Description

“The Pit” is Kuprin’s most tragic work, which once had the effect of a bombshell among readers and critics, and even now, it shocks with its power and merciless realism. The sad story of the inhabitants of a mid-level brothel is told with almost photographic precision. The characters of the “night butterflies,” their clients, and their only friend – a journalist whose image in Kuprin’s work has autobiographical features – impress with their psychological depth and vividness. The novel captivates not by the piquant nature of its theme, but by the author’s honest, compassionate, and humane attitude towards the fate of the girls whom circumstances led into the pit.