A summary of Alexander Kuprin’s "The Listrygonians"

This collection of short stories and novellas by the distinguished Russian writer was created between 1907 and 1911. The author brought together under one cover works about human passions, the elements of the sea, and the tragic fates of residents of the coastal cities of the Russian Empire. The book’s heroes often face severe trials that test their moral fortitude.

The story of a minor official’s hopeless love gained cinematic fame thanks to Abram Room’s 1964 film of the same name. The story of the port violinist also found screen life in 1990, thanks to director Dmitry Meskhiev.

This publication is part of the "Maritime Library" series. This book is number 53.

Garnet bracelet

The autumn season at Princess Vera Nikolaevna Sheina’s dacha is marred by foul weather, then gives way to warm September days. The princess celebrates her name day with close relatives and friends. Her husband gives her earrings, and her sister Anna brings an antique notebook. General Anosov entertains the company with war memories and reflections on true, selfless love.

The celebration is disrupted by the delivery of a strange gift. A maid hands Vera a package from an unknown courier. Inside is a gold bracelet adorned with a green garnet and a letter from an old admirer, signed with the initials G.S.Zh. Vera’s brother, Nikolai Nikolaevich, is outraged by the sender’s impudence. Together with Prince Shein, he decides to find the official.

The next day, they visit the modest apartment of a lowly telegraph clerk named Zheltkov. Nikolai Nikolaevich demands that Vera be left alone, threatening to report him to the authorities. Zheltkov confesses to Prince Vasily his mad love for his wife. Upon learning over the phone that Vera is asking him to end the affair, Zheltkov promises to disappear forever. The next morning, the newspapers report his suicide.

Vera receives a farewell letter in which Zheltkov blesses her name and asks her to play a Beethoven sonata. The princess arrives at the deceased’s apartment, sees the peaceful face of the suicide, and places a red rose under his neck. At home, to the sounds of the Beethoven sonata performed by her friend Jenny Reiter, Vera comes to terms with the loss of her great love.

Balaklava essays

With the departure of the resort crowd, Balaklava is enveloped in a deep autumnal silence. The season of the indigenous people — descendants of the ancient Greeks — has arrived. Fishermen prepare their gear, repair their boats, and gather in coffee shops. The mackerel run begins. Ataman Yura Paratino is the first to bring in a bountiful catch, undercutting the dealers’ prices. The town fills with the smell of fried fish.

At night, the author and fishermen Yani and Hristo secretly go out into the bay to set nets for mullet driven there by dolphins. The poaching is successful amid the glowing, phosphorescent water. In winter, the beluga fishery begins. The young chieftain, Vanya Andrutsaki, goes out to sea and catches a gigantic fish, nearly dying in the process.

A brutal bora hurricane rages in the autumn. Vanya Andrutsaki disappears at sea for three days but returns alive. Later, an Italian steamship carrying divers enters the bay, searching for the sunken gold of an English frigate at a depth of eighty-five meters. Diver Trama descends to the bottom but finds only wreckage. Autumn ends with a riotous celebration of young wine.

Riots and salvation

A sailor’s revolt breaks out on the cruiser Ochakov in Sevastopol. The author observes the nighttime shooting and the ship’s fire from Primorsky Boulevard. A crowd of townspeople and soldiers hears in horror the screams of those burning alive. Admiral Chukhnin’s crew forbids the rescue of the drowning sailors.

The intelligentsia of a neighboring village secretly hides the surviving rebels. Led by the selfless Irina Platonova, a group of people disguises the sailors and helps them escape. Later, the author helps Ataman Konstandi paint the longboat "Svetlana" along with the orphan boy Spiro. Their friendship is interrupted by a sudden police order: the author is ordered to leave Balaklava within twenty-four hours.

Basement of the port city

The Gambrinus pub is famous for its violinist, Sashka. This gentle Jew plays masterfully for sailors, stevedores, fishermen, and thieves. The public adores the musician, generously showering him with silver and buying him beer. English sailors dance jigs to his accompaniment. During the Russo-Japanese War, Sashka is drafted to the front. The pub empties.

Sashka returns from Japanese captivity unharmed. Days of revolutionary unrest follow, followed by a brutal anti-Jewish pogrom. In a drunken stupor, thugs kill the musician’s beloved dog. Later, detectives, led by the vile Motka, arrive at the pub. They demand that the national anthem be played. Sashka refuses and hits the detective over the head with a violin. The musician is taken away to the police.

Months later, the crippled Sashka returns to the pub. His left arm is hopelessly crippled. Art lives on: the musician takes out his ocarina and whistles jaunty dance tunes. The patrons enthusiastically break into a dance.

Human dramas on land and at sea

Elena Travina is traveling on a steamship to Sevastopol. The ship’s violent rocking leaves her nearly unconscious. The captain’s mate lures her into the cabin and rapes her. At home, Elena honestly recounts this tragedy to her husband, masquerading as a fictitious story. Her husband displays distrust and jealousy. The next morning, Elena leaves for good to join her political mentor.

The elderly Colonel Voznitsyn is sailing to Crimea on a steamship. By chance, he recognizes his childhood friend, Elena, in a fellow traveler. They reminisce about their youth, their first timid crush, and Easter night in Moscow. Voznitsyn meets Elena’s young daughter and indulges in a sweet melancholy.

A sailor tells of a voyage on the old barque "Morning Star." In the Indian Ocean, the ship encounters a dead calm, then a fierce cyclone. The enraged crew mutinies, intending to throw the captain overboard. The captain kills the cook with a revolver shot, and then, with a brilliant maneuver, saves the ship from foundering on the coral reefs.

Liquefaction of light at the equator

Englishman Henry Dibble is hired by Lord Charlesbury to participate in a secret expedition to Ecuador. On behalf of attorney Knightstone, he brings back gigantic diamond lenses from Amsterdam. On the Cayambe volcano, at an altitude of almost two kilometers, the lord builds a laboratory to condense sunlight into gas at absolute zero. Engineer de Moy de Ryck begins an affair with the lord’s wife and elopes with her.

Charlesbury becomes disillusioned with humanity. A catastrophic laboratory explosion occurs due to a technical error, triggering a volcanic eruption. Lord perishes on a steamship, struck by a gigantic wave, having managed to save Henry and hand him a life preserver.

Provençal everyday life

The author describes the harsh life on the southern coast of France, at Cape Huron. Fishermen head out to sea daily in motorboats. The heat is unbearable, accompanied by the deafening cries of cicadas and the attacks of vicious mosquitoes at night. A ferocious tornado rages, engulfing a fisherman’s hut.

The author befriends a Marseille banker, Marius Chartet. The bank director is relaxing with his sons, playing Indians and sea wolves. Chartet invites his neighbor to go fishing on his massive boat. Using the ancient Black Sea method of quickly hooking, the author catches nineteen spiny fish called "rascasses," essential for bouillabaisse soup. The banker gives his guest the entire catch, never inviting him back to the sea.