Children (Gorky play)

Children (Russian: Дети, romanized: Deti) is a one-act play by Maxim Gorky, translated as Reception into English.[1] It was first published in the No.9, September 1910, issue of Sovremenny Mir under its original title Vstrecha (Russian: Встреча, Reception). Simultaneously it came out as a separate edition under the new title Children, via the Berlin-based Ladyzhnikov Publishers.[1]

For the A. R. Gurney play, see Children (play).
Children
Written byMaxim Gorky
Original languageRussian
GenreComedy
SettingA railway station five verstas away from the small town of Verkhneye Myamlino

Gorky mentioned it in his 20 November 1910 letter to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky: "I Send you my 'Reception', perhaps it will make you smile," he wrote from Capri.[2] It was included into the Works by Maxim Gorky in 1923 and since then has been reproduced unchanged in its further editions.[1]

Characters
  • Prince Svir-Mokshanski, of uncertain age, balding and frail[3]
  • Bubenhof, solid and behaves like a conqueror
  • Mokey Zobnin, of around fifty, shifty, perky and prone to fantasizing
  • Ivan Kichkin, old, fat and unhealthy
  • Pyotr Tipunov, soft-spoken and peace-loving
  • Kostya Zryakhov, a plump young man, speaks condescendingly and with unexpectedly long vowels
  • Yevstigneyka, a disheveled character with eyes of a lunatic
  • Tatyana Zobnina, a widow, stout and moving lazily
  • Marya Viktorovna, a perky and lively girl
  • Drunken passenger, Old woman with a petition, the Station master, Bykov the janitor, the Gendarme, the Telegraph man

Synopsis

Two rival families of the local merchants grudgingly unite to buy a huge plot of land from a local aristocrat, with a view to build a timber factory. The reception at the railway station astounds the Prince (who arrives with a German companion). He is delighted with the way how the people here admire him and are such pure and nice creatures, 'like children'. Some other locals (including a perpetuum mobile inventor) join the party with their pleas and complaints. The celebration turns sour when it transpires that the land has just been sold, to the German man.

References
  1. Commentaries to Дети. Collected Works by A.M. Gorky, vol. 12 // На базе Собрания сочинений в 30-ти томах. ГИХЛ, 1949-1956. ТОМ 6
  2. Letter to M.M. Kotsyubinsky, 20 November 1910.
  3. As described by Gorky
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