Bunin's story "Dark alleys"

Dark alleys ... Involuntarily imagination draws an ancient park in a light haze of fog, heavy tree crowns, mysterious twilight and a unique aroma of freshness and pale foliage ...

Bunin wrote "dark alleys" in emigration. The story-memory is filled with tenderness, the sadness of the departed love and the realization that time can not be reversed and mistakes can not be corrected. He gave the title to a whole collection of short stories, which were first published abroad, in New York, in 1943. Researchers immediately noted that all the works of the book are filled with love, embodied in different hypostases: the writer's love for the distant motherland, for the mother, for the old manor estate. The feeling in the Bunin stories is passionate, platonic, insolent, taking and giving - the whole palette of colors of love was used to write stories. And how beautiful are the landscapes and sketches from everyday life: the music of operas and restaurants, the smells of town and countryside, the rustling of silk and velvet, the wild Russian nature and mysterious urban dark alleys - the short content of the stories will not be able to convey the mood with which the collection is filled.

One of the stories, "The Dark Alley" - is a story of bitter love thirty years ago. Between Nadezhda, who lived in the master's house, and Nikolai Alekseevich, the son of a son, a bright, all-consuming feeling of love broke out. But if the girl experienced sincere love, then the young man is only a violent passion. Soon they parted.

An unexpected meeting in thirty years was painful for both of them. Hope never married, preserving in the heart of love for Nicholas, and he unsuccessfully married and was abandoned by his wife, whom he passionately loved. Their explanation in the hotel room puts everything in its place: Nadezhda says about the only love in her life, Nikolai asks for forgiveness and ... receives a refusal - a proud woman did not forgive a man of betrayal. She did not change her feelings for her beloved, and was faithful to him for 30 years.

For Nicholas, love became both a test and a punishment: having missed the opportunity to love and be loved one day, he never became happy. Class prejudice played a cruel joke: his wife, also of noble origin, went to her lover, and the son grew spoiled boy. Life did not give him a second chance. But the most amazing thing is that the hero does not understand this, he does not repent, he does not try to realize - he goes into memories where it was good when Hope was young and delightfully beautiful ... Even after thirty years he preferred to run, tearing the soul with the lines of the poem , Which he read to Nadezhda. It is here that for the first time the dark avenues of the park appear, not only as an element of the landscape, but as mysterious "alleys of the soul", which are not accessible to everyone.

The woman never reproached Nicholas, did not offend, did not make him feel guilty. Preserving dignity and pride, Hope managed to rise above life: she is the owner of a good clean hotel, in which she seemed to have waited her whole life for her Nicholas. And fate gave her a long-awaited meeting.

"Dark alleys" - a short story about a long love story, which does not leave the reader indifferent.