Childhood. In People. My Universities

The Russian writer, thinker and five-time nominee for the Nobel Prize Maxim Gorky, before dedicating his life to literature, spent a lot of time traveling across the Russian Empire. He became an orphan at a young age and grew up in a household where a hostile atmosphere prevailed. His grandmother tried in every way to surround him with love and care, but never dared to defy her tyrant husband. His grandfather raised his grandson in the old-fashioned way and physically punished the entire family. The suffering experienced in childhood left an indelible mark on the writer's soul and formed the basis of the autobiographical trilogy «Childhood. In People. My Universities», where he talks about growing up and first disappointments. The hero of the novellas Alyosha Peshkov, going through the cruelty of his grandfather, poverty, work «in people» and wandering, forms a resilient character, a love for books and humanism, opposing them to the «leaden horrors of life».