"Antonovka Apples" (Russian: Антоновские яблоки, romanized: Antonovskiye Yabloki, occasionally referred to as The Apple Fragrance)[1] is a short story by Nobel Prize-winning Russian author Ivan Bunin, written in 1900 and published the same year in the October issue of the Saint Petersburg Zhiznh (Life) magazine, subtitled "Sketches from the Epitaph book".

Preparing the novella for The Passage (Перевал) collection, he omitted the whole page (with the reference to Friedrich Schiller's observation as to the apples' aroma being good for a room's general atmosphere).

"[3] Yet it was Gorky who denounced Ignaty Potapenko's sharp criticism in the Rossiya newspaper (November 10, 1900, #556), calling the review (signed 'The Stranger') "spiteful, stupid and pathetic".

[3] Brother Yuli Bunin, remembering the Moscow Wednesday (Среда) literary gatherings and mentioning criticism the writer had to confront there, wrote: "Some, speaking favourably of Antonov Apples artistic merits, rebuked him for his alleged sympathy for the old-time ways of rural life.

In 1965 Oleg Mikhailov described it as "the masterpiece", marked by "precise detalisation, concise artistry and daring metaphors... all of which go the whole way to re-create fragrances and spectres of the old-time Russia's rural life.