A Beauty (Bunin)

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A Beauty
rus. Красавица · 1940
Summary of a Short Story
The original takes ~3 min to read
Microsummary
A provincial official's young wife rejected his son. The father also ignored the child. The boy lived a hidden life, sleeping on the floor and carefully maintaining invisible daily routines.

Division into chapters is editorial.

An officials marriage to a beautiful young woman

An elderly widower who worked as an official in the provincial revenue department married a young beauty, the daughter of the local military commander. The contrast between them was striking.

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The Official — elderly widower from provincial revenue department, thin, tall, consumptive build, wears glasses color of iodine, speaks hoarsely, taciturn, modest, fearful of his new wife.

He was taciturn and modest, while she was self-assured. He was thin, tall, of consumptive build, wore glasses the colour of iodine... And she was short, splendidly and strongly built, always well dressed...

The young woman was not only physically different from her husband but also possessed a completely opposite temperament.

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The Beauty — young woman, daughter of local military commander, short, splendidly built, well-dressed, attentive, organized, sharp gaze in blue eyes, self-assured, cruel to stepson.

The official seemed unremarkable in every way, yet this was his second marriage to a beautiful woman. His first wife had also been a beauty, which puzzled everyone who knew him. People could not understand what attracted such women to this ordinary provincial official.

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The First Beauty — deceased first wife of the official, mother of the boy, referred to only as a beauty who had married the official.

He seemed just as uninteresting in all respects as a multitude of provincial officials, but had been wed to a beauty, in his first marriage too – and everyone simply spread their hands: why and wherefore did such women marry him?

The stepmothers rejection of the boy

The official had a seven-year-old son from his first marriage. The new wife immediately developed a deep aversion to the child and acted as though he did not exist in the household.

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The Boy — seven-year-old son of the official from his first marriage, naturally lively and affectionate, becomes frightened and withdrawn, leads solitary existence.

And so the second beauty calmly came to hate his seven-year-old boy by the first one, and pretended not to notice him at all. Then the father too, out of fear of her, also pretended that he did not have, and never had had a son.

The boy, who was naturally affectionate and lively, became frightened to speak in their presence. Eventually, he withdrew completely, making himself virtually invisible in the house.

After the wedding, the boy was moved out of his father's bedroom to sleep on a small couch in the drawing room. His sleep was restless, and he often knocked his bedding onto the floor during the night. The stepmother soon complained about this to the maid.

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Nastya — maid in the household, follows the beauty's orders.

"It's scandalous, he'll wear out all the velvet on the couch. Make his bed up on the floor, Nastya, on that little mattress I ordered you to hide away in the late mistress's big trunk in the corridor."

The boys isolated existence in his own home

In his complete solitude, the boy began to lead an entirely independent life, isolated from the rest of the household. His existence became quiet and inconspicuous, following the same pattern day after day.

And the boy, in his utter solitude in all the world, began leading a completely independent life, completely isolated from the whole house – inaudible, inconspicuous, identical from day to day...

He spent his days sitting quietly in a corner of the drawing room, drawing little houses on a slate or reading in a whisper from a picture book that had been bought during his late mother's time. He built railways out of matchboxes and gazed out of the windows, observing the world outside that seemed so distant from his isolated existence.

At night, the boy slept on the floor between the couch and a potted palm. He had developed a routine of making up his little bed himself in the evening and diligently clearing it away in the morning. He would roll up his bedding and carry it to his mother's trunk in the corridor, where all his other belongings were also hidden away.

He sleeps on the floor between the couch and a potted palm. He makes up his little bed himself in the evening, and diligently clears it away, rolls it up himself in the morning, and carries it off into the corridor...

The boy's life had become a careful exercise in self-effacement. He existed in the margins of the household, maintaining his small routines with quiet determination. His father, out of fear of his new wife, continued to act as though his son did not exist, while the stepmother maintained her cold indifference toward the child.