The Village (Alma Classics Limited)

Ivan Bunin's first published work, The Village is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of rural life in south-west Russia. Set at the time of the 1905 Revolution and centering on episodes in the lives of two peasant brothers – "characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human" – it reveals the pettiness, violence and ignorance of life on the land. At once nostalgic for a bygone more innocent age and foreshadowing the turbulences of the twentieth century, Bunin's narrative is a triumph of bitter realism, shot through with the author's classical style and precision of language. This edition contains detailed notes on the text, extra material about the author and a carefully selected bibliography. There is also an appendix containing the first few pages of The Village in the original Russian. A bleak and uncompromising portrayal of rural life in south-west Russia. Set at the time of the 1905 Revolution and centring on episodes in the lives of a land-owner and his self-educated peasant brother, the book follows characters "sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human." Set during the 1905 Revolution in southwest Russia, this is a bleak and uncompromising portrayal of the lives of two peasant brothers, "characters sunk so far below the average of intelligence as to be scarcely human."--Publisher's description