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Plays 1: The Lower Depths / Summerfolk / Children of the Sun / Barbarians / Enemies

Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) was hailed by Anton Chekhov as the voice of his time. These five plays offer a panoramic view of pre-revolutionary Russian life and are here given accurate playable translations by Jeremy Brooks and Kitty Hunter-Blair.

The Lower Depths: "It is a raw and indignant play, intermittently preachifying, bursting with talent, full of that combination of brutality and sentimentality which characterizes so much of Gorky's work." — Sunday Times

Summerfolk: "That volatility of mood that is the keynote of Russian drama ... the emotional fullness demanded by this rich, yeasty, madly neglected play." — Guardian

Children of the Sun: "These half-seeing, self-absorbed, troubled people are sharing a picnic on top of an anthill that runs ten miles deep and cannot explore anywhere but up ... 1917 must come." — New Statesman

Barbarians: "The effect is of richness, abundance, and unpredictability. The tone veers from the comic to the painful, the absurd to the ugly." — The Times

Enemies: "Gorky's play is a real discovery, the missing link between Chekhov and the Russian Revolution." — Observer

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 526
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780413181107
  • Genres
  • russia, plays, theatre, drama
  • Release date
  • 2004