Confession: A Novella

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

Rating 3.0
Word count
397K words
Chapters
40

Tags

Foreign Language Books Foreign Literature Fate and FortuneMarginal LifeRussian CompassionComplex HumanityShort StoriesConfessional Narrative

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.Tunnustus: Novelli by Maksim GorkyAuthor: Gorky, Maksim, 1868-1936,Language: Finnish, Class: PG: Language and Literatures: Slavic (including Russian), Languages and Literature, Release Date: Jul 1, 2016

Editor's review

This is the Finnish translation of Gorky's short story "Confession," a public-domain eBook from Project Gutenberg. As one of Gorky's shorter works, it continues his focus on the inner lives of people at the bottom of society and on social reality; it is not long, yet within its limited narrative it presents a character's inner struggle and turning point. The Finnish translation offers a usable textual sample for studying the spread of Gorky's work in the Nordic countries and for examining the language of early translations. For Chinese readers, the value of reading this book lies more in literary history and translation studies than in light entertainment. Because the text is in Finnish and the Gutenberg edition usually contains no modern introduction, readers need some language ability or reference materials to get into it. It is best treated as close-reading material for a short story, with attention to narrative perspective and psychological portrayal rather than to complex or twisting plot.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. First understand the overall style of Gorky's short stories, then read this one closely.
  2. Finnish learners can compare it paragraph by paragraph with a Chinese translation to build literary vocabulary.
  3. After reading, trace the lines of the character's psychological turning point and make brief reading notes.
  4. Read it alongside other Gorky short stories to observe how themes continue and change.

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.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40

FAQ

Is this book in Finnish or Chinese? This book is a Finnish translation, the Finnish version of Gorky's short story "Confession"; it is not a Chinese translation. Chinese readers who do not know Finnish need a parallel translation or related research materials to read it smoothly.
Why should Chinese readers read the Finnish translation? Its main value lies in translation studies and language learning: it lets you observe how a Gorky short story is presented in Finnish, and it can also serve as Finnish literary reading material. If you only want to enjoy the story, reading a Chinese translation directly is more efficient.
Is this story long? Is it suitable for beginners? It is a short story and relatively limited in length, suitable as close-reading material for a single text. But for readers who do not know Finnish the language barrier is high; it is best to have basic Finnish ability first, or read it alongside a parallel translation.

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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.