THE RIVER OF LIFE
AND OTHER STORIES
BY
ALEXANDER KUPRIN
TRANSLATED FROM THE RUSSIAN BY
S. KOTELIANSKY AND J. M. MURRY
JOHN W. LUCE AND COMPANY
BOSTON
1916
v
Alexander Kuprin was born in 1870. Heattended the Cadet School and the MilitaryCollege at Moscow, and entered the RussianArmy as a lieutenant in 1890. Seven yearslater he resigned his commission to devote himselfto literature.
He achieved fame by a novel, The Duel, inwhich he described with a ruthless realism thearmy life in a garrison town upon the WesternFrontier. The book, which in reality falls intoline with the rest of his work as a severelyobjective presentation of a life which he hasfound vivid and rich, was, fortunately for hissuccess, interpreted as an indictment of theRussian Army and the ill-starred Manchuriancampaign. He was accepted by the propagandistsas one of themselves, and thoughhe protested vigorously against his unsoughtreputation, his position was thenceforwardassured.
But the interest of Kuprin’s talent is independentof the accidents of his material. He isan artist who has found life wide and rich andinexhaustible. He has been fascinated by thevireality itself rather than by the problems withwhich it confronts a differently sensitive mind.Therefore he has not held himself aloof, butplunged into the riotous waters of the River ofLife. He has swum with the stream and battledagainst it as the mood turned in him; and hehas emerged with stories of the joy he has foundin his own eager acceptance. Thus Kuprin isalive as none of his contemporaries is alive, andhis stories are stories told for the delight of thetelling and of the tale. They may not be profoundwith the secrets of the universe; but theyare, within their compass, shaped by the perfectart of one to whom the telling of a story of lifeis an exercise of his whole being in completeharmony with the act of life itself.
J. M. M.
vii
| PAGE | |
| THE RIVER OF LIFE | 1 |
| II | |
| CAPTAIN RIBNIKOV | 37 |
| III | |
| THE OUTRAGE | 99 |
| IV | |
| THE WITCH | 127 |
1
3
The landlady’s room in the ‘Serbia.’ Yellowwallpaper; two windows with dirty muslincurtains; between them an oval squintingmirror, stuck at an angle of forty-five degrees,reflects a painted floor and chair legs; on thewindow-sills dusty, pimply cactuses; a cagewith a c