The "Mouche" by Guy de Maupassant and the "Dark alleys" by Ivan Bunin.
If you spent your childhood by the sea, then a life in Paris with meager money, - especially if you work in a low official position, - may not seem to you a very comfortable.
If your's an urban (Parisian) life and work are not a very comfortable things, then you try to spend more time (on weekends and on vacation) in your native places - on the seashore.
If you are unable to spend more time on the seashore, then you go on weekends to the banks of the Seine and do rowing.
If you are engaged in rowing, then you get acquainted with other fans of rowing, and you form a company. A male company.
If you have a male company, then it is natural for you to meet girls. And it is likely that among the familiar girls will be found at least one who is inclined to float in a boat.
It may happen that this girl will have a close relationship with each of the participants of the male company-the fans of rowing. If such a relationship arises, it is possible that the girl will become pregnant. At this point, all participants in the situation will ask themselves the question - what is happening?
Before pregnancy, this question did not arise? Not in a male company, not for girl? Youth - is a happy time when you can enjoy, without burdening yourself with thoughts?...
When due to a sudden case the girl's pregnancy is interrupted, the participants of the situation understand that life is not only pleasant, but also tragic. If to name this girl "Mouche" ["Fly"], if to emphasize her lightness, a lack of anger, an unselfishness and defenselessness, her positive qualities, a reader will feel the tragedy of the situation with all the distinctness.
The fact that life is tragic was clear already when, instead of walking on the seashore, it was necessary to spend time in a big city, in the service ...
But why was it necessary to move from the seaside city to Paris?... Wouldn't there be a place in a seaside town for a young man from a well-to-do family? Somehow a place in the life for Gustave de Maupassant - the father of the writer - was found? Would not Guy de Maupassant have found a place for himself in a seaside town, where was plenty of sea, fresh air, and walks?
In Paris there were prospects, there were meetings with Flaubert, there was a good plan-to become a successful writer.
In other words, there was a potential in Paris - a potential that had to be converted into success. In a seaside town, a far from Flaubert, from newspapers, from publishing houses, from a writer's environment, a probability of a writer's success was much lower.
But in general, a life is tragic - for example because instead of pleasant walks along the seashore you should achieve writer's (or any other) success ... It can be tragic - a parting with a pleasant childhood, a transition into age with responsibilities...
A completely different matter - ... we will not talk about Oblomov ... we will talk about Bunin ...
And a completely different matter - the 'Dark Alleys' collection. From birth, the opportunity was given not to study, not to work anywhere, but to live in the status of a landowner.
In reality, this rarely happened, but it happened ... A country of happy people. (Unfortunately, a country of a not a numerous happy people). But even the short-lived happiness of a few people deserves to be inscribed forever in a literary works.
(We will deduce, now, out of a theme a strict mother-as at Turgenev).
In any case, a some number of lucky people had opportunities to saturate themselves with positive emotions, to enjoy the dark alleys [a beautiful comfortable park roads, through a grove, between a rows of trees]. - A time, when you do not need to suffer in the service, but you can live in a nature and in your emotions.
But a reading the "Dark alleys" also leaves a sense of a tragedy.
Subtle happiness suddenly comes off, like leaves from a tree, and is carried away somewhere by the wind and time ... It's painful, it's tragic...
A reading of the 'Robinson Crusoe' (by Daniel Defoe) - it's an another matter entirely...
Maupassant didn't like much in the UK. And Bunin's impressions of the UK... somehow nothing is coming to a memory immediately...
December 1, 2019 21:15
Translation from Russian into English: 2 December 2019 08:49.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Мопассан и Бунин. Литературная заметка'.