The Project Gutenberg eBook, Maxim Gorki, by Hans Ostwald, Translated by
Frances A. Welby

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Title: Maxim Gorki

Author: Hans Ostwald

Release Date: July 10, 2007 [eBook #22046]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MAXIM GORKI***

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Transcriber's note:

The original book did not have a table of contents.
One has been created for the reader's convenience.

In the original book, each page's header changed to reflect
the content of its host page. In this e-book, those headers
have been collected into an introductory paragraph at the
start of each chapter.

Illustrated Cameos of Literature.

Edited by George Brandes

MAXIM GORKI

by

HANS OSTWALD

Translated by Frances A. Welby

[Frontispiece: MAXIM GORKI]

William Heinemann
1905

INTRODUCTION

It cannot be denied that the academic expression "Literature" is an
ill-favoured word. It involuntarily calls up the Antithesis of Life,
of Personal Experience, of the Simple Expression of Thought and
Feeling. With what scorn does Verlaine exclaim in his Poems:

"And the Rest is only Literature."

The word is not employed here in Verlaine's sense. The Impersonal is
to be excluded from this Collection. Notwithstanding its solid basis,
the modern mode of the Essay gives full play of personal freedom in the
handling of its matter.

In writing an entire History of Literature, one is unable to take equal
interest in all its details. Much is included because it belongs
there, but has to be described and criticised of necessity, not desire.
While the Author concentrates himself _con amore_ upon the parts which,
in accordance with his temperament, attract his sympathies, or rivet
his attention by their characteristic types,