The Life of Klim Samgin

At first, nobody will understand this novel, there will be complaints... And in fifty years, they will say: “There was a writer Maxim Gorky — he wrote a lot, and it was all bad, and what remains from him is... the novel 'The Life of Klim Samgin'.” M. Gorky. The author's last work, the idea of which arose shortly after the First Russian Revolution. Gorky initially wanted to name it The Story of a Hollow Soul and intended it as a novel of the century. It depicts not only the fate of an individual against the backdrop of historical events in Russia from the 1880s to February 1918 but also the spiritual life of the Russian intelligentsia, as well as the theme of the people capable of changing the course of history. There are still debates around the novel — should it be considered a failure of the author or, conversely, one of the main Russian books of the 20th century? Gorky's creation, from which the popular phrase: 'Was there a boy?' originated, is undoubtedly complex and still not fully deciphered.