Three Men: A Novel

Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 653K words
Chapters: 66

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Three Men: A Novel by Maksim GorkyAuthor: Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936,Language: English, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Jan 28, 2018

Editor's review

This is an eBook of the English translation of Gorky's novel Three Men, released free by Project Gutenberg. The novel unfolds around the fates of three young men and continues Gorky's concern with lower-class life, poverty, and human struggle; the relationships among the characters and the urban lower-class setting provide the main narrative tension. The English translation is relatively plain in style, suitable for understanding the shape of Gorky's longer fiction and as reading practice for English translations of Russian literature. The electronic edition is easy to search for character names and keywords, convenient for sorting out character threads. Note that this is an English public-domain text without a Chinese introduction or annotations; Chinese readers unfamiliar with Gorky's life and Russian social background may have to work harder to understand the characters' motives. It is better suited to readers with some experience of foreign literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like Gorky's works and want to read his longer fiction in English translation
Foreign literature enthusiasts with basic English reading ability who are interested in lower-class narratives
Students studying English translations of Russian literature who need public-domain texts
Readers who need free electronic texts to sort out character threads

Not a good fit for

Beginners who find English reading difficult and would prefer a Chinese translation
Readers who need detailed annotations and explanations of Russian historical background
Readers who prefer light plots and have little tolerance for grim social themes

Reading tips

First sort out the relationships among the three characters and their respective situations, then proceed chapter by chapter.
Prepare a character list and record how each character's situation changes with each appearance.
When a passage's Russian social background is unclear, mark it first and return to it after finishing the chapter.
After finishing, summarize in one paragraph the point where the three men's fates diverge, to check your overall understanding.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in English or Chinese?

This is the English translation of Gorky's Three Men, with English listed as the language, released by Project Gutenberg. It has no Chinese translation or Chinese annotations. Chinese readers with limited English reading ability are advised to find a Chinese translation for comparison first, or to use it as English reading practice material.

Can I understand it without a background in Russian history?

You can follow the plot, but the deeper meaning of the characters' motives and social circumstances may be hard to grasp. The novel deals with lower-class life and the urban environment, and some knowledge of Gorky's era will help. It is advisable to spend a little time before reading learning about the basic concerns of Russian lower-class literature, and to mark passages whose background is unclear while reading.

What kind of reading approach suits the electronic edition?

The electronic edition is easy to search for character names and keywords, suitable for sorting out character threads and revisiting chapters. You can first make a character list, then record changes in the three men's situations chapter by chapter. Since there are no annotations, cultural background questions require other materials; do not rely entirely on a single text.

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About the author

Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936 Author

Maxim Gorky (Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936) is a highly influential writer in the history of Russian and Soviet literature. This site holds 32 of his works, including the plays The Lower Depths (Pohjalla: Kuvaelmia, neljä näytöstä and The Lower Depths: A Drama in Four Acts), the autobiographical In the World (a sequel to My Childhood), the novel Mother, and shorter fiction and story collections such as Twenty-six and One, Konovalov, Orlóff and His Wife, and Tales from Gorky. His writing often focuses on the wandering, struggle, and awakening of lower-class people, distinguished by realistic detail and vivid characterization; the play The Lower Depths is especially notable for its ensemble structure portraying the urban poor, and has had a lasting influence. Because the database lacks nationality, birth and death dates, and classification information, public information is limited, so no additional biographical inferences are made here.