Ivan Bunin "Visiting cards"

The story by Ivan Bunin, a true master of words, has much to tell about love to our hearts. Like in Zweig's novel "24 hours in the life of a woman", in this short story things happen in a very short time.

The plot is simple - on a boat floating down the Volga a married woman meets a famous writer. After a few hours of communication both had a feeling of true love they were dreaming all their life and to which they were internally prepared. In a short time there was all that for some people lasts a lifetime. To emphasize time’s scantiness allotted to their love, author does not even name the characters; he only describes the rapidly growing feelings.

The heroes made a real jump to their dream, there was everything: love at first sight, shyness coupled with extreme courage, love climax.

The next morning they parted. He kissed her cold hand with love that is somewhere in the heart for a lifetime, and she, not looking back, ran down the gangplank into a rough crowd on the pier.