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A small provincial Russian town is suddenly aroused from its
lethargy by the imminent arrival of the first railroad. Gorky is
less concerned here with the Industrial Revolution than with the
damaging personal effect of people who represent progress; in this
case, two engineers who come to prepare for the railroad and who
sweep into the lives of all and sundry with the force of a gale,
upsetting stalemated romances, stale marriages, and the equilibrium
of the petty bureaucracy.
Sung at a funeral and a wedding today. The full gamut of the human
experience from the ridiculous to the utterly pointless. A restless
bunch of young radicals hang out, have sex, dance, drink, moan and
philosophise at the home of a prosperous decorator. While Pyotr, a
sometime student of law, falls for the lovely, loose-living lodger,
his sister carps on about the tedium of life, lusts after Nil -
who's blind to her charms but in pursuit of the servant - and
botches her own suicide. Life. People shout, fight, eat and go to
bed. When they wake up? They start shouting again. In this house
everything fades quickly. Tears, laughter. Everything. Dissipates.
The last sounds ringing out over the lake. Then nothing. A banal
hum. A household falls to pieces as the personal and political
turmoil of pre-revolutionary Russia gathers pace. Gorky's darkly
comic first play of 1902, banned from public performance under the
Czarist regime, is seen here in an exuberant new version by Andrew
Upton. Philistines premiered at the National Theatre, London, in
May 2007.
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Vassa (Paperback)
Maxim Gorky; Adapted by Mike Bartlett
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R303
R237
Discovery Miles 2 370
Save R66 (22%)
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Ships in 12 - 17 working days
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'There are no miracles in this world. Only those we make for
ourselves.' It's 8 a.m. and a revolt is underway. The father is
dying. The son is spying. The wife is cheating. The uncle is
stealing. The mother is scheming. The dynasty is crumbling. One
house. One fortune. One victor. Maxim Gorky's savagely funny play
Vassa Zheleznova was first published in 1910. Mike Bartlett's
adaptation, Vassa, premiered at the Almeida Theatre, London, in
October 2019.
"The stories come from all over the world and represent many
genres, such as parables, animal fables, historical fiction, fairy
tales, and Christian fantasy. Definitely read these stories at
Easter, but keep the book close and pull it out whenever you and
your family need a reminder of the great Easter themes of
transformation, reconciliation and the triumph of life over
death."—National Catholic Register Everyone who believes Easter
is about more than bunnies and eggs will be grateful for this new
collection of short stories that shed light on the deeper meaning
of the season. Selected for their spiritual value and literary
quality, these classic tales capture the spirit of Easter in a way
that will captivate readers of all ages. Parents and grandparents
will find that children love to hear these stories read aloud, year
after year. Easter Stories includes time-honored favorites from
world-famous storytellers such as C.S. Lewis, Leo Tolstoy, Selma
Lagerlof, Oscar Wilde, Elizabeth Goudge, Maxim Gorky, Ruth Sawyer,
and Walter Wangerin – as well as many you’ve never heard
before. Illustrated with original woodcuts.
1905. Russia is at a turning point. Zakhar Bardin is from the
landowning class, but is now the uneasy owner of a factory. His
managing director is determined to face down militant workers on a
point of principle. But the shutting of the business has tragic
consequences for everyone concerned. Gorky's extraordinary play,
which was written in exile and banned in his home country, presents
a panoramic view of a restless society, with a bourgeoisie no
longer sure of its own values, and a working class steadily facing
up to the terrifying sacrifices ahead. Described by Ronald Bryden
in the Observer in 1971 as 'a real discovery . . . the missing link
between Chekhov and the Russian revolution', Enemies has a dramatic
breadth, humour and ambition unique to Gorky. Maxim Gorky's Enemies
is adapted by David Hare and premiered at the Almeida Theatre,
London, in May 2006.
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Mother (Hardcover)
Maxim Gorky; Illustrated by Sigmund De Ivanowski
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R1,577
Discovery Miles 15 770
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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This Is A New Release Of The Original 1907 Edition.
Maksim Gorky was a Soviet author and founder of the socialist
realism literary method. He was also a political activist who spent
several lengthy stays in Capri and Italy. Gorky traveled throughout
his native land and at one point became friends with Lenin. His
travels overwhelmed him with the vastness and beauty of his country
and they also made him sharply aware of the ignorance and poverty
of its people. This novel tells the story of the common proletariat
who protested against the czar and the capitalists which eventually
led to the October Revolution. Pelageya is the wife on a factory
worker who ignores the political upheaval in her country in favor
of caring for her personal life. She represents hundreds of workers
who are concerned with living their lives. Her son Pavel takes a
different path and joins the revolution inspiring many Russians who
were living under a capitalistic society in Russia. Gorky saw the
"mother country" as supporting her children as they fought for
their rights. .
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My Childhood (Paperback, Revised)
Maxim Gorky; Introduction by Ronald Wilks; Translated by Ronald Wilks
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R396
R321
Discovery Miles 3 210
Save R75 (19%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Coloured by poverty and horrifying brutality, Gorky's childhood equipped him to understand - in a way denied to a Tolstoy or a Turgenev - the life of the ordinary Russian. After his father, a paperhanger and upholsterer, died of cholera, five-year-old Gorky was taken to live with his grandfather, a polecat-faced tyrant who would regularly beat him unconscious, and with his grandmother, a tender mountain of a woman and a wonderful storyteller, who would kneel beside their bed (with Gorky inside it pretending to be asleep) and give God her views on the day's happenings, down to the last fascinating details. She was, in fact, Gorky's closest friend and the epic heroine of a book swarming with characters and with the sensations of a curious and often frightened little boy. My Childhood, the first volume of Gorky's autobiographical trilogy, was in part an act of exorcism. It describes a life begun in the raw, remembered with extraordinary charm and poignancy and without bitterness. Of all Gorky's books this is the one that made him 'the father of Russian literature'.
Modern accurate and stageable translations of five of Gorky's plays
This volume includes Gorky's major works for the theatre. The Lower
Depths, first staged by the Moscow Art theatre in 1902, portrays a
cast of down and outs living in the underbelly of Russian society;
Summerfolk depicts a society after the disintegration of feudalism
with a new class of businessmen, intellectuals and professionals.
Children of the Sun was completed in prison in 1905 and premiered
in St Petersburg in the same year, St Petersburg critic Alexander
Kugel wrote: "If Summerfolk boxed the ears of the intelligentsia,
the Children of the Sun spits in their face"; Barbarians looks at
the tragedy of an individual caught between opposing forces in a
society on the brink of revolution - Lenin's future Minister of
Culture, Alexander Kugel wrote: "Gorky helps us to understand and
assess the mighty phenomenon of this war between two forms of
barbarism through the direct experience of real people"; Enemies
looks at the struggle between workers and industrialists and has
been described as "the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian
revolution" (Observer)
Maxim Gorky continues to be regarded as the greatest literary
representative of revolutionary Russia. Born of the people, and
having experienced in his own person their sufferings and their
misery, he was enabled by his extraordinary genius to voice their
grievances and their aspirations for a better life as no academic
could.
His international fame rests on a tremendous literary output,
including the powerful play "The Lower Depths," the monumental
novel of the 1905 Russian Revolution, "Mother," his vital
Autobiography and, of course, his short stories. This edition of
"The Collected Short Stories of Maxim Gorky" includes his benchmark
masterpieces "Creatures That Once Were Men" and "Twenty-Six Men and
a Girl" as well as "Chelkash and My Fellow-Traveller" among many
others. The collection represents the very best of Gorky's
genius.
For this edition the renowned scholar and author Frederic Ewen
has written a penetrating new introduction evaluating Gorky's place
in the world's literary pantheon.
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The Mother (Paperback)
Maxim Gorky; Translated by Hugh Aplin
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R326
R270
Discovery Miles 2 700
Save R56 (17%)
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Inspired by real events and centring on the figure of Pelageya
Vlasova - the mother of the title - and her son Pavel, Gorky's
masterpiece describes the brutal life of ordinary Russian factory
workers in the years leading to the 1905 Revolution and explores
the rise of the proletariat, the role of women in society and the
lower classes' struggle for self-affirmation. A book of the utmost
importance, in the words of Lenin, and a landmark in Russian
literature, The Mother - here presented in a brilliant new version
by Hugh Aplin, the first English translation in almost a century -
will enchant modern readers both for its historical significance
and its intrinsic value as a work of art.
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The Mother
Maxim Gorky
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R602
Discovery Miles 6 020
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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I didn't read your books. I licked them, I rubbed them all over my
naked body and licked them. Protasov, detached and idealistic,
wants only to immerse himself in chemical experiments to perfect
mankind. He's more or less oblivious to the voracious advances of
the half-crazed widow Melaniya and his best friend's unrelenting
pursuit of his wife, let alone the cholera epidemic and the
starving mob at his gates. While Nanny fusses round, Protasov's
admiring circle, variously skeptical, romantic and lovesick, spar
over culture and the cosmos. Only Liza, neurotic and patronized,
feels the suffering of the peasantry and senses that their own
privileged world is in jeopardy. Gone? They're everywhere. Have you
heard about the riots? The starvation and the flagrant disregard of
authority. This disregard is building walls and barriers between us
all. And they are massing. The crowds of angry people. And the
hate... the hate between us all... kills everything. Written during
the abortive Russian Revolution of 1905, Maxim Gorky's darkly comic
Children of the Sun depicts the new middle-class, foolish perhaps
but likeable, as they flounder around, philosophizing, yearning, or
scuttling between test tubes, blind to their impending
annihilation. This is Andrew Upton's fourth English version of a
play for the National by one of the great Russian masters,
including his acclaimed adaptation of Gorky's Philistines.
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