“Foma Gordeyev” and in a superb binding too is a precious and touching
present; I thank you from the bottom of my heart. A thousand thanks! I have
read “Foma” only in bits, now I shall read it properly. Gorky should not be
published in parts; either he must write more briefly, or you must put him
in whole as the _Vyestnik Evropy_ does with Boborykin. “Foma,” by the
way, is very successful, but only with intelligent well-read people--with
the young also. I once overheard in a garden the conversation of a lady
(from Petersburg) with her daughter: the mother was abusing the book, the
daughter was praising it....
YALTA,
February 29, 1900.
“Foma Gordeyev” is written all in one tone like a dissertation. All the
characters speak alike, and their way of thinking is alike too. They all
speak not simply but intentionally; they all have some idea in the
background; as though there is something they know they don’t speak out:
but in reality there is nothing they know, and it is simply their _facon
de parler_.
There are wonderful passages in “Foma.” Gorky will make a very great writer
if only he does not weary, does not grow cold and lazy.