The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1901-11-10
Iolstogs Successor and y
- His "Foma Gordyeetf."

is Is due to the continued hopefuness Of the hv.n r,
e ioeres ana publishers pueries succeed No mater
b,v i, Pas. experience has been people continue to
Guy ioteIy tickets and nobody expects draw blank
% WIN ne books The publishers contnualjv s.,ti
up iaos winch have feet of clay and the multitude bows
Ohe AFTER another of these false gods overthrown
as Hat as Dagon, but the idostry goes on Most peonl
can not distinguish the genuine the fake They run
after leader even into the sea- like the sheer fock 81
Panurze The udoious allow themselves 70 he deceived
hoping against hope that there may be some truth II ~
precious a thing = W AN
No writer of modern times has been so heralded a.
Maxim Gory We have been RECALLED with tales Of people
standing IN the theatre to greet him he been announced
as the Leo Tosoi as the prophet OF Yon
Russia the greatest genius of the age choice bits Of bs
biography have been given tales of his tramp life Of his
u'uunous changes OF occupation pedder, dock La
hore cooks boy worker in mandatory of ikon; or hoi
t =. a. a 'us mas gone on Tor more than six months
PRIOR to the appearance of the book and the book has
appeared published by the Scrbnes translated by Miss
Hapgood one Of the first American publishing houses and
one OF the most capable translaors.
With expectation thus raised the highest point you
read the book, and what do you find? A tale Zone is
tempted to write n told by diot full of sound
and fury signifyng nothing.
Foma Gordyeeff is the son of Ignat GordyeeH. rich
merchant of city the Volga supposedly Nzhni Now
gorod His mother is dead Ignat drinks and dies too
roma drinks, gives himself up debauchery and finally
alter denouneng all his friends and acquaintance among
the merchant class at public gathering that they to
throw him and bind him. relapses into condition OF idocy
so mat people eer him as he passes in the street
character, but she stupid
Mayakn the old godfather is character like Polonius in
hamlet but far less ably drawn Poonus is humorous.
Mayaku is tedious
The character of the pilgrim Foma meets on the boat is
tne one But it is thumbna sketch and has nothing
do with the story.
Sasha the of the demi-monde who sings is the
only character in the book that the reader likely to re-
member There great many Of this character
IN the book Foma meets with them when he starts his
career Of debauchey All of them commonplace except
sasha and perhaps Peagaya for whom the reader apt
to feel sort Of half pity half disgust that be
ayzed But Sasha unusual coesan The feeling can
not be into words but is unmakabe when chsrac-
ter like this reputable dsrepuable, in fiction
his is marionee wooden figure 1t is alive Here,
if nowhere else the author has comprised real creation
Maxim GorIy has three prime faults in the way of his
ever attaining high rank novelist First his lack of
humor second, his nconequence of plot thhd, his
IRENE pessmism.
First as to the lack OF humor Of humor he has abso.
utey This fault is consenital and rremediabc Be-
yond dispute it will damn him hetoust
The his nconsequenoe of plot BY caro-.
u attention to construction he writing his stories
deal be done this defect But in this
present book this fault stands with especial and ugly
prominence The incidents are correlated. There is
always something doing but why the reader for the
fe Of him make out There is a quarrel reconciliation
speech debauch visit journey, all series of discon-
nected stories Take this instance Foma and his
panions reveling raft Foma, drunk and diseusted
sasha has the pluck swim ashore The rest sail down
the river filing the air with cries of and impreca-
tons Now mark the inconsequence of plot Nowhere is is
told what became OF these people the raft Whether
Foms killed them or whether they escaped is left in doubt
The last fault his extreme pessmsm, greater than ia
almost any other author One naturally looks for pessnn
n Russian author. 1t be part of the Slays
to have a black outlook life. They cultivate
melancholy that is not like the melancholy Of Jacques
pounded Of many simpes with philosophy result that
ings with somewhat OF sound The Russian mel
ucholy is all melancholy bitter coloquntida Tolstoi
las it. Turgcnef also, and Dostlreffsk But Gorky is the
aekest OF the lot It is feast OF horrors to which he in
ties his readers, a land of perpetual midnight whera
here any JOY laughter flowers any pleasant
hugs Gorgons hydras and ehmeras dire inhabt with
Jack the Giant Killer to off the ogres heads
IT, Patrick charm the snakes. As final word of crt-
there the mind the remark of Hamlet the
hosts description OF the OF his prison
ouse, "Horriblcl Oh, horrible Most horriber
B. r. F., u.