or of these new ideas, finds, in a
few old friends and in a village woman who becomes his mistress,
some precious helpers. Thanks to them, he gradually gets up a little
circle of firm believers who gather in a cave in the woods. Every
evening, they read, discuss, and dream of a better organization,
out there in the cave. All would have gone well, if some of them had
not betrayed the leader to the police. While being led to the city
prison, the leader spoke to the soldiers who were escorting him:

"The soldiers trembled as they clicked their bayonets; they silently
listened to the legend of the generous earth which loves those who
work it. Again, their red faces were covered with drops of melted
snow; the drops ran down their cheeks like bitter tears of
humiliation; they breathed heavily, they snuffled, and I felt that
they kept walking a little faster, as if they wanted this very day
to arrive in that fairy land.

"We are no longer prisoners and soldiers; we are simply seven
Russians. I do not forget the prison, but when I remember all that I
lived through that summer and before that, my heart fills with joy,
and I feel like crying out:

"Rejoice, beloved Russian people! Your resurrection is close at
hand!"

* * * * *

"Matvey Kozhemyakine" very brilliantly returns to Gorky's early
manner. In this book no symbolic character interprets the bold
thoughts of the author. It is simply a novel of Russian provincial
life. Its simplicity does not exclude vigor, and it reminds us at
times of Balzac.

Young Matvey is the son of an old workingman who has become rich,
thanks to his energy and dishonesty. He has grown up in a large
house, adjoining a rope-yard, with his father and several servants.
His mother, whom he never knew, left home shortly after his birth,
and entered a convent in order to escape the torments of life.
Later, Matvey's father marries a young girl, in order to provide a
mother for his son, whom he loves dearly. But his new mother is not
long in finding out the dreary life which she has to lead with the
old man. In order to escape from the tedium of it, she listens to
the interesting experiences of the wandering life of the porter
Sazanov, and gives her unfaithful love in exchange.

Unexpected circumstances disclose this shameful adultery to Matvey.
Instead of revealing it to his father, he generously guards the
secret. He even goes so far as to protect her from the fury