Yama (The Pit) | Page 2

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 plenty; Vereshchagin is still alone in the grim starkness
of his wind-swept, snow-covered battle-fields, with black crows wheeling over the
crumpled masses of gray...
And, curiously enough, it is another great Russian, Kuprin, who is supreme--if not
unique--as a painter of the universal scourge of prostitution, per se; and not as an
incidental background for portraits. True, he may not have entirely escaped the strange

allure, aforementioned, of the femininity he paints; for femininity--even though fallen,
corrupt, abased, is still femininity, one of the miracles of life, to Kuprin, the lover of life.
But, even if he may be said to have used too much of the oil of sentimentality in mixing
his colours for the portraits, his portraits are subordinate to the background; and there his
eye is true and keen, his hand steady and unflinching, his colours and brushwork
unimpeachable. Whether, like his own Platonov--who may be called to some extent an
autobiographical figure, and many of whose experiences are Kuprin's own--"came upon
the brothel" and gathered his material unconsciously, "without any ulterior thoughts of
writing, "we do not know, nor need we rummage in his dirty linen, as he puts it. Suffice it
to say here--to cite but two instances--that almost anyone acquainted with Russia will tell
you the full name of the rich, gay, southern port city of K--; that any Odessite will tell
you that Treppel's is merely transplanted, for fictional reasons, from his own city to K--...
Alexandre I. Kuprin was born in 1870; 1909 marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of his
literary activity. He attained his fame only upon the publication of his amazing, epical
novel, "The Duel"-- which, just like "YAMA," is an arraignment; an arraignment of
militaristic corruption. Russian criticism has styled him the poet of life. If Chekhov was
the Wunderkind of Russian letters, Kuprin is its enfant terrible. His range of subjects is
enormous; his power of observation and his versatility extraordinary. Gambrinus alone
would justify his place among the literary giants of Europe. Some of his picaresques,
"THE INSULT," "HORSE-THIEVES," and "OFF THE STREET"--the last in the form of
a monologue--are sheer tours de force. "Olessiya" is possessed of a weird, unearthly
beauty; "The Shulamite" is a prose-poem of antiquity. He deals with the life of the
moujik in "Back-woods" and "The Swamp"; of the Jews, in "The Jewess" and "The
Coward"; of the soldiers, in "The Cadets," "The Interrogation," "The Night Watch,"
"Delirium"; of the actors, in "How I Was an Actor" and "In Retirement." We have circus
life in "'Allez!'" "In The Circus," "Lolly," "The Clown"-- the last a one-act playlet;
factory life, in "Moloch"; provincial life, in "Small Fry"; bohemian life, in "Captain
Ribnicov" and "The River of Life"--which no one but Kuprin could have written. There
are animal stories and flower stories; stories for children --and for neuropaths; one story
is dedicated to a jockey; another to a circus clown; a third, if I remember rightly, to a
race- horse... "Yama" created an enormous sensation upon the publication of the first part
in volume three of the "Sbornik Zemliya"--"The Earth Anthology"--in 1909; the second
part appeared in volume fifteen, in 1914; the third, in volume sixteen, in 1915. Both the
original parts and the last revised edition have been followed in this translation. The
greater part of the stories listed above are available in translations, under various titles;
the list, of course, is merely a handful from the vast bulk of the fecund Kuprin's writings,
nor is any group of titles exhaustive of its kind. "The Star of Solomon," his latest
collection of stories, bears the imprint of Helsingfors, 1920.
It must not be thought, despite its locale, that Kuprin's "Yama" is a picture of Russian
prostitution solely; it is intrinsically universal. All that is necessary is to change the
kopecks into cents, pennies, sous or pfennings; compute the versts into miles or metres;
Jennka may be Eugenie or Jeannette; and for Yama, simply read Whitechapel,
Montmartre, or the Barbary Coast. That is why "Yama" is a "tremendous, staggering, and
truthful book--a terrific book." It has been called notorious,