Twenty-Six Men and a Girl (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Maxim Gorki
- First Published: 1899
- Type of Plot: Social realism
- Time of Work: The late 1890's
- Setting: Provincial Russian town
- Principal Characters: A Group of unnamed pretzel makers, Tanya, A handsome baker
- Genres: Social realism, Short fiction
- Subjects: Psychology or psychologists, Oppression, Working class, Russia or Russian people, Sympathy, Baking
- Locales: Russia
The Story
Maxim Gorky begins this first-person narrative with a description of a wretched working environment: a basement-level bakery where twenty-six men, “living machines,” as the narrator calls them, work long hours making pretzels. The room is cramped, airless, and stuffy. The huge oven that dominates the room stares pitilessly at the workers like a horrible monster. The workers themselves move and act like automatons, for their vital feelings have been crushed by their ceaseless toil. Only when they begin to sing do they feel a sense of lightness and gain a glimpse of...
[The entire page is 1325 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
See Also
