Childhood

Maxim Gorky’s autobiographical narrative “Childhood” opens up to the listener the life and experiences of little Alyosha. Early on, having lost his father, he moves to live in his grandfather’s house. Here, he learns on his own to assess people, to distinguish good from evil, to notice what’s hidden, and to defend his own opinion. A big family is made up of both kind and evil people, strong and weak. But all of them are interesting and played their part in Alyosha’s life.
The death of Alyosha’s father forces his mother to return to her parents’ home. This change brings a great deal of emotional turmoil to the boy. He really likes his grandmother—a kind, cheerful, capable woman, but when she arrives in Nizhny, even she keeps her distance from him. The entire new family does not welcome the newcomers very warmly, and Alyosha feels longing, tension, and gloom.

Everything in the grandfather’s house was full of hostility. The mother who arrived was claiming the dowry she had been deprived of earlier. Because of this, Alyosha’s uncles—his mother’s brothers—were constantly fighting and quarrelling. The tense atmosphere affected everything. Here, for the first time, the boy was beaten until he lost consciousness. This first encounter with adult life made Alyosha reconsider his views on his grandfather, on Tsyganok (the “gypsy”), and on his mother. Not everything is so unambiguous anymore. The strong mother lost her authority, and the domineering and cruel grandfather turned out to be caring and tender; the straightforward brothers turned out to be treacherous.

Over time, Alyosha begins to get acquainted with God. He notices that the grandmother’s Creator is very different from the one his grandfather prays to. The grandmother’s prayer is always, in all circumstances, full of words of praise and glorification. Her God is kind to everyone, attentive—obeying him feels easy and loving him is easy too. The grandmother prays not by a written script, but always from the heart, and listening to her prayer is pleasant. The grandfather, by contrast, behaves before the icons like a soldier: he stands straight, beats his chest a lot, and demands.

The wayward uncles keep demanding their inheritance, fighting and attacking Alyosha’s parents. Finally, after constant quarrels and brawls, the grandfather divides the property among the brothers, and they open their workshops. The older generation moves with Alyosha into a new house with many tenants. Here Alyosha meets new people, evaluates them, becomes friends with some and hates others. Quiet but interesting Good Deed, grumpy and old Pyotr, friendly brothers—the young gentry boys—and many others filled Alyosha’s childhood and made him experience a great deal of feelings that helped shape the young man.

The mother’s return brought new worries into the house. The grandfather wanted to match her, while the grandmother defended her. Alyosha received new lessons in algebra, literacy, and writing so he could enter school. The period of learning in the lower grades coincided with poverty. And although Alyosha was quite smart and quick-witted, his relationships with the teacher, with the priest, and with his classmates didn’t always go well due to the lack of money to buy necessary books and new clothes.

The mother’s fate after her second marriage turned out badly. The stepfather lost everything in gambling, and the small children were dying at an early age. All these misfortunes, frequent beatings, led to the mother’s death, which greatly saddened the elderly.

Throughout the audiobook, listeners will encounter stories from the lives of the main characters, which appear in different chapters and reveal new aspects of character and life. The fate of the kind and honest father Alyosha, the foundling Tsyganok, the grandmother’s youth, the wedding and love of the parents, the lives of Uncle Yakov and Uncle Mikhail—everything passed before Alyosha in stories, but it could not help leaving an imprint on his soul.

“In childhood I imagine myself as a hive, where different ordinary, gray people carried, like bees, the honey of my knowledge and thoughts about life, generously enriching my soul with whatever they could. Often this honey was dirty and bitter, but any knowledge—still honey.”

This audiobook has been voiced and thoughtfully produced by Lyubov Koneva. The emotions of the little boy—his joys and grievances, his victories and defeats, his sorrows and happiness—are conveyed very accurately. Lyubov Koneva created images and depicted the character of each character, doing everything so that the audiobook grabs and captivates the listener.