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Audiobook edition · 2 h 55 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
When hope is all you have left, is a comforting lie better than the truth?
In Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths, a low stone ceiling presses over bunks and rags in a Russian cellar lodging house. Here, people who have lost work, money or hope live and quarrel. There is no single hero. Their overlapping stories ask what makes a life worth living when almost everything is gone.
Then Luka, a wandering pilgrim, arrives and treats each lodger as someone worth hearing. His comfort meets Satin’s blunt insistence on truth and human worth. Meanwhile, the thief Vaska Pepel wants a cleaner life with Natasha, the sister of his lover, Vassilisa. Desire, fear and the need for hope share the same cramped room.
What you’ll discover
- A cellar full of voices Enter the crowded opening scene, where poor light, bunks and rags frame lives polite society ignores.
- Kindness under question Listen to Luka offer comfort, and weigh whether his hopeful words help or harm.
- Love caught in danger Follow Vaska Pepel’s longing for Natasha as Vassilisa seeks escape from her own marriage.
- Dreams that keep people standing Meet the Actor, clinging to the stage, and Nastya, seeking refuge in romantic stories.
- Dignity without easy answers Hear Satin challenge pity as the lodgers argue over truth, hope and human worth.
Who will love it
This is for readers who love drama built on talk, crowded rooms and sharp tongues, and for anyone drawn to people at the bottom of society who still argue about hope and dignity.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A cellar where nobody expects a tomorrow
- A wanderer named Luka makes everyone feel seen
- Vassilisa, Pepel and Natasha tangle in a love trap
- Anna dies, and Luka gives her the rest she begs for
- The cellar's dreamers cling to hopes that may be false
- The land of righteousness and the cost of truth
- Pepel asks to live better as pressure closes in
- How Gorky builds a play out of talk and songs
Who’s who
- LukaA gentle old pilgrim who arrives with a kettle and a stick, and comforts the lodgers with kind words and hopeful stories.
- Vaska PepelA young thief, son of a thief, who wants to leave his life of stealing and win the love of Natasha.
- Vassilisa KarpovnaThe hard landlady who offers Pepel money and her sister if he will get rid of her husband.
- Mikhail KostilyoffThe miserly, pious keeper of the night lodging, who counts every half ruble and watches his wife.
- NatashaVassilisa's younger sister, beaten and overworked, who waits for something extraordinary to change her life.
- SatineA gambler and former telegraph operator who loves odd words, begs for five kopecks and argues about truth.
- The ActorA drunken former stage performer who has lost his memory for verses and dreams of a hospital that will cure him.
- KleshtchA proud locksmith who sees himself as a workman above the others and whose wife Anna lies ill.
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Los bajos fondos: drama en cuatro actos
by Maksim Gorki · 1902
In a cellar flophouse, a wandering old man comforts the dying and a thief dreams of a clean start.
Medium level2–5 hours to readEspañol
Excellent
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In short
Picture waking each day in a cave-like cellar with a low, grimy ceiling, peeling plaster and bunks along the stone walls. Hope survives here, but it struggles against poverty.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A cellar where nobody expects a tomorrow
The play opens on an early spring morning in a cellar that looks like a cave. The ceiling is low and grimy, and bunks line the walls. Thin boards in one corner make a tiny room for the thief Vaska Pepel.
The people are already quarrelling. Kvashnya, a meat-pie seller, swears she would not marry again for a hundred baked lobsters, and the locksmith Kleshtch tells her she is lying. Behind a curtain, Kleshtch's wife Anna coughs, and she asks only to be left in peace to die.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1902
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 1 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Gorky, Maxim. The Lower Depths: A Drama in Four Acts. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lower-depths-a-drama-in-four-acts.
Gorky, M. (2026). The lower depths: A drama in four acts. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lower-depths-a-drama-in-four-acts (Original work published 1902)
Gorky, Maxim. The Lower Depths: A Drama in Four Acts. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lower-depths-a-drama-in-four-acts.
@book{gorky2026lower,
author = {Gorky, Maxim},
title = {The Lower Depths: A Drama in Four Acts},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-lower-depths-a-drama-in-four-acts},
note = {First published 1902}
}
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What is The Lower Depths about?
It follows the lodgers of a dismal cellar night lodging in Russia. A thief, a locksmith, a fallen baron, an actor and others live under a greedy landlord, and a wandering old man named Luka changes how they hope and argue.
Who is Luka in The Lower Depths?
Luka is an old pilgrim who arrives at the lodging with a stick and a bundle. He comforts the dying, encourages the drunk and the thief, and tells stories that make others hope, which leads to arguments about whether kind lies help.
When was The Lower Depths written and is it based on real life?
Gorky wrote it around 1902, and it was first staged in Russia that year. The characters are invented, but they draw on the poor and homeless people he knew from his own hard youth.
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 Maksim Gorki
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