“Life is always better where people are fighting for their rights.” My Universities is the third and final installment of Maxim Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy, following My Childhood and […]
Russian literature
My Apprenticeship
“Life is always surprising us—not by its rich, seething complexity, which is inexhaustible, but because, in spite of all its squalor and monotony, it sometimes throws up something […]
Russian literature
My Childhood
“In the dense and motley crowd of my childhood, I stand out like a sore thumb—a stranger to all.” Chapter 1: The Death of Alexei’s Father The story […]
Russian literature
Mother
“The mother’s heart is the child’s classroom.” Chapter 1: The Factory and the Workers The novel opens in a bleak industrial town where workers endure harsh conditions. Pelageya […]
Russian literature
The Lower Depths
“Man! It’s great! It sounds… proud! Man! You’ve got to respect man!” The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky is a play set in a dilapidated overnight shelter, where […]
Russian literature
On the Eve
“There are moments in life, in love, when…” Chapter 1 The novel opens in the summer of 1853 at a country estate near Moscow. Elena Nikolaevna Stakhova, a […]
Russian literature
Home of the Gentry
“Life is not a walk across a field.” Chapter 1 Lavretsky, a middle-aged Russian nobleman, returns to his family estate after years abroad. He reflects on his failed […]
Russian literature
First Love
“First love is a revolution… The monotonous and correct order of established life is broken down and destroyed in one instant…” — Ivan Turgenev Chapter 1 The story […]
Russian literature
A Month in the Country
“Love is not a feeling… it’s an art.” Act 1 The play opens at the Islayev estate, where Natalya Petrovna, the bored and restless wife of the wealthy […]
Russian literature
Fathers and Sons
“And yet I feel that there is something I lack… that I cannot express… something that perhaps is not even in me.” Chapter 1 Arkady Kirsanov returns home […]