Kuprin (short stories & The Pit)

[flatsharer]

I came across a few short stories by Kuprin recently and they were really rather good/fun.
Captain Ribinikov was particularly unput-downable

Tense well structured (maybe a bit clunckier than the real greats) but well worth reading.
What do you out there think?

Will probablt read The Pit when I have a mo, which appears to be his only novel in print (is this right?).

Has anyone read "The Pit" if so what is it like?

[lerik]

I have read Olyesya and Sulamif

[flatsharer]

Hi Lerik thanks for replying.

I have not come across either of the short stories you mention.
What did you think of them?

The Kuprin's I've read so far are:
Cptn Ribinikov, The River of Life, The Outrage and The Last word.  
These I stumbled across in a mouldy old Penguin paper back. (In English translation I don't know any Russian).  

They contained many interesting characters and details, though at times did seem a little preachy,
In these stories Kuprin shows a I liking for the picaresque & the marginal and an intense dislike of unthinking bourgeois life.

I see a few of his stories are also available on line.


Any more thoughts on Kuprin?
or suggestions of other Russian authors I might like?
(I seem to be slowly working my way towards the present…)

[lerik]

Oh I also read Olesya
As for Sulamif( sorry,I am not sure i this is the exact translation in English) it was a very story for me to read.Its about the love of king Solomon to a 13 year old shepherdess.Kuprin wrote this story because he was in love with a woman much younger than he was(I am not sure what came out of that love story).
I also read the "Garnet bracelet".Cant say that I liked it that much though.all of Russian critics agree that the main character loved the woman in the story but I read a very interesting interpretation of the story where the author proves that he didnt.
As for any other writers...Um...Don't know if you will find it but try to read Shmelev's "Sun of the dead".Shmelev immigrated from Russia and wrote this novel about the terror of the Read army in Crimea.And maybe Boris Vasilyev(I am not sure if his works are translated into English though).He wrote what Russians call "war prose".I easpecially like his work "Tomorrow was the war" about a class just before the war and Stalin's repressions.