Yama: The Pit
| Author | Alexander Kuprin |
|---|---|
| Original title | Яма |
| Country | Russian Empire |
| Language | Russian |
| Publisher | Moscow Book Publishers Zemlya almanac |
|
Publication date
|
1909 (Part 1) • 1914 (Part 2) • 1915 (Part 3) |
| Media type | print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Preceded by | The Duel |
| Followed by | The Garnet Bracelet |
The Pit (Russian: Яма, translit. Yama) is a novel by Alexander Kuprin published in installments between 1909 and 1915, in Zemlya almanacs (1909 - Vol.3, 1914 - Vol.15, 1915 - Vol.16). The book, centering on a brothel, owned by a woman named Anna Markovna, caused much controversy in its time.
Alexander Kuprin started collecting the material for his work in Kiev in 1890s, and it is in this city that the novel's action takes place. Speaking in 1909 to a local newspaper correspondent about prototypes, he commented: "Characters I've made cannot be seen as copying real people. I picked up a lot of small details from the real life, but that was by no means copying the reality, which is something I detest doing." He added that his observations were by no means restricted to Kiev. "The Pit is [about] Odessa, Petersburg and Kiev," Kuprin said.
The real life episode similar to that of singer Rovinskaya and her friends making a visit to a brothel happened in Saint Petersburg. According to the critic Alexander Izmaylov, the author was relating it to his friends as far back as 1905. Zhenya's character (according to biographer O.Mstislavskaya) was partly inspired by Kuprin's encounter with his neighbour landlord's niece in Danilovskoye, his Nizny Novgorod region estate. In 1908 he asked his friend Fyodor Batyushkov for Z.Vorontsova's book Memoirs of a Café-chantant Singer (1908) which provided him numerous details, some of which he used while creating the Tamara character. Platonov's monologues echo the discussions concerning prostitution that were going on in the Russian press in 1908-1909; similar views were expressed by the Saint Petersburg doctor P.E. Oboznenko.
Kuprin was planning to start The Pit in the early 1900s and in 1902 he asked Mir Bozhy's editor Batyushkov if the magazine would publish a novel of that kind. As Batyushkov expressed doubts, the work was postponed. In 1907 Kuprin brought Part 1 of the novel to Mir Bozhy and the magazine announced its publication as planned for 1908, but then cancelled the publication. Kuprin signed a new deal with G.Blumenberg and D.Rebrik of the Moskovskoye Knogoizdatelstvo (Moscow Book Publishers) according to which the company would start publishing The Complete Kuprin series and include The Pit into their literary almanac Zemlya (The Land).
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