8 h 13 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 8 h 13 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Where do you look for God when the people around you go hungry?
In Maxim Gorky's The Confession, Matvei looks back on a life shaped by poverty and a restless search for faith. Unable to settle, he takes to the road. Monasteries, pilgrims and village crowds offer answers, but the suffering of ordinary people keeps him asking what those answers are worth.
An older wanderer, Iona, guides Matvei with the experience of the road. Beggars, monks and travellers bring other views of God, while villagers' hunger, work and small kindnesses test what he hears. Told as a plain, personal confession, this short novel explores doubt, human brotherhood and the hope of finding something that can hold people together.
What you’ll discover
- A voice worth hearing Matvei speaks as though you have time to listen, bringing his restless questions close.
- The pilgrim road Follow a poor wanderer through monasteries and village crowds, weighing the answers he receives.
- A guide with experience Meet Iona, whose long acquaintance with faith and wandering puts Matvei's ideas to the test.
- Faith under pressure Consider questions about God alongside hunger, cruelty and hardship that prayer does not ease.
- The pull of brotherhood Explore Gorky's argument about religious hope, socialism and what people might find in one another.
Who will love it
This book is for readers who love wanderers' tales, big questions about faith and doubt, and vivid portraits of Russian villages, monasteries and factories.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A foundling learns tenderness from a sexton
- A thief's songs and a false miracle
- Piety, a thieving master and a bargain with sin
- Loss, the noose and a lesson from a bishop
- A monastery that runs on bread and money
- Anthony's cold doubt and the road of the pilgrims
- A laughing old man names the people as God's makers
- Theme: where is God, and who makes Him?
- Theme: isolation against the many
- How the story is told: a spoken life with a poet's eye
Who’s who
- MatveiA foundling who tells his own life story, seeks God through grief, sin and doubt, and keeps asking where goodness truly lives.
- LarionThe gentle, drinking sexton who raises Matvei, sings to birds and teaches him that God belongs in every person's heart.
- Savelko MigunA thief and songster who mocks hypocrisy, enchants peasants and later torments Matvei for his pious airs.
- TitoffThe estate manager who robs peasants, tempts Matvei into stealing and wants a righteous man to hide his sins from God.
- OlgaTitoff's quiet daughter, whom Matvei loves and marries, hoping for a simple life of children, birds and peace.
- Father AnthonyA handsome, learned monk who lives in luxury, scorns life and denies God, yet fascinates Matvei.
- JehudielA cheerful former priest who wanders the roads and teaches Matvei that people make their gods from their united strength.
- MikhailA young teacher in an Urals factory who helps workers and children, and sets Matvei on a new path.
Formats and delivery
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- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- Large print hardcover
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La Confession
by Maxime Gorki · 1908
A foundling taught by a bird-catching sexton wanders Russia in search of God, from monasteries to factories.
Medium level5–10 hours to readfrançais
Excellent
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In short
Can a boy left on the steps of a shrine ever learn what he is for? That is where Matvei begins, wrapped in rags and found by a gardener early one morning.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A foundling learns tenderness from a sexton
Matvei is abandoned as a baby on the steps of a small shrine in the park of the Loseff estate. The gardener Danil finds him. At four, the sexton Larion takes him in, and this odd, round, red-haired man becomes the only parent Matvei ever knows.
Larion drinks too much and keeps apart from people, yet he has a gift. Songbirds tangle themselves in his hair, and fish and bees seem to come to him.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- français
- Reading time
- 5 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Gorky, Maxim. The Confession. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-confession.
Gorky, M. (2026). The confession. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-confession (Original work published 1908)
Gorky, Maxim. The Confession. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-confession.
@book{gorky2026confession,
author = {Gorky, Maxim},
title = {The Confession},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-confession},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is The Confession by Gorky about?
It follows Matvei, a foundling who tells his own life story. He loses his faith, wanders from monasteries to roads to factories, and slowly forms a new idea that God is created by the united will of the people.
Who is Jehudiel in The Confession?
Jehudiel, also called Juna, is a cheerful former priest who meets Matvei on the road near Verkhotur. He teaches that people made God from their own collective strength, and sends Matvei to a factory to learn more.
What does Gorky mean by God-building in this book?
It is the idea that God is not a distant ruler but a living ideal that people create together through shared work, hope and justice. The book gives this view to several characters and tests it against Matvei's doubts.
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 Maxime Gorki
Voir tous ses livresMore like this
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