Institution Anna Markovna not one of the most luxurious "as, say, Treppel's establishment, but not one of the low-class ones either. In pit(former Yamskaya Sloboda) there were only two more. The rest - ruble and fifty dollars, for soldiers, thieves, gold miners.
Late in May, Anna Markovna had a company of students in the guest room, accompanied by Privatdozent Yarchenko and a reporter for the local newspaper Platonov. The girls had already gone out to them, but the men continued the conversation they had begun on the street. Platonov said that he knew this place and its inhabitants well and for a long time. It can be said that he is his own person here, but he has never visited any of the “girls”. He wanted to enter this little world and understand it from the inside. All loud phrases about the trade in women's meat are nothing in comparison with everyday, business trifles, prosaic everyday life. The horror is that it is not perceived as horror. Petty-bourgeois everyday life - and nothing more. Moreover, in the most incredible way, seemingly incompatible principles converge here: sincere, for example, piety and a natural inclination to crime. Here's Simeon, the local bouncer. Robs prostitutes, beats them, in the past, probably a killer. And he made friends with him on the creations of John of Damascus. Extraordinarily religious. Or Anna Markovna. Bloodsucker, hyena, but the most tender mother. Everything for Bertochka: a horse, an Englishwoman, and forty thousand worth of diamonds.
At that time, Zhenya entered the hall, whom Platonov, and both clients and residents of the house, respected for her beauty, mocking audacity and independence. She was agitated today and quickly spoke in conventional jargon with Tamara. However, Platonov understood him: due to the influx of the public, Pasha had already been taken into the room more than ten times, and this ended in hysteria and fainting. But as soon as she came to her senses, the hostess again sent her to the guests. The girl was in great demand because of her sexuality. Platonov paid for it so that Pasha could rest in their company... The students soon dispersed into their rooms, and Platonov, left alone with Likhonin, an ideological anarchist, continued his story about the local women. As for prostitution as a global phenomenon, it is an irresistible evil.
Lichonin listened sympathetically to Platonov and suddenly declared that he would not like to remain only a condoling spectator. He wants to take the girl from here, save her. "Save? He will come back, ”Platonov said with conviction. "He'll be back," Zhenya responded to him in a tone. “Lyuba,” Lichonin turned to another returning girl, “do you want to leave here? Not for content. I will help you, you will open the dining room.
The girl agreed, and Lichonin, having taken her from the housekeeper for ten dollars for an apartment for the whole day, the next day he was going to demand her yellow ticket and change it to a passport. Taking responsibility for the fate of a person, the student had a poor idea of the hardships associated with this. His life became complicated from the very first hours. However, friends agreed to help him develop the rescued one. Lichonin began to teach her arithmetic, geography and history, and he was also responsible for taking her to exhibitions, to the theater and to popular lectures. Nezheradze undertook to read The Knight in the Panther's Skin to her and teach her to play the guitar, mandolin and zurna. Simanovsky suggested studying Marx's "Capital", the history of culture, physics and chemistry.
All this took a lot of time, required a lot of money, but gave very modest results. In addition, brotherly relations with her did not always work out, and she perceived them as a disregard for her feminine virtues.
In order to get a yellow ticket from the hostess Lyubin, he had to pay more than five hundred rubles of her debt. The passport cost twenty-five. The relationship of his friends to Lyuba, who grew prettier and prettier outside the brothel environment, also became a problem. Soloviev, unexpectedly for himself, found that he obeyed the charm of her femininity, and Simanovsky more and more often turned to the topic of a materialistic explanation of love between a man and a woman, and when he drew a diagram of this relationship, he leaned so low over the sitting Lyuba that he heard the smell of her breasts. But she answered “no” and “no” to all his erotic nonsense, because she became more and more attached to her Vasil Vasilyich. The same, noticing that Simanovsky liked her, was already thinking about how, having caught them inadvertently, make a scene and free himself from a burden that was really unbearable for him.
Lyubka reappeared at Anna Markovna's after another extraordinary event. Known throughout Russia, the singer Rovinskaya, a large, beautiful woman with green Egyptian eyes, in the company of Baroness Tefting, lawyer Rozanov and a secular young man Volodya Chaplinsky, out of boredom, traveled around the establishments of the Pit: first expensive, then average, then the dirtiest. After Treppel, they went to Anna Markovna and occupied a separate office, where the housekeeper drove the girls. The last to enter was Tamara, a quiet, pretty girl, who had once been a novice in a monastery, and before that someone else, at least spoke fluent French and German. Everyone knew that she had a "cat" Senechka, a thief, on whom she spent a lot of money. At the request of Elena Viktorovna, the young ladies sang their usual, canonical songs. And everything would have worked out well if the drunken Little Manka had not burst into them. When sober, she was the meekest girl in the whole establishment, but now she fell to the floor and screamed: “Hurrah! We've got new girls!" The baroness, indignant, said that she patronized the monastery for the fallen girls - the Magdalene shelter.
And then Zhenya appeared, offering this old fool to get out immediately. Her shelters are worse than a prison, and Tamara said: she is well aware that half of the decent women are on the payroll, and the rest, older ones, are young boys. Of the prostitutes, hardly one in a thousand had an abortion, and they were all several times.
During Tamara's tirade, the baroness said in French that she had already seen this face somewhere, and Rovinskaya, also in French, reminded her that in front of them was the chorus girl Margarita, and it was enough to recall Kharkov, Konyakin's hotel, Soloveichik's entrepreneur. Then the baroness was not yet a baroness.
Rovinskaya got up and said that, of course, they would leave and the time would be paid, but for now she would sing Dargomyzhsky’s romance “We parted proudly ...” for them. As soon as the singing ceased, the indomitable Zhenya fell on her knees before Rovinskaya and sobbed. Elena Viktorovna bent down to kiss her, but she whispered something to her, to which the singer replied that a few months of treatment - and everything would pass.
After this visit, Tamara inquired about Zhenya's health. She admitted that she contracted syphilis, but does not announce it, and every evening she purposely infects ten to fifteen two-legged scoundrels.
The girls began to remember and curse all their most unpleasant or perverted clients. Following this, Zhenya remembered the name of the person to whom she, ten years old, had been sold by her own mother. “I'm small,” she shouted to him, but he answered: “It's okay, you'll grow up,” and then he repeated this cry of her soul, like a walking anecdote. Zoya remembered the teacher of her school, who said that she must obey him in everything or he will expel her from school for bad behavior.
At that moment, Lyubka appeared. Emma Eduardovna, the housekeeper, answered the request to take her back with swearing and beatings. Zhenya, unable to bear it, clutched at her hair. There was a roar in the adjoining rooms, and a fit of hysteria engulfed the whole house. Only an hour later, Simeon with two brothers in the profession was able to calm them down, and at the usual hour, the junior housekeeper Zosya shouted: “Young ladies! Dress! In the hall!
Cadet Kolya Gladyshev invariably came to Zhenya's. And today he was sitting in her room, but she asked him not to hurry and did not allow him to kiss her. Finally she said that she was ill and that she should thank God: another would not have spared him. After all, those who are paid for love hate those who pay and never feel sorry for them. Kolya sat on the edge of the bed and covered his face with his hands. Zhenya got up and crossed him: "May the Lord protect you, my boy."
"Will you forgive me, Zhenya?" - he said. “Yes, my boy. Forgive me too... We won’t see you again!”
In the morning, Zhenya went to the port, where, leaving the newspaper for the sake of a vagabond life, Platonov worked unloading watermelons. She told him about her illness, and he that, probably, Sabashnikov and a student nicknamed Ramses, who shot himself, left a note saying that he himself was to blame for what happened, because he took a woman for money, without love.
But Sergei Pavlovich, who loved Zhenya, could not resolve her doubts that had seized her after she took pity on Kolya: wasn’t the dream of infecting everyone a stupidity, a fantasy? Nothing makes sense. There is only one thing left for her ... Two days later, during a medical examination, she was found hanged. It smacked of some notoriety for the institution. But now only Emma Eduardovna could worry about it, who finally became the mistress, having bought the house from Anna Markovna. She announced to the young ladies that from now on she requires real order and unconditional obedience. Her establishment will be better than Treppel's. She immediately offered Tamara to become her main assistant, but so that Senechka would not appear in the house.
Through Rovinskaya and Rezanov, Tamara settled the matter with the funeral of the suicidal Zhenya according to the Orthodox rite. All the young ladies followed her coffin. Following Zhenya, Pasha died. She finally fell into dementia, and she was taken to an insane asylum, where she died. But the troubles of Emma Eduardovna did not end there either.
Tamara, together with Senka, soon robbed a notary, whom, playing a married woman in love with him, she inspired complete confidence. She mixed sleeping powder with the notary, let Senka into the apartment, and he opened the safe. A year later, Senka was caught in Moscow and betrayed Tamara, who fled with him.
Then Vera passed away. Her lover, an official of the military department, squandered government money and decided to shoot himself. Vera wanted to share his fate. In the room of an expensive hotel, after a chic feast, he shot her, became cowardly and only wounded himself.
Finally, during one of the fights, Little Manka was killed. The ruin of Emma Eduardovna ended when a hundred soldiers came to the aid of two fighters who had been cheated in a neighboring institution, ruining at the same time all the nearby ones.
The entertainment establishment of Anna Markovna is located in the so-called Pit (Yamskaya Sloboda), it does not belong to the refined and chic places, but it does not belong to the lowest.
Various men come here in search of pleasure. Among them, one evening, reporter Platonov and Privatdozent Yarchenko appear. During their conversation with one of the girls, Pasha, a tantrum occurs, due to the fact that clients called her dozens of times during the evening.
The most respected, smart and daring girl Zhenya approaches the men. Zhenya, Platonov and anarchist student Vasily Vasilyevich Likhonin argue about whether it is possible to save a girl who has fallen into the network of prostitution and return her to normal life. Lichonin is eager to prove that this is possible. To this end, he takes the girl Lyuba from the brothel. And with the help of his comrades, he tries to give her education and upbringing. Luba falls in love with him. But for Lichonin, she becomes a heavy burden, and he is only looking for a reason to part with her.
Lyuba returns to the establishment, but the new owner beats her up. A fight breaks out between Zhenya, who was protecting Lyuba, and the hostess.
After the visit of the famous singer Rovinskaya, Zhenya admits that she has syphilis and deliberately infects the men who come to her. Punishes them.
Zhenya loses his purpose in life and hangs himself. Pasha dies in a madhouse. Tamara is betrayed by her fiancé Senka. Then Vera dies from the shot of her lover. Thus ends the existence of Yama.
Detailed retelling of Pit Kuprin
The story tells about the life of girls of easy virtue.
The work begins with a description of one of the brothels, which is located in the Yamskaya Sloboda. The institution was kept by Anna Markovna and considered it luxurious. One evening, her students were having fun. Not far from them, the correspondent of the local newspaper Platonov and Associate Professor Yarchenko were talking. During the conversation, Platonov boasted that he often comes here, but he never was with a single prostitute. He really wants to know how the ordinary everyday life of such girls goes, because if they work here, then this type of activity will certainly lead them to criminal acts. At this time, one of the girls appears, who hurriedly tells the hostess about her concerns about Pasha's condition. She is constantly invited by visitors, and Pasha is in a panic. However, she is brought to her senses and again goes to the visitors. Platonov invites her to a conversation so that she can rest a little.
After that, he meets Likhonin, who wants to get Lyuba out of this vile place. He asks her if she is ready to open a canteen after leaving the brothel, to which she agrees. Vasily Vasilyevich begins to teach the girl, not realizing how difficult it will be. His friends agree that they will help Lichonin in his studies. The student himself teaches her arithmetic, historical and geographical sciences. In addition, he takes her to performances at the theater. His friend is trying to teach Luba how to play musical instruments. Lichonin pays all the prostitute's debts in order to obtain a passport for her. Soon Lyuba becomes the brightest object of attention among the students, however, she only has feelings for Lichonin. But the student, seizes the moment to be jealous of her friends, and get rid of her.
Lyuba again finds herself at Anna Markovna's. The beautiful singer Rovinskaya stayed at the same place with a visit in the company of her friends. At her request, the hostess rounds up all the prostitutes who sing songs for Elena Viktorovna. After that, the baroness says that under her patronage is the Magdalene shelter, where prostitutes are kept. One of the girls tells the woman to leave. Having left, the singer pays for the girls' time and sings a farewell romance to them. After that, Zhenya quietly asks her about something, to which Rovinskaya replies that this disease is treatable.
However, after the singer's visit, the girl goes to the port, where she unloads watermelons. Meanwhile, she tells Platonov, who met her, that she is sick, to which he says that several of his friends must have been infected by her. Having lost interest in life, Zhenya committed suicide. Meanwhile, the former housekeeper bought a house from Anna Markovna and arranged her own laws. But she suddenly went into trouble one after another. After Zhenya, Pasha went crazy. Then Tamara, with her pimp, robs a notary and ends up in jail. Vera asked her lover, an official of one of the departments, after his embezzlement, to shoot her too. In the end, she died, and he only wounded himself. In one of the fights, Little Manka dies. And the place is going bankrupt. The story teaches our generation to keep chastity and keep pure relationships.
A picture or drawing of a pit
Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary
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The story of Alexander Belyaev tells about, as the author called it, "eternal bread." The action takes place in a small fishing village on Fair Island.
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- Summary of Corneille Horace
In very distant times, when the most developed countries did not yet exist, there were two main states, Rome and Alba, and they were allies and trading partners
- Summary of Sophocles Oedipus Rex
In the city of Thebes, where King Oedipus was the ruler, a terrible disease appears, from which people and cattle die. To find out the cause of the plague, the ruler turns to the oracle, which explains that this is the punishment of the gods for the murder of their former king - Laius
- Summary of Verdi's Il trovatore
The opera begins with the fact that the head of the guard tells his soldiers a terrifying secret, which is known only to him. It turns out that the earl's brother was cursed.
Classic. But written in such a simple and accessible language that it is uncommonly easier to read than many modern books.
The most important feature of the novel is the delicacy with which such an institution as a brothel is described. Everything is said frankly, but not a drop of dirt, which now spills in muddy streams even in works about married life, and just gushing from the TV. No harsh words are needed: there are “girls” and there are “visitors”, and all this life is presented quite clearly. As Platonov says, "this is the whole horror, that there is no horror." Just a whole System guarding the "dens of debauchery" that would otherwise go to the bedrooms and children's homes of honest homes.
But in a sense, he did. Society is changing, and so are attitudes. The concepts of "fornication", "sin" have faded. The pornographic images once licked by voluptuaries now seem like nonsense. “The boundary between city and countryside has been erased”: prostitution in some countries belongs to the sphere of entertainment, and even domestic services. Body trading has become easier, no one cares about someone's innocence or the number of previous relationships, they are not so afraid of diseases that were once tantamount to a death sentence.
And "The Pit" is therefore read as a very modest book, perhaps even with a certain amount of romance. Everyday life with the usual monotony, which enliven unexpected events; "commerce" of this business; the fate of the girls. Without any laughter, this is one of the few novels about REAL FEMALE FRIENDSHIP. Inverted, like everything else in that strange world that lives according to special laws, where the best lover is a thief and a bandit who robs a woman, but is able to kill for her sake ...
The book contains a lot of philosophical and social issues that have also changed, but still exist, and a witty look at the essence of the relationship between men and women.
Were brothels evil? So they were closed - but the craft itself has not gone away, it's just that it has become much more difficult and dangerous for women on the streets. Will this phenomenon end? It is doubtful, it is both "the most ancient", and, apparently, for all time. Therefore, it is never superfluous to learn about this side of life. Especially for mothers and young people.
Score: 10
In those distant times, when this book first fell into my hands, I perceived it as a real fantasy, albeit a very specific one. The realities described by the author looked creepy, disgusting, but, fortunately, completely unrealistic. Alas, now Kuprin's book has again returned to the category of severe realism. Thousands of our compatriots are doing the same in their own country and abroad in similar disgusting conditions. And it is precisely the routine of what is happening, the attempts of the heroines to prove to themselves and others that nothing terrible is happening, that life is life and everyone has their own profession, and make the most difficult impression from the book. An attempt to challenge the system and an attempt to adapt to it are punished equally hard, and only the most cunning and vile ones manage not to break out of this vicious circle, but simply to take a more profitable place in it.
I remember how “Intergirl” thundered twenty years ago, and how attractive the sweet life depicted in it seemed. It would be better if the juvenile fools who fell for this bait would revere Kuprin.
Score: 8
:rev: To say that this is my favorite novel - I can not. But I put ten with ease, you can’t put less. Well, no way!
For a long time I could not understand why in our bookcase the author's six-volume edition (the same green one, "Ogonkov's"!) stands without one volume. Version - "read out", sounded unconvincing. It turned out they were hiding, hiding, so that a curious girl would not read exactly “The Pit” ...
Caring for the morality of the younger generation!
Found it, read it, loved it.
The everyday life of a brothel, its inhabitants and guests are written out without embellishment. I want to cry and grind my teeth from such an inverted life. Girls feel sorry and at the same time disgusting to read about their petty intrigues.
Low bow to Alexander Kuprin for this book:pray:, which he dedicated to mothers and youth.
Score: 10
From the first pages, there is a feeling that Kuprin writes with skill and is not badly oriented in the problem, so to speak from the inside. So much so that in the first half of the work, in some places, I even had some disgust towards the author, despite the seriousness and professionalism in presenting the problem raised. Kuprin in his works mainly writes about what he was an eyewitness to, what he felt and experienced. With this approach, it is difficult to remain aloof, but this is what gives his works a vital naturalism, in contrast to the frequent artificiality and attraction of many other works. Therefore, with such an approach, the author often begins to identify with the reader with one of the heroes of his work. So here, in the first part, I saw the author in the journalist Platonov, who, for some reason, being his own in a particular brothel, sits and throws beads in front of a group of students who, yes, yes, feel and realize the problem, but ended up in such a place, only to know life to the end and spend the rest of the evening in a lost company; all philosophers and moralists, but no, no, and those who leave the company for an hour to use the brothel for its main purpose. This hero dreams of writing the work of his life in which to reveal all the horror, cynicism, baseness and all the ins and outs of prostitution. But the hanging question, what exactly is HE doing here, how did he become his own, and what is the point of moralizing in a drunken company of butchers who came to feast on “female meat” remains hanging.
I determined for myself that the author writes about Kyiv, although his city has an image rather collective than individual. The writer calls it "K.", it is large, has ports, developed industry, another sign is the ancient Lavra, located in the city. In this connection, it is curious that he describes the population of the city as a happy combination of bloodlines: Polish, Little Russian and Jewish - "Great Russians" are found only in transit, running into local green houses. Characteristic is also the manner of communication of the Great Russian student Likhonin with his friend from the Georgian national minority - our Likhonin does not allow himself not only familiar, but absolutely boorish manner with anyone else; how he just doesn’t call him names in a friendly way and doesn’t call him casually and in the course of the conversation, what kind of epithets he doesn’t come up with.
The author emphasizes that the “girls” from his work are mostly victims of circumstances who, once mired, can no longer escape from this pit and few people think of lending a helping hand to them. The same unsuccessful attempt was made by the same Lichonin, but with him everything quickly developed into a traditional relationship between a man and a woman of a similar profession, which the “girl” herself, it must be said, contributed as much as she could, since she had little idea that the relationship could be different. So Lichonin, who never planned to marry her, quickly became disillusioned with his momentary impulse and, under the first far-fetched pretext, threw her out into the street. But the author for the whole work forgets to say that his girls simply cannot imagine a different life and they were lucky enough to get a chance to get out of this hole from life, in the overwhelming majority of cases they will not fail to return as soon as possible...
It was interesting to know that the title of the work “The Pit” contains not only a direct concept with an association with the human bottom and the cloaca of society, but also a link to the name of the street, known for the fact that it was mostly coachmen who lived on it and gave the name to the microdistrict from the name of their profession . So, the author chose a very successful, multifaceted and suitable title for his work.
In general, I agree that we have before us a significant, fundamental work of a talented author, where the author dissects and stigmatizes one of the vicious phenomena of human reality, does everything, like his hero Platonov, to reveal and show all the ins and outs of the unattractiveness of this phenomenon, which is otherwise like a pit of human life and don't call. I can even safely compare this work in terms of the depth of the study of the problem raised with Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. But recognizing all the talent and all the skill of the author, it’s hard for me to say that I was very fascinated or liked this reading, objectively I should put a top ten here, but Pit is a pit, so that picking in it brings great pleasure, although it’s impossible to hush up such problems, otherwise they cannot be solved forever, so subjectively, but without exaggeration, but purely by the sensations of the aroused interest in the work, I put 8.
Score: 8
I think that every Russian person should read something from the work of A. Kuprin. This work is a harsh realism of both our time and the time of past centuries. The author approached the moral problem very delicately. The characters are vividly written. Brothels are just houses made of bricks and wood, but the "stinking filth" in which the heroes are forced to exist inside these houses can be smelled. The biblical warning about the cities of Sodom and Gamorah is not only a punishment, but also a cleansing from the like.
Score: 10
N-yes. To the question of the ratio of the scales of the Society and the Personality. "We are not such, Life is so...". Our whole, uh ... life is a solid "two-ruble institution", just the realization of this fact (and, by the way, of one's place and one's true role in this institution) - each comes at its own time. And - leads to different results. Although, for the sake of objectivity, it should be noted that the range of possible consequences does not shine with variety.
Now, if you look at this text from such positions (or more or less similar ones), then reading will be at least somehow justified. As if, if necessary - for some reason - to try to perceive life as it really is. But... nevertheless... - there are plenty of other, less nauseating ways to get what you want.
HEAVY book.
Although, to complete the process of growing up, the Soul is more than obligatory. Unfortunately
Score: 8
A note recently reminded me of the existence of this novel. It said that the writer, known to readers under the pseudonym Count Amory, once got (according to rumors) a slap in the face from Kuprin himself for the free continuation of his book "The Pit". That's why I took out from the shelf the existing weighty volume of the Book Chamber publishing house for the year 2000 and found the scandalous work of Alexander Ivanovich I was looking for in order to finally get acquainted with it. It was, to put it mildly, not very convenient to read. The publishers stuffed an impressive part of the great writer's work into 1183 pages, using a font close to the newspaper, but still, when there is at least some kind of paper book, I always prefer it to the electronic version...
The plot of "The Pit" is known to many, but it is interesting that just before that I just finished reading Vincent Bugliosi's book "Helter Skelter", which also pays a lot of attention to young girls who have gone astray and landed, let's say, in a difficult situation, albeit of a different nature. Only now Bugliosi describes cases from America at the end of the 60s of the last century, but Kuprin’s place and time, as you can understand, are different, close to our reality ...
I will not focus too much on the main theme of The Pit, since a lot has already been said about this, but I will especially highlight the first two parts of the book, where, in spite of everything, humor and picaresque motives are encountered. Particularly good in this regard are the episodes with the charming newlywed Semyon Yakovlevich Horizon. Indeed, for this funny "traveling salesman" it makes no difference what to sell - a used deck of cards with frivolous pictures or his own wife, if only some kind of gain came out ... The discussion of Lyubochka and Solovyov of Manon Lescaut's adventures is also interesting.
It is curious that Kuprin very often throws out his writer's anger at the housekeeper of the brothel Emma Eduardovna, constantly emphasizing her physical (“bellies” and “chins”) and moral shortcomings (greed, heartlessness, anger, etc.). It just feels like she annoys him. But in the hostess of the institution, Anna Markovna, the author does not seem to notice anything like that ...
The last third part of the book - yes, very heavy, like a sobering up, and sums up the whole story. And considering that the book was written for several years, there was a feeling that the last chapters with transient events were completed by the author after a long reflection. Apparently he hesitated, but decided - everything will be so, otherwise it is impossible ...
I can't resist a few poignant quotes:
Spoiler (plot reveal) (click on it to see)
"Emma Eduardovna willingly nodded her head, like an old, fat circus horse,"
“Horror, how I love lafitte with lemonade ... You even treated me to an orange. Can I ask an orange?
"... Zhenya lies behind them on the bed on her back, reads a disheveled book "The Queen's Necklace", an essay by Mr. Dumas, and smokes,
"Eumeny Poluektovich Egmont-Lavretsky _ Dramatic Artist of the Capital Theaters" (visiting card),
“Ask anywhere, in any store that sells cloth or “Gluar” suspenders ... you only ask who Semyon Yakovlevich Horizon is, and everyone will answer you: “Semyon Yakovlevich is not a person, but gold, this is a disinterested person , a man of diamond honesty "
“With a careful, dexterous, habitual movement, he thrust the golden one into the hand of the porter, who already held it behind his back, cooked and folded in the form of a boat”
In total, the book is strong and memorable, but at what age is it best to start reading it, perhaps I won’t tell you. Everything is individual.
Rating: no
Anna Markovna's establishment is not one of the most chic, like, say, Treppel's, but not one of the lowest rank either. In the Pit (the former Yamskaya Sloboda) there were only two more. The rest - ruble and fifty dollars, for soldiers, thieves, gold miners.
Late in May, Anna Markovna had a company of students in the guest room, accompanied by Privatdozent Yarchenko and a reporter for the local newspaper Platonov. The girls had already gone out to them, but the men continued the conversation they had begun on the street. Platonov said that he knew this place and its inhabitants well and for a long time. It can be said that he is his own person here, but he has never visited any of them. He wanted to enter this little world and understand it from the inside. All loud phrases about the trade in women's meat are nothing in comparison with everyday, business trifles, prosaic everyday life. The horror is that it is not perceived as horror. Petty-bourgeois everyday life - and nothing more. Moreover, in the most incredible way, seemingly incompatible principles converge here: sincere, for example, piety and a natural inclination to crime. Here's Simeon, the local bouncer. Robs prostitutes, beats them, in the past, probably a killer. And he made friends with him on the creations of John of Damascus. Extraordinarily religious. Or Anna Markovna. Bloodsucker, hyena, but the most tender mother. Everything for Bertochka: a horse, an Englishwoman, and forty thousand worth of diamonds.
At that time, Zhenya entered the hall, whom Platonov, and both clients and residents of the house, respected for her beauty, mocking audacity and independence. She was agitated today and quickly spoke in conventional jargon with Tamara. However, Platonov understood him: due to the influx of the public, Pasha had already been taken into the room more than ten times, and this ended in hysteria and fainting. But as soon as she came to her senses, the hostess again sent her to the guests. The girl was in great demand because of her sexuality. Platonov paid for it so that Pasha could rest in their company: The students soon dispersed through the rooms, and Platonov, left alone with Likhonin, an ideological anarchist, continued his story about the local women. As for prostitution as a global phenomenon, it is an irresistible evil.
Lichonin listened sympathetically to Platonov and suddenly declared that he would not like to remain only a condoling spectator. He wants to take the girl from here, save her. , - Platonov declared with conviction. - Zhenya answered him in tone. .
The girl agreed, and Lichonin, having taken her from the housekeeper for ten dollars for an apartment for the whole day, the next day he was going to demand her yellow ticket and change it to a passport. Taking responsibility for the fate of a person, the student had a poor idea of the hardships associated with this. His life became complicated from the very first hours. However, friends agreed to help him develop the rescued one. Lichonin began to teach her arithmetic, geography and history, and he was also responsible for taking her to exhibitions, to the theater and to popular lectures.
Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin
I know that many will find this story immoral and indecent, nevertheless I dedicate it from the bottom of my heart mothers and youth.
Part one
A long time ago, long before the railways, on the farthest outskirts of a large southern city, coachmen lived from generation to generation - state and free. That is why the whole area was called Yamskaya Sloboda, or simply Yamskaya, Yamki, or, even shorter, Yama. Subsequently, when steam traction killed the horse-drawn carriage, the dashing coachman tribe gradually lost their violent manners and valiant customs, moved on to other occupations, disintegrated and dispersed. But Pit for many years - even to this day - remained a dark glory, as a place merry, drunk, pugnacious and unsafe at night.
Somehow it happened by itself that on the ruins of those old, well-kept nests, where ruddy, battered soldiers and black-browed rich Yamsky widows used to trade secretly in vodka and free love, open brothels gradually began to grow, authorized by the authorities, guided by official supervision and subject to deliberately severe rules. By the end of the 19th century, both streets of the Pit - Bolshaya Yamskaya and Malaya Yamskaya - turned out to be completely occupied, on both sides, exclusively with brothels. There are no more than five or six private houses left, but they also house taverns, porter shops and petty shops serving the needs of Yamskaya prostitution.
The way of life, morals and customs are almost the same in all thirty-odd establishments, the difference is only in the fee charged for short-term love, and, consequently, in some external trifles: in the selection of more or less beautiful women, in the comparative elegance of costumes, in the splendor of the premises. and luxury furnishings.
The most luxurious establishment is Treppel, at the entrance to Bolshaya Yamskaya, the first house on the left. This is an old firm. Its current owner has a completely different surname and is a vowel of the city duma and even a member of the council. The house is two-storied, green and white, built in the false Russian, ernicheskoy, Ropetov style, with skates, carved architraves, roosters and wooden towels bordered with wooden lace; carpet with a white track on the stairs; in the foyer is a stuffed bear holding a wooden plate for calling cards in its outstretched paws; in the dance hall there is parquet, on the windows there are heavy crimson silk curtains and tulle, along the walls white and gold chairs and mirrors in gilded frames; there are two cabinets with carpets, sofas and soft satin poufs; in the bedrooms there are blue and pink lanterns, canaus blankets and clean pillows; the inhabitants are dressed in open ball gowns trimmed with fur, or in expensive masquerade costumes of hussars, pages, fisherwomen, schoolgirls, and most of them are Ostsee Germans - large, white-bodied, busty beautiful women. Treppel takes three rubles for a visit, and ten rubles for the whole night.
Three two-ruble establishments - Sophia Vasilievna, "Staro-Kyiv" and Anna Markovna - are somewhat worse, poorer. The rest of the houses on Bolshaya Yamskaya are ruble-denominated; they are even worse furnished. And on Malaya Yamskaya, which is visited by soldiers, petty thieves, artisans and gray people in general, and where they charge fifty kopecks or less for a time, it is absolutely dirty and scarce: the floor in the hall is crooked, peeling and splintered, the windows are hung with red calf pieces; the bedrooms, like stalls, are separated by thin partitions that do not reach the ceiling, and on the beds, over the knocked-down senniks, are lying about crumpled, torn, dark from time to time, spotted sheets and flannel blankets with holes in them; the air is sour and fumes, with an admixture of alcoholic vapors and the smell of human eruptions; women dressed in colored cotton rags or sailor suits, mostly hoarse or nasal, with half-sunken noses, with faces bearing traces of yesterday's beatings and scratches and naively painted with the help of a smeared red cigarette box.
This is how the whole night goes. By dawn, Yama gradually calms down, and bright morning finds it deserted, spacious, immersed in sleep, with tightly closed doors, with deaf shutters on the windows. And before evening, the women will wake up and prepare for the next night.
