Story summary
The Man Who Was Afraid summary
- 8 min read
- 10 parts
A millionaire's son on the Volga cannot find a place to stand, and a crafty godfather watches him sink.
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The Man Who Was Afraid at a glance
Summary: 8 min to read
- Reading time
- About 7 h 45 min6 h 10 min fast, 9 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 110,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1899by Maxim Gorky
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
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The Man Who Was Afraid in short
The Man Who Was Afraid follows one rich young man through the years after his father's death. Foma Gordyeeff has strength, money and a good heart, and he has no idea what any of it is for. Around him stand people who each claim to know the answer.
What The Man Who Was Afraid is about
Picture a man who stands on the bank as ice smashes his new barge, and who cheers the river on. That is Ignat Gordyeeff, a Volga merchant who wins and loses fortunes with the same roar of laughter. His son Foma is the man who is afraid.
Maksim Gorky wrote this novel in the closing years of the nineteenth century, when Russian trade was growing fast along the great river. He asks what a rich young man does with his strength when nobody can tell him what it is for. You meet a godfather, a charming lady, a fiery writer and a pilgrim, and each offers Foma an answer.
Who it’s for. This book will please readers who love big Russian novels about family, money and conscience, and who like a restless hero searching for the meaning of his life.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Ignat Gordyeeff carries three souls in one body
Ignat Gordyeeff starts as a water-pumper on a barge. By forty he owns three steamers and ten barges, and people call him Frantic because his life keeps boiling over its banks. Gorky says there are three Gordyeeffs inside him.
The first is greedy, a man gripped by a passion for work who cheats and laughs at his victims. Yet when the ice crushes a barge, he says the Volga gave it and the Volga has taken it back. The second soul wakes in spring and flings itself into drink. The third kneels in his room for days on bread and water.
In a tavern Ignat mocks a disgraced priest for a rouble, then kneels and begs the man to spit in his face. The priest sobs and cannot do it. Under it all lies one need. Ignat wants a son to inherit his fortune and pray for his sins, and four daughters have died.
A man this big and this restless is a hard act for any son to follow.
- 2Start free to read
A son is born and a mother dies
Ignat marries Natalya, a silent Cossack who will not be struck.
- 3Start free to read
Fairy tales and a hard father shape the boy
At seven Foma is taken to his father's house, where Ignat's sister Anfisa becomes his teacher and playmate.
- 4Start free to read
School friends offer two ways to get ahead
At school Foma picks out two boys at once.
- 5Start free to read
A first journey alone brings Foma his first love
Ignat tests his son by sending him down the Kama with two barges of grain under Captain Yefim.
- 6Start free to read
Ignat dies and the godfather takes the reins
Soon after, Ignat wakes his son at dawn.
- 7Start free to read
Medinskaya offers a dream and a wound
Sophya Pavlovna Medinskaya is the architect's wife who persuaded Ignat to pay for the lodging house.
- 8Start free to read
Drink, a raft and a wrecked barge
Foma defends her name at a club by seizing a man who calls her a cocotte and shaking him across the floor.
- 9Start free to read
Foma asks for freedom and is threatened with an asylum
In a tavern Foma makes his strangest offer to Mayakin.
- 10Start free to read
Voices of answer and the shape of the telling
Foma keeps asking people how to live.
Read all 10 key ideas, then the whole book
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Check yourself
What is Foma's central struggle?
Right. “Foma Gordyeeff has strength, money and a good heart, and he has no idea what any of it is for.”Not quite. “Foma Gordyeeff has strength, money and a good heart, and he has no idea what any of it is for.”
How does Mayakin respond when Foma demands complete freedom?
Right. “Then, quietly, he adds that he can have Foma declared insane and shut away.”Not quite. “Then, quietly, he adds that he can have Foma declared insane and shut away.”
What does the Volga chiefly represent?
Right. “The river is the book's main image, a force that gives and takes.”Not quite. “The river is the book's main image, a force that gives and takes.”
Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Foma Gordyeeff The millionaire's son who feels strong and lost, and who wants to know what a person is living for.
- Ignat Gordyeeff Foma's father, a giant Volga merchant, greedy and repentant by turns, who longs for a son to carry on his name.
- Yakov Mayakin Foma's godfather, a shrewd, wrinkled merchant who believes life is business and wants to mould the young man in his own way.
- Lubov Mayakina Mayakin's daughter, a reader of books who feels trapped at home and hopes someone will share her longing for a better world.
- Sophya Medinskaya A graceful, charming lady of the town who draws Foma close and makes him doubt what he believes about people.
- Yozhov Foma's old schoolmate, a poor, quick-tongued feuilleton writer who attacks society in print and fears he has wasted his gifts.
- Sasha A proud singer who gives her company for money, speaks plainly and warns Foma that fear of oneself is worth nothing.
- Anfisa Ignat's gentle sister, who raises Foma on fairy tales and cares for him with warm, simple faith.
How it ends (spoiler)
At the banquet on Kononov's new steamer, Foma accuses the merchants to their faces. They bind his hands, call him mad and plan to send him to an asylum. Mayakin becomes his guardian and keeps his fortune. Three years pass; Mayakin has been dead about a year, having urged his children to prosper before a brief, extremely painful agony. Foma is left a broken, powerless man.
Famous lines
Freedom kills a man!
Anany Shchurov, in conversation with Foma. The old timber dealer claims that idleness and ease ruin the soul, an idea the book sets against Foma's own hunger for freedom.
either bite everyone, or lie in the gutter
Yakov Mayakin, speaking to Foma about business. Mayakin sums up his view of commerce as a battle, and Foma rejects it.
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Questions about The Man Who Was Afraid
What is The Man Who Was Afraid about?
It follows Foma Gordyeeff, the son of a rich Volga merchant, who inherits a fortune but cannot find a purpose for his life. Teachers, lovers and rivals each offer him an answer, and none satisfies him.
Who is Foma Gordyeeff afraid of?
He fears life itself and the sense that he does not belong. The merchants around him seem sure of themselves, while Foma feels hollow and watched, so he searches and drinks to escape the unease.
Who is Yakov Mayakin in the book?
Mayakin is Foma's godfather and his father's closest friend. He is a small, sharp, witty merchant who teaches that life is business, loves Foma in his own way and tries to make him a proper businessman.
What is the main message of The Man Who Was Afraid?
Gorky shows that wealth and order do not answer the question of what a life is for. The book sides with the restless seeker who refuses to be satisfied by money, habit or the opinion of others.
Is the novel based on real life on the Volga?
It is fiction, but Gorky knew the river, its steamers, barges and merchants first-hand, and the setting feels real. It was written near the end of the nineteenth century and shows the new merchant class at its height.
Cite this page
“Summary of The Man Who Was Afraid: the key points in 4 minutes.” Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-man-who-was-afraid-summary.
Library of Alexandria. (2026). Summary of The Man Who Was Afraid: the key points in 4 minutes. https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-man-who-was-afraid-summary
“Summary of The Man Who Was Afraid: the key points in 4 minutes.” Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-man-who-was-afraid-summary.
@misc{the_man_who_was_afraid_summary_2026,
title = {Summary of The Man Who Was Afraid: the key points in 4 minutes},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/pages/the-man-who-was-afraid-summary}
}
Cite this edition
Gorky, Maxim. The Man Who Was Afraid. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-was-afraid.
Gorky, M. (2026). The man who was afraid. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-was-afraid (Original work published 1899)
Gorky, Maxim. The Man Who Was Afraid. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-was-afraid.
@book{gorky2026man,
author = {Gorky, Maxim},
title = {The Man Who Was Afraid},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-man-who-was-afraid},
note = {First published 1899}
}
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