Alexei Maximovich Peshkov, better known as Maxim Gorky, was a Russian author considered the father of Soviet revolutionary literature and founder of the doctrine of socialist realism. After having a difficult childhood, he roamed across the Russian empire, frequently changing jobs for about fifteen years before he became a successful writer. The experiences he had during those fifteen years deeply influenced his writing. Initially, he wrote stories mainly based on the lives of tramps and social outcasts, and he became known for his naturalistic style of writing. August Nemo selected seven important short stories from this author's vast work:Her LoverOne Autumn NightTwenty Six Men and a GirlThe Dead ManWaiting for the FerryThe BillionaireThe Birth of a Man

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.

Born "Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov" on March 16, 1868, in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia -- later renamed in his honor - Maxim Gorky would learn early the harsh lessons of life. He spent his early childhood in Astrakhan where his father worked as a shipping agent, but when the boy was only five years old, his father died, and he was sent to live with his maternal grandparents. This was not a happy time for the young Gorky as conditions were poor and often violent. At the age of eight, the boy's grandfather forced him to quit school and apprenticed him to several tradesmen including a shoemaker and an icon painter. Fortunately, Gorky also worked as a dishwasher on a Volga steamer where a friendly cook taught him to read, and literature soon became his passion.

Twelve powerful works of fiction, including Pushkin's "The Overcoat," "Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" by Gorky, and "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Tolstoy, plus works by Gogol, Turgenev, more.

Conceive the joy of a lover of nature who, leaving the art galleries, wanders out among the trees and wild flowers and birds that the pictures of the galleries have sentimentalised. It is some such joy that the man who truly loves the noblest in letters feels when tasting for the first time the simple delights of Russian literature. French and English and German authors, too, occasionally, offer works of lofty, simple naturalness; but the very keynote to the whole of Russian literature is simplicity, naturalness, veraciousness. Critic August Nemo selected seven short stories from authors who bring all the richness and quality of Russian literature: - The Nose by Nikolai Gogol - The Queen of Spades by Alexander Pushkin - God Sees The Truth, But Waits by Leo Tolstoy - The Bet by Anton Chekhov - The Christmas Tree And The Wedding by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - One Autumun Night by Maxim Gorky - Lazarus by Leonid Andreyev For more books with interesting themes, be sure to check the other books in this collection!