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Яма. Олеся.
Александр Иванович Куприн (1870-1938) — один из величайших русских писателей, в творческом наследии которого более десятка повестей и романов («Впотьмах», «Олеся», «Гранатовый браслет»), множество рассказов и очерков.
В повести «Яма», по словам критика В. Н. Афанасьева, Куприн стремился привлечь внимание к сотням и тысячам публичных женщин, всеми отвергнутых и презираемых, но сохранивших душевную чуткость и проявляющих теплую заботу о таких же, как они, обездоленных людях. Также автор в повести «Яма» стремился показать бесчеловечие и жестокость общественного уклада, обрекающего их на гибель. Эпиграф, который предпослал своей книге писатель: «Знаю, что многие найду&
515 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 27, 2013
2 people are currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
Aleksandr Kuprin
914 books155 followersAleksandr Kuprin (Russian: Александр Иванович Куприн; 7 September 1870 in the village of Narovchat in the Penza Oblast - August 25, 1938 in Leningrad) was a Russian writer, pilot, explorer and adventurer who is perhaps best known for his story The Duel (1905). Other well-known works include Moloch (1896), Olesya (1898), Junior Captain Rybnikov (1906), Emerald (1907), and The Garnet Bracelet (1911) (which was made into a 1965 movie). Vladimir Nabokov styled him the Russian Kipling for his stories about pathetic adventure-seekers, who are often "neurotic and vulnerable."
Kuprin was a son of Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin, a minor government official who died of cholera during 1871 at the age of thirty-seven years. His mother, Liubov' Alekseevna Kuprina, Tatar princess (of the Kulunchakovs), like many other nobles in Russia, had lost most of her wealth during the 19th century. Kuprin attended the Razumovsky boarding school during 1876, and during 1880 finished his education in the Second Moscow Military High School (Cadet Corps) and Alexander Military School, spending a total of ten years in these elite military institutions. His first short story, The Last Debut, was published during 1889 in a satirical periodical. "In February 1902, Kuprin and Maria Karlovna Davydova were married, their daughter Lidia born in 1903." Kuprin's mother died during 1910.
Kuprin ended military service during 1894, after which he tried many types of job, including provincial journalism, dental care, land surveying, acting, circus performer, church singer, doctor, hunter, fisher, etc. Reportedly, "all of these were subsequently reflected in his fiction." His first essays were published in Kiev in two collections. Reportedly, "although he lived in an age when writers were carried away by literary experiments, Kuprin did not seek innovation and wrote only about the things he himself had experienced and his heroes are the next generation after Chekhov's pessimists."
Although the 1896 short story Moloch first made his name known as a writer, it was his novel The Duel (1905) which made him famous. "Kuprin was highly praised by fellow writers including Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Nobel Prize-winning Ivan Bunin" and Leo Tolstoy who acclaimed him a true successor to Chekhov. After publication of The Duel he paid less and less interest to fancy literature and began to spend time in pubs and brothels. His sensationalist novel about the lurid life of prostitutes, The Pit (1915), was accused by Russian critics of excessive Naturalism.
Although not a conservative, he did not agree with Bolshevism. While working for a brief time with Maxim Gorky at the World Literature publishing company, he criticized the Soviet regime. During spring 1919, from Gatchina near Petrograd, Kuprin left the country for France. He lived in Paris for most of the next 17 years, succumbing to alcoholism. He wrote about this in much of his work. He eventually returned to Moscow on May 31, 1937, just a year before his death, at the height of the Great Purge. His return earned publication of his works within the Soviet Union.
Kuprin died during the spring of 1938 in Leningrad and is interred near his fellow writers at the Literaturskiye Mostki in the Volkovo Cemetery (Volkovskoye Memorial Cemetery) in Leningrad. A minor planet 3618 Kuprin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him.
Reportedly, "even today, Alexander Kuprin remains one of the widest read classics in Russian literature", with many films based on his works, "which are also read over the radio", partly due to "his vivid stories of the lives of ordinary people and unhappy love, his descriptions of the military and brothels, making him a writer for all times and places."
Kuprin was a son of Ivan Ivanovich Kuprin, a minor government official who died of cholera during 1871 at the age of thirty-seven years. His mother, Liubov' Alekseevna Kuprina, Tatar princess (of the Kulunchakovs), like many other nobles in Russia, had lost most of her wealth during the 19th century. Kuprin attended the Razumovsky boarding school during 1876, and during 1880 finished his education in the Second Moscow Military High School (Cadet Corps) and Alexander Military School, spending a total of ten years in these elite military institutions. His first short story, The Last Debut, was published during 1889 in a satirical periodical. "In February 1902, Kuprin and Maria Karlovna Davydova were married, their daughter Lidia born in 1903." Kuprin's mother died during 1910.
Kuprin ended military service during 1894, after which he tried many types of job, including provincial journalism, dental care, land surveying, acting, circus performer, church singer, doctor, hunter, fisher, etc. Reportedly, "all of these were subsequently reflected in his fiction." His first essays were published in Kiev in two collections. Reportedly, "although he lived in an age when writers were carried away by literary experiments, Kuprin did not seek innovation and wrote only about the things he himself had experienced and his heroes are the next generation after Chekhov's pessimists."
Although the 1896 short story Moloch first made his name known as a writer, it was his novel The Duel (1905) which made him famous. "Kuprin was highly praised by fellow writers including Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky, Leonid Andreyev, Nobel Prize-winning Ivan Bunin" and Leo Tolstoy who acclaimed him a true successor to Chekhov. After publication of The Duel he paid less and less interest to fancy literature and began to spend time in pubs and brothels. His sensationalist novel about the lurid life of prostitutes, The Pit (1915), was accused by Russian critics of excessive Naturalism.
Although not a conservative, he did not agree with Bolshevism. While working for a brief time with Maxim Gorky at the World Literature publishing company, he criticized the Soviet regime. During spring 1919, from Gatchina near Petrograd, Kuprin left the country for France. He lived in Paris for most of the next 17 years, succumbing to alcoholism. He wrote about this in much of his work. He eventually returned to Moscow on May 31, 1937, just a year before his death, at the height of the Great Purge. His return earned publication of his works within the Soviet Union.
Kuprin died during the spring of 1938 in Leningrad and is interred near his fellow writers at the Literaturskiye Mostki in the Volkovo Cemetery (Volkovskoye Memorial Cemetery) in Leningrad. A minor planet 3618 Kuprin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him.
Reportedly, "even today, Alexander Kuprin remains one of the widest read classics in Russian literature", with many films based on his works, "which are also read over the radio", partly due to "his vivid stories of the lives of ordinary people and unhappy love, his descriptions of the military and brothels, making him a writer for all times and places."
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October 25, 2017
I wonder now why I haven't read Russian long before than I started reading English literature?...
1. "What else? It'll fall out very badly for that queen of clubs, worse than death. She'll suffer great shame because of you, a shame she won't forget all her life, a long sorrow. But nothing bad will fall to you through her."...
2. "I'll tell you a little story. One day a wolf was running through the wood and he saw a hare. 'I'll eat you up, hare!' he says. 'Have pity on me, wolf,' the hare begged, 'I want to live, my little ones are waiting for me at home.' The wolf wouldn't listen to him. Then the hare said, 'Well, at least let me live three days longer, and then you may eat me up. It'll be easier for me to die that way.' The wolf gave him the three days—he didn't eat him up, just kept an eye on him. One day passed, then another, and at last the third day came. 'Get ready now,' says the wolf, 'I'm going to eat you.' And the hare began to cry bitterly. 'Why did you ever give me those three days, wolf! You should have eaten me up as soon as you saw me. Those three days were worse than death to me!' That hare spoke the truth, dear. Don't you think so?"...
Once again an another great read and the literature from Alexander Kuprin make it exceptional to explore and inhale the sweetness of his work. I just loved it. There's really nothing much to say but to enjoy a classic romance by a Russian author. ‘Olesya’ that beautiful Russian girl who was supposed to live with her granny better known as a witch Manuilikha! Then there’s that young and handsome fellow ‘Ivan Tijmofeyevich!’ Of course as the day went by they become fall in love for each other. It was then where the thing started to gone wrong. Olesya as she was from a witch family didn’t consider herself or say couldn’t make herself and her granny to the normal social life (though I doubt if I can call it as social, never mind). Of course they had nothing to do with event when that granny was young and holding her little Olesya into her arm when form everywhere toward her the blast of stones been throwing. But that’s not what my point. Actually I do enjoyed very much. I didn’t know at first when I begun to read it as what I really wanted from this book. I just wanted to read a decent Russian book & I am more than happy to say that it worked...
More Russian Literature? Yes Please!...
Displaying 1 of 1 review