Three Men

Maxim Gorky’s Three Men follows Ilya Lunyev and two men whose lives become intertwined with his as they struggle against poverty, social inequality, and the relentless desire for a better life. Rising from humble circumstances, Ilya becomes increasingly drawn toward money, influence, and the world of those who possess them, while Yakov Filatov and Pavel Grachev pursue their own very different paths through the same harsh social order. Their experiences expose the temptations and moral compromises that accompany the pursuit of wealth and status, as friendship, desire, violence, ambition, and resentment collide. First published in 1901–1902, Three Men is a powerful work of Russian literary realism and one of Gorky’s penetrating examinations of poverty, class, human ambition, and the forces that shape people living on the margins of society.