Summary of “Garnet Bracelet”
The story “Garnet Bracelet” Kuprin, written in 1910, occupies a significant place in the writer’s work and in Russian literature. The history of love of the petty official to the married princess Paustovsky was called one of the most fragrant and tormenting tales of love. Real, eternal, a rare gift of love – the theme of the work of Kuprin.
In order to get acquainted with the plot and the heroes of the story, we offer you to read the summary of the “Garnet Bracelet” by chapters. He will give an opportunity to comprehend the work, to comprehend the charm and ease of the writer’s language and to get into the idea.
Main characters
Vera Sheina is the princess, the wife of the leader of the nobility Shein. Married for love, over time, love grew into friendship and respect. She began to receive letters from her loving official, Zheltkov, before her marriage.
Zheltkov is an official. Unrequited for many years in love with
Vasily Shein is a prince, provincial leader of the nobility. Loves his wife.
Other characters
Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov is a general, a friend of the late Prince Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, the father of Vera, Anna and Nikolai.
Anna Friesse is the sister of Vera and Nikolai.
Nikolai Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky – assistant prosecutor, brother of Vera and Anna.
Jenny Reuter is a friend of Princess Vera, a famous pianist.
Summary
Chapter 1
In mid-August, the Black Sea coast came bad weather. Most of the inhabitants of coastal resorts began to hastily move into the city, leaving their dachas. Princess Vera Sheina was forced to stay at the dacha, as in her town house there was a repair.
Along with the first days of September, the warmth came, it became sunny and clear, and Vera was very pleased with the wonderful days of early autumn.
Chapter 2
On the day of her name-day, September 17, Vera Nikolaevna was expecting guests. My husband left on business in the morning and was supposed to bring guests for dinner.
Vera rejoiced
To help Vera in the household and receive guests came her sister Anna Nikolaevna Friesse. Unlike neither appearance nor characters, the sisters were very attached to each other since childhood.
Chapter 3
Anna had not seen the sea for a long time, and the sisters sat for a short time on a bench over the precipice, “a steep wall that fell deep into the sea” – to admire the charming landscape.
Remembering the cooked gift, Anna handed her sister a notebook in an antique binding.
Chapter 4
Towards evening the guests began to come. Among them was General Anosov, friend of Prince Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, the late father of Anna and Vera. He was very attached to the sisters, they, in turn, adored him and called him grandfather.
Chapter 5
The host, Scriabin Vasily Lvovich, entertained the gathered at the Shein’s house. He had a special gift from the narrator: at the heart of the humorous stories was always the event that happened to someone from the acquaintances. But in his stories he so “thickened the colors”, so fancifully combined the truth and fiction and spoke with such serious and businesslike appearance that all listeners laughed without stopping. This time his story concerned the failed marriage of his brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich.
Getting up from the table, Vera involuntarily counted the guests – there were thirteen of them. And, since the princess was superstitious, she became uneasy.
After dinner, all but Vera sat down to play poker. She was going to go out onto the terrace when the maid called her. On the table in the office, where both women entered, the servant laid out a small packet tied with a ribbon and explained that the messenger had brought him with a request to hand it over personally to Vera Nikolaevna.
Vera found a gold bracelet and a note in the package. At first she began to consider the decoration. In the center of the base gold bracelet stood out some magnificent garnets, each of which was the size of a pea. Examining the stones, the birthday girl turned the bracelet, and the stones flashed like “lovely dense red living lights.” With alarm, Vera realized that these lights are like blood.
Then she began to read the letter. “Ah, this is that!” – so the princess thought with displeasure, realizing that the author of the message was her secret admirer.
He congratulated Vera on Angel’s Day, asked me not to hold him against him because he dared to write letters to her several years ago and expect a response. He asked me to accept as a gift a bracelet, the stones of which belonged to his great-grandmother. With her silver bracelet he, exactly repeating the location, carried the stones to the gold one and paid attention to the fact that the bracelet was still not worn by the Faith. He wrote: “However, I believe that in all the world there is no treasure worthy to decorate you” and admitted that all that is now left in it – “only reverence, eternal worship and slavish devotion,” every minute desire for happiness Vera and joy, if she is happy.
Vera wondered if it was worth showing her husband a present.
Chapter 6
The evening passed smoothly and briskly: they played cards, talked, listened to the singing of one of the guests. Prince Shein showed several guests a home album with his own drawings. This album was an addition to the humorous stories of Vasily Lvovich. The reviewers laughed so loudly and contagiously that the guests gradually moved towards them.
The last story in the drawings was called “Princess Vera and the Telegraphist in Love”, and the text of the story itself, according to the prince, was still “made”. Vera asked her husband: “I do not need it better”, but he either did not hear, or did not pay attention to her request and began her funny story about how Princess Vera received passionate messages from the telegraphist in love.
Chapter 7
After tea, a few guests left, the rest stayed on the terrace. General Anosov told stories from his army life, Anna and Vera listened to him with pleasure, as in childhood.
Before going to see off the old general, Vera invited her husband to read the letter she received.
Chapter 8
On the way to the crew, who was waiting for the general, Anosov talked with Vera and Anna about not seeing true love in their life. In his view, “love must be a tragedy, the greatest mystery in the world.”
The general asked Vera about what is true in the story told by her husband. And she gladly shared with him: “some madman” pursued her with his love and sent letters before marriage. The princess also told about the parcel with the letter. In thought, the general remarked that it is entirely possible that the life of the Faith has crossed the “one, forgiving, all ready, modest and selfless” love that any woman dreams about.
Chapter 9
After seeing the guests and returning to the house, Sheina joined in the conversation of her brother Nikolai and Vasily Lvovich. Brother believed that the “stupidity” of the fan should be stopped immediately – a story with a bracelet and letters could spoil the reputation of the family.
After discussing how to proceed, it was decided that the next day Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai would find the secret adorer of the Faith and, demanding to leave her alone, would return the bracelet.
Chapter 10
Shein and Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, husband and brother of the Faith, paid a visit to her admirer. He was an official Yoltkov, a man of thirty or thirty-five.
Nicholas immediately explained to him the reason for the parish – by his gift he broke the line of patience of the close Vera. Zheltkov immediately agreed that he was to blame for the persecution of the princess.
Turning to the prince, Yoltkov spoke of how he loved his wife and felt that he could never stop loving her, and all that remains to him is death, which he will accept “in whatever form.” Before talking, Jeltkov asked for permission to leave for a few minutes to call Vera.
During the absence of an official, in response to Nicholas’s accusations that the prince was “rasquish” and regrets his wife’s fan, Vasily Lvovich explained to the brother-in-law what he felt. “This person is not able to deceive and lie, obviously, is he guilty of love and how can one manage such a feeling as love, a feeling that has not yet been interpreted by him?” The prince did not just regret this man, he realized that he had witnessed “some great tragedy of the soul.”
Returning, Jeltkov asked permission to write the last letter to Vera and promised that more visitors would not hear about him and would not see him. At the request of Vera Nikolaevna, he “as soon as possible” stops “this story.”
In the evening the prince gave his wife details of the visit to Zheltkov. She was not surprised at what she heard, but was slightly excited: the princess felt that “this man will kill himself.”
Chapter 11
The next morning Vera learned from the newspapers that because of the embezzlement of state money, the official Zheltkov committed suicide. All day Sheina thought about the “unknown man”, which she never had to see, not understanding why she had a premonition of the tragic end of his life. She also recalled Anosov’s words about true love, which may have met on her way.
The postman brought a farewell letter from Zheltkov. He admitted that love for the Faith is regarded as a great happiness, that his whole life is only in the princess. I asked to be forgiven for thanking me for “inconvenient wedge” into the life of Vera, simply thanking me for living in the world and saying goodbye forever. “I checked myself – it’s not a disease, it’s not a maniacal idea – it’s a love that God wanted for me to reward for something.” Leaving, I enthusiastically say: “Hallowed be your name,” he wrote.
After reading the message, Vera told her husband that she would like to go and see the man who loved her. The prince supported this decision.
Chapter 12
Vera found an apartment, which was rented by Yoltkov. The mistress of the apartment came to meet her, and they began to talk. At the request of the princess, the woman told about the last days of Zheltkov, then Vera went into the room where he was lying. The expression of the deceased’s face was so peaceful, as if this man “before parting with life learned some deep and sweet secret that solved all his human life.”
At parting the mistress of the apartment told Vera that if she suddenly died and a woman came to say goodbye to him, Zheltkov asked to tell her that the best work of Beethoven – his name he wrote – “L. van Beethoven., Son., No. 2, op. Largo Appassionato “.
Vera cried, explaining her tears with a painful “impression of death.”
Chapter 13
Vera returned home late at night. At home, only Jenny Reuter was waiting for her, and the princess rushed to her friend to ask for something to play. Without doubting that the pianist will perform “the same place from the Second Sonata, about which this dead man asked with a funny name of Yolkov,” the princess recognized the music from the first chords. The soul of the Faith seemed to split into two parts: at the same time thinking about the recurring once in a thousand years of love that passed by, and why this particular work she should listen to.
“In her mind words were composed, they coincided in her thoughts with music, they were like couplets, which ended with the words:” Hallowed be your name. “These words were about great love.” Vera cried for past feelings, and the music excited and calmed her at the same time. “When the sonata’s sounds died down, the princess calmed down.
When Zhenya asked why she was crying, Vera Nikolayevna answered her only with an understandable phrase: “He forgave me now. Everything is fine.”
Conclusion
Telling the story of the sincere and pure, but unrequited love of the hero to a married woman, Kuprin pushes the reader to reflect on the place that the feeling occupies in a person’s life, which gives him the right, how the inner world of the one who has the gift to love changes.
Acquaintance with the work of Kuprin can begin with a brief retelling of the “Garnet Bracelet”. And then, already knowing the storyline, having an idea of the heroes, it is with pleasure to plunge into the rest of the writer’s narrative about the wonderful world of true love.
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