Antonov apples.

The narrator is the writer’s “I”, in many ways similar to the lyrical hero in poetry/Bunin. “Antonov apples” are a symbol of Russia receding into the past, similar to Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard”: “I remember a large, all golden, dried up and thinning garden, I remember maple alleys, the subtle aroma of fallen leaves and the smell of Antonov apples, the smell of honey and autumn freshness.” . For Bunin, a seemingly insignificant detail - the smell of Antonov apples - awakens a string of memories of childhood. The hero again feels like a boy, thinking “how good it is to live in the world!”

In the second chapter, which begins with the belief “Vigorous Antonovka - for a merry year,” Bunin recreates the fading atmosphere of the manorial estate of his aunt Anna Gerasimovna. “You will enter the house and first of all you will hear the smell of apples, and then others: old mahogany furniture, dried linden blossom, which has been lying on the windows since June...”

The theme of Antonov apples and gardens empty in autumn is replaced in the third chapter by another - hunting, which alone “supported the fading spirit of the landowners.” Bunin recreates in detail life in the estate of Arseny Semenych, whose prototype was one of the writer’s relatives. An almost fairy-tale portrait of his uncle is given: “He is tall, thin, but broad-shouldered and slender, and has a handsome gypsy face. His eyes sparkle wildly, he is very dexterous, wearing a crimson silk shirt, velvet trousers and long boots.” Late for the hunt, P. remains in the old manor's house. He sorts through his grandfather’s old books, “magazines with the names of Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, lyceum student Pushkin,” and looks at the portraits. “And the old dreamy life will appear before you,” P. reflects. This detailed poetic description of one day in the village is reminiscent of Pushkin’s poem “Winter. What should we do in the village? I'm meeting..." However, this “dreaming life” is becoming a thing of the past. At the beginning of the final, fourth chapter, he writes: “The smell of Antonov apples disappears from the landowners’ estates. These days were so recent, and yet it seems to me that almost a whole century has passed since then. The old people in Vyselki died, Anna died

Gerasimovna, Arseny Semenych shot himself... The kingdom of the small landed people, impoverished to the point of beggary, is coming.” He further states that “this small-scale life is also good” and describes it. But the smell of Antonov apples is no longer there at the end of the story.

Bunin's story "Antonov Apples" is small in volume. Consists of four chapters. The main symbol in Bunin’s work is the image of Antonov apples. It means lost happiness, all of Russia. This is a symbol of the past, the past. First chapter. The story begins with landscapes of early autumn. It was August. The garden is large and golden. It contains many pleasant smells: fallen leaves, Antonov apples, honey.

Second chapter. Bunin describes the manorial estate of his aunt Anna Gerasimovna. An old, small estate among tall birches. All its inhabitants are middle-aged people: “decrepit old men and women”, “decrepit cook”, “gray-haired coachman”. Birds are singing in the garden. The landowner's house acts as an animate object: “the house looked” The third chapter - hunting, occupies an important place in the life of the landowners.

Chapter Four: The landowners' estates no longer smell like Antonov apples. Arseny Semenovich is no longer alive. Anna Gerasimovna died. All the old people in the village also died. The author describes autumn nature, but many years later. Everything has changed. There are many bankrupt small estates around.

In the story, Bunin described the beauty of village life. The work has no plot. Descriptions of nature can be compared to paintings painted by a talented artist. Only Bunin, instead of brushes and paints, used his rich imagination and colorful epithets. The reader is immersed in the world of the autumn garden, which is perceived by all senses.

We see, hear, smell and can even touch along with the narrator.

The leitmotif of this work is the smell of Antonov apples. The author describes the aroma of apples very accurately. Here Bunin paints a picture where a village man with great pleasure eats an apple that crunches. The events in the story refer to the past. But Bunin uses present tense verbs, as if a beautiful garden with apples is now before his eyes. The smell of Antonov apples brings back childhood memories of life in the village. Happy moments that remain forever in the memory of the storyteller.

Light plays an important role and visual images: "black sky". Sounds include the clucking of blackbirds, the crowing of roosters and the cackling of geese. The garden has changed. He is now black and cold. You can find a cold and wet apple in the leaf. Feels abandoned. The story contains the image of a train, which is a symbol of new times and new life.

Bunin has two times: external, what happens in nature, and internal, what happens in the narrator’s soul. In nature time goes by forward, and in his memories the narrator goes into the past. The narrator and the author are close to each other. In the soul of the main character there is a feeling of the passing life of the landowners, ruined noble nests, the elusive world of the Russian village and a bitter feeling of loss.

Updated: 2017-11-01

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Composition

They live in Bunin's work the best traditions“golden age” of Russian literature... G. Adamovich, who knew Bunin closely, wrote: “I could never look at Ivan Alekseevich, talk to him, listen to him without a nagging feeling that I should look at him enough, I should listen enough - precisely because this is one of the last rays of some wonderful Russian day."

Bunin found the only true opportunity to preserve the cold purity and melancholy of estate images, still lifes and landscapes. These old estates, small-scale life, nature, alleys - in a word, the entire Bunin aesthetics - are signs of the “golden age”, which for I. A. Bunin is not in the future, but in the past. In it, in addition to the visibly tangible personality of the author, there is a limited set of images; and most often it is a dilapidated estate, in an overgrown garden there is a maple, linden or birch alley, it leads to a river or pond, two or three benches, and in the backdrop - the season. Most often in autumn, less often in spring or summer. And one more thing: a village, a field behind it and a forest.

In "Antonovsky Apples" the hero lives in his memories a long and touching autumn at the estate. With hunts, dinners, biblical images of peasants from rich Vyselki. And what beautiful, tanned, weather-beaten-faced people gather at Arseny Semenych’s: in shorts and long boots, flushed after dinner and “noisy conversations.” And the garden after the rain: “But how beautiful it was when clear weather came again, clear and cold days of early October, the farewell holiday of autumn!” Bunin expressed warm feelings for the long past, the dream of returning the spiritual atmosphere of ancient noble nests.

Another confession is made in the story: “... this beggarly small-scale life is also good!” Bunin saw and vividly depicted natural life, reasonable principles of joint work, closeness to nature in rural, rich or beggarly existence. The author idealizes this world, including idealizing the internal state of those who are closely connected with fields and forest roads. This way of life, a thing of the past, symbolizes the vigorous smell of Antonov apples.

The work begins with an ellipsis, that is, what is described seems to be snatched from the very elements of life, from its endless flow. The plot develops as a chain of memories and feelings associated with them. For the lyrical hero Bunin, what is described does not happen in the past, but in the present, now. This relativity of time is one of the characteristic features Bunin's prose.

One of the main leitmotif images in the work is the image of smell, which accompanies the entire narrative from beginning to end. Over time, the smells change from subtle, barely perceptible harmonious natural aromas in the first and second parts of the story - to sharp, unpleasant odors that seem to be some kind of dissonance in the surrounding world - in the second, third and fourth parts ("smell of smoke" “in the locked hallway it smells like a dog,” the smell of “cheap tobacco” or “just shag”).

Smells change – life itself, its foundations change. A change in historical structures is shown by Bunin as a change in the hero’s personal feelings, a change in worldview. The work is built on contrasts, creating in the reader the illusion of an action taking place before the eyes or captured on the artist’s canvas: “In the dark, in the depths of the garden, there is a fabulous picture: as if in a corner of hell, a crimson flame is burning near a hut, surrounded by darkness, and someone’s Black silhouettes, as if carved from ebony, move around the fire."

Colors, like smells, change throughout the work. Halftones and shades ("turquoise", "lilac" and others), present in the first parts of the work, are replaced by the contrast of black and white ("black garden", "fields sharply blacken arable land...fields turn white", "snowy fields").

The diversity of life and its movement are also conveyed in the work by sounds: “the cool silence of the morning is disturbed only by the well-fed cackling of blackbirds... voices and the booming knock of apples being poured into measures and tubs.” All these infinitely varied sounds, merging, seem to create a symphony of life itself in Bunin’s work.

The sensory perception of the world is complemented in “Antonov Apples” by tactile images: “with pleasure you feel the slippery leather of the saddle under you,” “thick, rough paper” – and gustatory images: “all through and through pink boiled ham with peas, stuffed chicken, turkey, marinades and red kvass - strong and sweet, sweet..."

However, in Bunin’s artistic world, the joy of life is combined with the tragic consciousness of its finitude. The writer constantly remembers that “everything living, material, corporeal is certainly subject to destruction.” And in “Antonov Apples” the motif of extinction, the dying of everything that is so dear to the hero, is one of the main ones: “The smell of Antonov apples disappears from the landowners’ estates...

The old people died at Vyselki, Anna Gerasimovna died, Arseny Semyonich shot himself..." It’s not just the old way of life that is dying - an entire era of Russian history is dying, the noble era, poeticized by Bunin in this work. By the end of the story, the motif of emptiness and cold. This is shown with particular force in the image of a garden, once “big, golden,” filled with sounds, aromas, but now “chilled overnight, naked,” “blackened,” as well as artistic details, the most expressive of which is what was found. “in the wet foliage there is an accidentally forgotten cold and wet apple,” which “for some reason will seem unusually tasty, not at all like the others.”