hadows
trembled and disappeared for a moment ... a crash of thunder burst
forth, disturbing the sky, where many black clouds were flying
past....

"... At times the steppe stretched forth like an oscillating giant
... the vast stretch of blue and cloudless sky poured light down
upon us, and seemed like an immense cupola of sombre color."

The wind passed "in large and regular waves, or blew with a sharp
rattle, the leaves sighed and whispered among themselves, the waves
of the river washed up on the banks, monotonous, despairing, as if
they were telling something terribly sad and mournful," the entire
country vibrated with a powerful life that harmonized with the souls
of the people.

In "Old Iserguile," Gorky writes: "I should have liked to transform
myself into dust and be blown about by the wind; I should have liked
to stretch myself out on the steppe like the warm waters of the
river, or throw myself into the sea and rise into the sky in an opal
mist; I should have liked to drink in this evening so wonderful and
melancholy.... And, I know not why, I was suffering...."

Gorky's stories, always short enough, have little or no plot, and
the characters are barely sketched. But, in these simple frames, he
has confined the power of an art which is prolific, supple and
profoundly living. Let us take, for example, "The Friends." Dancing
Foot and The One Who Hopes are ordinary thieves, the terror of the
villagers whose gardens they rob. One day, when they are especially
desperate, they steal a thin horse which is browsing at the edge of
the woods. The One Who Hopes gets an incurable sickness, and it is
perhaps on account of his approaching death that he feels scruples
at this crime. Dancing Foot expresses the scorn that the weakness of
his companion inspires him with, but he ends by giving in and
returns the animal. One hour later, The One Who Hopes falls dead in
front of Dancing Foot, who is tremendously upset in spite of his
affected indifference.

A dry outline cannot possibly convey the emotion contained in this
little drama, where the low mentality of the characters is rendered
with the mastery which Gorky usually shows in creating his elemental
heroes. Among other works that should be noted are "Cain and
Arteme," so poignantly ironical in its simplicity, "To Drive Away
Tedium," "The Silver Clasps," "The Prisoner," and that little
masterpiece, "Twenty-Six Men and a Girl," in which we see
twenty-six bakers pourin