Ivan Bunin's story "Sunstroke" is amazing and original in its own way. At first glance, the storyline is fairly common. But this is only at first glance. There is hardly a work more finely organized than "Sunstroke". Bunin analyzes in it problems of a personal nature: moments of choice that influence the future fate of a person. The heroes make their choice - and find themselves far from each other.

"Sunstroke" (Bunin): a summary

While traveling on a ship, a military man - a lieutenant and a young woman - a stranger, meet. The author does not endow her with a name, however, as well as a lieutenant. They are just people, their history is not unique at all, similar to many of those that happen. The couple spend the night together. The young woman is embarrassed, but she has no remorse for what happened. It's just that she has to go, and it's time for him to get off the ship. The lieutenant easily releases the woman, escorts her to the pier and returns to his room. Here, his scent of her perfume, the half-finished cup of coffee they forgot to put away, the memory of last night still alive.

The lieutenant's heart is suddenly filled with a touching feeling, which he is unable to accept and tries to drown out by trying to continuously smoke cigarettes. As if looking for salvation from impending tenderness, he rushes into the city, wanders thoughtlessly through the market, passes among people and feels. When an inexpressible feeling prevents him from thinking, thinking sensibly and reasoning, he decides to send her a telegram, but on the way to the post office he no name, no woman's surname, no address. Back in his room, he feels ten years older. The lieutenant already understands that they will never meet again.

This is a very capacious content of the story, although quite short. Bunin's "sunstroke" in retelling will allow high school students to better prepare for literature lessons. The information may be useful for students of pedagogical colleges, as well as those who study at universities.

What is the story "Sunstroke" about?

Bunin's work "Sunstroke" tells about the unexpected love that overtakes the main characters (lieutenant and stranger) while traveling on a ship. Both of them are not ready for the feeling that has appeared.

Moreover, they have absolutely no time to figure it out: there is only one day, which decides the outcome of events. When the time comes to say goodbye, the lieutenant cannot even think about what kind of torment he will experience after the young woman leaves his comfortable room. It is as if a whole life passes before his eyes, which is measured, now evaluated from the height of yesterday's night and the feeling that bewitched the lieutenant.

Story Composition

The story can be conditionally divided into three parts, containing different semantic meanings: the first part is the moment when the lieutenant and the stranger are together. Both are confused, somewhat confused.

The second compositional part: the moment of parting of the lieutenant and the young woman. The third part is the moment of awakening a tender feeling, which is difficult to control. The author very subtly shows the moments of transition from one compositional part to another, while the state of the main character, the lieutenant, gradually becomes the center of the narrative.

The ideological component of the story

The meeting of the lieutenant and the stranger became for both of them akin to a real sunstroke, brought blindness with passion, and then a bitter insight. Bunin is talking about this. The book "Sunstroke" is fanned by a romantic beginning, tells about the need of everyone to love and be loved, but at the same time it is absolutely devoid of illusions. Perhaps the young men will see here the desire of the heroes to find their only love, but rather, this is an attempt to abandon love in favor of common sense: “We had to save ourselves ...” “This new feeling was too much happiness,” which, obviously, the heroes could not afford otherwise, one would have to change the entire established way of life, make some changes in oneself and change the environment.

The state of a stranger

The image of a young woman whom the lieutenant meets on the ship, Bunin draws without embellishment and does not endow her with special characteristics. She has no name - she is just a woman with whom a certain lieutenant spent the night.

But the author very subtly emphasizes her experiences, anxieties and worries. The woman says, "I'm not at all what you might imagine me to be." Perhaps she was looking for in this fleeting connection the need to love and be loved. Perhaps for her everything that happened was nothing more than an accident, a surprise. It must be that in her married life (the presence of which is mentioned in the story) she did not receive enough warmth and attention. We see that the stranger does not make any plans, does not oblige the lieutenant in anything. That is why she does not consider it necessary to give her name. It is bitter and painful for her to leave, leaving the lieutenant forever, but she does this, obeying her intuition. She subconsciously already knows that their relationship will not end well.

Lieutenant's status

As shown in the story, probably at first the main character was not ready to appreciate the feeling that arose for an unfamiliar woman. Therefore, he so easily releases her from him, believing that nothing binds them.

Only when he returns to his room, he feels the signs of the beginning "fever" and understands that it cannot be avoided. He no longer belongs to himself, he is not free. He was suddenly incredibly affected by the atmosphere of the room in which they spent the night together: “there was still an unfinished cup of coffee on the table, the bed was still unmade, but it was gone.” The lieutenant cannot accept this feeling, in every possible way pushes it away from him, almost reaches a frenzy.

Metamorphosis of the lieutenant and its meaning

The way his state of mind changes speaks of the awakening power of feelings. Perhaps the lieutenant, a military man, could not even imagine that some fleeting meeting with a woman would turn his entire system of values ​​upside down, make him rethink the significance of life and rediscover its meaning for himself. The theme of love as the greatest mystery that knows no compromises is revealed in the story "Sunstroke". Bunin analyzes the state of his hero, emphasizes the confusion and despair, as well as the bitterness with which he tries to suppress the awakening feeling of love in himself. In this unequal battle, it is quite difficult to win. The lieutenant is defeated and feels tired, ten years older.

Main idea of ​​the story

Obviously, with his work, the author wanted to show the dramatic outcome of love. Meanwhile, each of us is always free to choose how to act in this or that difficult situation. The lieutenant and his lady were simply not ready to accept a generous gift of fate, therefore they preferred to part, having barely met. Yes, and it is difficult to call it an acquaintance - they did not tell each other their names, did not exchange addresses.

Most likely, their meeting was only an attempt to drown out the disturbing voice of a yearning heart. As you might guess, the characters are unhappy in their personal lives and very lonely, despite being married. They did not leave each other addresses, did not give their names because they did not want to continue the relationship. This is the main idea of ​​the story "Sunstroke". Bunin analyzes and compares the heroes, which of them is no longer ready for a new life, but as a result it turns out that both show significant cowardice.

Theatrical productions and cinema

This work was filmed more than once, and also played on the stage of the theater, the situation that Bunin described in the story "Sunstroke" is so amazing. Mikhalkov filmed the film of the same name in Bouvre. The acting is amazing, it conveys the feelings of the characters and their inner pain to the utmost, which sounds like a heavy chord from beginning to end.

There is probably no other work that evokes such ambivalent feelings as "Sunstroke". Bunin, reviews of this story (very contradictory) confirm this, described a situation that leaves few people indifferent. Someone pities the main characters and believes that they certainly needed to find each other, others are sure that such meetings between a man and a woman should remain a secret, an unattainable dream and have nothing to do with reality. Who knows whether it is worth believing in a sudden passion or should one look for the cause deep within oneself? Perhaps all "love" is only an enthusiastic fantasy, characteristic of youth?

Ivan Bunin "Sunstroke" and the school curriculum

I would like to note that this story is included in the school curriculum of compulsory study in literature and is intended for older students - children of sixteen - seventeen years old. As a rule, at this age, the work is perceived in pink colors, it appears to young people as a story about great love. For older people and adults enough, the work suddenly opens up from the other side and makes you think about the question of how ready we are in life to accept love and how we do it. The fact is that in youth it seems that love itself is able to overcome any obstacles. By the age of twenty-five or thirty, an understanding comes that nothing in life is given for free, and such a feeling as love must be protected with all the strength of the soul and heart.

Unforgettably strong work - "Sunstroke". Bunin analyzes in it a person's ability to accept love in special circumstances of life and how the characters cope with this task, shows that in most cases people are not able to recognize it at the very beginning and take responsibility for the development of relationships. Such love is doomed.

This is what Bunin tells about in his work “Sunstroke”. The summary allows you to determine the theme of the story, its compositional and ideological component. If you are interested in this description, we recommend that you refer to reading. "Sunstroke", no doubt, is one of those works that leave a feeling of slight sadness after reading and linger in memory for a long time.

They met in the summer, on one of the Volga steamers. He is a lieutenant, She is a lovely little, tanned woman (she said she was coming from Anapa). “... I'm completely drunk,” she laughed. - Actually, I'm completely crazy. Three hours ago, I didn't even know you existed." The lieutenant kissed her hand, and his heart sank blissfully and terribly ... The steamer approached the pier, the lieutenant muttered pleadingly: “Let's get off ...” And a minute later they got off, reached the hotel on a dusty cab, went into a large, but terribly stuffy room. And as soon as the footman closed the door behind him, both suffocated in the kiss so frenziedly that for many years they later recalled this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like it in their whole life. And in the morning she left, she, a little nameless woman, jokingly calling herself "a beautiful stranger", "Tsarist Marya Morevna." In the morning, despite an almost sleepless night, she was fresh as at seventeen, a little embarrassed, still simple, cheerful, and - already reasonable: “You must stay until the next boat,” she said. - If we go together, everything will be spoiled. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It was as if an eclipse had come over me… Or, rather, we both got something like a sunstroke…” And the lieutenant somehow easily agreed with her, drove her to the pier, put her on the ship and kissed her on deck in front of everyone. Just as easily and carelessly, he returned to the hotel. But something has already changed. The number looked different. He was still full of it - and empty. And the lieutenant's heart suddenly contracted with such tenderness that he hurried to light a cigarette and walked up and down the room several times. There was no strength to look at the unmade bed - and he closed it with a screen: “Well, that's the end of this“ road adventure ”! he thought. - And I'm sorry, and already forever, forever ... After all, I can’t come to this city for no reason at all, where her husband, her three-year-old girl, in general, her whole ordinary life! And the thought struck him. He felt such pain and such uselessness of his entire future life without her that he was seized with horror and despair. “Yes, what is it with me? It seems not for the first time - and now ... But what is special about her? In fact, just some kind of sunstroke! And how can I spend a whole day in this outback without her? He still remembered all of her, but now the main thing was this completely new and incomprehensible feeling, which had not been there while they were together, which he could not have imagined when starting a funny acquaintance. A feeling that there was no one to talk about now. And how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment? ... It was necessary to escape, to occupy oneself with something, to go somewhere. He went to the market. But at the market everything was so stupid, absurd, that he fled from there. I went into the cathedral, where they sang loudly, with a sense of accomplishment of duty, then circled around the small neglected garden for a long time: “How can you live in peace and generally be simple, careless, indifferent? he thought. - How wild, how absurd everything is everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck by this terrible "sunstroke", too much love, too much happiness! Returning to the hotel, the lieutenant went into the dining room, ordered dinner. Everything was fine, but he knew that without hesitation he would have died tomorrow, if by some miracle he could return her, tell her, prove how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her ... Why? He didn't know why, but it was more necessary than life. What to do now, when it is already impossible to get rid of this unexpected love? The lieutenant got up and resolutely went to the post office with a ready-made telegram phrase, but he stopped in horror at the post office - he did not know either her last name or her first name! And the city, hot, sunny, joyful, so unbearably reminded Anapa that the lieutenant, with his head bowed, staggering and stumbling, walked back. He returned to the hotel completely broken. The room was already tidy, devoid of the last traces of her - only one forgotten hairpin lay on the night table! He lay down on the bed, lay with his hands behind his head and stared intently in front of him, then clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, feeling the tears roll down his cheeks, and finally fell asleep .... When the lieutenant woke up, the evening sun was already turning yellow behind the curtains, and yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago. He got up, washed himself, drank tea with lemon for a long time, paid his bill, got into a cab and drove to the pier. When the steamer set sail, a summer night was already turning blue over the Volga. The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older.

In the work of I. A. Bunin, perhaps, the theme of love occupies a leading place. Bunin's love is always a tragic feeling that has no hope for a happy ending, it is a difficult test for lovers. This is how it appears to readers in the story "Sunstroke".

Along with the collection of love stories "Dark Alleys", created by Ivan Alekseevich in the mid-1920s, "Sunstroke" is one of the pearls of his work. The tragedy and complexity of the time during which I. Bunin lived and wrote were fully embodied by the writer in the images of the main characters of this work.

The work was published in Sovremennye Zapiski in 1926. Critics accepted the work with caution, skeptically noticing the emphasis on the physiological side of love. However, not all reviewers were so sanctimonious, among them were those who warmly welcomed Bunin's literary experiment. In the context of symbolist poetics, his image of the Stranger was perceived as a mystical mystery of feeling, dressed in flesh and blood. It is known that the author, when creating his story, was impressed by Chekhov's work, so he crossed out the introduction and began his story with a random sentence.

About what?

From the very beginning, the story is intriguing in that the narrative begins with an impersonal sentence: "After dinner, we went ... on deck ...". The lieutenant meets a beautiful stranger on the ship, whose name, like his name, remains unknown to the reader. They both seem to be hit by a sunstroke; passionate, ardent feelings flare up between them. The traveler and his companion leave the ship for the city, and the next day she leaves by boat to her family. The young officer is left all alone and after a while realizes that he can no longer live without that woman. The story ends with the fact that he, sitting under a canopy on the deck, feels ten years older.

Main characters and their characteristics

• She is. From the story, you can learn that this woman had a family - a husband and a three-year-old daughter, to whom she returned on a steamer from Anapa (probably from vacation or treatment). The meeting with the lieutenant became for her a "sunstroke" - a fleeting adventure, a "clouding of her mind." She does not tell him her name and asks him not to write to her in her city, as she understands that what happened between them is only a momentary weakness, and her real life is completely different. She is beautiful and charming, her charm lies in the mystery.
• The lieutenant is an ardent and impressionable man. For him, a meeting with a stranger was fatal. He only managed to truly realize what had happened to him after the departure of his beloved. He wants to find her, return her, because he was seriously carried away by her, but it's too late. The misfortune that can happen to a person from an overabundance of the sun, for him was a sudden feeling, true love, which made him suffer from the realization of the loss of his beloved. This loss had a profound effect on him.

Issues

• One of the main problems in the story "Sunstroke" of this story is the problem of the essence of love. In the understanding of I. Bunin, love brings a person not only joy, but also suffering, making him feel unhappy. The happiness of short moments later results in the bitterness of separation and painful parting.
• From this follows another problem of the story - the problem of the short duration, the fluctuation of happiness. And for the mysterious stranger, and for the lieutenant, this euphoria was short-lived, but in the future they both "remembered this moment for many years." Short moments of delight are accompanied by long years of longing and loneliness, but I. Bunin is sure that it is thanks to them that life acquires meaning.

Subject

The theme of love in the story "Sunstroke" is a feeling full of tragedy, mental anguish, but at the same time it is filled with passion and ardor. This great, all-consuming feeling becomes both happiness and grief. Bunin's love is like a match that rapidly flares up and dies out, and at the same time it suddenly strikes, like a sunstroke, and can no longer leave its imprint on the human soul.

Meaning

The point of Sunstroke is to show readers all the facets of love. It arises suddenly, lasts a little, passes hard, like a disease. It is both beautiful and painful at the same time. This feeling can both elevate a person and completely destroy him, but it is precisely this feeling that can give him those bright moments of happiness that color his faceless everyday life and fill his life with meaning.

Ivan Alexandrovich Bunin in the story "Sunstroke" seeks to convey to readers his main idea that ardent and strong emotions do not always have a future: love fever is fleeting and like a powerful shock, but this is what makes it the most wonderful feeling in the world.

Interesting? Save it on your wall! After dinner they left the brightly and hotly lit dining room on deck and stopped at the rail. She closed her eyes, put her hand to her cheek with her palm outward, laughed with a simple, charming laugh—everything was lovely about that little woman—and said: - I seem to be drunk ... Where did you come from? Three hours ago, I didn't even know you existed. I don't even know where you sat. In Samara? But still... Is it my head spinning or are we turning somewhere? Ahead was darkness and lights. From the darkness a strong, soft wind beat in the face, and the lights rushed somewhere to the side: the steamer, with Volga panache, abruptly described a wide arc, running up to a small pier. The lieutenant took her hand and raised it to his lips. The hand, small and strong, smelled of sunburn. And my heart sank blissfully and terribly at the thought of how strong and swarthy she must have been all under this light canvas dress after a whole month of lying under the southern sun, on the hot sea sand (she said that she was coming from Anapa). The lieutenant muttered:- Let's go... - Where? she asked in surprise. - At this pier.- What for? He said nothing. She again put the back of her hand to her hot cheek. - Madness... "Let's go," he repeated stupidly. - I beg you... "Oh, do as you please," she said, turning away. The steamer ran with a soft thud into the dimly lit pier, and they almost fell on top of each other. The end of the rope flew over their heads, then it rushed back, and the water boiled with noise, the gangway rattled ... The lieutenant rushed for things. A minute later they passed the sleepy desk, stepped out onto the deep, hub-deep sand, and silently sat down in a dusty cab. The gentle ascent uphill, among the rare crooked lanterns, along the road soft from dust, seemed endless. But then they got up, drove out and crackled along the pavement, here was some kind of square, government offices, a tower, warmth and smells of a summer district town at night ... The cabman stopped near the illuminated entrance, behind the open doors of which an old wooden staircase rose steeply, old, unshaven a footman in a pink blouse and frock coat took the things with displeasure and walked forward on his trampled feet. They entered a large, but terribly stuffy room, hotly heated during the day by the sun, with white curtains drawn down on the windows and two unburned candles on the under-mirror, and as soon as they entered and the footman closed the door, the lieutenant rushed to her so impetuously and both suffocated so frantically in a kiss that for many years they later remembered this moment: neither one nor the other had ever experienced anything like this in their entire lives. At ten o'clock in the morning, sunny, hot, happy, with the ringing of churches, with a bazaar on the square in front of the hotel, with the smell of hay, tar, and again all that complex and odorous smell that a Russian county town smells like, she, this little nameless woman, and without saying her name, jokingly calling herself a beautiful stranger, she left. They slept little, but in the morning, coming out from behind the screen near the bed, having washed and dressed in five minutes, she was as fresh as at seventeen. Was she embarrassed? No, very little. As before, she was simple, cheerful and - already reasonable. “No, no, dear,” she said in response to his request to go on together, “no, you must stay until the next boat. If we go together, everything will be ruined. It will be very unpleasant for me. I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think of me. There has never been anything even similar to what happened to me, and there will never be again. It's like an eclipse hit me... Or rather, we both got something like a sunstroke... And the lieutenant somehow easily agreed with her. In a light and happy spirit, he drove her to the pier - just in time for the departure of the pink "Airplane", - kissed her on deck in front of everyone and barely managed to jump onto the gangway, which had already moved back. Just as easily, carefree, he returned to the hotel. However, something has changed. The room without her seemed somehow completely different than it was with her. He was still full of her - and empty. It was strange! There was still the smell of her good English cologne, her half-finished cup was still on the tray, but she was gone... And the lieutenant's heart suddenly contracted with such tenderness that the lieutenant hurried to light a cigarette and walked up and down the room several times. — A strange adventure! he said aloud, laughing and feeling tears welling up in his eyes. - “I give you my word of honor that I am not at all what you might think ...” And she already left ... The screen was drawn back, the bed had not yet been made. And he felt that he simply did not have the strength to look at this bed now. He closed it with a screen, closed the windows so as not to hear the bazaar talk and the creak of wheels, lowered the white bubbling curtains, sat down on the sofa ... Yes, that's the end of this "road adventure"! She left - and now she’s already far away, probably sitting in a glassy white salon or on deck and looking at the huge river shining under the sun, at the oncoming rafts, at the yellow shallows, at the radiant distance of water and sky, at all this immense expanse of the Volga. .. And I'm sorry, and already forever, forever... Because where can they meet now? “I can’t,” he thought, “I can’t, for no reason at all, come to this city, where her husband is, where her three-year-old girl is, in general her whole family and her whole ordinary life!” - And this city seemed to him some kind of special, reserved city, and the thought that she would continue to live her lonely life in it, often, perhaps, remembering him, remembering their chance, such a fleeting meeting, and he already would never see her, the thought astounded and astounded him. No, it can't be! It would be too wild, unnatural, implausible! - And he felt such pain and such uselessness of his whole future life without her that he was seized with horror, despair. "What the hell! he thought, getting up, again beginning to pace the room and trying not to look at the bed behind the screen. - What is it with me? And what is special about it and what actually happened? In fact, just some kind of sunstroke! And most importantly, how can I now, without her, spend the whole day in this outback? He still remembered her all, with all her slightest features, he remembered the smell of her tan and canvas dress, her strong body, the lively, simple and cheerful sound of her voice ... The feeling of the just experienced pleasures of all her feminine charms was still unusually alive in him. , but now the main thing was still this second, completely new feeling - that strange, incomprehensible feeling, which had not existed at all while they were together, which he could not even imagine in himself, starting yesterday, as he thought, only amusing an acquaintance, and about which it was no longer possible to tell her now! “And most importantly,” he thought, “you can never tell! And what to do, how to live this endless day, with these memories, with this insoluble torment, in this godforsaken town above that very shining Volga, along which this pink steamer carried her away! It was necessary to escape, to do something, to distract yourself, to go somewhere. He resolutely put on his cap, took a stack, quickly walked, clinking his spurs, along an empty corridor, ran down a steep staircase to the entrance ... Yes, but where to go? At the entrance stood a cab driver, young, in a dexterous coat, calmly smoking a cigarette. The lieutenant looked at him in confusion and amazement: how is it possible to sit on the box so calmly, smoke, and in general be simple, careless, indifferent? “Probably I am the only one so terribly unhappy in this whole city,” he thought, heading towards the bazaar. The market has already left. For some reason, he walked through the fresh manure among the carts, among the carts with cucumbers, among the new bowls and pots, and the women sitting on the ground vied with each other to call him, take the pots in their hands and knock, ringing their fingers in them, showing their quality factor, peasants deafened him, shouted to him: “Here are the first grade cucumbers, your honor!” It was all so stupid, absurd that he fled from the market. He went to the cathedral, where they were already singing loudly, cheerfully and resolutely, with a sense of accomplishment, then he walked for a long time, circled around the small, hot and neglected garden on the cliff of the mountain, above the boundless light-steel expanse of the river ... Shoulder straps and buttons of his tunic so hot that they could not be touched. The band of the cap was wet with sweat inside, his face was on fire ... Returning to the hotel, he entered with pleasure into the large and empty cool dining room on the ground floor, took off his cap with pleasure and sat down at a table near the open window, which smelled of heat, but that was all. - still breathed in the air, ordered botvinya with ice ... Everything was fine, there was immense happiness in everything, great joy; even in this heat and in all the smells of the marketplace, in all this unfamiliar town and in this old county inn, there was this joy, and at the same time, the heart was simply torn to pieces. He drank several glasses of vodka, eating lightly salted cucumbers with dill and feeling that he would die tomorrow without hesitation if it were possible by some miracle to bring her back, to spend one more day with her, this day - to spend only then, only then, in order to tell her and prove something, to convince her how painfully and enthusiastically he loves her ... Why prove it? Why convince? He didn't know why, but it was more necessary than life. - The nerves are completely gone! he said, pouring out his fifth glass of vodka. He pushed the botvinia away from him, asked for black coffee and began to smoke and think hard: what should he do now, how to get rid of this sudden, unexpected love? But to get rid of - he felt it too vividly - was impossible. And suddenly he quickly got up again, took a cap and a stack, and, asking where the post office was, hurriedly went there with the telegram phrase already ready in his head: “From now on, my whole life forever, to the grave, yours, in your power.” But, having reached the old thick-walled house, where there was a post office and a telegraph office, he stopped in horror: he knew the city where she lives, knew that she had a husband and a three-year-old daughter, but did not know her name or surname! He asked her about it several times yesterday at dinner and at the hotel, and each time she laughed and said: “Why do you need to know who I am, what is my name?” On the corner, near the post office, there was a photographic display case. He looked for a long time at a large portrait of some military man in thick epaulettes, with bulging eyes, with a low forehead, with amazingly magnificent sideburns and the broadest chest, completely decorated with orders ... How wild, terrible everything is everyday, ordinary, when the heart is struck - yes, astonished, he understood it now—that terrible "sunstroke," too much love, too much happiness! He glanced at the newlywed couple—a young man in a long frock coat and white tie, with crew cut, stretched out to the front arm in arm with a girl in wedding gauze—transferred his eyes to the portrait of some pretty and playful young lady in a student cap on one side... Then, languishing with tormenting envy of all these unknown to him, not suffering people, he began to stare intently along the street. - Where to go? What to do? The street was completely empty. The houses were all the same, white, two-storied, merchants', with large gardens, and it seemed that there was not a soul in them; thick white dust lay on the pavement; and all this was blinding, everything was flooded with hot, fiery and joyful, but here, as if by an aimless sun. In the distance the street rose, stooped and rested against a cloudless, grayish, gleaming sky. There was something southern in it, reminiscent of Sevastopol, Kerch ... Anapa. It was especially unbearable. And the lieutenant, with lowered head, squinting from the light, intently looking at his feet, staggering, stumbling, clinging to spur with spur, walked back. He returned to the hotel so overwhelmed with fatigue, as if he had made a huge transition somewhere in Turkestan, in the Sahara. Gathering the last of his strength, he entered his large and empty room. The room was already tidied up, devoid of the last traces of her - only one hairpin, forgotten by her, lay on the night table! He took off his tunic and looked at himself in the mirror: his face—the usual officer’s face, gray from sunburn, with a whitish sun-bleached mustache and bluish whiteness of eyes that seemed even whiter from sunburn—had now an excited, crazy expression, and in There was something youthful and profoundly unhappy about a thin white shirt with a stand-up starched collar. He lay on his back on the bed, put his dusty boots on the dump. The windows were open, the curtains were lowered, and a light breeze from time to time blew them in, blew into the room the heat of the heated iron roofs and all this luminous and now completely empty, silent Volga world. He lay with his hands behind the back of his head, staring intently ahead of him. Then he clenched his teeth, closed his eyelids, feeling the tears roll down his cheeks from under them, and finally fell asleep, and when he opened his eyes again, the evening sun was already reddish yellow behind the curtains. The wind died down, it was stuffy and dry in the room, like in an oven ... Both yesterday and this morning were remembered as if they were ten years ago. He slowly got up, slowly washed himself, raised the curtains, rang the bell and asked for the samovar and the bill, and drank tea with lemon for a long time. Then he ordered a cab to be brought in, things to be carried out, and, getting into the cab, on its red, burnt-out seat, he gave the lackey a whole five rubles. “But it seems, your honor, that it was I who brought you at night!” said the driver cheerfully, taking hold of the reins. When they went down to the pier, the blue summer night was already turning blue over the Volga, and already many multi-colored lights were scattered along the river, and the lights hung on the masts of the approaching steamer. - Delivered exactly! said the driver ingratiatingly. The lieutenant gave him five rubles too, took a ticket, went to the pier... Just like yesterday, there was a soft knock on its pier and a slight dizziness from unsteadiness underfoot, then a flying end, the noise of water boiling and running forward under the wheels a little back of the steamer that was moving forward ... And it seemed unusually friendly, good from the crowd of this steamer, already lit everywhere and smelling of kitchen. A minute later they ran on, up, to the same place where they had taken her this morning. The dark summer dawn was fading away far ahead, reflecting gloomily, sleepily and multi-colored in the river, which still shone here and there in trembling ripples far below it, under this dawn, and the lights scattered in the darkness all around floated and floated back. The lieutenant sat under a canopy on the deck, feeling ten years older. Maritime Alps, 1925.

"Sunstroke", like most of Bunin's prose of the emigration period, has a love theme. In it, the author shows that shared feelings can give rise to a serious love drama.

L.V. Nikulin in his book "Chekhov, Bunin, Kuprin: Literary Portraits" indicates that the story "Sunstroke" was originally called the author "A Chance Acquaintance", then Bunin changes the name to "Xenia". However, both of these names were crossed out by the author, because. did not create Bunin's mood, "sound" (the first simply reported the event, the second called the potential name of the heroine).

The writer settled on the third, most successful option - "Sunstroke", which figuratively conveys the state experienced by the main character of the story and helps to reveal the essential features of Bunin's vision of love: suddenness, brightness, short duration of a feeling that instantly captures a person and, as it were, burns him to ashes.

Little is known about the main characters in the story. The author does not indicate names or ages. With this technique, the writer, as it were, elevates his heroes above the environment, time and circumstances. There are two main characters in the story - the lieutenant and his companion. They had only known each other for a day and could not imagine that an unexpected acquaintance could turn into a feeling that none of them had experienced in their entire lives. But the lovers are forced to leave, because. in the understanding of the writer, everyday life is contraindicated for love, they can only destroy and kill it.

Here, a direct, polemic with one of the famous stories of A.P. Chekhov's "Lady with a Dog", where the same unexpected meeting of the characters and the love that visited them continues, develops in time, overcomes the test of everyday life. The author of "Sunstroke" could not make such a plot decision, because "ordinary life" does not arouse his interest and lies outside his love concept.

The writer does not immediately give his characters the opportunity to realize everything that happened to them. The whole story of the rapprochement of the heroes is a kind of exposition of action, preparation for the shock that will happen in the soul of the lieutenant later, and in which he will not immediately believe. This happens after the hero, having seen off his fellow traveler, returns to the room. At first, the lieutenant is struck by a strange feeling of emptiness in his room.

In the further development of the action, the contrast between the absence of the heroine in the real surrounding space and her presence in the soul and memory of the protagonist gradually intensifies. The inner world of the lieutenant is filled with a feeling of implausibility, unnaturalness of everything that happened and the unbearable pain of loss.

The writer conveys the painful love experiences of the hero through changes in his mood. At first, the lieutenant's heart shrinks with tenderness, he yearns, while trying to hide his confusion. Then there is a kind of dialogue between the lieutenant and himself.

Bunin pays special attention to the gestures of the hero, his facial expressions and views. Equally important are his impressions, which manifest themselves in the form of phrases spoken aloud, quite elementary, but percussive. Only occasionally is the reader given the opportunity to know the thoughts of the hero. In this way, Bunin builds his psychological author's analysis - both secret and explicit.

The hero tries to laugh, to drive away sad thoughts, but he does not succeed. Every now and then he sees objects that remind of a stranger: a crumpled bed, a hairpin, an unfinished cup of coffee; smells her perfume. This is how flour and longing are born, leaving no trace of the former lightness and carelessness. Showing the abyss that lay between the past and the present, the writer emphasizes the subjective-lyrical experience of time: the present momentary, spent together with the characters and the eternity into which time grows for the lieutenant without a beloved.

After parting with the heroine, the lieutenant realizes that his life has lost all meaning. It is even known that in one of the editions of "Sunstroke" it was written that the lieutenant stubbornly matured the thought of suicide. So, literally before the eyes of the reader, a kind of metamorphosis is taking place: in the place of a completely ordinary and unremarkable army lieutenant, a person has appeared who thinks in a new way, suffers and feels ten years older.