Sunstroke: Selected Stories [Hardcover]

Ivan Bunin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 21, 2002

”The Gentleman from San Francisco” is easily the best known of Ivan Bunin’s stories and has achieved the stature of a masterpiece. But Bunin’s other stories are not to be missed. In Sunstroke, Graham Hettlinger has selected the “Gentleman” and twenty-four other stories and translated them afresh—several for the first time in English. The result is a collection that is remarkable in its crystalline prose, surprising in its vibrancy. It includes, among others, “Raven,” “Cold Fall,” “Muza,” “Styopa,” “Antigone,” ”In Paris,” and “Late Hour.” Never has the last of the great “gentry” writers and the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature received a more caring and passionate translation. Sunstroke confirms Bunin’s stature as one of the greatest—and most neglected—Russian writers of the twentieth century.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The 25 smoothly translated stories in this collection have the emotional depth of Chekhov and the inspired acuteness of Raymond Carver or John Cheever, making them truly ahead of their time: Bunin, the first Russian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature (in 1933), deserves renewed attention. A few of the book's shorter stories only a few pages each intensely portray moments of anger, love and pain to demonstrate larger truths about human behavior. "First Class" recreates the discomfort a group of upper-class passengers feel when a peasant enters their train compartment, freezing the juxtaposition of the passengers' disdain and the peasant's awkwardness like a snapshot. In the longer stories, small pains accumulate until they explode into tragic ironies. In "Raven," a young man develops an affection for a fetching nanny his father has hired, much to the father's dismay; the older man later marries the nanny. As a storyteller in "Ida" spins a tale of lost opportunity for romance, it becomes clear that the failure was his own. Other stories strip away characters' defenses with elegance and precision: the title story, for instance, describes a lieutenant's short-lived affair with a woman he meets on a cruise. When the affair ends, she ascribes their passion to a momentary sunstroke, leaving him heartbroken and spiritually lost. The plots of Bunin's stories are not necessarily original, but their force and animation never fail to surprise; a brief introduction by the translator serves to put the writer in historical context.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Bunin was the 1933 Nobel laureate in literature, the first Russian to achieve this honor. Yet unlike his contemporary Chekhov or his mentor Tolstoy, he has not been remembered; only a few of his short stories, e.g., "The Gentleman from San Francisco," which vividly limns the futility of life lived without soul, are regularly anthologized. This collection should go far to restore his reputation. Having studied art before becoming a writer, Bunin displays a painterly eye for detail. He is a master at capturing the moment, whether in "Summer Day," a short vignette about a peasant trying to train a dog, or in the longer story "In Paris," about the achingly brief romance between two Russian ‚migr‚s. Often, the stories describe romantic betrayal. In "Styopa," for instance, the narrator callously seduces and abandons an innkeeper's unprotected 14-year-old daughter, while in "Zoyka and Valeriya" it is the shy young guest Levitsky who is used by the capricious Valeriya. With their ability to penetrate the human condition in just a few phrases, Bunin's stories belong in all libraries. Andrea Kempf, Johnson Cty. Community Coll. Lib., Overland Park, KS
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 205 pages
• Publisher: Ivan R Dee (January 21, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566634261
• ISBN-13: 978-1566634267
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,099,446 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you like Chekhov's stories, you'll like these, November 17, 2002

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Sunstroke: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

American and English readers don't generally know the the works of Ivan Bunin, although educated Russians know and love his poetry and short stories, and often can quote them by heart. These stories, unobtrusively translated anew by Graham Hettlinger, vary in length from a couple of pages ('Summer Day', which neatly limns the cruelty arising from boredom) to the seventeen pages of Bunin's best known story, 'The Gentleman from San Francisco.' Most of them, some appearing in English for the first time, are really little more than sharply-etched vignettes which adroitly catch humanity in its variety; sometimes you'll catch your breath with the shock of recognition. If you respond to Chekhov's stories, you'll like these.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Vivid descriptions not to be missed, April 10, 2002

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sunstroke: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

These selected short stories include Ivan Bunin's better known 'Gentleman from San Francisco' along with over twenty other newly-translated stories - some for the first time in English. Bunin's language is filled with sparkling descriptions and metaphors: vivid images fairly leap from the page as individuals and circumstances spring to life. His vivid descriptions are not to be missed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very good translation of the original, January 13, 2010

By 

Gulnora Zakirova (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sunstroke: Selected Stories (Hardcover)

I was looking for Bunin's short stories in English to buy as a present for a person who was not familiar with Bunin's work. I have reviewed several translators' work, but was not satisfied with their translation of original text until I found this book. What I liked about it is that the language used in this book reflects the unique Bunin's style, and all nuances of Russian language. This translation was the closest to original Russian edition I found. Frankly, when I was reading it, I forgot that I am reading it in English. If that's what you are looking for in a translated edition, I would definitely recommend this book.