Synopses & Reviews
One of the great achievements of 20th-century Russian émigré literature, Dark Avenuesthe culmination of a lifes work of unrelenting challenge to Soviet dogmatook Bunins poetic mastery of language, eventually known for its richness as "Bunin brocade," to new heights. Written between 1938 and 1944 and set in the context of the Russian cultural and historical crises of the preceding decades, this collection of short fiction centers around dark, erotic liaisons. Love in its many varied forms is the unifying motif in a rich range of narratives, characterized by the evocative, elegiac, elegant prose for which Bunin is rightly renowned.
Review
"An astonishing writer whose work cries out for rediscovery." New York Sun
Review
"His translations are loyal in the fullest sense; each rises to the particular challenge of the author in question." The Moscow Times on Hugh Aplin
About the Author
Ivan Bunin (18701953) was the first Russian writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. Dark Avenues, his last book of fiction, is arguably the most widely read 20th-century collection of short stories in Russia. Hugh Aplin is head of Russian at Westminster School and has translated a number of Russian classics, including Chekhov's The Story of a Nobody and Three Years and Dostoyevsky's The Double, The Eternal Husband, and Poor People.