Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev
by Maxim Gorky
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In 1920, Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press published Maxim Gorky's Reminiscences of Tolstoy and it was recognized almost immediately as one of the few masterpieces of modern biography. 'It is one of the most remarkable biographical pieces ever written,' writes Leonard Woolf in his autobiography. 'It makes one hear, see, feel Tolstoy and his character as if one were sitting in the same room - his greatness and his littleness, his entrancing and infuriating complexity, his titanic and show more poetic personality, his superb humour.' In 1934, the book was expanded to include Gorky's memoirs of two other great Russian literary figures, Anton Chekhov and Leonid Andreyev. Almost a hundred years later, Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov and Andreyev is reissued in a superb new translation by Bryan Karetnyk. show lessTags
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Gorky does something that most writers when talking about other writers they knew do not often seem to be able to do; he removes himself from the picture. It's not that he's not there--he is, but he doesn't let his own opinions or interpretation of the others' words to interfere with our reception of the writers he is describing. Not that Gorky doesn't have opinions on them, but he is very subtle, allowing the reader to judge for himself what these three writers are like. Andreev, not nearly at the same stature as Tolstoy or Chekhov, was a respected writer for a while and since he was part of the group that often visited Tolstoy, I can see why he is included--though most Westerners have not ever heard of him.
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Author Information
923+ Works 8,218 Members
Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, better known as Maxim (Maksim) Gorky, was born on March 28th, 1968. Until the recent collapse of the Soviet state, Gorky was officially viewed as the greatest Russian writer of the twentieth century---an evaluation far above the true measure of his nevertheless considerable talent. Proclaimed the founder of socialist show more realism, he significantly influenced many Soviet writers, as well as others in Europe and in the developing world, and his works were for decades part of the Soviet school curriculum. His formal education was minimal. From the age of 11, he fended for himself with a variety of jobs. Self-taught, he published his first story, "Makar Chudra," in 1892. His first collection, Sketches and Stories (1898), is a romantic celebration of society's strong outcasts---the hobos and the drifters---and helped to popularize such literary protagonists. Foma Gordeyev (1899), Gorky's first novel, depicts generational conflict within the Russian bourgeoisie. A popular public figure on the left, Gorky was often in trouble with the tsarist government. During the 1900s, he was the central figure in the Znanie publishing house, which produced realist prose with a social conscience. Some of his own works were extremely successful. The play The Lower Depths (1902), set in a poorhouse and a strong indictment of social injustice, was not only a staple of Soviet theater but also influential in the United States. Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh was influenced by it. The propagandistic, extraordinarily influential novel Mother (1906) presents an iconic working-class woman who is transformed into a saint of the Revolution; its optimism in the ultimate triumph of the cause made it a prototype of socialist-realist fiction. During the years prior to 1917, Gorky published a number of autobiographical stories: All Over Russia (1912--18) (also Through Russia) and his memoirs; My Childhood (1913--14), My Apprenticeship (1915--16), and My Universities (1923). This trilogy shows his art at its best and includes some very lively reminiscences of such writers as Tolstoy and Chekhov. Although a Bolshevik party member since 1905, Gorky strongly criticized the new regime after the October Revolution: His collected articles from 1917-18, Untimely Thoughts, remained unpublished in the Soviet Union until recently. A cultural activist, he helped to save the lives of many writers, artists, and scholars during the cold and hungry years of the civil war. In 1921 he left Russia for Italy but returned permanently a decade later, recognized as the grand old man of Soviet literature. He then worked for Stalin's economic policies and presided over the institutionalization of socialist realism. At his death, he left unfinished a major novel of considerable interest, The Life of Klim Samgin, which he had been working on since 1925. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Reminiscences of Tolstoy, Chekhov, and Andreyev
- People/Characters
- Maxim Gorky; Leo Tolstoy; Anton Chekhov; Leonid Andreyev
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 891.7830922 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature East Indo-European and Celtic literatures Russian and East Slavic languages Authors, Russia and Russian miscellany 1800–1917
- LCC
- PG3465 .A37 — Language and Literature Slavic languages and literatures. Baltic languages. Albanian language Slavic. Baltic. Albanian Russian literature Individual authors and works 1870-1917 Gorky
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 76
- Popularity
- 414,431
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 3
