“Late Hour” -A Set in Paris Short Story by Ivan Bunin - 1938- translated by David Richards -included The Gentleman from San Francisco and other Stories-- A Post for Paris in July 2022

 

“Late Hour” -A Set in Paris Short Story by Ivan Bunin - 1938- translated by David Humphries -included in The Gentleman from San Francisco and other Stories-- A Post for Paris in July 2022 

This will be my eighth year participating in a wonderful event, Paris in July.  The event hosts are Reader Buzz and Thyme for Tea.  Posts on any and all things Paris are welcome.  You can share your memories of a trip to Paris, your favorite French recipes or restaurants, art in the  Louvre, your favorite set in Paris Movies (mine are Ninotchka and Midnight in Paris).  Of course the French literary masters as well as contemporary writers are great subjects.

Last year I posted on six short stories by Russian Émigré writers who moved to Paris after the fall of the Tsars, among others works.  Ivan Bunin is given illuminating coverage in After the Romanovs.

Paris in July is an excellent way to meet bloggers outside the Book Blog world, to expand your knowledge of Parisian history and culture.

Ivan Bunin

October 22, 1870 - Born Voronezh, Russia

March 28, 1920 - moves to Paris where he Will spend The rest of his Life, with countryside interludes

1933 - first Russian to win the Nobel Prize

November 8, 1953 - dies in Paris 

Bunin moved to Paris in 1920, his heart broken by the fall of The Romanovs from power in Russia.  He, like many Russian Émigrés, spent the rest of his life dreaming of the old days and fantasying about the restoration of a Tsar, along with the return of his family estate.  

“Late Hour”, set in Paris, is narrated by a widower wandering the streets of Paris, imagining it as Moscow in the old days. As he crosses the Seine on a bridge,he begins to search for the home in which his late wife grew up. He prays he can kiss her feet in heaven.  

Mel Ulm