The Lower Depths (Dover Thrift Editions: Plays)

Recommend

Great play of hopeless poverty and its human violence or delusion. Biographical of Gorky's childhood at the bottom.

Not as great as some of his other work, but still interesting.

In a crowded dark room live the dregs of Russian society: a thief, a prostitute, her pimp, and several other criminals and outcasts. The general humdrum drama of their lives goes on as they get into fights, have disagreements, counsel one another over their losses, and so on.Luka, an idealistic spiritual sort, finds his way into the group, and starts to spread his message of hope and positive thinking. This spurs the plot along a bit, because many in the group are hard-bitten realists who have no truck with faith or hope.This is a fine play by Maxim Gorky. Gorky doesn't have the number of famous plays that someone like Henrik Ibsen or George Bernard Shaw does. In fact, he might be better known for his memoir of his childhood than for this play.Nevertheless, The Lower Depths is a great play. The gritty element described in the play makes it seem much more like a modern play than the 1902 publication date would indicate. The realistic dialogue and streetwise characters make it hard to put down.ken32

The central theme of "The Lower Depths" is not only the total aniquilation of human personality by misery,in the harsh struggle for life that,so many times takes Men to degrade themselves but also,a statement that that aniquilation never is complete and that the very "Ex-Men",like in another book Gorki will call them,still have a conscience,the dream to overcome misery itself,a human warmth capable of being shared and ease. A Must-read!

The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky, born Aleksei Peshkov in Nizhny Novgorod in 1868, is a dark drama that justifies his reputation as a founder of social realism, even if his works can also be regarded as agitprop for the Bolshevik Revolution. The characters were inspired by indigents Gorky consorted with at the Bugrov Homeless Shelter in his birthplace of Nizhny Novgorod. The play is a relentless and even, at least superficially, unsympathetic examination of Russia's underclass, gouging from a harsh urban landscape for a living by thievery, prostitution, and poorly paid piece work, savagely turned against each other by the oppressive poverty that denies them any upward opportunity, even for crime.One of the few significant foci of the play is the arrival at the boarding house of Luka, people by seventeen brawling, abject inmates. Luka is an apparent innocent who believes, that every human being matters. This faith makes him eccentric rather than hero, and recalls the ineffectual Prince Mishkin of Dostoievski's "The Idiot" whose well-meaning idiocy further complicates the difficulties of those deluded by his naïve faith. Luka's compassion makes him a visionary but he cannot offer any path to the higher regions, but only a soothing dream. This dream is Gorky's realismThe hopeless characters must either plunge into despair, or concoct delusions that make life bearable. The play offers no redemptive resolution, except through self- delusion, a phantasm that is, ironically, life-saving. Those strong enough to face the truth of despair can find freedom in self-destruction, or, for the society round them, through nihilism.The work is propelled by social anger, but it can transcend the politics of agitprop, especially as it lacks empathy for the miserable personae. Gorky does not make his social pariahs likeable, though their humanity is to the fore. Like the lives of the characters, the play is disordered, and apparently devoid of purpose, with only snippets of their existences, arguing, playing cards or drinking; merely passing the time that offers no respite. The best they can hope for is to fritter away the hours their lives from which they can expect nothing that they want.

This is a warning. This is an atrocious translation and should be avoided. Hopkins, who translated this work in 1906 is either sloppy or just a poor translator. The English is awkward, and what is most reprehensible, Hopkins just plain omits two of the most important factual items of the entire play--1) Gone is Pepel's admission that he spend time in prison because he murdered a man, and 2) and this is the most grievous of all, the fact that Actor hanged himself at the play's cnclusion (almost the last words of the play which produces an immense impoact) is also omitted. There is no good reason other than monetary since all copywrite is probably gone for this edition, to republish it. I learned this the hard way, using it in a class amd now have subjected my students to this particular translation. It is a wonderful play, but this edition should be taken off the market.

One of good play for understanding characters .No protagonist there,all characters have something or others.Must read for theatre aspirant

Very comfortable edition, good price and arrived before expected!

No problem

Wanted to re-read this as it was a book I studied when younger. Text small compared to other Kindle books. Looks like its been scanned in?