Maxim Gorky
Gorky brought Russian naturalism to its social extreme with plays depicting the desperate lives of the lower classes. The Lower Depths is one of the great documents of pre-revolutionary Russian consciousness.
Works
- MotherNovel depicting a mother's sacrifice and her son's revolutionary journey and political awakening
- My ChildhoodAutobiographical account of the author's harsh childhood under a tyrannical grandfather in Russia
- My ApprenticeshipAutobiographical memoir of the author's formative years as a poor apprentice learning trades
- My UniversitiesAutobiographical narrative describing the author's intellectual growth and self-education through reading
- The Lower DepthsRealistic play depicting the lives of poor residents in a St. Petersburg dosshouse
- Enemies
- Children of the SunPlay exploring conflict between intellectuals and workers over competing visions of progress
- Summer FolkDrama depicting rural intellectuals and their personal crises at a country dacha
- Vassa ZheleznovaPortrait of a ruthless merchant woman who dominates her family through tyranny and will