Gorki

by Henri Troyat

Le cheminement de cet autodidacte et rebelle qui s'inféoda à Lénine puis à Staline, au long de ces années cruelles qui virent la décomposition de l'Empire russe et le triomphe du bolchévisme.

Genres: Biography, History

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 8, 1986

About the author

Troyat was a French author, biographer, historian and novelist.

Troyat was born Levon Aslan Torossian in Moscow to parents of Armenian descent. His family fled Russia in anticipation of the revolution. After a long exodus taking them to the Caucasus on to Crimea and later by sea to Constantinople and then Venice, the family finally settled in Paris in 1920, where young Troyat was schooled and later earned a law degree. The stirring and tragic events of this flight across half of Europe are vividly recounted by Troyat in 'Tant que la terre durera'.

Troyat received his first literary award, Le prix du roman populaire, at the age of twenty-four, and by twenty-seven, he was awarded the Prix Goncourt.

Troyat published more than 100 books, novels and biographies, among them those of Anton Chekhov, Catherine the Great, Rasputin, Ivan the Terrible and Leo Tolstoy.

Troyat's best-known work is La neige en deuil, which was adapted as an English-language film in 1956 under the title The Mountain.

He was elected as a member of the Académie française in 1959. At the time of his death, Troyat was the longest serving member of the Academy.

From Wikipedia

Reviews

[Eugene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read a lot of Henri Troyat bios, this one does not disappoint either, short and to the point reaffirming the notion of Gorki being a tool and a puppet. He did try to do the right things at times but forces he was fighting against where stronger than anyone that would stand on its way.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a life. The book is second-rate, but full of information about the period and about Gorky. Although it skims the surface,without the depth or detail of a complete biography, it's what I wanted.

[Todd Ewing · Rating 5 out of 5]

As part of my effort to read biographies and the works of the great Russian Masters, I have worked through the poets and writers of the Revolutionary Period. Gorky, along with Mayakovsky, was an anarchist and revolutionary that found fame in the time of frustration during the collapse of the Czarist regime. Despite early conflicts with Lenin, he was soon taught to tow the line and eventually became the mouth piece of Soviet propaganda in literature. I am going to wade through his works next. I have one more poetess of the era before I move on. This book is actually a nice, concise biography, with the easy flow of all of Troyat's biographies. It is not a critical biography, but I could not find any out there accessible to me. It is a story of his life and not an in depth critique of his works. If you are interested in the period, it is worth the read.

[Sinan Öner]

Fransız Tarihçi, Biyograf Henri Troyat'ın "Gorki" kitabı, Gorki'nin biyografisi ile ilgili yayınlanmış en iyi kitaplardan biridir! Henri Troyat, birçok yazarlarla ilgili biyografi araştırmaları yapmış ve bu araştırmalarını yayınlamıştı. Henri Troyat'ın bir ilgisi de Rus Tarihi ve Sovyet tarihi araştırmaları yapmak idi. Henri Troyat, Rus Tarihi'nden ve Sovyet Tarihi'nden seçtiği dünyaca tanınan kişilikleri anlatan kitaplar yayınladı, "Gorki" kitabı bu kitapları arasında değerli bir kitap. Rus-Sovyet Yazar Maksim Gorki'nin hayatını ve eserlerini, Henri Troyat'ın yazdığı kitaptan okumak çok yararlı deneyim, Henri Troyat'ın yazdığı "Çehov" kitabını da düşününce!

[Derek · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Troyat’s best. Gorky deserves more attention in the West. After Gorky, and presuming you’ve already read Troyat’s Tolstoy, proceed to his Chekhov and Turgenev. The biographies of the czars can sit out overnight.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite on par with the Chekhov biography. Passes the test of not glossing over or minimizing Gorky's role as Stalin's pet author in his later years.

Troyat thinks the trilogy of memoirs - My Childhood in particular - was Gorky's lasting achievement. He's right.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just finished. This is the first biography I've read of Troyat's and I'm well pleased.

[Darrell Stanaford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy, enjoyable, informative

[Jennifer Nelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written, as are all of Troyat's books, but probably my least favorite of his. I think it's best as a starting point, as it certainly doesn't have the depth that a longer book might.

[Squib · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s been about a decade since I read Gorky’s autobiographical trilogy, 'My Childhood', 'In the World' (on my shelf, as in real life shelf, it’s called 'My Apprenticeship'), and 'My Universities'. When I read them I had no idea that Gorky was a major political firebrand. I simply enjoyed his beautiful writing. So I picked this biography up, curious to know about Gorky’s political life. Was Stalin his friend and/or murderer? Could Gorky really have been an apologist for such a despotic regime?

Gorky wanted a revolution but when he finally got one, he didn’t like it very much, causing Trotsky to say, ‘Gorky has greeted the revolution with the anxiety of a museum creator’. Gorky ranted and raved against the loss of freedom of speech, the executions of many Russian intellectuals, the looting, and the anarchic thuggery in general. He strongly criticized Lenin and Gorky only got away with it because he had been popularised as a ‘man of the people’. Even so, his magazine New Life , where much of his anti-Lenin vitriol appeared, was eventually closed down by Lenin

But at some point, presumably Gorky must have realised that the revolution was who he was. If he did not stand by it, then what did he stand by? It wasn’t at all what he had envisioned but maybe he could grow to like it. It seems he spent the rest of his life trying to convince himself that the new Soviet regime was a positive thing for his beloved proletariat

In 1923, when a list of forbidden books was drawn up, due to their anti-revolution content, Gorky, a book lover (he had approximately 10 000 books), became livid and declared, ‘I can’t believe that such spiritual vampirism really exists…’ but by 1934 he had changed so much that at a Congress of Soviet Writers he led everyone in denouncing works by Joyce, Proust, and Pirandello because they weren’t socially useful. He became a mouthpiece for government propaganda

‘What was going on inside him?… All his collaborators on the ‘New Life’ of 1917 were disappearing into jail and he said nothing. Literature was dying and he said nothing.’ (Victor Serge in Memoirs of a Revolutionary)

Even if you’re not familiar with Gorky’s work, this biography features just about every other major Russian writer from this period, with special attention given to Chekhov and Tolstoy. It’s an interesting if somewhat sad portrait of a free agent who ends up in a gilded Soviet cage

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a sucker for Troyat’s easy-read biographies of Russian writers and statesmen, and Gorky surely deserves more attention from Americans, both because of his talent and because he existed somewhere between the Bolsheviks and bourgeois political politics.

[Vivek KuRa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorky by Troyat was another enjoyable read. Did learn a lot of unknown facts about him .Anybody interested in Groky's works should read this book. Highly recommend it for two reasons, 1.Henri Troyat's thorough research as always makes the read very enjoyable , 2.You get to know about a greatest writer. If you have not read Mother by Gorky.. It is a must to read

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

He was from a poor family ad had to fend for himself from a young age. A grandmother fed his literary spirit. In the political turmoil he had no faith in the peasants, unlike Tolstoy, but in the workers. He was a favorite of Stalin's, and overlooked or rationalized Stalin's horrors.