Studia Litterarum

2500-4247

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2500-4247-2026-11-3-500-513

Scientific Publication of Archival Materials

Articles

“Diary of a Talentless Woman”: An Unwritten Novella by Vera Bunina

Bakuntsev

Anton V.

red@studlit.ru

September 25, 2026

2026

April 09, 2025

The publication presents a sketch by Vera Bunina (née Muromtseva), Ivan Bunin’s wife, under the title “Diary of a Talentless Woman.” The autograph of this sketch is kept in the Leeds Russian Archive (LRA, the UK) among the original diaries of Vera Bunina. This is due, apparently, to the diary form of the autograph and the exact dating of its constituent entries. Presumably, “Diary of a Talentless Woman” was conceived as a novella in the form of a diary. Work on it was begun (and interrupted for unknown reasons) in July 1931, during Vera Bunina’s stay in the resort town of Juan-les-Pins in the south of France. When creating this sketch, Vera Bunina used her original diary entries, which coincide in date with the entries in the autograph (July 17 and 18, 1931); the characters in the “Diary” seem to have prototypes—Vera Bunina herself and some representatives of her Moscow, Paris, and Grasse entourage.

Vera Bunina Diary of a Talentless Woman prose diaries textual criticism

2026

1 Bakuntsev, A.V. “Kniga ‘Ustami Buninykh’ vs podlinnye dnevniki I.A. i V.N. Buninykh: predvaritel’nye vyvody” [“The Book ‘From the Mouth of the Bunins’ versus the Original Diaries of Ivan and Vera Bunin: Preliminary Conclusions”]. Rossiia Ivana Bunina i kul’tura russkogo Podstep’ia: Materialy Vserossiiskoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii (25 oktiabria 2024 g.) [Russia of Ivan Bunin and the Culture of the Russian Sub-Steppe: Proceedings of the All-Russian Scientific and Practical Conference (October 25, 2024)]. Yelets, Bunin Yelets State University Publ., 2024, pp. 8–12. (In Russ.)

2 Korostelev, O.A., and S.N. Morozov, editors. Literaturnoe nasledstvo [Literary Heritage], vol. 110: I.A. Bunin: Novye materialy i issledovaniia: v 4 kn. [I.A. Bunin: New Materials and Research: in 4 books], book 2. Moscow, IWL RAS Publ., 2022. 992 p. (In Russ.)

3 Morozov, S.N. “Dnevniki V.N. Muromtsevoi-Buninoi: voprosy istochnikovedeniia i tekstologii” [“Vera Muromtseva-Bunina’s Diaries: Problems of Source Studies and Textual Studies”]. Novyi filologicheskii vestnik, no. 4 (71), 2024, pp. 169–178. https://doi.org/10.54770/20729316-2024-4-169 (In Russ.)

4 Ponomarev, E.R. “‘Besedy s pamiat’iu’ V.N. Muromtsevoi-Buninoi: Neizvestnaia kniga o detstve i iunosti” [“‘Conversations with Memory’ by V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina: An Unknown Book about Childhood and Youth”]. Novyi filologicheskii vestnik, no. 4 (63), 2022, pp. 158–169. https://doi.org/10.54770/20729316-2022-4-158 (In Russ.)

5 Ponomarev, E.R. “Bunin, Bunina i Kuznetsova: fakty i domysly” [“Bunin, Bunina and Kuznetsova: Facts and Conjectures”]. I.A. Bunin: Novye materialy. Vyp. III.

“Kogda perepisyvaiutsia blizkie liudi…:” Pis’ma I.A. Bunina, V.N. Buninoi, L.F. Zurova k G.N. Kuznetsovoi i M.A. Stepun. 1934–1961 [Ivan A. Bunin: New Materials. Issue 3. “When Close People Correspond…:” Letters of I.A. Bunin, V.N. Bunina, L.F. Zurov to G.N. Kuznetsova and M.A. Stepun. 1934–1961], comp., text prep., scientific apparatus by E.R. Ponomarev and R. Davies, accompanying articles by E.R. Ponomarev. Moscow, Russkii put’ Publ., 2014, pp. 567–598. (In Russ.)

6 Ponomarev, E.R. “Letopis’ russkoi emigratsii: transformatsii dnevnikovogo zhanra v emigrantskoi kul’ture (na primere literaturnogo naslediia V.N. MuromtsevoiBuninoi)” [“The Chronicle of Russian Emigration: Transformations of the Diary Genre in Emigrant Culture (on the Example of the Literary Heritage of

V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina)”]. Novyi filologicheskii vestnik, no. 3 (70), 2024, pp. 192–202. https://doi.org/10.54770/20729316-2024-3-192 (In Russ.)

7 Ponomarev, E.R. “Rannee tvorchestvo V.N. Muromtsevoi-Buninoi: Zhanrovyi genezis i poetika” [“The Early Work of V.N. Muromtseva-Bunina: Genre Genesis and Poetics”]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filologiia, no. 91, 2024, pp. 251–264. https://doi.org/10.17223/19986645/91/13 (In Russ.)