Yama: the pit by Kuprin, A. I. (Aleksandr Ivanovich), 1870-1938

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The Project Gutenberg Etext of Yama (The Pit), by Alexandra Kuprin

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Title: Yama (The Pit)
Author: Alexandra Kuprin
Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4706]

[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]

[This file was first posted on March 5, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
The Project Gutenberg Etext of Yama (The Pit), by Alexandra Kuprin

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YAMA [THE PIT]

Of this edition, intended for private circulation only, and
printed from type on Berkeley Antique laid paper, 950 copies have
been printed for America, and 550 for Great Britain. Also, 55
unnumbered copies, for the press.

This copy is Number 223

YAMA [THE PIT]
A NOVEL IN THREE PARTS
BY ALEXANDRA KUPRIN
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN
BY BERNARD GUILBERT GUERNEY
"All the horror is in just this, that there is no horror ..."

AUTHOR'S DEDICATION

I know that many will find this novel immoral and indecent; nevertheless, I dedicate it with all my heart to MOTHERS AND YOUTHS--A. K.

TRANSLATOR'S DEDICATION

I dedicate the labour of translation, in all humility and

sincerity, to K. ANDRAE. B. G. G.

INTRODUCTION

"With us, you see," Kuprin makes the reporter Platonov, his
mouthpiece, say in Yama, "they write about detectives, about
lawyers, about inspectors of the revenue, about pedagogues, about
attorneys, about the police, about officers, about sensual ladies,
about engineers, about baritones--and really, by God, altogether
well--cleverly, with finesse and talent. But, after all, all these
people are rubbish, and their life is not life, but some sort of
conjured up, spectral, unnecessary delirium of world culture. But
there are two singular realities--ancient as humanity itself: the
prostitute and the moujik. And about them we know nothing, save
some tinsel, gingerbread, debauched depictions in literature..."

Tinsel, gingerbread, debauched depictions... Let us consider some
of the ways in which this monstrous reality has been approached by
various writers. There is, first, the purely sentimental:
Prevost's Manon Les caut. Then there is the slobberingly
sentimental: Dumas' Dame aux Camelias. A third is the
necrophilically romantic: Louys' Aphrodite. The fertile Balzac has
given us no less than two: the purely romantic, in his fascinating
portraits of the Fair Imperia; and the romantically realistic, in
his Splendeurs et Miseres des Courtisanes. Reade's Peg Woffington
may be called the literary parallel of the costume drama; Defoe's
Moll Flanders is honestly realistic; Zola's Nana is rabidly so.

There is one singular fact that must be noted in connection with
the vast majority of such depictions. Punk or bona roba, lorette
or drab--put her before an artist in letters, and, lo and behold
ye! such is the strange allure emanating from the hussy, that the
resultant portrait is either that of a martyred Magdalene, or, at
the very least, has all the enigmatic piquancy of a Monna Lisa...
Not a slut, but what is a hetaera; and not a hetaera, but what is
well-nigh Kypris herself! I know of but one depiction in all
literature that possesses the splendour of implacable veracity as
well as undiminished artistry; where the portrait is that of a
prostitute, despite all her tirings and trappings; a depiction
truly deserving to be designated a portrait: the portrait supreme
of the harlot eternal--Shakespeare's Cleopatra.

Furthermore, it will be observed that such depictions, for the
most part, are primarily portraits of prostitutes, and not
pictures of prostitution. It is also a singular fact that war,
another scourge has met with similar treatment. We have the
pretty, spotless grenadiers and cuirassiers of Meissonier in

of 00

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