The reminiscences are pieced together from notes jotted down after various meetings between the author and Tolstoy. Gorki knew Tolstoy intimately and reveals him in many new lights and from many different angles. Sometimes he is very human, sometimes the impression is that of a pilgrim “terribly homeless and alien to all men and things”; always he is infinitely wise. Gorki did not love him but felt: “I am not an orphan on the earth so long as this man lives on it.” At his death he did indeed feel orphaned and cried inconsolably and in bitter despair. He leaves this predominant impression of Tolstoy: “This man is godlike.” The translators of the book from the Russian are S. S. Koteliansky and Leonard Woolf.
Reviewed by S. Koteliansky
Ath p587 Ap 30 ’20 2300w
“In his attempt to ‘understand’ Tolstoy. Gorky enjoyed the considerable advantage of being himself a Russian. We do not know the precise value of this qualification, but we may suppose it to be considerable. On the other hand, we think that Gorky was at a considerable disadvantage in being a romantic.” J. W. N. S.
+ − Ath p77 Jl 16 ’20 1300w
“To convey so much in so short a book is a nice illustration of Gorky’s own courageous expressiveness. Because he respected his emotions regarding this old Titan of Russia, we have now one of the most real of biographical contributions. And yet most editors and publishers would have felt that these were mere fragments and would have howled for the circumstantiality of ‘fact.’” F. H.
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“Withal, the greatness of Tolstoy’s remarkable personality is enhanced rather than diminished by this snapshot of the old ‘earth-man,’ to use Merejkovsky’s term, which here takes on a special significance.”
+ N Y Evening Post p10 D 31 ’20 250w