Aleksandr Kuprin (Russian: 袗谢械泻褋邪薪写褉 袠胁邪薪芯胁懈褔 袣褍锌褉懈薪; 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."
Hasta ahora mi 煤nica aproximaci贸n al decadentismo hab铆a sido con la obra "All谩 lejos" (1891) del autor franc茅s Joris-Karl Huysmans. Por lo que he podido observar en las obras decadentistas hay una constante utilizaci贸n de l茅xico culto en estructuras sint谩cticas complejas. Son textos con tendencia a la grandilocuencia, un estilo que no siempre consigue "elevar" al lector en mi humilde opini贸n. El decadentismo rechaza "lo delicado, lo precioso, lo raro, [va] en contra [de] lo ins铆pido del Tiempo presente". Los autores decadentes eran "Los Elegidos", cuya misi贸n era crear obras literarias que se alejaran de la decadencia literaria imperante en aquella 茅poca (finales del siglo XIX).
EN RESUMEN, los decadentes eran se帽ores, en general, con algo de pasta, de morro fino y una vida bastante prosaica que gustaban de comerse las pollas los unos a los otros, convencidos todos ellos de que eran special snowflakes andantes por emplear vocablos que desconoc铆a la mayor铆a del pululacho. Ah, y tambi茅n por escribir historias con un marcado tono obscuro y artificioso a帽adiendo alg煤n elemento "remoto raruno".
Yo no s茅 si 小褍谢邪屑懈褎褜 o Sulamita (1909) es comparable a 厂补濒辞尘茅 de Oscar Wilde ya que no he le铆do esta 煤ltima pieza literaria, por suerte o por desgracia. Lo que s铆 s茅 es que Kuprin deb铆a de estar muy aburrido por estos a帽os para escribir Sulamita. Si tuviera que describir esta novela corta con un adjetivo sin duda utilizar铆a: "innecesaria". No aporta nada. 驴Est谩 bien escrita? Bajo los par谩metros estil铆sticos del decadentismo, pues s铆, es una maravilla; un orgasmo tras otro para los sentidos. Pero bajo mi punto de vista es ese zurrullo que no quiere, ya sabes, salir. Narraci贸n rimbombante y, en segundo lugar, presuntuosa. Al final lo 煤nico que nos est谩 contando Aleksandr Kupr铆n con la escusa de "estoy escribiendo una historia epiqu铆sima basada en El cantar de los cantares, comedme los huevos por lo bien escrita y documentada que est谩" es la historia de un hombre de cuarenta y cinco a帽os que fuerza a una cr铆a de trece a帽os a mantener relaciones sexuales con 茅l porque se ha encaprichado de su juventud y virtud. Y como el muy atontao' del protagonista es un imb茅cil de carnet, al final la que sale mal parada es ella.
Y nada de esto sucede en Rusia ni en las proximidades, lo que a帽ade una dosis m谩s de decepci贸n al asunto.
Lo que s铆 me ha gustado mucho ha sido la ambientaci贸n oriental. Es un aspecto muy trabajado que me ha llegado a fascinar en ciertos puntos. El resto de la historia, como he dicho, deja bastante que desear.
Concluyendo, recomiendo leer Sulamita si quer茅is saber las aportaciones de los escritores rusos en las vanguardias de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Si no est谩is especialmente interesados en este tema, leed otras obras de A. Kupr铆n (El estiercol) u otros autores rusos.
Pd: La edici贸n es una maravilla; como siempre Nevsky es una apuesta segura.
WTF! This is Fifty Shades under the cover of a Russian classic! And the story wasn't any better in 1908 than it was in 2011.
You want to have evidence? Here you go: Horny Solomon seeing his newest crush the first time, of course there's this fateful wind coming up... "And when thou didst turn around in answer to my call, and the wind arose, I did see beneath thy raiment thy two nipples and methought: Here be two young roes that are twins, which feed among the lilies. This thy stature was like to a palm tree, and thy breasts to clusters of grapes."
And then, doesn't this back and forth and oh so much thoughts seem familiar somehow? "What dost thou with me!" says Sulamith faintly, closing her eyes. But Solomon passionately whispers near her very mouth: "Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb; honey and milk are under thy tongue.... O, come away with me, speedily. Here, behind the wall, it is dark and cool. None shall see us. The green is soft here underneath the cedars." "Nay, nay, leave me. I desire it not, I can not." "Sulamith ... thou dost desire it, thou dost desire it.... Come to me, my sister, my beloved!"
And just with that, thou dost desire it, and some promises 脿 la Christian Gray: "But have no fear, and put thy trust in me. I shall cause thee no grief. I shall give thee such joy compared with which all things upon earth are without significance", the young girl is like 'yeah, maybe I do desire this stranger who's three times as old as I am' and tadaa, they're in an obsessive love with each other and what man could resist this offer?! "Thou wouldst instruct me; I would cause thee to drink of the juice of my pomegranates."
Still another unbelievably romantic exclamation somehow didn't make it into the Fifty Shades but wouldn't everybody like to see Christian saying "Seven hundred wives have I known and three hundred concubines, and virgins without number,鈥攖hou art but one, my fair!" and Anastasia answering "I desire to be but thy slave, Solomon. Behold, I have put my ear to the post of the door. I beseech thee,鈥攊n accordance with the law of Moses, nail down my ear in witness of my voluntary bondage before thee."?? (Yes, really happened like this in the book, I'm not simply putting quotations together in a funny way...even though I wished it would be like this!). I guess nailing somebody's ear to a door post doesn't go in 21st century romance, which would be the only explanation for me to why E L James missed out on that.
There's even a Mrs. Robinson! But the "older" (she's 30...but when you think of Sulamith being 13, well...) lover goes a little further in this case, but of course I don't want to spoil all the "fun". So if you're brave enough and if you thought that the Fifty Shades were quite okay but would have been PERFECT if there just were some old religious rites and some famous examples of the judgement of Solomon included, then go and find out where this all leads to!
Well, to sum it up? Apparently E L James wasn't the first to come up with the idea of rich 'well experienced' man hitting on submissive naive young girl and putting it into a cheesy story with some sex involved...and having the characters say things like "farewell" and "thou shalt" doesn't really make the plot any better, even though I have to admit that it at least doesn't let Kuprin look as illiterate as E L James seems to be.
I know this is based on The Song of Songs of Solomon but it's not excuse of portraying Solomon as Gary Stu. Kuprin can write but the worshiping style- I absolutely hated that.
The romance between 45 year old man and 13 year old girl is portrayed as the true love and whatnot...*gets a bucket to vomit* Yeah, right. But what did expect after all?
Turns out Kuprin has a quite erotic side to certain of his works and this is one of them. This book is a combination of erotica and citings of numerous ancient cultures, religions and myths, makes for an curious encyclopedia on antiquity/pornographic literature mix
Kr谩tke dielo, ktor茅 m谩te za chv铆木u pre膷铆tan茅, a ktor茅 v膹aka svojej ve木kosti 木ahko schov谩te aj do vrecka a m么啪ete ho tak vzia钮 so sebou naozaj kamko木vek. 脷primne, nebol to najlep拧铆 rom谩n ak媒 som kedy 膷铆tala, ale rozhodne st谩l za pre膷铆tanie a som rada, 啪e som sa k nemu dostala. Najviac ma zaujali kapitoly, kde sa rozpr谩valo o tom, 膷o a odkia木 kr谩木 艩alam煤n do svojej krajiny dov谩啪al a ako spravodlivo a m煤dro dok谩zal rozhodova钮, ke膹 za n铆m 木udia prich谩dzali, aby vyrie拧il ich probl茅my a spory. Ako v ka啪dom rom谩ne, ani v tomto nech媒bal pr铆beh l谩sky popretk谩van媒 intrigami a 啪iarlivos钮ou. Vrelo odpor煤膷am.
The setup is based on the Biblical Song of Songs. For a while, it comes off mainly as a more expansive and more lavishly poetical adaptation of the original. But it eventually veers off in original direction. It鈥檚 an intriguing balance between maintaining a connection with the original but offering something distinct enough to stand as a distinct work. I didn鈥檛 necessarily love it, but I do admire Kuprin鈥檚 adventurousness and his having pulled it off.
I loved it showed a man who had it all but lost it due to his own carelessness. Solomon forgot God's principles and these are what would have protectefd the love of his life.He entertained the worship of pagan god's and it cost him his love