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Autobiography (Autobiography #1-3)

by Maxim Gorky , Isidor Schneider (translator)

4.45 of 5 stars 4.45 · rating details · 53 ratings · 4 reviews

Maxim Gorky, like Leo Tolstoy, was primarily an autobiographical author. The material here is considered amongst his greatest. Not only do they give the astonishingly varied life of Gorky from childhood thru youth, they also provide a picture of one of the most crucial generations in Russian life & history--the late 19th & early 20th centuries. The autobiography be Maxim Gorky, like Leo Tolstoy, was primarily an autobiographical author. The material here is considered amongst his greatest. Not only do they give the astonishingly varied life of Gorky from childhood thru youth, they also provide a picture of one of the most crucial generations in Russian life & history--the late 19th & early 20th centuries. The autobiography begins at age five & ends with Gorky secure in his position as a leading Russian writer. From the beginning, the story is organized as a quest for knowledge & understanding, of oneself & the world one lives in. This quest brings him into contact with the harsh realities of life in late 19th century Russia--the life that was to constitute his 'university'. We follow as he turns from one job to another in an effort to make a living--rag picker, errand & stockboy, junior clerk, bird catcher, cabin boy on a Volga steamer, icon factory apprentice, baker, watchman & rail freight handler. We move with him in his life of wandering from one part of Russia to the next, &, in the course of the journey, we meet some of the most extraordinary characters in literature. The people that crowd the pages of his life history are as interesting as they are varied. Peasants, artisans, scholars, writers, teachers, policemen, government officials--they passed in & out of his strange, sad life, leaving each one of them a vivid imprint on his keen mind. Thru them he learned to build for himself a philosophy of life, & with the memory of them he painted for us those stark, vital pictures which make the unforgettable character of his book. Each character is sharply individualized, mountingly alive, fascinating. There's his grandmother with her strength, her idealism, her superstition, her sympathy. Herself a folk bard, she passed on to him the impulse to hearten others & a rich store of folk song & story. There's Smoury, the chef of the Volga steamer, whom Gorky was later to call one of his outstanding teachers. There's also Olga, the woman with whom Gorky had his 1st love affair; eccentric, irresponsible, flirtatious, but charming & kind. In his portrait of these & other fascinating characters, he's given his greatest--& one of the greatest life stories in literature. ...more

Paperback , 624 pages

Published 1969 by Citadel Press (NY) (first published 1949)

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Mar 29, 2009 Bruce rated it 4 of 5 stars

Maxin Gorky (1868-1936) occupied ambiguous political (he was a close friend of Lenin but was opposed to or ambivalent about many of Lenin’s policies) and cultural (he is often reputed to be the founder of artistic Social Realism during the Stalin era) positions in Russia, but he has always been acknowledged to be a skillful writer in many genres. His autobiography, published between 1913 and 1923 in three volumes – “My Childhood,” “In the World,” and “My Universities” – chronicles his life over Maxin Gorky (1868-1936) occupied ambiguous political (he was a close friend of Lenin but was opposed to or ambivalent about many of Lenin’s policies) and cultural (he is often reputed to be the founder of artistic Social Realism during the Stalin era) positions in Russia, but he has always been acknowledged to be a skillful writer in many genres. His autobiography, published between 1913 and 1923 in three volumes – “My Childhood,” “In the World,” and “My Universities” – chronicles his life over its first three decades and is a beautifully written work, vivid and alive in its descriptions of peasant life in late 19th century Russia, brilliant and perceptive in its characterizations of many different people and personality types. The book begins with his life in a family and society of harsh and even brutalizing poverty with almost constant domestic violence, moves to his leaving home shortly after he turned 10 when he began working at a variety of menial and grinding occupations, and finishes with the process of his gradual literary and political awakening during a time of great unrest and ferment across Russia. Until near the end of the work, a constant presence and anchor for him was his grandmother, Akulina, his supportive and endlessly patient caretaker, often the only person who protected and guided him during periods of great physical and emotional stress. A recurrent theme in the autobiography is the determination of the intelligentsia to work for the betterment of “the people,” the very populace that reacted to the same intelligentsia with hostility or indifference, the common conviction among the peasantry seeming to be that there is something fundamentally spiritually appropriate, even ennobling about suffering. Gorky in particular seemed to believe that a sort of general social transformation and redemption through cultural elevation would somehow improve the economic and moral condition of the entire country, and he worked, often seemingly futilely, to that end.

Gorky’s writing is lovely and striking, filled with stunning descriptions and startling similes and metaphors. His prose is often breathtaking in its vividness and beauty, and he is able to capture places and personalities in a few perfectly chosen words and phrases. His syntax and vocabulary are varied and constantly refreshing. Woven throughout the work, Gorky’s previous experiences reappear and animate the present in a way that makes a unity of his journey to adulthood. The variety of people with whom he interacts is encyclopedic, and each of the individuals is clearly and memorably differentiated. His own maturation is exemplified by the gradual evolution of the ideas, metaphors, and language with which he paints his life.

I found this to be a fascinating and engaging work, rich in its relationship to Gorky’s literary predecessors and contemporaries, insightful in its portrayal of Russian daily life as well as political evolution. Gorky has a voice and style that is alive, vibrant, and perceptive, an ability to capture the heart and mind of his reader that obliterates the one hundred years that have intervened between his life and ours.

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Nov 14, 2014 Czarny Pies rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Those interested in the history of Russian Literature.

Recommended to Czarny by: My mother.

Shelves: russian-lit

This autobiography is a compilation of three separate works: Childhood, Apprenticeship and My Universities. Together they form the Bildungsroman of a career revolutionary. One can see how Gorky's revolutionary ardour came from his own experience of suffering. He chooses to portray himself as a survivor in a world where all but the rich suffer terribly all the time.

Gorky's books provided the model for socialist realism which became the official literature of the Soviet Union by an act of the part This autobiography is a compilation of three separate works: Childhood, Apprenticeship and My Universities. Together they form the Bildungsroman of a career revolutionary. One can see how Gorky's revolutionary ardour came from his own experience of suffering. He chooses to portray himself as a survivor in a world where all but the rich suffer terribly all the time.

Gorky's books provided the model for socialist realism which became the official literature of the Soviet Union by an act of the party congress of 1934: The required elements of Socialist Realism as laid out by the party congress were that literature should be:

-1- Proletarian: describing the life of the works in a manner understandable to them.
-2- Typical: showing the industrial or agricultural milieu of the worker
-3- Realistic: in the representational sense.
-4- Partisan: showing the worker protagonist becoming aware of his status as a worker and engaging in the class struggle in a concrete fashion

I suppose then that Gorky deserves much credit for a lot of bad writing that followed in Central Europe from 1934 until the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Gorky wrote good and sometimes great works in the Socialist Realist genre because it was his chosen vocation to write in this manner. Those who wrote in the Socialist Realist genre because it was the law of the land that they do so, never quite achieved the same level of excellence as Gorky.

Indeed the memory of the socialist realist writers is not honoured today nor should it be. The personal vision of a single man should never become the imposed norm for artists.

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Nov 07, 2013 Jan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autobiography , russische-bibliotheek

De coverfoto is wat misleidend. Ik heb dit boek gelezen in het Nederlands onder de titel 'Jeugherinneringen'. Uitgegeven als nr.274 in de geweldige Privé- domeinreeks van de Arbeiderspers. In 3 delen, 'Kinderjaren', 'Onder de mensen' en 'Mijn universiteiten'. Maar liefst bijna 900 bladzijden maar ik heb me geen moment verveeld. Gorki is een geweldige schrijver die een zeer indringend beeld schetst van het Rusland vanaf ongeveer 1870 tot 1890. Waar hij in uitblinkt zijn beschrijvingen van persone ...more

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Jul 20, 2013 Stefanie rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVE MAXIM...I love the struggle of this Marxist author trying to convey the whole idea behind classes/proletarians/bourgeoisie from a very humanistic eye (if you ask me)...Great book to get to know Gorky a bit more.

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About Maxim Gorky

Aleksey Maximovich Peshkov (Russian: Алексей Максимович Пешков; better known as Maxim Gorky (Russian: Максим Горький, IPA: [mɐˈksʲim ˈɡorʲkʲɪj]), was a Russian/Soviet author, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist.

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 polici ...more

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