Page:Revolution and Other Essays.djvu/223

 What, without asking, hither hurried Whence?
 * And, without asking, Whither hurried hence!
 * Oh, many a Cup of this forbidden Wine
 * Must drown the memory of that insolence!"

"Fomá Gordyéeff" is a big book" — not only is the breadth of Russia in it, but the expanse of life. Yet, though in each land, in this world of marts and exchanges, this age of trade and traffic, passionate figures rise up and demand of life what its fever is, in 11 Fomá Gordyéeff" it is a Russian who so rises up and demands. For Górky, the Bitter One, is essentially a Russian in his grasp on the facts of life and in his treatment. All the Russian self-analysis and insistent introspection are his. And, like all his brother Russians, ardent, passionate protest impregnates his work. There is a purpose to it. He writes because he has something to say which the world should hear. From that clenched fist of his, light and airy romances, pretty and sweet and beguiling, do not flow,