“The Life of Arsenyev, of Course, Is Primarily Poetry”: Georgy Adamovich on Ivan Bunin’s Novel, 1929–1952

Abstract

The author expresses his heartfelt gratitude to the staff of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, as well as to S.N. Morozov (IWL RAS) and S.R. Fedyakin (Gorky Literary Institute) for their assistance in the preparation of the article. Abstract: The article uses the material of G.V. Adamovich’s publications in emigrant periodicals to address the problem of critical reception of I.A. Bunin’s novel “The Life of Arsenyev” in the late 1920s – early 1950s. Bunin in 1928–1939 published his novel in parts. At the same time, the appearance in the magazine “Sovremennye zapiski” (Paris) of each of the five books included in the novel and the release of individual book editions were preceded by the publication of fragments of “The Life of Arsenyev” in emigrant newspapers. This explains the relatively large 324 Литературный факт. 2021. № 3 (21) number of Adamovich’s responses to Bunin's novel. The critic did not let “The Life of Arsenyev” out of his field of view from the time of the publication of her third book in “Sovremennye zapiski” (1929) until the first complete edition of the novel was published in the New York Chekhov Publishing House (1952). The article traces how Adamovich’s attitude to Bunin’s work was adjusted over the years, and how, as a result, sophisticated pickiness was replaced by unconditional admiration. The empirical material is grouped taking into account the chronology of the publication of “The Life of Arsenyev”. The research methods used are the principle of historicism and comparative analysis.

Keywords

• g.v. adamovich
• i.a. bunin
• “the life of arsenyev”
• the criticism
• the russian abroad