The Gentleman from San Francisco
Encyclopedia
The Gentleman from San Francisco (Господин из Сан-Франциско, Gospodin iz San Frantsisco) is a short story by a Nobel Prize-winning Russian
author Ivan Bunin, written in 1915
and published the same year in Moscow, in the 5th volume of Slovo (Word) anthology. Translated into English by D.H.Lawrence (with Samuil Koteliansky), the story is one of Bunin's best known and regarded as classic.
's Death in Venice
book sleeve which has caught Bunin's eye in one of the Moscow book shops served as the starting point for this associative chain. Some time later in Oryol
gubernia it came back to him again, this time linked to the sudden death of a certain American citizen which happened on the island of Capri
. "Almost instantly the idea of Death on Capri story came to me and in four days I finished the piece. Everything else, San Francisco included, was pure fantasy. Nothing in it was real apart from the fact that once a certain American has really died after dinner in Quisisana hotel", Bunin wrote.
There are in the Moscow literature archives numerous drafts and alternative versions of the story, showing the dynamic picture of its ever changing history. Over the years Bunin, driven (in Chekhov's words) by the "brevity mania", was methodically cutting the text down in size (the last bout of such activity lasted from 1951 to the early 1953). Among the fragments that got the cut were one lengthy description of a 'Baltasar feast' on boards the Atlantida ship and a Tolstoyan monologue which the author deemed, apparently, too straightforward in its condemnation of the Gentleman's way of life.
and Tolstoy
's respective deaths nothing worthy of notice appeared in the Russian literature
at all, up until "The Gentleman from San Francisco" release. "Bunin has developed greatly as an artist over the last few years, mainly by widening enormously his emotional scopes. There is not a shade of irritation in his dislike of the American gentleman; his antipathy is embracingly wide, to a huge creative effect. With solemn, saintly sadness the author created one massive portrait of a global evil; the vast landscape of general sinfulness in which a proud modern man with an old heart habitates. And for the reader - the author's coldness towards his character feels not only well justified and logical, but very beautiful", Derman wrote in 1916. He found most remarkable the style of the story too, speaking of "rhythmic metallic beat of flawless, loaded phrases reminding... rhythms of resonating bells; richness and chastity of language where there's not a single word that would be either missing or superfluous".
More cautious was the Russkoye Bogatstvo
magazine review. "The story is strong but it suffers from what the French call "its own virtues". The counterpoint between the outward gloss of the modern culture ant its trifle insignificance in the face of death is exploited with gripping power, but the author drains the potential of this conflict down to the bottom, what with the image of the main character – an old American millionaire – being consciously confined to contours of common stereotype. One cannot indulge with juggling symbols infinitely and get away with it. Symbols, when they are that recognizable, easily turn into schemes. …Both in 'Aglaya' and 'The Gentleman from San Francisco' thesis runs at the forefront, psychology's being lost in the rear", wrote the reviewer.
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
author Ivan Bunin, written in 1915
1915 in literature
The year 1915 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* May 3 - In Flanders Fields is written by Canadian poet John McCrae....
and published the same year in Moscow, in the 5th volume of Slovo (Word) anthology. Translated into English by D.H.Lawrence (with Samuil Koteliansky), the story is one of Bunin's best known and regarded as classic.
Background
Bunin recollected the circumstances that led to the story’s inception in a brochured called The Origins of My Stories, compiled and published by P.Vyacheslavov. Thomas MannThomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
's Death in Venice
Death in Venice
The novella Death in Venice was written by the German author Thomas Mann, and was first published in 1913 as Der Tod in Venedig. The plot of the work presents a great writer suffering writer's block who visits Venice and is liberated and uplifted, then increasingly obsessed, by the sight of a...
book sleeve which has caught Bunin's eye in one of the Moscow book shops served as the starting point for this associative chain. Some time later in Oryol
Oryol
Oryol or Orel is a city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, located on the Oka River, approximately south-southwest of Moscow...
gubernia it came back to him again, this time linked to the sudden death of a certain American citizen which happened on the island of Capri
Capri
Capri is an Italian island in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrentine Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples, in the Campania region of Southern Italy...
. "Almost instantly the idea of Death on Capri story came to me and in four days I finished the piece. Everything else, San Francisco included, was pure fantasy. Nothing in it was real apart from the fact that once a certain American has really died after dinner in Quisisana hotel", Bunin wrote.
There are in the Moscow literature archives numerous drafts and alternative versions of the story, showing the dynamic picture of its ever changing history. Over the years Bunin, driven (in Chekhov's words) by the "brevity mania", was methodically cutting the text down in size (the last bout of such activity lasted from 1951 to the early 1953). Among the fragments that got the cut were one lengthy description of a 'Baltasar feast' on boards the Atlantida ship and a Tolstoyan monologue which the author deemed, apparently, too straightforward in its condemnation of the Gentleman's way of life.
Critical reception
Upon its released the story was widely discussed and generally praised in the Russian press. According to critic A.Derman, after ChekhovAnton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...
and Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
's respective deaths nothing worthy of notice appeared in the Russian literature
Russian literature
Russian literature refers to the literature of Russia or its émigrés, and to the Russian-language literature of several independent nations once a part of what was historically Russia or the Soviet Union...
at all, up until "The Gentleman from San Francisco" release. "Bunin has developed greatly as an artist over the last few years, mainly by widening enormously his emotional scopes. There is not a shade of irritation in his dislike of the American gentleman; his antipathy is embracingly wide, to a huge creative effect. With solemn, saintly sadness the author created one massive portrait of a global evil; the vast landscape of general sinfulness in which a proud modern man with an old heart habitates. And for the reader - the author's coldness towards his character feels not only well justified and logical, but very beautiful", Derman wrote in 1916. He found most remarkable the style of the story too, speaking of "rhythmic metallic beat of flawless, loaded phrases reminding... rhythms of resonating bells; richness and chastity of language where there's not a single word that would be either missing or superfluous".
More cautious was the Russkoye Bogatstvo
Russkoye Bogatstvo
Russkoye Bogatstvo was a monthly magazine published in St. Petersburg, Russia, from 1876 to mid-1918. In the early 1890s, it was an organ of the liberal Narodniks. Beginning in 1906, it became an organ of the Popular Socialists....
magazine review. "The story is strong but it suffers from what the French call "its own virtues". The counterpoint between the outward gloss of the modern culture ant its trifle insignificance in the face of death is exploited with gripping power, but the author drains the potential of this conflict down to the bottom, what with the image of the main character – an old American millionaire – being consciously confined to contours of common stereotype. One cannot indulge with juggling symbols infinitely and get away with it. Symbols, when they are that recognizable, easily turn into schemes. …Both in 'Aglaya' and 'The Gentleman from San Francisco' thesis runs at the forefront, psychology's being lost in the rear", wrote the reviewer.
External links
- Господин из Сан-Франциско. The original text in Russian.
- The Gentleman from San Francisco, English translation.