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GORKI, MAXIM (1868– )

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 259 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GORKI, See also:MAXIM (1868– ) , the See also:pen-name of the See also:Russian novelist Alexei Maximovich Pyeshkov, who was See also:born at Nizhni-See also:Novgorod on the 26th of See also:March 1868. His See also:father was a See also:dyer, but he lost both his parents in childhood, and in his ninth See also:year was sent to assist in a See also:boot-See also:shop. We find him afterwards in a variety of callings, but devouring books of all sorts greedily, whenever they See also:fell into his hands. He ran away from the boot-shop and went to help a See also:land-surveyor. He was then a See also:cook on See also:board a steamer and afterwards a gardener. In his fifteenth year he tried to enter a school at Kazan, but was obliged to betake himself again to his drudgery. He became a See also:baker, than hawked about kvas, and helped the barefooted tramps and labourers at the docks. From these he See also:drew some of his most striking pictures, and learned to give sketches of humble See also:life generally with the fidelity of a See also:Defoe. After a See also:long course of drudgery he had the See also:good See also:fortune to obtain the See also:place of secretary to a See also:barrister at Nizhni-Novgorod. This was the turning-point of his fortunes, as he found a sympathetic See also:master who helped him. He also became acquainted with the novelist Korolenko, who assisted him in his See also:literary efforts. His first See also:story was Makar Chudra, which was published in the See also:journal Kavkaz.

He contributed to many See also:

periodicals and finally attracted See also:attention by his See also:tale called Chelkash, which appeared in Russkoe Bogatsvo (" Russian See also:wealth "). This was followed by a See also:series of tales in which he drew with extraordinary vigour the life of the bosniaki, or tramps. He has sometimes described other classes of society, tradesmen and the educated classes, but not with equal success. There are some vigorous pictures, however, of the trading class in his Foma Gordeyev. But his favourite type is the See also:rebel, the See also:man in revolt against society, and him he describes from See also:personal knowledge, and enlists our sympathies with him. We get such a type completely in Konovalov. Gorki is always See also:preaching that we must have ideals—something better than everyday life, and this view is brought out in his See also:play At the Lowest Depths, which had See also:great success at See also:Moscow, but was coldly received at St See also:Petersburg. For a good See also:criticism of Gorki see Ideas and Realities in Russian Literature, by See also:Prince See also:Kropotkin. Many of his See also:works have been translated into See also:English.

End of Article: GORKI, MAXIM (1868– )

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