A.I. Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet": description, characters, analysis of the work. Kuprin garnet bracelet According to the story garnet bracelet

Each generation asks itself questions: Is there love? What is she like? Is it necessary? The questions are difficult and impossible to answer definitively. A. Kuprin is an unsurpassed master of the pen, capable of asking such questions and answering them. Kuprin loves to write about love, this is one of his favorite topics. A feeling of aching melancholy and at the same time enlightenment comes after reading “The Garnet Bracelet.”

A modest postal worker selflessly loves the princess. For seven long, weary years, Zheltkov loves a woman whom he has never even met. He just follows her, collects the things she forgot, breathes the air that she breathes. And what letters he writes to her! As a sign of his love, he gives her a garnet bracelet, which is very dear to him. But Vera Nikolaevna is offended and tells everything to her husband, whom she does not love, but is very attached to him. Shein, Vera Nikolaevna’s husband, sorts things out with Zheltkov. He asks her not to bother his wife anymore with letters and gifts, but allows her to write a farewell letter of apology. This was the reason for Zheltkov’s suicide. The realization that he would never achieve the love of his ideal, that his days would be empty and cold, pushed Zheltkov to a terrible act.

“Hallowed be thy name!” - with such enthusiastic words Zheltkov departs this life. And hasn’t Vera Nikolaevna lost the opportunity to love? Love is not given to everyone. Only a person with a pure, unsullied soul can surrender to this feeling. The modest Zheltkov, who may not be noticed in the crowd, is contrasted with the rich, callous people of the secular circle. But the soul, what a soul he has... It is not visible, it is not in clothes. You can only feel it, love it. Zheltkov was unlucky. No one saw his soul.

I cried when I read this work. I re-read Zheltkova’s experiences several times. And his letters to the woman he loves? They can be learned by heart. What depth of love, self-sacrifice and self-denial. They say that they can’t love like that now. Maybe. General Anosov says in the story that there is no love, and there wasn’t in our time. It turns out that all generations think about eternal love, but only a few manage to recognize it.

Kuprin wrote “ Garnet bracelet"in 1911. Until now, his work has not lost its relevance and relevance. Why? Because the theme of love is eternal. If there were no love, we would become all callous, iron machines without a heart and conscience. Love saves us, makes us human. Sometimes, it turns out, blood is shed because of love. It's painful and cruel, but it cleanses us.

I want to experience happy love in my life. And if there is no reciprocity, well. The main thing is that there is love.

Option 2

In the story of Alexander Kuprin, true love is described with extraordinary subtlety and tragedy, although unrequited, but pure, undeniable and sublime. Who else if not Kuprin to write about this great feeling. “...Almost all my works are my autobiography...” the writer noted.

…main character Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, who stood out for her kindness, courtesy, education, prudence and special love for children, whom she could not have. She was married to Prince Shein, who was in a state of bankruptcy.

On Vera’s name day, her husband presented her with earrings, and her sister gave her an antique prayer book made in the form of a notebook. Only close relatives were present at the holiday, as a result of which the holiday turned out to be good, everyone congratulated the princess. But at any holiday something can happen, and so it is here.

The main character is brought another present and a letter. This gift, a garnet bracelet, was of great significance for the writer, as he considered it a sign of love. The addressee of this offering was a secret admirer of Princess G.S. Zheltkov. He was a man aged thirty-five, of thin build with a puffy face, and worked as an official. His feelings for the woman seethed for eight years; it was unrequited love, reaching the point of recklessness. Zheltkov collected all the objects that belonged to or were held in the hands of his beloved.

With his gift, he showed his feelings in front of the entire Shein family. The spouse and relatives decide that they need to return the gift to the owner and explain that this is an indecent act on his part. Vera’s husband, in a conversation with a fan, shows his nobility; he sees that Zheltkov’s feelings are genuine. Soon, the princess learns from the newspaper about the suicide of her admirer. She has a desire to look at a person, even after his death.

While in the apartment of the deceased, Vera Nikolaevna realizes that it was her man. Feelings for your spouse have long faded, only respect remains. An important symbol is the letter left by Zheltkov to his beloved.

IN fiction The theme of love is considered the main one; it is one of the main elements of society.

Analysis of the story for grade 11

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Introduction
“The Garnet Bracelet” is one of the most famous stories by Russian prose writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. It was published in 1910, but for the domestic reader it still remains a symbol of unselfish, sincere love, the kind that girls dream about, and the one that we so often miss. We previously published this wonderful work. In this same publication we will tell you about the main characters, analyze the work and talk about its problems.

The events of the story begin to unfold on the birthday of Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. They celebrate at the dacha with their closest people. At the height of the fun, the hero of the occasion receives a gift - a garnet bracelet. The sender decided to remain unrecognized and signed the short note only with the initials of the HSG. However, everyone immediately guesses that this is Vera’s long-time admirer, a certain petty official who has been inundating her with love letters for many years. The princess's husband and brother quickly figure out the identity of the annoying suitor and the next day they go to his home.

In a wretched apartment they are met by a timid official named Zheltkov, he meekly agrees to take the gift and promises never to appear in front of the respectable family again, provided that he makes a final farewell call to Vera and makes sure that she does not want to know him. Vera Nikolaevna, of course, asks Zheltkov to leave her. The next morning the newspapers will write that a certain official took his own life. In his farewell note, he wrote that he had squandered government property.

Main characters: characteristics of key images

Kuprin is a master of portraiture, and through appearance he draws the character of the characters. The author pays a lot of attention to each character, devoting a good half of the story to portrait characteristics and memories, which also reveal characters. The main characters of the story are:

• – princess, central female image;
• - her husband, the prince, the provincial leader of the nobility;
• - a minor official of the control chamber, passionately in love with Vera Nikolaevna;
• Anna Nikolaevna Friesse– Vera’s younger sister;
• Nikolai Nikolaevich Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky– brother of Vera and Anna;
• Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov- general, military comrade of Vera’s father, close friend of the family.

Vera is the ideal representative high society both in appearance, and in manners, and in character.

“Vera took after her mother, a beautiful Englishwoman, with her tall, flexible figure, gentle but cold and proud face, beautiful, albeit rather large hands and that charming sloping shoulders that can be seen in ancient miniatures.”

Princess Vera was married to Vasily Nikolaevich Shein. Their love had long ceased to be passionate and moved into that calm stage of mutual respect and tender friendship. Their union was happy. The couple did not have children, although Vera Nikolaevna passionately wanted a baby, and therefore gave all her unspent feelings to the children of her younger sister.

Vera was royally calm, coldly kind to everyone, but at the same time very funny, open and sincere with close people. She was not characterized by such feminine tricks as affectation and coquetry. Despite her high status, Vera was very prudent, and knowing how poorly things were going for her husband, she sometimes tried to deprive herself so as not to put him in an uncomfortable position.

Vera Nikolaevna’s husband is a talented, pleasant, gallant, noble man. He has an amazing sense of humor and is a brilliant storyteller. Shein keeps a home journal, which contains true stories with pictures about the life of the family and those close to them.

Vasily Lvovich loves his wife, perhaps not as passionately as in the first years of marriage, but who knows how long passion actually lasts? The husband deeply respects her opinion, feelings, and personality. He is compassionate and merciful to others, even those who are much lower in status than him (this is evidenced by his meeting with Zheltkov). Shein is noble and endowed with the courage to admit mistakes and his own wrongness.

We first meet Official Zheltkov towards the end of the story. Until this moment, he is present in the work invisibly in the grotesque image of a klutz, an eccentric, a fool in love. When the long-awaited meeting finally takes place, we see before us a meek and shy person, such people are usually not noticed and called “little”:

“He was tall, thin, with long, fluffy, soft hair.”

His speeches, however, are devoid of the chaotic whims of a madman. He is fully aware of his words and actions. Despite his apparent cowardice, this man is very courageous; he boldly tells the prince, Vera Nikolaevna’s legal husband, that he is in love with her and cannot do anything about it. Zheltkov does not fawn over the rank and position in society of his guests. He submits, but not to fate, but only to his beloved. And he also knows how to love – selflessly and sincerely.

“It so happened that I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me life lies only in you. I now feel that I have crashed into your life like some kind of uncomfortable wedge. If you can, forgive me for this"

Analysis of the work

Kuprin got the idea for his story from real life. In reality, the story was more of an anecdotal nature. A certain poor telegraph operator named Zheltikov was in love with the wife of one of the Russian generals. One day this eccentric was so brave that he sent his beloved a simple gold chain with a pendant in the form easter egg. It's hilarious and that's it! Everyone laughed at the stupid telegraph operator, but the inquisitive writer’s mind decided to look beyond the anecdote, because real drama can always be hidden behind the apparent curiosity.

Also in “The Pomegranate Bracelet,” the Sheins and their guests first make fun of Zheltkov. Vasily Lvovich even has a funny story about this in his home magazine called “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.” People tend not to think about other people's feelings. The Sheins were not bad, callous, soulless (this is proven by the metamorphosis in them after meeting Zheltkov), they just did not believe that the love that the official admitted could exist..

There are many symbolic elements in the work. For example, a garnet bracelet. Garnet is a stone of love, anger and blood. If a feverish person picks it up (a parallel with the expression “love fever”), the stone will take on a more saturated hue. According to Zheltkov himself, this special type of pomegranate (green pomegranate) gives women the gift of foresight, and protects men from violent death. Zheltkov, having parted with his amulet bracelet, dies, and Vera unexpectedly predicts his death.

Another symbolic stone - pearls - also appears in the work. Vera receives pearl earrings as a gift from her husband on the morning of her name day. Pearls, despite their beauty and nobility, are an omen of bad news.
The weather also tried to predict something bad. On the eve of the fateful day, a terrible storm broke out, but on the birthday everything calmed down, the sun came out and the weather was calm, like a calm before a deafening clap of thunder and an even stronger storm.

Problems of the story

The key problem of the work is the question “What is true love?” In order for the “experiment” to be pure, the author provides different types“love.” This is the tender love-friendship of the Sheins, and the calculating, convenient love of Anna Friesse for her indecently rich old man-husband, who blindly adores her soul mate, and the long-forgotten ancient love of General Amosov, and the all-consuming love-worship of Zheltkov for Vera.

The main character herself cannot understand for a long time whether it is love or madness, but looking into his face, albeit hidden by the mask of death, she is convinced that it was love. Vasily Lvovich draws the same conclusions after meeting his wife’s admirer. And if at first he was somewhat belligerent, then later he could not be angry with the unfortunate man, because, it seems, a secret was revealed to him, which neither he, nor Vera, nor their friends could comprehend.

People are selfish by nature and even in love, they think first of all about their feelings, masking their own egocentrism from their other half and even themselves. True love, which occurs between a man and a woman once every hundred years, puts the beloved first. So Zheltkov calmly lets Vera go, because that’s the only way she will be happy. The only problem is that he doesn’t need life without her. In his world, suicide is a completely natural step.

Princess Sheina understands this. She sincerely mourns Zheltkov, a man whom she practically did not know, but, oh my God, perhaps true love, which occurs once every hundred years, passed her by.

“I am eternally grateful to you just for the fact that you exist. I tested myself - this is not a disease, not a manic idea - this is love with which God was pleased to reward me for something... Leaving, I say in delight: “Let him be holy.” your name”

Place in literature: Literature of the 20th century → Russian literature of the 20th century → Works of Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin → The story “Garnet Bracelet” (1910)

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In September, a small festive dinner was being prepared at the dacha in honor of the hostess’s name day. Vera Nikolaevna Sheina received earrings as a gift from her husband this morning. She was glad that the holiday was to be held at the dacha, since her husband’s financial affairs were not going well. in the best possible way. Sister Anna came to help Vera Nikolaevna prepare dinner. Guests were arriving. The weather turned out to be good, and the evening passed with warm, sincere conversations. The guests sat down to play poker. At this time the messenger brought a package. It contained a gold bracelet with garnets and a small green stone in the middle. There was a note attached to the gift. It said that the bracelet was a family heirloom of the donor, and the green stone was a rare garnet that has the properties of a talisman.

The holiday was in full swing. The guests played cards, sang, joked, and looked at an album with satirical pictures and stories made by the owner. Among the stories was a story about a telegraph operator in love with Princess Vera, who pursued his beloved, despite her refusal. An unrequited feeling drove him to a madhouse.

Almost all the guests have left. Those who remained talked with General Anosov, whom the sisters called grandfather, about his military life and love adventures. Walking through the garden, the general tells Vera about the story of his unsuccessful marriage. The conversation turns to understanding true love. Anosov tells stories about men who valued love more than own life. He asks Vera about the story about the telegraph operator. It turned out that the princess had never seen him and did not know who he really was.

When Vera returned, she found her husband and brother Nikolai having an unpleasant conversation. All together they decided that these letters and gifts discredit the name of the princess and her husband, so this story must be put to an end. Not knowing anything about the princess’s admirer, Nikolai and Vasily Lvovich Shein found him. Vera’s brother attacked this pitiable man with threats. Vasily Lvovich showed generosity and listened to him. Zheltkov admitted that he loved Vera Nikolaevna hopelessly, but too much to be able to overcome this feeling. In addition, he said that he would no longer bother the princess, since he had squandered government money and was forced to leave. The next day, a newspaper article revealed the official's suicide. The postman brought a letter, from which Vera learned that love for her was Zheltkov’s greatest joy and grace. Standing at the coffin, Vera Nikolaevna understands that the wonderful deep feeling that Anosov spoke about has passed her by.

The story of the great genius of love prose A.I. Kuprin “The Garnet Bracelet” can be interpreted in different ways, discussing who the real hero is here. The opinions of critics differ on this issue, some consider Zheltkov to be the hero, trying by any means to prove his love, but also to declare his existence, others prefer the heroine’s husband, who simply wants his wife to be happy. Analyzing the work according to plan will help you figure this out. This material can be used in preparation for the Unified State Exam in literature in 11th grade.

Brief Analysis

Year of writing— 1910

History of creation— The writer based the plot on a real story told to him by one of his friends.

Subject - main topic This story is love, unrequited and real.

Composition - The exposition begins with action introducing the characters of the story, followed by the beginning when Vera Nikolaevna receives a garnet bracelet as a gift. Features of the composition in the use of symbols and secret meanings. Here is the garden, which is described in a time of decay, and the short story, the bracelet itself, the main symbol is the Beethoven sonata, which is the leitmotif of the story. The action develops, Zheltkov dies, and the climax is a Beethoven sonata, and the denouement.

Genre - It is difficult to determine the genre essence of “The Garnet Bracelet”. Based on its composition, consisting of thirteen chapters, it can be classified as a story, and the writer himself believed that “The Garnet Bracelet” is a story.

Direction - In the story, everything is subordinated to the direction of realism, where a slight touch of romanticism is felt.

History of creation

The story of the creation of the story has a real basis. Once upon a time, the writer was visiting a friend of his, where they were looking at family photographs. An acquaintance told a story that happened in his family. Some official fell in love with his mother, he wrote letters to her. One day this petty official sent his beloved woman some trinket as a gift. Having found out who this official was, they gave him a suggestion, and he disappeared from the horizon. Kuprin came up with the idea to embellish this story, covering the love theme in more detail. He added romantic notes, elevated the ending and created his “Garnet Bracelet”, leaving the essence of the story. The year the story was written was 1910, and in 1911 the story was published in print.

Subject

A Alexander Kuprin is considered the unsurpassed Russian genius of love prose; he created many works glorifying love in all its manifestations.

In “The Garnet Bracelet,” the analysis of the story is subordinated to this favorite theme of the author, the theme of love.

In essence, this work examines the moral issues of relationships associated with love relationships heroes of the story. In this work, all events are connected with love, this is even the meaning of the title of this story, since the pomegranate is a symbol of love, a symbol of passion, blood and anger.

The writer, giving such a name to his title, immediately makes it clear what the main idea of ​​​​the story is devoted to.

He examines different forms of love, its different manifestations. Each person described by the writer has a different attitude towards this feeling. For some, it’s just a habit, social status, superficial well-being. For another, this is the only, real feeling, carried throughout life, for which it was worth living.

For the main character Zheltkov, love is a sacred feeling for which he lives, realizing that his love is doomed to be unrequited. The adoration of the woman he loves helps him endure all the hardships of life and believe in the sincerity of his feelings. Vera Nikolaevna for him is the meaning of his whole life. When Zheltkov was told that by his behavior he was compromising the woman he loved, the official concluded that problems of social inequality would always stand in his way to happiness, and committed suicide.

Composition

The composition of the story contains many secret meanings and symbols. The garnet bracelet gives a vivid definition of the all-consuming theme of passionate love, defining it as blood, making it clear that this love can be destructive and unhappy, anger led to Zheltkov’s suicide.

The fading garden reminds us of Vera Nikolaevna’s fading love for her husband. Drawings and poems in her husband’s family notes are the story of his love, sincere and pure, which has not undergone any changes throughout their entire life. life together. Despite her fading passion and cool attitude towards him, he continues to truly love his wife.

General Amosov prefers to share stories of love with his interlocutors, which is also symbolic. This is the only person in the work who correctly understands the true essence of love. He is a great psychologist, an expert on human souls, clearly seeing all their secret and obvious thoughts.

Beethoven's second sonata, the main symbol of the entire story, runs like a red thread through the entire work. The action develops against the background of music. The final sound of the sonata is a strong climax. Beethoven's work reveals all the understatements, all the innermost thoughts and feelings of the characters.

The beginning of the action - Vera Nikolaevna receives a gift. Development of the action - brother and husband go to sort things out with Zheltkov. Main character the work, remaining on the sidelines throughout the entire narrative, commits suicide. The climax is when Beethoven’s sonata sounds, and Vera Nikolaevna comes to an awareness of her life.

Kuprin masterfully ends his story, bringing all the actions to a denouement where the true power of love is revealed.

Under the influence of music, the sleeping soul of Vera Nikolaevna awakens. She begins to understand that she has lived, in essence, a purposeless and useless life, all the time creating the visible well-being of a happy family, and the true love that has accompanied her all her life has passed by.
What a writer’s work teaches, everyone decides in their own way; here everything depends on the reader. Only he decides in whose favor to make a choice.

Genre

The work of the great writer consists of thirteen chapters and belongs to the genre of the story. The writer believed that this was a story. The period of ongoing events lasts for a long time, it involves a large number of characters, and it fully corresponds to the accepted genre.

In mid-August, before the birth of the new month, disgusting weather suddenly set in, such as is so typical of the northern coast of the Black Sea. Then, for whole days, a thick fog lay heavily over the land and sea, and then the huge siren at the lighthouse roared day and night, like a mad bull. From morning to morning there was a continuous rain, fine as water dust, turning the clay roads and paths into solid thick mud, in which carts and carriages got stuck for a long time. Then a fierce hurricane blew from the northwest, from the direction of the steppe; from it the tops of the trees swayed, bending and straightening up, like waves in a storm, the iron roofs of the dachas rattled at night, it seemed as if someone was running on them in shod boots, they shuddered window frames, doors slammed, and there was a wild howl in the chimneys. Several fishing boats got lost at sea, and two never returned: only a week later the corpses of fishermen were thrown up in different places on the shore.

The inhabitants of the suburban seaside resort - mostly Greeks and Jews, life-loving and suspicious, like all southerners - hastily moved to the city. Along the softened highway, drays stretched endlessly, overloaded with all sorts of household items: mattresses, sofas, chests, chairs, washbasins, samovars. It was pitiful, sad, and disgusting to look through the muddy muslin of the rain at this pitiful belongings, which seemed so worn out, dirty and miserable; at the maids and cooks sitting on top of the cart on a wet tarpaulin with some irons, tins and baskets in their hands, at the sweaty, exhausted horses, which stopped every now and then, trembling at the knees, smoking and often skidding on their sides, at the hoarsely cursing tramps, wrapped from the rain in matting. It was even sadder to see abandoned dachas with their sudden spaciousness, emptiness and bareness, with mutilated flower beds, broken glass, abandoned dogs and all sorts of dacha rubbish from cigarette butts, pieces of paper, shards, boxes and apothecary bottles.

But by the beginning of September the weather suddenly changed dramatically and completely unexpectedly. Quiet, cloudless days immediately arrived, so clear, sunny and warm, which were not there even in July. On the dried, compressed fields, on their prickly yellow stubble, an autumn cobweb glistened with a mica sheen. The calmed trees silently and obediently dropped their yellow leaves.

Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina, the wife of the leader of the nobility, could not leave the dacha because the renovations in their city house had not yet been completed. And now she was very happy about the wonderful days that had come, the silence, solitude, clean air, the chirping of the swallows on the telegraph wires as they flocked to take off, and the gentle salty breeze blowing weakly from the sea.

II

In addition, today was her name day - September 17th. According to the sweet, distant memories of her childhood, she always loved this day and always expected something happily wonderful from it. Her husband, leaving in the morning on urgent business in the city, put a case with beautiful earrings made of pear-shaped pearls on her night table, and this gift amused her even more.

She was alone in the whole house. Her single brother Nikolai, a fellow prosecutor, who usually lived with them, also went to the city, to court. For dinner, my husband promised to bring a few and only his closest acquaintances. It turned out well that the name day coincided with summer time. In the city, one would have to spend money on a big ceremonial dinner, perhaps even a ball, but here, at the dacha, one could get by with the smallest expenses. Prince Shein, despite his prominent position in society, and perhaps thanks to it, barely made ends meet. The huge family estate was almost completely destroyed by his ancestors, and he had to live beyond his means: to host parties, do charity work, dress well, keep horses, etc. Princess Vera, whose former passionate love for her husband had long since turned into a feeling of strong, faithful, true friendship, tried with all her might to help the prince refrain from complete ruin. She denied herself many things, unnoticed by him, and saved as much as possible in the household.

Now she walked around the garden and carefully cut flowers with scissors. dining table. The flower beds were empty and looked disorganized. Multi-colored double carnations were blooming, as well as gillyflower - half in flowers, and half in thin green pods that smelled like cabbage; the rose bushes were still producing - for the third time this summer - buds and roses, but already shredded, sparse, as if degenerate. But dahlias, peonies and asters bloomed magnificently with their cold, arrogant beauty, spreading an autumnal, grassy, ​​sad smell in the sensitive air. The remaining flowers, after their luxurious love and excessively abundant summer motherhood, quietly sprinkled countless seeds of future life onto the ground.

Close by on the highway the familiar sounds of a three-ton car horn were heard. It was Princess Vera’s sister, Anna Nikolaevna Friesse, who had promised by phone in the morning to come and help her sister receive guests and do housework.

The subtle hearing did not deceive Vera. She went forward. A few minutes later, an elegant car-carriage stopped abruptly at the country gate, and the driver, deftly jumping from the seat, opened the door.

The sisters kissed joyfully. From early childhood they were attached to each other with a warm and caring friendship. In appearance, they were strangely not similar to each other. The eldest, Vera, took after her mother, a beautiful Englishwoman, with her tall, flexible figure, gentle but cold and proud face, beautiful, although rather large hands and that charming sloping shoulders that can be seen in ancient miniatures. The youngest, Anna, on the contrary, inherited the Mongol blood of her father, a Tatar prince, whose grandfather was baptized only in early XIX centuries and whose ancient family went back to Tamerlane himself, or Lang-Temir, as her father proudly called this great bloodsucker in Tatar. She was half a head shorter than her sister, somewhat broad in the shoulders, lively and frivolous, a mocker. Her face was of a strongly Mongolian type with quite noticeable cheekbones, with narrow eyes, which she also squinted due to myopia, with an arrogant expression in her small, sensual mouth, especially in her full lower lip slightly protruded forward - this face, however, captivated some then an elusive and incomprehensible charm, which consisted, perhaps, in a smile, perhaps in the deep femininity of all features, perhaps in a piquant, perky, flirtatious facial expression. Her graceful ugliness excited and attracted the attention of men much more often and more strongly than the aristocratic beauty of her sister.

She was married to a very rich and very stupid man who did absolutely nothing, but was registered with some charitable institution and had the rank of chamber cadet. She couldn’t stand her husband, but she gave birth to two children from him - a boy and a girl; She decided not to have any more children and did not have any more. As for Vera, she greedily wanted children and even, it seemed to her, the more the better, but for some reason they were not born to her, and she painfully and ardently adored her younger sister’s pretty, anemic children, always decent and obedient, with pale, mealy cheeks. faces and with curled flaxen doll hair.

Anna was all about cheerful carelessness and sweet, sometimes strange contradictions. She willingly indulged in the most risky flirtations in all the capitals and resorts of Europe, but she never cheated on her husband, whom, however, she contemptuously ridiculed both to his face and behind his back; she was wasteful, loved gambling, dancing, strong impressions, thrilling spectacles, visited dubious cafes abroad, but at the same time she was distinguished by generous kindness and deep, sincere piety, which forced her to even secretly accept Catholicism. She had a rare beauty of back, chest and shoulders. When going to big balls, she exposed herself much more than the limits allowed by decency and fashion, but they said that under her low neckline she always wore a hair shirt.

Vera was strictly simple, cold with everyone and a little patronizingly kind, independent and royally calm.

III

- My God, how good it is here! How good! - Anna said, walking with quick and small steps next to her sister along the path. – If possible, let’s sit for a while on a bench over the cliff. I haven't seen the sea for so long. And what a wonderful air: you breathe - and your heart is happy. In Crimea, in Miskhor, last summer I made an amazing discovery. Do you know what sea water smells like during the surf? Imagine - mignonette.

Vera smiled affectionately:

- You are a dreamer.

- No no. I also remember once everyone laughed at me when I said that there was some kind of pink tint in the moonlight. And the other day the artist Boritsky - the one who paints my portrait - agreed that I was right and that artists have known about this for a long time.

– Is being an artist your new hobby?

- You will always come up with ideas! - Anna laughed and, quickly approaching the very edge of the cliff, which fell like a sheer wall deep into the sea, she looked down and suddenly screamed in horror and recoiled back with a pale face.

- Wow, how high! – she said in a weakened and trembling voice. - When I look from such a height, I always have a sweet and disgusting tickling in my chest... and my toes ache... And yet it pulls, pulls...

She wanted to bend over the cliff again, but her sister stopped her.

– Anna, my dear, for God’s sake! I get dizzy myself when you do that. Please sit down.

- Well, okay, okay, I sat down... But just look, what beauty, what joy - the eye just can’t get enough of it. If you only knew how grateful I am to God for all the miracles he has done for us!

They both thought for a moment. Deep, deep below them lay the sea. The shore was not visible from the bench, and therefore the feeling of the infinity and grandeur of the sea expanse intensified even more. The water was tenderly calm and cheerfully blue, brightening only in slanting smooth stripes in places of flow and turning into a deep deep blue color on the horizon.

Fishing boats, difficult to spot with the eye - they seemed so small - dozed motionless in the surface of the sea, not far from the shore. And then, as if standing in the air, without moving forward, was a three-masted ship, all dressed from top to bottom with monotonous white slender sails, bulging from the wind.

“I understand you,” the older sister said thoughtfully, “but somehow my life is different from yours.” When I see the sea for the first time after a long time, it excites me, makes me happy, and amazes me. It’s as if I’m seeing a huge, solemn miracle for the first time. But then, when I get used to it, it begins to crush me with its flat emptiness... I miss looking at it, and I try not to look anymore. It gets boring.

Anna smiled.

-What are you doing? - asked the sister.