Shrayer, Maxim D. Bunin's Tambourine: Echoes of the Old Master in His Disciple's Fourth Novel. 2019

Vladimir Nabokov's apprenticeship, dialogue and rivalry with Ivan Bunin has long been the subject of Maxim D. Shrayer's research. In this article, Shrayer argues that Nabokov's fourth Russian novel Podvig (Glory) occupies a special place in the younger writer's literary relationship with the older master Bunin. Glory was the first literary work by Nabokov, in which Bunin appears not only through literary allusions but as a disguised literary character. Furthermore, in Glory Nabokov, while publicly an admirer of Bunin's muse, deploys a subtle critique of Bunin's versification practices.