Orphan Paul

by Maxim Gorky, Maksim Gorky

Maxim Gorky takes a brooding orphan boy and a prostitute as the hero and heroine of this, his first novel. Here are characters like those of The Lower Depths; and here is the same passionate hatred of the environment which produced them. Here is the beginning of his protest against life in Russia which brought him the devotion of the younger generation that build the new. Gorky ventured far and wide to find the figures and facts of life. He understands the despair and loneliness of downtrodden humanity, and describes it with clarity relieved by a penetrating humor. The world’s outcasts, the injured, the “creatures who once were men” had a powerful voice as long of Gorky lived among them. One of the great figures of world literature, he never forgot his origin. Orphan Paul relates vividly the inarticulate suffering of little Paul, his violent protests against life, his helpless frustration. Paul and Natasha never had a chance. In this respect Orphan Paul is a literary forerunner of Dreiser’s An American Tragedy. An even more tragic background produces similar outbursts of unexpected violence. Love betrayed by life, might be an apt description of the inevitable destruction of the novels warm-hearted but thwarted people. This is a tale of “baby farms”, drunkenness, prostitution, thievery and murder. But it is not a story “told by an idiot”; for Gorky clarifies whatever he relates. Gorky was the link between the old and the new in Russian literature, His writing marked the beginning of an epoch, and epoch in which protest, and, later, optimism replaced the earlier writers’ fatalistic acceptance of the life of old Russia. His writing, and his personal association, has had an enormous effect on all the Russian writers of today. Upton Sinclair says, “I was a young writer in my formative years when Gorky made his great success in America. He had much to do with teaching me that great literature can be made out of the struggles of the poor and disinherited.”

Paperback

First published January 1, 1894

About the author

Russian writer Aleksei Maksimovich Peshkov (Russian: Алексей Максимович Пешков) supported the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 and helped to develop socialist realism as the officially accepted literary aesthetic; his works include The Life of Klim Samgin (1927-1936), an unfinished cycle of novels.

This Soviet author founded the socialist realism literary method and a political activist. People also nominated him five times for the Nobel Prize in literature. From 1906 to 1913 and from 1921 to 1929, he lived abroad, mostly in Capri, Italy; after his return to the Soviet Union, he accepted the cultural policies of the time.

Reviews

[Trounin · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Горемыка Павел” – первое крупное произведение Горького. Повесть о человеке, за которым всюду следовало горе. Само его рождение – горестное событие. Желая ему лучшей доли, родители подкинули младенцем в приют. Начиная с этого, вплоть до проступка, читатель следит за самым важным литературным экспериментом Максима, взявшегося за создание продолжительной истории. Усвоив основы, Горький будет им неизменно следовать во всех подобного размера работах. Разумеется, это размытый сюжет, множественные диалоги, обсуждение повестки текущего дня и удручающий финал, не позволяющий говорить о достижении действующими лицами хотя бы подобия счастья. Всё это есть в повести “Горемыка Павел”.

(c) Trounin

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first time I’ve read any fiction written by Gorky and it did not disappoint!

A tale of human connection and the lengths we’ll go to in order to hold onto it, no matter the cost…