The novella “The Pit” by Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin has always enjoyed special success with readers of all ages. It is one of those works that, once read in youth, are returned to from time to time throughout life.
The story of the women of a mid-level brothel in one of Russia’s provincial centers grips not with the tastiness of the subject, but with the author’s honest, caring, and humane stance toward the fate of girls whom circumstances have driven into a dead end of prostitution. No less compelling are A. I. Kuprin’s thoughts about society’s attitude toward this phenomenon.