“Breathing easy” Bunin in brief
Exposition of the story – a description of the grave of the main character. Then follows the presentation of its history. Olya Meshcherskaya is a successful, capable and playful schoolgirl, indifferent to the instructions of a classy lady. At the age of fifteen she was a recognized beauty, had the most fans, danced best at balls and skated. There were rumors that one of the schoolboys in love with her had attempted suicide because of her windiness.
In the last winter of her life Olya Meshcherskaya “has completely gone mad with fun.” Her behavior makes the boss make another remark, reproaching her, among other things, for dressing and behaving not like a girl, but as a woman. At this point Meshcherskaya interrupts her with a calm message that she is a woman and the friend and neighbor of her father, the brother of the head Alexey Malyutin, is guilty of this.
A month after this conversation, the ugly Cossack officer shot Meshcherskaya on the platform of
From the diary it followed that it happened when Malyutin came to visit Meshchersky and found one Olya at home. Describes her attempts to take guests, walk in the garden; Malyutin’s comparison of them with Faust and Margarita. After tea, she pretended to be unwell, and lay down on the ottoman, and Malyutin moved to her, first kissed her hand, then kissed her on the lips. Then Meshcherskaya wrote that after what happened next, she feels such disgust for Malyutin that she can not survive it.
The action ends in the cemetery, where every Sunday at the grave of Olya Meshcherskaya comes her classy lady living in an illusory world, replacing her reality. The subject of her previous fantasies was her brother, a poor and unremarkable ensign whose future seemed to her brilliant. After the death of her brother, Olga Meshcherskaya took her place in her mind. She goes to her grave every holiday, watches with an oak cross for hours, remembers a pale face in a coffin among flowers and once overheard words that Olya told her beloved friend. She read in one book what kind of beauty a woman should have – black eyes, black eyelashes, longer than an ordinary hand, but most importantly – a light breath, and after all she has it: “… you listen, as I sigh, because The truth is? “
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