9 h 41 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What happens to a sense of self when fear and betrayal shape the world around it?
In The Spy, Maxim Gorky brings betrayal, fear, and identity into the world of revolutionary Russia. Subtitled The Story of a Superfluous Man, this classic places the question of belonging beside the threat of betrayal. What does it mean to feel unnecessary?
The title points toward secrecy; the subtitle turns attention toward a person’s place in the world. Together, they invite you into a story where fear is more than a passing feeling. Read for the tension between identity and the sense of being superfluous.
What you’ll discover
- The weight of fear Explore fear as a central thread in this tale of identity and betrayal.
- A question of belonging Consider what the phrase “a superfluous man” suggests about a person’s place.
- Betrayal at the center Enter a story that brings the threat of betrayal into sharp focus.
- Revolutionary Russia Encounter the setting that frames Gorky’s tale of fear and identity.
- An unsettled sense of self Follow the questions of identity that give this classic its personal stakes.
Who will love it
Readers who love psychological portraits, Russian city life, and tales of secret police, informers and revolution will find much here, as will anyone curious about how one quiet person is drawn into betrayal.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An orphan learns to hide
- Life behind the bookseller's counter
- Rayisa and the room of secrets
- The chancery and the old man with a book
- Betrayal and a new master
- The trade of watching people
- A winter of unrest and shaken faith
- Kind strangers and the price of trust
- Fear, trust and how Gorky tells it
Who’s who
- Yevsey KlimkovA timid orphan nicknamed Old Man who wants only to go unnoticed and to find a gentler life, but drifts into spying.
- Uncle PiotrThe tearful village blacksmith who raises Yevsey, doubts everything, and sends him to the city with plain advice.
- Matvey Matveyevich RaspopovThe secondhand bookseller who hires Yevsey, prays every night, and trades in secrets and informing.
- Rayisa PetrovnaThe landlady and pianist who shows Yevsey kindness and hides a desperate wish to escape her miserable life.
- Dorimedont LukinA heavy, pimply spy who takes Yevsey in, bullies him, and pushes him toward the police service.
- Kapiton Ivanovich, the SmokestackA gray clerk who reads the New Testament, grieves for his son, and dreams of a petition to the Czar.
- OlgaA tall factory worker who trusts people openly and believes that ordinary people can build a better life.
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- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read today.
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- Large print hardcover
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25 languages, side by side
L’Espion in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
L’Espion
by Maxime Gorki · 1908
A lonely boy hides from a cruel world, then takes a job watching his neighbors for the Czar's secret police.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Imagine wanting nothing more than to go unnoticed, and being paid for it. The Spy, a novel by Maksim Gorky set in Russia around the unrest of 1905, follows Yevsey Klimkov, a frightened orphan who grows up to inform on his neighbors and, later, on strangers who were kind to him.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An orphan learns to hide
Yevsey Klimkov loses his father at four and his mother at seven. His uncle Piotr, a blacksmith, takes him in and calls him Orphan. The village children call him Old Man, because he is tiny and colorless. From the first pages he is a boy who flinches before the blow arrives.
His cousin Yashka pinches and beats him, and Yevsey seldom complains, because a complaint only brings a worse beating. He finds peace in the old log church, where the dim corners feel like shelter. He asks his uncle whether a person can see everything while nobody sees him.
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What is The Spy by Maksim Gorky about?
It follows Yevsey Klimkov, a frightened orphan who moves from a village to a city and slowly becomes an informer for the secret police. The novel shows how fear shapes a person and how a country shakes before great change.
Who is Yevsey Klimkov?
He is the main character, a small, pale boy nicknamed Old Man. He wants to live unseen, longs for a calm and kind world, and keeps asking why people live so badly. He is the lens through which the whole story is seen.
When is The Spy set and is it a true story?
It is a novel, written in the early twentieth century, and it is set around the unrest of 1905 in Russia. The story unfolds among secret police and crowds in the streets.
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
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