Kuprin, Aleksandr Ivanovich

Kuprin, Aleksandr Ivanovich əlyĭksänˈdər ēväˈnəvĭch ko͞oˈprĭn [key], 1870–1938, Russian novelist and short-story writer. Kuprin was an army officer for several years before he resigned to pursue a writing career. He won fame with The Duel (1905, tr. 1916), a novel of protest against the Russian military system. In 1909, The Pit (tr. 1922), his novel dealing with prostitution in Odessa, created a sensation. Kuprin left Russia after the revolution but returned in 1937. Some of his best short stories of action and adventure appear in English in the collections The River of Life (1916) and The Bracelet of Garnets (1917).

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