Characteristics of the hero Anosov, Garnet bracelet, Kuprin. Anosov's character image

The story “The Garnet Bracelet,” written in 1910, occupies a significant place in the writer’s work and in Russian literature. Paustovsky called the love story of a minor official for a married princess one of the most fragrant and languid stories about love. True, eternal love, which is a rare gift, is the theme of Kuprin’s work.

In order to familiarize yourself with the plot and characters of the story, we suggest reading a summary of “The Garnet Bracelet” chapter by chapter. It will provide an opportunity to comprehend the work, comprehend the charm and ease of the writer’s language and penetrate into the idea.

Main characters

Vera Sheina- Princess, wife of the leader of the nobility Shein. She married for love, and over time, love grew into friendship and respect. She began to receive letters from the official Zheltkov, who loved her, even before her marriage.

Zheltkov- official. Unrequitedly in love with Vera for many years.

Vasily Shein- prince, provincial leader of the nobility. Loves his wife.

Other characters

Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov- general, friend of the late Prince Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, father of Vera, Anna and Nikolai.

Anna Friesse- sister of Vera and Nikolai.

Nikolay Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky- assistant prosecutor, brother of Vera and Anna.

Jenny Reiter- friend of Princess Vera, famous pianist.

Chapter 1

In mid-August, bad weather arrived on the Black Sea coast. Most of the inhabitants of coastal resorts began to hastily move to the city, leaving their dachas. Princess Vera Sheina was forced to stay at the dacha because renovations were underway in her town house.

Along with the first days of September, warmth came, it became sunny and clear, and Vera was very happy about the wonderful days of early autumn.

Chapter 2

On her name day, September 17, Vera Nikolaevna was expecting guests. My husband left on business in the morning and had to bring guests for dinner.

Vera was glad that the name day fell during the summer season and there was no need to have a grand reception. The Shein family was on the verge of ruin, and the prince’s position required a lot, so the spouses had to live beyond their means. Vera Nikolaevna, whose love for her husband had long been reborn into “a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship,” supported him as best she could, saved, and denied herself many things.

Her sister Anna Nikolaevna Friesse came to help Vera with the housework and receive guests. Dissimilar either in appearance or in character, the sisters were very attached to each other from childhood.

Chapter 3

Anna had not seen the sea for a long time, and the sisters briefly sat down on a bench above the cliff, “a sheer wall falling deep into the sea,” to admire the lovely landscape.

Remembering the gift she had prepared, Anna handed her sister a notebook in an antique binding.

Chapter 4

By evening, guests began to arrive. Among them was General Anosov, a friend of Prince Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, the late father of Anna and Vera. He was very attached to his sisters, they, in turn, adored him and called him grandfather.

Chapter 5

Those gathered in the Sheins' house were entertained at the table by the owner, Prince Vasily Lvovich. He had a special gift as a storyteller: his humorous stories were always based on an event that happened to someone he knew. But in his stories he exaggerated the colors so bizarrely, he combined truth and fiction so whimsically and spoke with such a serious and business-like air that all the listeners laughed non-stop. This time his story concerned the failed marriage of his brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich.

Rising from the table, Vera involuntarily counted the guests - there were thirteen of them. And, since the princess was superstitious, she became restless.

After dinner, everyone except Vera sat down to play poker. She was about 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 package tied with a ribbon and explained that a messenger had brought it with a request to hand it over personally to Vera Nikolaevna.

Vera found a gold bracelet and a note in the package. First she began to look at the decoration. At the center of the low-grade gold bracelet were several magnificent garnets, each about the size of a pea. Examining the stones, the birthday girl turned the bracelet, and the stones flashed like “lovely thick red living lights.” With alarm, Vera realized that these lights looked like blood.

He congratulated Vera on Angel Day and asked her not to hold a grudge against him for the fact that several years ago he dared to write letters to her and expect an answer. He asked to accept a bracelet as a gift, the stones of which belonged to his great-grandmother. From her silver bracelet, he exactly repeated the arrangement, transferred the stones to the gold one and drew Vera’s attention to the fact that no one had ever worn the bracelet. He wrote: “however, I believe that in the whole world there will not be a treasure worthy of decorating you” and admitted that all that now remains in him is “only reverence, eternal admiration and slavish devotion”, an every-minute desire for happiness to Faith and joy if she's happy.

Vera was wondering whether she should show the gift to her husband.

Chapter 6

The evening proceeded smoothly and lively: they played cards, talked, and listened to the singing of one of the guests. Prince Shein showed several guests a home album with his own drawings. This album was a complement to the humorous stories of Vasily Lvovich. Those looking at the album laughed so loudly and contagiously that the guests gradually moved towards them.

The last story in the drawings was called “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love,” and the text of the story itself, according to the prince, was still “being prepared.” Vera asked her husband: “It’s better not to,” but he either did not hear or did not pay attention to her request and began his cheerful story about how Princess Vera received passionate messages from a telegraph operator in love.

Chapter 7

After tea, several guests left, the rest sat 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 had received.

Chapter 8

On the way to the carriage waiting for the general, Anosov talked with Vera and Anna about how he had never met true love in his life. According to him, “love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world."

The general asked Vera what was true in the story told by her husband. And she gladly shared with him: “some madman” pursued her with his love and sent letters even before marriage. The princess also told about the parcel with the letter. In thought, the general noted that it was quite possible that Vera’s life was crossed by the “single, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless” love that any woman dreams of.

Chapter 9

Having seen off the guests and returned to the house, Sheina joined the conversation between her brother Nikolai and Vasily Lvovich. The brother believed that the fan’s “stupidity” should be stopped immediately - the story with the bracelet and letters could ruin the family’s reputation.

After discussing what to do, it was decided that the next day Vasily Lvovich and Nikolai would find Vera’s secret admirer and, demanding to leave her alone, would return the bracelet.

Chapter 10

Shein and Mirza-Bulat-Tuganovsky, Vera’s husband and brother, paid a visit to her admirer. He turned out to be the official Zheltkov, a man of about thirty to thirty-five.

Nikolai immediately explained to him the reason for coming - with his gift he had crossed the line of patience of Vera’s loved ones. Zheltkov immediately agreed that he was to blame for the persecution of the princess.

Addressing the prince, Zheltkov started talking about the fact that he loved his wife and felt that he could never stop loving her, and all that remained for him was death, which he would accept “in any form.” Before speaking further, Zheltkov asked permission to leave for a few minutes to call Vera.

During the official’s absence, in response to Nikolai’s reproaches that the prince had “gone limp” and felt sorry for his wife’s admirer, Vasily Lvovich explained to his brother-in-law how he felt. “This person is not capable of deceiving and knowingly lying. Is he to blame for love and is it really possible to control such a feeling as love - a feeling that has not yet found an interpreter.” The prince not only felt sorry for this man, he realized that he had witnessed “some kind of enormous tragedy of the soul.”

Returning, Zheltkov asked permission to write his last letter to Vera and promised that visitors would not hear or see him again. At Vera Nikolaevna’s request, he stops “this story” “as soon as possible.”

In the evening, the prince conveyed to his wife the details of his visit to Zheltkov. She was not surprised by what she heard, but was slightly worried: the princess felt that “this man would kill himself.”

Chapter 11

The next morning, Vera learned from the newspapers that due to the waste of public money, the official Zheltkov committed suicide. All day Sheina thought about the “unknown man” whom she never had to see, not understanding why she foresaw the tragic outcome of his life. She also remembered Anosov’s words about true love, perhaps meeting her on the way.

The postman brought Zheltkov’s farewell letter. He admitted that he regards his love for Vera as a great happiness, that his whole life lies only in the princess. He asked to forgive him for having “cut into Vera’s life like an uncomfortable wedge,” thanked her simply for the fact that she lived in the world, and said goodbye forever. “I tested myself - this is not a disease, not a manic idea - this is love with which God wanted to reward me for something. As I leave, I say in delight: “Hallowed be Thy 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 that Zheltkov was renting. The landlady came out to meet her, and they started talking. At the request of the princess, the woman told about Zheltkov’s last days, then Vera went into the room where he was lying. The expression on the face of the deceased was so peaceful, as if this man “before parting with life had learned some deep and sweet secret that resolved his entire human life.”

At parting, the owner of the apartment told Vera that if he suddenly died and a woman came to say goodbye to him, Zheltkov asked him to tell her that Beethoven’s best work - he wrote down its title - “L. van Beethoven. Son. No. 2, op. 2. Largo Appassionato.”

Vera began to cry, explaining her tears with the painful “impression of death.”

Chapter 13

Vera Nikolaevna returned home late in the evening. Only Jenny Reiter was waiting for her at home, and the princess rushed to her friend asking her to play something. Having no doubt that the pianist would perform “the very passage from the Second Sonata that this dead man with the funny name Zheltkov asked for,” the princess recognized the music from the first chords. Vera’s soul seemed to be divided into two parts: at the same time she was thinking about the love that was repeated once every thousand years, which passed by, and about why she should listen to this particular work.

“Words were forming in her mind. They so coincided in her thoughts with the music that they were as if they were verses that ended with the words: “Hallowed be Thy name.” These words were about great love. Vera cried about the feeling that had passed by, and the music excited and calmed her at the same time. When the sounds of the sonata died down, the princess calmed down.

To Jenny’s question why she was crying, Vera Nikolaevna answered only with a phrase that she could understand: “He has forgiven me now. Everything is fine" .

Conclusion

Telling the story of the hero’s sincere and pure, but unrequited love for a married woman, Kuprin pushes the reader to think about what place a feeling occupies in a person’s life, what it gives the right to, and how the inner world of someone who has the gift of love changes.

You can begin your acquaintance with Kuprin’s work with a brief retelling of “The Garnet Bracelet.” And then, already knowing the storyline, having an idea about the characters, with pleasure immerse yourself in the rest of the writer’s story about the amazing world of true love.

Story test

Retelling rating

Average rating: 4.4. Total ratings received: 13559.

General Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov in Alexander Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet” characterizes the adult generation, which is able to guide youth along the right path, along the path of love and fidelity; which will show the truth of life and will not allow you to drown in the deceit of the world around you. General Anosov did not find his place in a happy family life: his wife left him for a visiting artist. Yakov Mikhailovich is a military comrade of the father of the main characters.

The main characters of the work are Vera Nikolaevna and Anna Nikolaevna. Vera is married to a landowner. And their family is happy at first glance, but behind the veil of this calm lies lost feelings. Vera has not loved her husband Vasily Lvovich for a long time, all ardent emotions have cooled down, only friendship and devotion remain.

Anna married a very wealthy, but also contented, stupid man. She initially did not love him, but nevertheless bore him two children. She did not want to give birth again and despised her husband in every possible way, condemning him behind his back and to his face. Anna is the goddaughter of General Amosov.

One evening, a party takes place in the house of Vera Nikolaevna and her husband. Everyone present behaves unworthily: one military man is dancing, the men are sitting at a card table. In this situation, it became known about the failed wedding of Vera Nikolaevna’s brother and Anna Nikolaevna, and that for several years in a row some abnormal person had been sending love messages to Vera without demanding an answer. And it becomes clear that the highest authorities do not understand such a strong and beautiful feeling as love.

And it is Anosov who understands where the moral component of this society has slipped. He sees that young people no longer know how to love. For them, this is a frivolous word that can be thrown around in different directions without going into the true meaning of this word. He also notes that the institution of marriage has been destroyed: people get married for material reasons or out of momentary desire, without thinking about how they will live in the future. The general condemns those gathered; warns that they are on the border of immorality, and that a little more and the feeling of love will leave them forever.

Yakov Mikhailovich himself has never met pure and bright love in his life, but he continues to believe in it and believes that such love is rare, but it deserves to be found among honest, open people. He assures Vera Nikolaevna of this, and makes her think about the mysterious admirer and that this is perhaps exactly the love that all women dream of.

Option 2

This old sick man, the godfather of the Tuganovsky princesses, at first glance is funny and absurd. He always walks with a stick in one hand and an ear tube in the other. Despite the fact that he was the commandant of the fortress, he always walked around in civilian clothes, without weapons, often accompanied by two equally old and short of breath pugs. He was well known and loved in the city for his kind attitude towards people. Usually, when entering the guardhouse, he tried to support the arrested, often ordering better food for them. He also said goodbye to loud comments in opera, of which Anosov was a big fan. Anosov was once married, but his wife ran away from him with a passing actor. Since then, he gave all his love and tenderness to the daughters of his fighting friend - the girls Vera and Anya. He gave them gifts, took them to the circus and the theater, and played with them for a long time. But most of all, the girls liked the stories about his past - about wars and peaceful adventures. Anosov entertained them with these stories on long winter evenings in the princely drawing room.

And he had something to talk about. Anosov participated in all military operations of that time, except for the Japanese war, where he was not drafted. Anosov did not shine with education, but thanks to his courage and military skill he rose to the rank of colonel. Skobelev greatly appreciated his courage: “I know one officer braver than myself - this is Major Anosov.” He never punished his subordinates and refused to shoot prisoners. The authorities, seeing his iron conviction, left him alone. This officer kept in himself all the best traits of a Russian warrior: “faith in God, naive and ingenuous, courage, mercy, patience and endurance. And no fear of death, accepting any outcome of the battle. Those traits that make the Russian warrior invincible. He returned from the war almost deaf, with a sore leg and severe rheumatism. But he refused to resign. Then the command fulfilled his request, appointing him for life to the post of commandant of the city - an honorary and not burdensome one.

His goddaughters also asked him about love, an important subject in the thoughts of young girls. Anosov had no doubt that “every woman in love is capable of the highest heroism,” but he was not so sure about men: “Men are to blame, jaded at twenty years old, with chicken bodies and hare souls... And now women are taking revenge ... All because for entire generations we did not know how to bow to love.” He believes that men marry for the convenience of life or for dowry.

True, one day Anosov, a gallant officer, was visited by love. He saw a young Bulgarian woman in Bucharest and fell in love. “Our gazes met, a spark like an electric one ran between us.” After a short time they began dating. However, the life of a soldier does not obey desires - the time has come to leave. The lovers swore eternal love for each other and parted forever. A bright memory remains. That’s why he advises his goddaughters not to pass by high feelings if they encounter them.

Essay about Anosov

In the work “Garnet Bracelet” A.I. Kuprin described love in high society. One of the minor characters in this story is Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov, a general and friend of the Tuganovsky family. The author describes Anosov as a tall and obese man with gray hair. He has a red, rough face, and his eyes are good-natured and radiant, while slightly squinted. The general's appearance inspires trust and sympathy.

Anosov saw a lot on his life's journey, came face to face with danger and death. He was not happy in his personal life; his wife ran away from him even before the war, having fallen in love with someone else. The general considers it his duty to pay this woman an allowance for the rest of his days. However, when she wanted to return to her husband, her sense of pride and self-esteem did not allow her to forgive the betrayal.

The writer portrays Anosov as a real soldier, possessing such human qualities as honesty, courage, nobility. In all his actions, Yakov Mikhailovich is guided exclusively by his own conscience. The general treats ordinary soldiers with the same respect as he treats officers. He has no sense of fear in military battles.

The distinctive features of Yakov Mikhailovich are that he tells different stories superbly, and he also madly loves children. The general enjoys spending time with them and teaching them various tricks.

General Anosov is a man who sees the destruction of moral principles that have existed for years. He worries that such a sublime feeling like love has now turned into something vulgar. The material side is important to young people, but their ability to love sincerely and purely is lost. The general was unlucky in his family life, but he continues to believe in a bright, sincere feeling.

Yakov Mikhailovich Anosov is the embodiment of justice and nobility, a symbol of wisdom, guiding youth on the right path. He is ready to share his life experience and everyday knowledge in the field of relationships between people.

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General Anosov characterization and image of the hero of Kuprin's story "Garnet Bracelet" according to plan

1. General characteristics. General Anosov is one of the characters in A. I. Kuprin’s story “The Garnet Bracelet.” In appearance, he is a tall, powerful old man suffering from shortness of breath.

The general has a very good-natured face. His eyes reveal a man who has seen a lot of suffering and danger in his life. Anosov truly deserved his rank, devoting his entire life to military service.

Since 1863 (the suppression of the uprising in Poland), he participated in all military campaigns, distinguished by his extraordinary courage and fearlessness. The Russian-Turkish War left indelible marks on Anosov: he became practically deaf, lost three toes and developed rheumatism.

An arrogant attitude towards ordinary soldiers is alien to the general. He himself resembles an ordinary Russian peasant who steadfastly endures the suffering that befalls him. Anosov’s honesty and justice is best evidenced by the long-standing story of how, contrary to orders, he refused to shoot captured Poles.

Currently, the general holds the honorary position of commandant in the city of K. He is well known and loved by all residents of the city. Anosov sometimes experiences fits of anger, but they are very quickly replaced by ordinary good nature.

2. "Grandfather". Anosov and the late father of Anna and Vera fought together and were true friends. After the death of the prince, the general became a second father for the girls. They remember him from early childhood and love to listen to the old man’s leisurely stories about his military past. Anosov does not have his own children, so he is also used to considering his sisters as his own granddaughters. Anna and Vera treat the old general with great love and respect. For them, he still remains the most important authority, capable of giving wise advice in any life situation.

3. Anosov’s role in the work. It is no coincidence that the author introduces the image of an old general into a story about selfless love. A conversation ensues between him and the sisters about a real unselfish feeling. Anosov admits to Anna and Vera that in his entire long life he has never met a love that is “strong as death.” People get together with each other simply because it is necessary.

For a man, marriage means ordering life; the maternal instinct speaks in any woman. Anosov cites two cases that are close to the concept of selfless love. In both examples, men become victims of all-consuming passion, looking very pathetic. The general does not condemn these people who have turned into rags because of the women they love. He regrets that both lovers did not understand what they had lost.

The General very carefully, fearing to accidentally offend, hints to Vera that her relationship with her husband is also far from true love. Having heard from her a story about an unfortunate official, he assumes that his “granddaughter” has met a man who is capable of “giving his life, going to torture” for the sake of his beloved. Anosov does not give Vera any advice, but it turns out to be absolutely right. Zheltkov commits suicide, becoming another tragic victim of a very rare boundless love.

Lesson type: lesson on learning new material.

Type of lesson: lesson-conversation.

Purpose of the lesson: during the analysis of the work, identify the features of the image of love A.I. Kuprin in the story “Garnet Bracelet”.

Lesson objectives:

1) understand what meaning A.I. attaches to love. Kuprin in the story “Garnet Bracelet”;
2) develop the ability to analyze a work, develop logical thinking;
3) cultivate the correct attitude towards the feelings of another person, emotional sensitivity and attention.

Lesson equipment: text, portrait of the writer, recording of a sonata by L. Beethoven, computer.

Methods: partial search, problem-based, research.

Today we will try to understand how the heroes of the story understand love. What is love, according to Kuprin?

Teacher's words:

The theme of love worried many writers and poets. Everyone interprets it differently. There is not a single person who would not try to understand this feeling, give it an assessment, and this assessment would be the true meaning. Attempts to describe this feeling do not lead to one opinion. It's different for everyone.

Kuprin wrote his story “The Garnet Bracelet” in 1910; the main theme of this story is love. The work is based on a real fact - the love story of a modest official for the mother of the writer L. Lyubimov.

Excerpt from the memoirs of L. Lyubimov:

“In the period between her first and second marriages, my mother began to receive letters, the author of which, without identifying himself and emphasizing that the difference in social status did not allow him to count on reciprocity, expressed his love for her. These letters were preserved in my family for a long time, and I read them in my youth. An anonymous lover, as it later turned out - Zhelty (in Zheltkov's story), wrote that he worked at the telegraph office, in one letter he said that, under the guise of a floor polisher, he entered my mother's apartment and described the situation. The tone of the messages was grumpy. He was either angry with my mother or thanking her, although she did not react in any way to his explanations...

At first, these letters amused everyone, but then my mother stopped even reading them, and only my grandmother laughed for a long time, opening the next message from the loving telegraph operator.

And then came the denouement: an anonymous correspondent sent my mother a garnet bracelet. My uncle and father, who was then my mother’s fiancé, went to Zheltkov. But Zhelty, like Zheltkov, lived on the sixth floor. He huddled in a squalid attic. He was caught composing another message. The father is more silent while explaining. He told me that he felt some kind of secret in Yellow, a flame of genuine selfless passion. My uncle got excited and was needlessly harsh. Yellow accepted the bracelet and gloomily promised not to write to my mother again. That was the end of it. In any case, nothing is known about his further fate.”

The love story of Vera and her husband

• What is the relationship between the main character and her husband?

“Princess Vera, whose former passionate love for her husband had long since turned into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship, tried with all her might to help the prince.”

• How does the season relate to Vera's family life?

“...by the beginning of September the weather suddenly changed sharply 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.”

• Vera's attitude towards her marriage?

“Take Vasya and me for example. Can we call our marriage unhappy?”

Anna's love story

“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.”

“She willingly indulged in the most risky flirting in all the capitals and at all the resorts of Europe, but she never cheated on her husband, whom, however, she contemptuously ridiculed both to his face and behind his back.”

• What do the sisters have in common? Compare their attitudes towards marriage and family responsibilities.
• Why do they love different elements?

Comparative characteristics of sisters

Love stories told by the prince.

• How does the prince feel about love? (tells love stories with a laugh)

• Why does the prince have such an attitude towards love?

“He had an extraordinary and very peculiar ability to tell... he talked about the failed marriage of Nikolai Nikolaevich to a rich and beautiful lady. He forced the serious, always somewhat prim Nikolai to run down the street at night in his stockings, with his shoes under his arm.”

“Having attacked the thread of marriage stories, Prince Vasily did not spare Gustav Ivanovich Friesse, Anna’s husband, saying that the next day after the wedding he came to demand, with the help of the police, the eviction of the newlywed from her parents’ house.”

“After the story of the Lima maiden, a new story followed: “Princess Vera and the telegraph operator in love.”

“Finally he dies, but before his death he bequeaths to give Vera two telegraph buttons and a bottle of perfume - filled with his tears.”...

The love story of General Anosov

• Why does the general talk with such warmth about his meeting with the Bulgarian woman?

“And in the middle of the conversation, our eyes met, a spark ran between us, like an electric one, and I felt that I fell in love right away - fiery and irrevocable.”

“...I hugged her, pressed her to my heart and kissed her several times.”

“From then on, every time the moon appeared in the sky with the stars, I hurried to my beloved and for a while forgot all the worries of the day with her. When our journey from those places followed, we swore an oath of eternal mutual love to each other and said goodbye forever.”

• Attitude to the family life of General Anosov.

“And now, three months later, the holy treasure walks around in a shabby hood, shoes on his bare feet, thin, unkempt hair, in curlers, dogs with orderlies like a cook, breaks down with young officers, lisps, squeals, rolls his eyes. For some reason she calls her husband Jacques in public. You know, like that on the nose, with a stretch, languidly: “J-a-a-ak.” Reel, actress, slob, greedy. And the eyes are always deceitful and deceitful.”

A story about the love of a warrant officer for the wife of a regimental commander

• Why does the general call this love stupidity?

“It’s a terrible thing when a fresh and pure boy puts his first love at the feet of an old, experienced and power-hungry lecher. If he jumped out unharmed now, still consider him dead in the future. This is a stamp for life.”

“And a man disappeared... in the most vile way... He became a beggar... he froze somewhere on a pier in St. Petersburg”

The second story about the love of General Anosov

• Why does the general call this case pathetic?

“And the other case was completely pathetic. And the woman was the same as the first, only young and beautiful. She behaved very, very badly. It was easy for us to look at these domestic novels, but even we were offended. And the husband - nothing. He knew everything, saw everything and was silent.”

• Does the general believe in a woman's love?

“I am sure that almost every woman is capable of the highest heroism in love. Understand, she kisses, hugs, gives herself away - and she is already a mother. For her, if she loves, love contains the whole meaning of life - the whole universe!

• What motivates men to get married and women to get married?

“Let's take a woman. It’s a shame to stay with girls, especially when your friends have already gotten married. It's hard to be the odd one out in the family. The desire to be a housewife, the head of the house, a lady, independent... In addition, the need, the direct physical need of motherhood, and to start building your own nest.”

“But the man has other motives. Firstly, fatigue from a single life, from disorder in rooms, from tavern dinners, from dirt, cigarette butts, torn and scattered linen, from debts, from unceremonious comrades, and so on and so forth. Secondly, you feel that living as a family is more profitable, healthier and more economical. Thirdly, you think: when the kids come, I’ll die, but a part of me will still remain in the world... something like the illusion of immortality. Fourthly, the temptation of innocence, as in my case.”

“Where is the love? Is love unselfish, selfless, not waiting for reward? The one about whom it is said “strong as death”? You see, the kind of love for which to accomplish any feat, to give one’s life, to suffer torment is not work at all, but pure joy.”

• What should true love be like?

“Love must be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life conveniences, calculations or compromises should concern her.”

Zheltkova's love for Princess Vera

• When Vera thought about Zheltkov’s love (after the general’s words)

“Maybe he’s just an abnormal fellow, a maniac, but who knows? “Maybe your path in life, Verochka, has been crossed by exactly the kind of love that women dream about and that men are no longer capable of.”

• Why does Zheltkov commit suicide?

“I know that I can never stop loving her... Tell me, prince... suppose that this is unpleasant for you... tell me, what would you do to end this feeling? Send me to another city, as Nikolai Nikolaevich said? All the same, I will love Vera Nikolaevna there just as much as I do here. Put me in jail? But even there I will find a way to let her know about my existence. There is only one thing left - death... You want me to accept it in any form.”

• How does Zheltkov feel about his love?

“Think about what I should have done? Run away to another city? All the same, the heart was always near you, at your feet, every moment of the day was filled with you, thoughts about you, dreams about you... sweet delirium. I am very ashamed and mentally blush for my stupid bracelet - well, what? - error".

“I am eternally grateful to you just for the fact that you exist. I checked myself - this is not a disease, not a manic idea - this is love with which God wanted to reward me for something. From the depths of my soul, I thank you for being my only joy in life, my only consolation, my only thought.”

“God grant you happiness, and may nothing temporary or everyday disturb your beautiful soul. I kiss your hands.”

• Why does Zheltkov ask Vera to listen to a Beethoven sonata?

“...I know that you are very musical, I saw you most often at Beethoven quartets...”

• What is the significance of the bracelet given to Vera for Zheltkov?

“I would never allow myself to present you with something that I personally chose: for this I have neither the right, nor subtle taste and - I admit - no money. However, I believe that in the whole world there is no treasure worthy of decorating You.

But this bracelet belonged to my great-grandmother, and the last one, in time, was worn by my late mother. In the middle, between the large stones, you will see one green one. This is a very rare variety of pomegranate - green pomegranate. According to an ancient legend that has been preserved in our family, it has the ability to impart the gift of foresight to women who wear it and drives away heavy thoughts from them, while it protects men from violent death.”

• Why does Vera cry while listening to the sonata?

“She recognized from the first chords this exceptional work, the only one in depth. And her soul seemed to split into two. She simultaneously thought that a great love passed by her, which is repeated only once in a thousand years. She remembered the words of General Anosov and asked herself: why did this man force her to listen to this particular Beethoven work, and even against her wishes? And words formed in her mind. In her thoughts they so coincided with the music that it was as if they were verses that ended with the words: “Hallowed be Thy name.”

Conclude what love is like in Kuprin’s understanding.

Tragic, unique, given once every thousand years.