Maxim Gorki

Maxim Gorki, by Hans Ostwald,
Translated by

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Translated by Frances A. Welby
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Title: Maxim Gorki
Author: Hans Ostwald

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Language: English
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Illustrated Cameos of Literature.
Edited by George Brandes
MAXIM GORKI
by
HANS OSTWALD
Translated by Frances A. Welby

[Frontispiece: MAXIM GORKI]

William Heinemann 1905

INTRODUCTION
It cannot be denied that the academic expression "Literature" is an
ill-favoured word. It involuntarily calls up the Antithesis of Life, of

Personal Experience, of the Simple Expression of Thought and Feeling.
With what scorn does Verlaine exclaim in his Poems:
"And the Rest is only Literature."
The word is not employed here in Verlaine's sense. The Impersonal is
to be excluded from this Collection. Notwithstanding its solid basis, the
modern mode of the Essay gives full play of personal freedom in the
handling of its matter.
In writing an entire History of Literature, one is unable to take equal
interest in all its details. Much is included because it belongs there, but
has to be described and criticised of necessity, not desire. While the
Author concentrates himself con amore upon the parts which, in
accordance with his temperament, attract his sympathies, or rivet his
attention by their characteristic types, he accepts the rest as unavoidable
stuffing, in order to escape the reproach of ignorance or defect. In the
Essay there is no padding. Nothing is put in from external
considerations. The Author here admits no temporising with his
subject.
However foreign the theme may be to him, there is always some point
of contact between himself and the strange Personality. There is certain
to be some crevice through which he can insinuate himself into this
alien nature, after the fashion of the cunning actor with his part. He
tries to feel its feelings, to think its thoughts, to divine its instincts, to
discover its impulses and its will--then retreats from it once more, and
sets down what he has gathered.
Or he steeps himself intimately in the subject, till he feels that the Alien
Personality is beginning to live in him. It may be months before this
happens; but it comes at last. Another Being fills him; for the time his
soul is captive to it, and when he begins to express himself in words, he
is freed, as it were, from an evil dream, the while he is fulfilling a
cherished duty.
It is a welcome task to one who feels himself congenial to some Great
or Significant Man, to give expression to his cordial feelings and his

inspiration. It becomes an obsession with him to communicate to others
what he sees in his Idol, his Divinity. Yet it is not Inspiration for his
Subject alone that makes the Essayist. Some point that has no marked
attraction in itself may be inexpressibly precious to the Author as
Material, presenting itself to him with some rare stamps or unexpected
feature, that affords a special vehicle for the expression of his
temperament. Every man favours what he can describe or set forth
better than his neighbours; each seeks the Stuff that calls out his
capacities, and gives him opportunity to show what he is capable of.
Whether the Personality portrayed be at his Antipodes, whether or no
he have one single Idea in common with him, matters nothing. The
picture may in sooth be most successful when the Original is entirely
remote from the delineator, in virtue of contrary temperament, or
totally different mentality,--just because the traits of such a nature stand
out the more sharply to the eye of the tranquil observer.
Since Montaigne wrote the first Essays, this Form has permeated every
country. In France, Sainte-Beuve, in North America, Emerson, has
founded his School. In Germany, Hillebranat follows the lead of
Sainte-Beuve, while Hermann Grimm is a disciple of Emerson. The
Essayists of To-day are Legion.
It is hard to say whether what is