Maxim Gorky has 3 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators. The most-rated is Twenty-Six Men and a Girl.
Comrades
Summary
Maxim Gorky, whose real name was Alexey Maximovich Pyeshkov, is probably the best-known late-19th-century Russian fiction writer among the English speaking world. His pen-name translates as Maxim the Bitter, which attitude is reflected in many of his works. Much of his writing reflects his own terrible life experiences and suffering. It is in his short stories that he reveals his true genius. "Comrades" reveals an ironic humour in its conception and is one of Gorky's lighter tales. A peasant policeman is dispatched to escort a vagrant without papers to the nearest magistrate, a considerable distance away. As the two talk on the journey, it becomes clear to the listener...and finally to the policeman...the real identity of the vagrant.
Public Domain (P)2014 Red Door Audiobooks
The Lower Depths
Summary
The Lower Depths, also titled At the Bottom, is a 1902 play by the Russian author and playwright Maxim Gorky (1868-1936). This work portrays a group of wretched, impoverished outcasts living in a shelter near the Volga River. They play cards and tell stories, and are briefly uplifted by a new resident called Luca who gives them hope. When he goes off, the illusion of hope collapses, and the result is murder and suicide. The theme of The Lower Depths is that of bitter truth versus the comforting illusion, and the play serves as an indictment of the type of society that allows people to be cast off so that they lose hope and turn to theft and prostitution.
Public Domain (P)2020 Museum Audiobooks
Twenty-Six Men and a Girl
Summary
"Twenty-Six Men and a Girl" is a short story written by the Russian writer Maxim Gorky in 1899, and is one of his most famous. It is a pioneering tale of social realism (the story predates Soviet socialist realism), and is a lament of lost ideals. Twenty-six men slave away in a cellar, making kringles, looked down on by all around them, including the bread bakers. Their only joy in their lives is the 16-year-old Tanya, who visits them every morning to collect kringles. A new bread baker, a soldier, visits the kringle makers. He befriends them, and boasts of his success with women. The kringle bakers bet him that he will not be able to seduce their beloved Tanya...and watch in an agony of tension as he takes on the bet.
Public Domain (P)2014 Red Door Audiobooks