Aleksandr Kuprin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please improve this article if you can. (September 2007)
This article is about the writer. For the painter, see Alexander V. Kuprin.
Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin

Kuprin
Born August 26 [O.S. September 7] 1870
Narovchat, Penza Oblast
Died August 25, 1938 (aged 68)
Leningrad
Occupation writer, pilot, explorer, and adventurer
Genres short stories
Literary movement Naturalism
Notable work(s) Junior Captain Rybnikov
Influences

Aleksandr Ivanovich Kuprin (Александр Иванович Куприн, September 7, 1870 (August 26, 1870 OS) in the town of Narovchat in the Penza Oblast[1] - August 25, 1938 in Leningrad) was a Russian writer, pilot, explorer and adventurer whose best known novellas include Moloch (1896), Olesya (1898), The Duel (1905), Junior Captain Rybnikov (1906), Emerald (1907), and The Garnet Bracelet (1911). Vladimir Nabokov styled him Russian Kipling for his stories about pathetic adventure-seekers, who are often "neurotic and vulnerable."[1]

Contents

[edit] Early life

Kuprin was a son of a Tatar princess who, like many other nobles in Russia, had lost most of her wealth in the 19th century.[1] Kuprin received his education in the 2nd Cadet Corps and the Alexander Military School, spending a total of ten years in these elite military institutions.[1] His first short story was published in 1889 in a satirical periodical.[1]

[edit] Literary career

Kuprin left military service in 1894, after which he tried his hand at all sorts of jobs, including provincial journalism, dental care, land surveying, acting, circus performer, church singer, doctor, hunter, fisher, etc.[1] Reportedly, "all of these were subsequently reflected in his fiction."[1] His first essays were published in Kiev in two collections, but he made his name as a writer in 1896 with the short story Moloch.[1] 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."[1]

Kuprin in Gatchina (cartoon from the 1910s)
Kuprin in Gatchina (cartoon from the 1910s)

His early short stories, including several on horses and other animals, seethe with love of life in all its manifestations.[1] Kuprin's popularity spread quickly after Leo Tolstoy had acclaimed him as a true successor to Chekhov. The spy story Junior Captain Rybnikov (1906) has been called the pinnacle of his art. Subsequently he paid less and less interest to literature, sharing his time between pubs and brothels. His novel about the life of prostitutes, The Pit (1915), was accused by Russian critics of excessive Naturalism.

Although not a conservative himself, he did not agree with Bolshevism. While working for a short time with Maxim Gorky at the World Literature publishing house, he criticized the Soviet regime. In spring 1919, from Gatchina near Petrograd, Kuprin left the country for France.[1] He lived in Paris for most of the next 17 years, succumbing to alcoholism He wrote about this in much of his work.[1] He eventually returned to Moscow on May 31, 1937, just a year before his death, at the height of the Great Purge.[1] His return paved the way for publication of his works within Soviet Union.

Kuprin died in the spring of 1938 in Leningrad and is interred near his fellow writers at the Volkovo Cemetery of Leningrad.[1] A minor planet 3618 Kuprin, discovered by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh in 1979 is named after him. [2]

Reportedly, "even today, Alexander Kuprin remains one of the widest read classics in Russian literature," with many films made 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."[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o THE MOSCOW WINDOWS'HOME. Sergei Sossinsky. Moscow News (Russia). HISTORY; No. 6. February 17, 1999.
  2. ^ Schmadel, Lutz D. (2003). Dictionary of Minor Planet Names, 5th, New York: Springer Verlag, p. 304. ISBN 3540002383. 

[edit] External links