Reception () is a one-act comedy by Maxim Gorky.Commentaries to Дети. Collected Works by A.M. Gorky, vol. 12 // На базе Собрания сочинений в 30-ти томах. ГИХЛ, 1949-1956. ТОМ 6 It was first published in 1910, in Sovremenny Mir under its original title. Simultaneously it came out as a separate edition under the title Children (), via the Berlin-based Ladyzhnikov Publishers.
Gorky mentioned it in his 20 November 1910 letter to Mykhailo Kotsiubynsky: "I send you my Reception, perhaps it will make you smile," he wrote from Capri.Letter to M.M. Kotsyubinsky, 20 November 1910.
Characters Prince Svir-Mokshanski, of uncertain age, balding and frailAs described by Gorky Bubenhof, solid and behaves like a conqueror Mokey Zobnin, of around fifty, shifty, perky and prone to fantasizing Ivan Kichkin, old, fat and unhealthy Pyotr Tipunov, soft-spoken and peace-loving Kostya Zryakhov, a plump young man, speaks condescendingly and with unexpectedly long vowels Yevstigneyka, a disheveled character with eyes of a lunatic Tatyana Zobnina, a widow, stout and moving lazily Marya Viktorovna, a perky and lively girl Drunken passenger, Old woman with a petition, the Station master, Bykov the janitor, the Gendarme, the Telegraph man
Synopsis Two rival families of the local merchants grudgingly unite to buy a huge plot of land from a local aristocrat, with a view to build a timber factory. The reception at the railway station astounds the Prince (who arrives with a German companion). He is delighted with the way how the people here admire him and are such pure and nice creatures, 'like children'. Some other locals (including a perpetuum mobile inventor) join the party with their pleas and complaints. The celebration turns sour when it transpires that the land has just been sold, to the German man.
References
External links Дети. The original Russian text