he poison begins to work she cries out pitifully
for help. The son is a student, and has been expelled from the
university. He hangs about at home, and cannot find energy to plot out
a new career for himself. The weariness of a whole generation is
expressed in his faint-hearted, listless words, as also in the
blustering but ineffective rhodomontades of the tipsy choir-singer
Teterev. All cordial relations between parents and children are
lacking in this house.

It is refreshing to come upon the other characters, who are of a
different breed to these shop-keepers. The vodka-loving, jolly father
of Polja (Bezemenov's niece, who is exploited and maltreated in this
house), is, in his contented yet sentimental egoism, a true
representative of the ordinary Russian, the common man. And Polja!
And Nil! . . . Here is the fresh blood of the future. How sure they
both are in their love. "Ah! what a beautiful world it is, isn't it?
Wondrously beautiful . . . dear friend. . . . What a glorious man you
are. . . ."

Albeit this work is far from being a finished drama, it none the less
has its special qualities. These men often talk as glibly as if they
were essayists, they often seem to be mere vehicles for programmatic
manifestoes. But as a whole they are the typical quintessence of the
Russian people.

Other wild and intrepid figures are to be found in the larger works
that precede "The Tradespeople"--the novels "Foma Gordeyev" and "Three
Men." But Gorki's new conception of life is less clearly and broadly
formulated in these than in Nil, and other subsequent characters.
These people rather collapse from the superabundance of their vigour
and the meanness of their surroundings.

In "Foma Gordeyev" Gorki flagellates the unscrupulous Russian wholesale
dealer, who knows of nought beyond profit and the grossest sensual
indulgence, and lets his own flesh and blood perish if they require of
him to budge a hand-breadth from his egoistic standpoint. Foma, who is
not built for a merchant, and who, while ambitious of command, is too
magnanimous for the sordid business of a tradesman, has to give in.
And the children of his triumphant guardian can only escape poverty by
accepting their surroundings.

[Illustration: Gambling scene (_Act II. of "The Doss-house"_)]

Despite its agonies and martyrdoms, however, there is one marvellously
inspiring feature about this novel,--its gorgeous descriptions of
Nature, rich in life