The Life of Arseniev

The Life of Arseniev

First edition
Author	Ivan Bunin
Country	France / United States
Language	Russian
Genre	autobiographical novel
Publisher	Chekhov Publishers
Publication date	1952
Media type	Print (Paperback & Hardback)
Pages	388

The Life of Arseniev (Russian: Жизнь Арсеньева) is an autobiographical novel by a Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Ivan Bunin seen by many as his most important work written in emigration.The Life of Arseniev was being written and published in parts in the course of the 12 years, in 1927-1939, in France. In 1952 the New-York-based Chekhov Publishers released the first edition of the novel as a whole, entitled The Life of Arseniev. Youth.

Bunin started writing the novel in 1927 and was publishing fragments of throughout the late 1920s and all of the 1930s. By 1929 the basic Books I-III had been finished. Then, while different parts of the work were appearing in different French literary magazines, in 1932-1933 Book IV appeared.

The novel, subtitled "The Outset of Days" (Истоки дней) came out in four parts. Book I was finished on September 21, 1927. Book II - on September 27, 1927, Book III on September 30, 1928 and Book IV on July 30, 1929. In the process of publishing the original text was being changed continuously: autobiographical details being cut off, real names changed. For example, the Gendurist family Bunin knew in Poltava, featured as the Bogdanovs in the latter versions. Sister Nadya who died at the early age, was called now Sasha. Some ideologically charged fragments went out too, like the one in Chapter 9 of Book IV where Arseniev spoke of narodniks's circle and his own views on one's social responsibilities.

In 1939 the Book V, entitled: The Life of Arseniev. Novel. Lika, was published by the Petropolis Publishers in Brussels in 1939. It was supposed to be included into the Vol.12 of the Petropolis' Complete Bunin, but in 1939 the publishing house closed as the World War II having broke out. According to Vera Muromtseva-Bunina, "Ivan Alekseyevich wanted desperately to include the [final part] into the novel but the latter has been published already and so he released it as a separate edition as soon as the chance presented itself. According to Mark Aldanov, "many people were trying to convince [Bunin] he should start the second part but he was always saying the same thing: 'That one has been written about people gone and deeds done, long ago. How am I suppose to write fiction about people who are still alive?'."