Yama: The Pit

Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality, New Age, History, Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Yama: The Pit by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin, Library of Alexandria
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin ISBN: 9781465591609
Publisher: Library of Alexandria Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
ISBN: 9781465591609
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
Publication: March 8, 2015
Imprint:
Language: English
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.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
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.

More books from Library of Alexandria

Cover of the book The Sexual Instinct and its Morbid Manifestations from the Double Standpoint of Jurisprudence and Psychiatry by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Westerfelt by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Under the Mendips: A Tale by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Pagan Regeneration: A Study of Mystery Initiations in the Graeco-Roman World by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book O poeta Chiado (Novas investigações sobre a sua vida e escriptos) by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Iermola by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book The Quest for a Lost Race by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Pompeii, Its Life and Art by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book The Freedmen's Book by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Mrs. Budlong's Christmas Presents by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book The A. E. F. With General Pershing and The American Forces by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book The independence Day Horror at Killsbury by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Myths and Legends of Our Own Land, v6 by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
Cover of the book Dead Man's Love by Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy