13 h 34 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 13 h 34 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What does a better life cost when poverty leaves little room to choose?
In Maxim Gorky's Three Men, three friends grow up in the poor, crowded corners of Russian town life. Ilya Lunev wants respect and a life beyond the hardship he knows. Beside him, Yakov Filimonov and Pavel Grachev seek their own ways forward in a society that gives them little room.
City streets, cheap lodgings and small shops form the world around them. Ilya sees how poor people are treated and refuses to accept the same fate. But ambition brings guilt and doubt. As his outward struggle becomes an inward one, Gorky asks what choices do to the people who make them.
What you’ll discover
- Three lives under pressure Meet friends whose different outlooks reveal more than one response to poverty and hardship.
- The hunger for respect Follow Ilya's wish for dignity, and feel the doubts that trouble his pursuit.
- A town without decoration Enter crowded streets and cheap lodgings through Gorky's close attention to place and gesture.
- Conscience beneath ambition Explore how the desire to escape hardship becomes a struggle over what a life should cost.
- Poverty beyond simple judgment See why wanting more cannot be dismissed as greed in a world shaped by class.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you love Russian fiction, character studies, and stories about friendship, conscience and the search for a decent way to live among ordinary people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A family driven out of its village
- The tavern house and old Jeremy's kindness
- Death, theft and a boy's first guilt
- Books, a fish shop and the lesson of humility
- A peddler's dream and the price of respect
- A clean room and the promise of a fresh start
- Friends with different hopes
- What the book says about guilt and justice
- How the book is told
Who’s who
- Ilya LunevA peasant's son who dreams of a clean, quiet life and carries a heavy secret.
- TerentiIlya's hunchbacked uncle, gentle and fearful, who keeps hoping for forgiveness.
- Jakov FilimonovIlya's dreamy, sickly friend, the tavern keeper's son, who asks what life is for.
- Pavel GratschevA ragged poet and runaway who loves Vyera and cannot bear to lose her.
- MashaThe cobbler's daughter, brave and cheerful as a child, who is pushed into an unhappy marriage.
- Petrusha FilimonovThe smooth tavern owner, who gets rich and respected while others pay for his comfort.
- OlympiadaA stately woman who wants to buy her freedom and clings to Ilya.
- Sofia MedvedevaGavrik's sharp, proud sister, who challenges Ilya's way of earning a living.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 13 h 34 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear Drei Menschen in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Drei Menschen
by Maxim Gorki · 1900
Ilya Lunev wants a clean, quiet life, yet everyone he meets seems to bend the rules to get ahead.
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In short
What does a boy from a burned village do when the town he dreams of proves cruel? Maksim Gorky's Three Men follows Ilya Lunev, a peasant's son who longs for a clean, quiet life and sees only greed around him.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A family driven out of its village
The story opens with the hermit Antipa, whose sons are left to face the world. Jakov, the elder, is a wild man who ends in Siberia for arson, and his quiet, hunchbacked brother Terenti takes in Jakov's son Ilya.
Terenti leaves at night with a cart and a small stock of cash. In the dark, Ilya wakes to a strange wailing and finds his uncle weeping that they have been driven out. The boy answers with a promise to show them all when he grows up.
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What is Three Men about?
It follows Ilya Lunev, a peasant's son who moves from a burned village to a town and tries to build a clean, secure life while carrying a terrible secret, alongside his two friends Pavel and Jakov.
Who are the three men in the title?
They are Ilya Lunev, Pavel Gratschev and Jakov Filimonov, three young men from the poor and middle ranks of town life who each look for a way to live honestly.
What does the novel say about justice?
It asks whether people ever receive fair treatment. Ilya sees rich men and judges act badly and wonders whether God punishes sin, or whether cleverness can escape every penalty.
The author
Maxim Gorky
1868–1936 · Russian and Soviet novelist
Maksim Gorky (1868–1936) was a Russian and Soviet writer born in Nizhny Novgorod. His real name was Aleksey Maksimovich Peshkov. He wrote novels, stories and plays, including The Lower Depths (1902) and Mother (1906). He lived in Russia and Italy and died near Moscow.
More by Maxim Gorki
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