"..an autumn rain, as fine as powered glass.."

Please excuse the length of today’s passage from “The Clown” by Alexis Peshcov, who wrote under the pen name Maxim Gorki, but I find myself completely mesmerized by the beauty and imagery of his writing.

As you read today’s passage look at how much information is revealed in individual sentences. For example, “the wheels of the hired carriages rumbled over the worn cobblers of the roadway.” That’s beautiful! God, I wish I possessed the sensitivity and ability to wrote, what was so common among 19th century Russian writers, sentences containing such multi-layered imagery and human presences. I will definitely be posting more passages from Gorki’s writings.

“The Clown”

“The gala performance at the circus ended after midnight. It was the end of August; an autumn rain, as fine as powered glass, was falling from the black void over the monotonous rows of the fair’s structures. The turbid blotches of the street lamps dissolved in the damp air. the wheels of the hired carriages rumbled over the worn cobblers of the roadway; the hordes of gallery ads was yelling as it poured out of the side exit of. the circus. The clown came out into the street in a long, shaggy overcoat, with a cap to match, and his slender cane tucked under his armpit. After a look into the darkness overhead he took his hands out of his pockets, turned up the collar of his overcoat, and, as unhurriedly as ever yet with brisk steps, started to cross the square. I could hear him whistling as I walked behind him. Reflections of light drowned in the puddles amid the cables of the roadway; black horses overtook us, the water sloshing under the tires of carriage wheels; music poured torrentially out of tavern windows; women squealed in the darkness. The shiftless, dissolute night of the fair was beginning.”

                                                        Literary Apparel for the Enlightened