The Artamonov Business

by Maxim Gorki

Hardcover, 1948

Status

Available

Publication

London : Hamish Hamilton, 1948.

Description

Georg Luk#65533;cs called Maxim Gorky "the greatest writer of our time." Delo Artamonovykh, published in 1925 and translated into English in 1927 as Decadence, is his greatest historical novel. Until now, it has not been widely available to Western readers. Decadence is a family saga, an intricate character study, and a picture of Russia in the years between the serf's emancipation and the Bolshevik Revolution. It chronicles the fortunes of three generations of merchants who, in themselves, represent the tensions of the changing social order. In 1863, Ilya Artamonov founds a linen factory by the Oka River. In time the factory prospers and his children, inspired by his passion for labor, make improvements. A grandnephew even adds a library and organizes a football team. But one grandson is lazy and another is a socialist. Already on the scene and biding his time is Tikhon, the new proletarian. The decline, or "decadence," of the Artamonov family, and by extension the Russian middle class, is a result of personality clashes and of social revolution in the wind. Neither a lament for the old order nor a cheer for revolution, Decadence depicts the beginnings of a bourgeois class that gave way to two wars and two revolutions. It describes Russia's capitalist episode, when the developmentof factory labor and the accumulation of wealth transformed a feudal societ into a nation of workers. "Everyone lives for work, but whether men live for anything beyond their work, we can't see." This edition of Decadence includes a foreword by Irwin Weil, professor of Slavic languages at Northwestern University.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member jwhenderson
A family saga, Gorky's novel chronicles the fortunes of several generations of families between the liberation of the serfs and the cataclysm of the Great War and the subsequent Bolshevik revolution. The beginnings and growth of a bourgeois class is told by a short-sighted artist whose provides the
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following description of workers:
"Everyone lives for work, but whether men live for anything beyond their work we can't see." That this short-sightedness would contribute to the success of the Bolsheviks can be seen in the author's long association with Lenin. In spite of this the novel is a good picture of Russia before the coming of the Soviet, as long as you maintain the healthy skepticism of an intelligent reader.
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LibraryThing member Kristelh
A story of Russia told through the family saga of the Artamonov covers the time period of Russia industrial revolution to it's conclusion in the Bolshevik Revolution. The Artamonov are the new class of Russian merchants born out of the end of the serfdom declared by Tsar Alexander. Artamonov comes
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to the sleepy village of Dromov to build a Linen Factory. Ilia Artamonov barges into the town, interrupting life as it was formerly lived by the citizens. The story takes us through to the third generation and as may be the norm, the business deteriorates as we get further from it's origins.

Quotes:
"There are no human beings at all, only workers, except for beggars and the gentry. We all live merely to work; work overshadows everybody." page 95.

"he (Peter) saw with astonishment that his son by some miracle had become his match, either by rising to a grown-up in authority, or else by reducing a grown-up to his own level." page 129
Rating 3.57
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LibraryThing member Dreesie
After the peasants are freed, Artamanov Sr moves to a new town and starts a linen factory. He brings his wife and sons. The townspeople are not sure they trust him or like him, or that they want a factory. But he quickly marries his oldest son to the daughter of a local widow, and is then part of
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town life.

As he ages his sons grow, have children, and Sr dies. Then the grandkids become involved in the business and have kids of their own.

This is, of course, all going on in the late 1800s/early 1900s. The Artamonovs, though previously owned themselves, are now merchants and thus not trustworthy. And their lives are somewhat decadent, with lots of food and alcohol, traveling to Moscow and back, and marrying daughters off to other wealthy merchants so they leave the town. The factory runs itself, they just take, while the townspeople pour their lives into working for them. Some of the Artamanovs worry about the peasant uprisings and talk, but most just go about their business.

Not a long book, but I would it slow going.
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LibraryThing member leforestiere
Story of a russian familiy that becomes rich and independend by creating a manufactory - and looses all at the beginning of the russian revolution.

Language

Original language

Russian

Barcode

5604
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