The rich of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities gather for an unprecedented number of world-famous celebrities participating in a concert in honor of the opening of the newly built palace.
Engineer Mac Allan and his wife Maud occupy the box of their friend Hobby, the builder of the palace. Allan, already known as the inventor of diamond steel, came here for a ten-minute conversation with the most powerful and richest man, the tycoon and banker Lloyd. An engineer from Buffalo is indifferent to music, and his charming and modest wife is enjoying the concert.
Hobby, a talented and extravagant architect known throughout New York, introduces Allan to Lloyd. The banker's face resembles the muzzle of a bulldog, is eaten away by disgusting lichens, it scares people. But stocky and strong as a boxer, Aldan, with healthy nerves, calmly looks at Lloyd and makes him good impression. The banker introduces Allan to his daughter, the beautiful Ethel. Lloyd has heard about the project Allan is developing, considers it grandiose, but quite feasible, and is ready to support it. Ethel, trying not to show too obvious interest in the engineer, declares herself his ally.
The meeting with Lloyd seals Allan's fate and reveals " new era in the relations between the Old and New Worlds." When Allan shares his plans with Maud, the thought flashes through her mind that her husband’s creation is no less majestic than the symphonies that she listened to at the concert.
Rumors are circulating around New York about some extraordinary million-dollar enterprise that Allan is preparing with the support of Lloyd. But everything is still kept secret. Allan leads preparatory work, negotiating with agents, engineers and scientists. Finally, a famous conference opens in one of the most prestigious hotels, a thirty-six-story skyscraper on Broadway. This is a congress of financial tycoons, whom Lloyd convenes on “a matter of paramount importance.”
The millionaires sitting in the hall understand that they are facing a gigantic battle of capital for the right to participate in the project, which Lloyd called “the greatest and most daring project of all time.”
Looking around those gathered with a calm gaze of clear, light eyes, hiding the excitement that gripped him, Allan reports that in fifteen years he undertakes to build an underwater tunnel that will connect two continents, Europe and America. Trains will cover a distance of five thousand kilometers in twenty-four hours.
The brains of the thirty most influential “slave owners” invited by Lloyd began to stir. Allan's business promises everyone huge profits in the future, they must decide to invest their money. Lloyd has already signed up for twenty-five million. At the same time, the rich know that Allan is just a tool in the hands of an all-powerful banker. Millionaires like Allan, they know that as a boy he worked as a horse guide in a mine, survived a collapse, losing his father and brother there. Rich family helped him study, and in twenty years he soared high. And on this day, people endowed with wealth, power, courage believed in Allan.
The next morning, newspapers in all languages inform the world about the establishment of the Atlantic Tunnel Syndicate. The recruitment of one hundred thousand workers is announced for American station, of which Hobby was appointed head. He is the first to recognize the pace of Allan’s work, “the hellish pace of America,” seven days a week, sometimes twenty hours a day.
Allan's orders are fulfilled by factories in many countries. Forests are being cut down in Sweden, Russia, Hungary and Canada. Allan's business spans the globe.
The syndicate building is besieged by journalists. The press makes a lot of money from the tunnel. The hostile press, bribed by interested parties, advocates transatlantic shipping, while the friendly press reports amazing prospects.
The lightning-fast Tunnel City, Mc-City, has it all. Barracks are being replaced by workers' settlements with schools, churches, and sports grounds. There are bakeries, slaughterhouses, a post office, a telegraph office, and a general store. In the distance there is a crematorium, where urns with English, German, Russian and Chinese names.
Allan calls on the whole world to sign up for tunnel promotions. The finances of the syndicate are managed by a certain Wulf, former director Lloyd's bank. This is an outstanding financier who rose from the bottom of the Hungarian Jewish suburbs. Allan needs the shares to be bought up not only by the rich, but also by the people, whose property the tunnel should become. Gradually, the money of the “little people” began to flow like a river. The tunnel “swallows” and “drinks” money on both sides of the ocean.
At all five stations on the American and European continents, drilling machines cut through stone many kilometers deep. The place where the drilling machine works is called “hell” by workers; many people become deaf from the noise. Every day there are wounded and sometimes killed here. Hundreds are escaping from “hell,” but new ones are always taking their place. With old methods of work, it would have taken ninety years to complete the tunnel. But Allan "rushes through the stone", he fights furiously for seconds, forcing the workers to double their pace. Everyone is infected by his energy.
Maud suffers because her husband has no time for her and their little daughter. She already feels inner emptiness and loneliness. And then the thought of working in Mak-City comes to her mind. Maud becomes the caretaker of a home for convalescent women and children. Her daughters help her best families New York. She is attentive and friendly with everyone, sincerely sympathizes with the grief of others, everyone loves and respects her. -Now she more often sees her husband, thinner, with an absent look, absorbed only in the tunnel. In contrast, Hobby, who visits their house every day, relaxes and has fun after his twelve-hour work. Allan dearly loves his wife and daughter, but understands that it is better for someone like him not to have a family.
Wolf makes money for the tunnel. Dollars from America and Europe flock to him, and he immediately puts them into circulation throughout to the globe. Financial genius has a weakness - love for beautiful girls, whom he pays generously. Wulf admires Allan and hates him, jealous of his power over people.
In the seventh year of construction in the American adit, terrible disaster. The huge explosion destroys and damages tens of kilometers of the adit. The few who escaped the collapse and fire run, wander and crawl, overcoming long distances, towards the exit, choking on smoke. Rescue trains with dedicated engineers manage to take out only a small part of the exhausted people. At the top they are met by women distraught with fear and grief. The crowd goes wild, calling for revenge on Allan and the entire leadership. Enraged women, ready to destroy and kill, rush towards the engineers' houses. In such a situation, Allan alone could have prevented the disaster. But at this time he is rushing by car from New York, telegraphing from the road to his wife a categorical ban on leaving the house.
Maud cannot understand this, she wants to help the workers' wives, she is worried about Hobby, who is in the tunnel. Together with her daughter, she hurries to McCity and finds herself in front of an angry crowd of women. Both die under a hail of stones thrown at them.
The workers' anger subsided after Allan's arrival. Now he has the same grief as them.
Alldan with doctors and engineers are looking for and leading out of the smoke-filled adit the last survivors, including the half-dead Hobbie, who looks like an ancient old man. Subsequently, Hobby can no longer return to his work.
The disaster consumed about three thousand lives. Experts suggest that it is caused by gases that flared up when the stone exploded.
The workers, supported by their European comrades, go on strike. Allan is counting on hundreds of thousands of people. The dismissed behave threateningly until they find out that the management of Mak-City is provided with machine gun security. Allan had planned everything in advance.
The adits are maintained by engineers and volunteers, but Tunnel City seems to have died out. Allan goes to Paris, experiences his grief, visiting the places where he visited with Maud.
At this time, an outbreak broke out over the syndicate new disaster- financial, even more destructive. Wolfe, who has long been hatching a plan to rise above Allan, is “jumping in over his head.” He is preparing to annex the tunnel for a huge sum of money within ten years and is desperately speculating for this, violating the agreement. He fails.
Allan demands that he return seven million dollars to the syndicate and does not make any concessions. Tracked by Allan's detectives, Wulf throws himself under the wheels of a train.
Allan is haunted by the image of Wulf, deathly pale and helpless, also destroyed by the tunnel. Now there are no funds to restore the tunnel. Wolfe's death scared the whole world, the syndicate was shaken. Large banks, industrialists and simple people invested billions in the tunnel. The syndicate's shares are sold for next to nothing. Workers in many countries are on strike.
At the cost of great material sacrifices, Lloyd manages to save the syndicate. Interest payment is announced. A crowd of thousands storms the building. A fire breaks out. The syndicate declares its insolvency. Allan's life is in danger. They forgave him for the death of people, but society does not forgive the loss of money.
Allan goes into hiding for several months. Ethel offers him her help. Since the day of Maud’s death, she has tried more than once to express her sympathy to Allan and offer help, but each time she encounters his indifference.
Allan returns to New York and puts himself in the hands of justice. Society demands a sacrifice, and it gets it. Allan was sentenced to six years in prison.
A few months later Supreme Court justifies Allan. He leaves prison with poor health and seeks loneliness. Allan settles in the deserted Mak-City, next to the dead tunnel. Ethel finds him with great difficulty, but realizes that he does not need him. A woman in love does not give up and achieves her goal with the help of her father. Allan turns to the government for help, but it is unable to finance his project. The banks are also refusing, they are watching Lloyd's actions. And Allan is forced to turn to Lloyd. At a meeting with him, he understands that the old man will not do anything for him without his daughter, but for his daughter he will do everything.
The work, which appeared in 1902, was innovative in its genre. There is no traditional plot in this socio-philosophical drama; the action develops in the dialogues of the characters. The place of events is a shelter for “former” people who found themselves “at the bottom” of life.
Maxim Gorky defined the main question of the play as follows: “What is better, truth or compassion? What is more necessary? . The problems of the drama are diverse: the place of man and his role in life, faith in man, the legitimacy of the existence of a comforting lie, the opportunity to change one’s own life.
After reading summary“At the bottom”, based on the actions, you can get an idea of the characters and main conflicts of the play. The play is included in the 11th grade literature curriculum.
Main characters
KostylevMichael, 54 years old, owner of a lodging house.
Vasilisa- Kostylev’s wife, 26 years old, Ash’s mistress.
Natasha– Vasilisa’s sister, 20 years old. Dreams of a wonderful future. Because of his sister's beatings, he ends up in the hospital, after leaving it, he disappears.
Luke– a wanderer, 60 years old, preaches a comforting lie.
Vaska Ash- thief, 28 years old, the desire to change his life awakens in him.
Klesch Andrey Mitrich- “working man”, a 40-year-old mechanic, hopes to return to his former life.
Bubnov– cap-maker, 45 years old. I am convinced that all people on earth are superfluous.
Baron- a 33-year-old former aristocrat, Nastya’s roommate, is sure that “everything is in the past” for him.
Satin– a guest, about 40 years old, believes that a person should be spiritually free.
Actor- a drunkard, a former actor, not seeing the possibility of change, commits suicide.
Other characters
Medvedev Abram- a 50-year-old policeman, uncle of Vasilisa and Natasha. I am convinced that “a person should behave quietly.”
Anna– Kleshch’s wife, 30 years old, kind-hearted and calm, died in a shelter.
Alyoshka– shoemaker, 20 years old.
Tatar, Crooked Zob– loaders.
Nastya, a girl of easy virtue, 24 years old, dreams of true love.
Kvashnya– a woman about 40 years old, selling dumplings.
Act one
The action takes place in the morning early spring in the basement of a cave-like shelter.
Sitting near one of the walls, Kleshch picks up the keys to the old locks. In the center, at a large dirty table, Kvashnya is “hosting”, Baron is eating bread, Nastya is reading a tattered book. Behind the unwashed curtain on the bed in the corner, Anna is coughing. The Actor is tossing and turning on the stove. Sitting down on a bunk, Bubnov is getting ready to sew a cap.
Turning to the Baron, Kvashnya claims that, having been married, she will never give up her freedom again. Klesch teases the woman with words that she is lying and will be glad to marry Medvedev, who proposed to her. Kvashnya responds by saying that he drove his wife half to death.
The Baron, snatching the book from Nastya, and reading the title - “ Fatal love" - laughs.
Anna asks to stop screaming and quarreling, to let her die in peace.
Satin, Bubnov, Actor and Kleshch are having a leisurely conversation. Satin says that he was before cultured person. Bubnov recalls that his profession is a furrier and that he once had “his own establishment.” The actor thinks that the most important thing in life is not education, but talent.
Kostylev appears, looking for his wife. He knocks on the door of Ash's room (the room is fenced off with thin boards in the corner of the shelter), intending to talk, but Ash drives him away. Kostylev leaves.
From the further conversation of the inhabitants of the basement, it becomes clear: Ash is having an affair with the wife of the owner of the rooming house, Vasilisa.
Satin asks Ash for money, he gives it, and Satin talks about money and work. He believes that life is good when work is pleasure, and if work is a duty, then life turns into slavery.
The actor and Satin leave.
Natasha appears, with her new guest, Luka. Ash flirts with Natasha, but she does not accept advances.
Alyoshka, drunk, enters; he cannot understand why he is worse than others, why he is driven everywhere.
Ash, turning to Mite, says that he “creaks in vain.” Kleshch says that he will break out of here, he does not want to live like everyone else here - “without honor and conscience.” Ash believes that the people in the shelter are no worse than the Tick. Ash and Baron leave.
Vasilisa appears, she kicks out the drunken Alyoshka and scolds the guests for being dirty. Then he asks if Natasha came in and talked to Vasily. Leaves.
Noise and screams are heard in the entryway: Vasilisa is beating Natasha. Medvedev, Kvashnya and Bubnov run to separate the sisters.
Act two
The play takes place in the same setting. Several guests are busy playing cards, and the Actor and the Tick are watching them. Medvedev and Bubnov play checkers. Luka is sitting next to Anna's bed.
Talking with Luka, Anna complains about her life. The elder calms her down, promising paradise and rest after death.
The actor is about to “recite the verses” to Luka, but discovers that he has forgotten the verses. He laments that it’s all over for him - he “drank away his soul.” Luka replies that not everything in the Actor’s life is lost: there are free hospitals for drunkards, but he doesn’t remember in which city. He persuades the Actor to be patient and refrain from drinking. “A person can do anything... if only he wants to,” says Luka.
A gloomy Ash enters. He turns to Medvedev, asking if Vasilisa beat her sister badly. He refuses to speak, noting that this is none of his business, the thief. Ash in response threatens to tell the investigator that “Mishka Kostylev and his wife” tricked him into stealing and bought stolen goods.
Luka tries to intervene in their conversation, but Ash asks why Luka is lying, telling everyone that everything is good everywhere. Luka convinces Vasily that instead of searching for the truth, he needs to go to the “golden side”, Siberia, that is where he can find his way.
Vasilisa enters. She talks to Ash, and he admits that he is tired of Vasilisa - she “has no soul.” Vasilisa invites Ash to marry his sister in exchange for killing her annoying husband.
Kostylev enters, a quarrel breaks out between him and Vasily, but Luka prevents the fight. He advises Ash not to deal with Vasilisa, but to leave the shelter with the one the thief likes - Natasha.
The wanderer, looking behind the curtain where Anna lies, discovers that she has died.
Gradually, all the residents of the shelter gather around Anna’s bed.
Act three
The action takes place in a “wasteland”, a cluttered and overgrown yard of a shelter.
Nastya tells listeners her love story. Bubnov and Baron laugh at her story, not believing, and the girl passionately proves what she experienced true love. She's crying. Luka calms her down, says that since she herself believes, then there was such love, and her roommate laughs, because there was nothing real in his life.
The inhabitants of the “bottom” talk about truth and lies.
Natasha says that she too is inventing and waiting for someone “special” or something “unprecedented”. Although, what to expect - she doesn’t understand, “life is bad for everyone.”
Bubnov believes that people often lie in order to “touch up their soul,” he himself sees no point in lying, it’s better for him to “tell the whole truth as it is!” Why be ashamed?
The tick hates people and really has no use for it. Having said this, he runs away
Ash appears and joins the conversation. He asks Luka why he is lying, saying that it’s good everywhere. Luke replies that “you can’t always cure a soul with truth,” so you should feel sorry for the person. He says that he will soon leave the shelter.
Ash calls Natasha to leave with him, confesses his love, and promises to give up stealing. He feels that he needs to change his life, “to live so that I can respect myself.” Natasha is thoughtful, but still decides to believe him.
Kostylev and his wife approach. Vasilisa (she heard the conversation between Ash and Natasha) tries to push Ash and her husband apart, but Luka calms Vasily.
Kostylev talks to Luka, says that a person must live according to the rules, and that’s all good people have a passport. Luka openly says that he thinks: Kostylev will never change, because he is like land unsuitable for harvest - good for nothing.
The owners of the shelter drive Luka away, and he promises to leave at night.
Bubnov tells Luka that “it’s always better to leave on time” and tells his story.
Satin and Actor, arguing about something, go into the basement. Satin says that the Actor will not go anywhere and demands to know what Luka promised the Actor. The wanderer asks how Satin could have ended up in the shelter. He reluctantly says that he went to prison because of his sister: “he killed the scoundrel in his passion and irritation,” and after prison all roads are closed.
A gloomy Tick enters - he was forced to sell all the tools to bury Anna and does not understand how to live on.
Natasha’s scream can be heard from the Kostylevs’ apartment: “They’re beating me!” They are killing! . The actor and Satin go out to figure out what is happening. Individual voices are heard, and it is clear from the remarks that the guests are trying to separate Vasilisa and Natasha.
Kvashnya and Nastya appear and help Natasha walk - she is beaten and her legs are scalded with boiling water. Behind them come Kostylev, Vasilisa, and the inhabitants of the shelter. Ash, who appears, sees Natasha and hits Kostylev with a swing. He falls. Vasilisa shouts that they killed her husband and points to Ash. Vasily says that Kostyleva herself persuaded him to kill her husband.
Natasha, in hysterics, accuses her sister and Ash of conspiracy and, almost losing consciousness, asks to be taken to prison.
Act Four
Early spring. Night. Basement of the shelter. At the table are Kleshch, Nastya, Satin, Baron. On the stove - Actor. In the corner where Ash's room was (now the partitions are broken), lies Tatar.
The inhabitants of the basement remember Luka, who disappeared during the turmoil around Natasha and Kostylev. Nastya believes that he understood everything and saw everything. He called his interlocutors “rust.” Mite agrees - the old man is good and compassionate. The Tatar believes that Luke lived by the law “Do not offend a person.”
For Satin, the “old man” is “like crumb for the toothless,” and besides, Luka confused the minds of the inhabitants of the shelter.
The Baron calls Luka a charlatan.
Nastya, who has become disgusted with both life and people, wants to go “to the ends of the world.” The Baron, inviting the girl to take the Actor with her, mocks his dream of being cured.
Kleshch notices that the wanderer Luka “beckoned somewhere, but did not tell him the way.” In his opinion, he “revolted very much against the truth. That’s right - and without her there’s nothing to breathe.”
Satin, in excitement, orders to “keep silent about the old man” - he, unlike everyone else, understood that “the truth is a person,” and he deceived out of pity for people. The Wanderer influenced his attitude to the world like “acid on an old and dirty coin.”
Conversation about the murder of Kostylev. Having ended up in the hospital after being bullied by her sister and leaving it, Natasha disappeared. Everyone thinks that Vasilisa will get out of it, and Ash will end up, if not in hard labor, then in prison - for sure.
Satin argues that a person should be respected, and “not humiliated with pity.” The Baron admits that he lives as if in a dream, not seeing or understanding the meaning of life.
The actor suddenly gets off the stove and runs out of the basement.
Medvedev and Bubnov enter, followed by other inhabitants of the shelter. Someone settles down for the night, several people sing. The door swings open. The Baron shouts from the doorway - the Actor has hanged himself in the vacant lot.
Satin says: “Oh, I ruined the song, you fool!”
Conclusion
Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” has lived and found its readers and viewers for more than a century, attracting with the ambiguity of the questions posed, prompting us to think again and again about what faith, love is in a person’s life and what human capabilities are. Giving only general idea about the play brief retelling"At the bottom" suggests further work reader with full text dramas.
Play test
After reading the summary of Gorky’s work, try to answer the questions:
Retelling rating
average rating: 4.6. Total ratings received: 9633.
Tunnel
Summary of the novel
The rich of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities gather for an unprecedented number of world-famous celebrities participating in a concert in honor of the opening of the newly built palace.
Engineer Mac Allan and his wife Maud occupy the box of their friend Hobby, the builder of the palace. Allan, already known as the inventor of diamond steel, came here for a ten-minute conversation with the most powerful and richest man, the tycoon and banker Lloyd. An engineer from Buffalo is indifferent to music, and his charming and modest wife is enjoying the concert.
Hobby, a talented and extravagant architect known throughout New York, introduces Allan to Lloyd. The banker's face resembles the muzzle of a bulldog, is eaten away by disgusting lichens, it scares people. But stocky and strong as a boxer, Aldan, with healthy nerves, calmly looks at Lloyd and makes a good impression on him. The banker introduces Allan to his daughter, the beautiful Ethel. Lloyd has heard about the project Allan is developing, considers it grandiose, but quite feasible, and is ready to support it. Ethel, trying not to show too obvious interest in the engineer, declares herself his ally.
The meeting with Lloyd decides Allan’s fate and opens “a new era in the relationship between the Old and New Worlds.” When Allan shares his plans with Maud, the thought flashes through her mind that her husband’s creation is no less majestic than the symphonies that she listened to at the concert.
Rumors are circulating around New York about some extraordinary million-dollar enterprise that Allan is preparing with the support of Lloyd. But everything is still kept secret. Allan conducts preparatory work, negotiating with agents, engineers and scientists. Finally, a famous conference opens in one of the most prestigious hotels, a thirty-six-story skyscraper on Broadway. This is a congress of financial tycoons, whom Lloyd convenes on “a matter of paramount importance.”
The millionaires sitting in the hall understand that they are facing a gigantic battle of capital for the right to participate in the project, which Lloyd called “the greatest and most daring project of all time.”
Looking around those gathered with a calm gaze of clear, light eyes, hiding the excitement that gripped him, Allan reports that in fifteen years he undertakes to build an underwater tunnel that will connect two continents, Europe and America. Trains will cover a distance of five thousand kilometers in twenty-four hours.
The brains of the thirty most influential “slave owners” invited by Lloyd began to stir. Allan's business promises everyone huge profits in the future, they must decide to invest their money. Lloyd has already signed up for twenty-five million. At the same time, the rich know that Allan is just a tool in the hands of an all-powerful banker. Millionaires like Allan, they know that as a boy he worked as a horse guide in a mine, survived a collapse, losing his father and brother there. A wealthy family helped him study, and in twenty years he rose high. And on this day, people endowed with wealth, power, courage believed in Allan.
The next morning, newspapers in all languages inform the world about the establishment of the “Atlantic Tunnel Syndicate.” A recruitment announcement is made for one hundred thousand workers for the American station, of which Hobby has been appointed head. He is the first to recognize the pace of Allan’s work, “the hellish pace of America,” seven days a week, sometimes twenty hours a day.
Allan's orders are fulfilled by factories in many countries. Forests are being cut down in Sweden, Russia, Hungary and Canada. Allan's business spans the globe.
The syndicate building is besieged by journalists. The press makes a lot of money from the tunnel. The hostile press, bribed by interested parties, advocates transatlantic shipping, while the friendly press reports amazing prospects.
The lightning-fast Tunnel City, Mc-City, has it all. Barracks are being replaced by workers' settlements with schools, churches, and sports grounds. There are bakeries, slaughterhouses, a post office, a telegraph office, and a general store. In the distance there is a crematorium, where urns with English, German, Russian and Chinese names are already appearing.
Allan calls on the whole world to sign up for tunnel promotions. The finances of the syndicate are managed by a certain Wolf, a former director of Lloyd's Bank. This is an outstanding financier who rose from the bottom of the Hungarian Jewish suburbs. Allan needs the shares to be bought up not only by the rich, but also by the people, whose property the tunnel should become. Gradually, the money of the “little people” began to flow like a river. The tunnel “swallows” and “drinks” money on both sides of the ocean.
At all five stations on the American and European continents, drilling machines cut through stone many kilometers deep. The place where the drilling machine works is called “hell” by workers; many people become deaf from the noise. Every day there are wounded and sometimes killed here. Hundreds are escaping from “hell,” but new ones are always taking their place. With old methods of work, it would have taken ninety years to complete the tunnel. But Allan “rushes through the stone”, he fights furiously in seconds, forcing the workers to double their pace. Everyone is infected by his energy.
Maud suffers because her husband has no time for her and their little daughter. She already feels inner emptiness and loneliness. And then the thought of working in Mak-City comes to her mind. Maud becomes the caretaker of a home for convalescent women and children. She is helped by the daughters of the best families in New York. She is attentive and friendly with everyone, sincerely sympathizes with the grief of others, everyone loves and respects her. “Now she sees her husband more often, thinner, with an absent look, absorbed only in the tunnel. In contrast, Hobby, who visits their house every day, relaxes and has fun after his twelve-hour work. Allan dearly loves his wife and daughter, but understands that it is better for someone like him not to have a family.
Wolf makes money for the tunnel. Dollars flock to him from America and Europe, and he immediately puts them into circulation throughout the globe. The financial genius has a weakness - love for beautiful girls, whom he generously pays. Wulf admires Allan and hates him, jealous of his power over people.
In the seventh year of construction, a terrible disaster occurs in the American adit. The huge explosion destroys and damages tens of kilometers of the adit. The few who escaped the collapse and fire are running, wandering and crawling, covering long distances, to the exit, choking from smoke. Rescue trains with dedicated engineers manage to take out only a small part of the exhausted people. At the top they are met by women distraught with fear and grief. The crowd goes wild, calling for revenge on Allan and the entire leadership. Enraged women, ready to destroy and kill, rush towards the engineers' houses. In such a situation, Allan alone could have prevented the disaster. But at this time he is rushing by car from New York, telegraphing from the road to his wife a categorical ban on leaving the house.
Maud cannot understand this, she wants to help the workers' wives, she is worried about Hobby, who is in the tunnel. Together with her daughter, she hurries to McCity and finds herself in front of an angry crowd of women. Both die under a hail of stones thrown at them.
The workers' anger subsided after Allan's arrival. Now he has the same grief as them.
Alldan with doctors and engineers are looking for and leading out of the smoke-filled adit the last survivors, including the half-dead Hobbie, who looks like an ancient old man. Subsequently, Hobby can no longer return to his work.
The disaster consumed about three thousand lives. Experts suggest that it is caused by gases that flared up when the stone exploded.
The workers, supported by their European comrades, go on strike. Allan is counting on hundreds of thousands of people. The dismissed behave threateningly until they find out that the management of Mak-City is provided with machine gun security. Allan had planned everything in advance.
The adits are maintained by engineers and volunteers, but Tunnel City seems to have died out. Allan goes to Paris, experiences his grief, visiting the places where he visited with Maud.
At this time, a new catastrophe broke out over the syndicate - financial, even more destructive. Wolfe, who has long been hatching a plan to rise above Allan, is “jumping in over his head.” He is preparing to annex the tunnel for a huge sum of money within ten years and is desperately speculating for this, violating the agreement. He fails.
Allan demands that he return seven million dollars to the syndicate and does not make any concessions. Tracked by Allan's detectives, Wulf throws himself under the wheels of a train.
Allan is haunted by the image of Wulf, deathly pale and helpless, also destroyed by the tunnel. Now there are no funds to restore the tunnel. Wolfe's death scared the whole world, the syndicate was shaken. Big banks, industrialists and ordinary people have invested billions in the tunnel. The syndicate's shares are sold for next to nothing. Workers in many countries are on strike.
At the cost of great material sacrifices, Lloyd manages to save the syndicate. Interest payment is announced. A crowd of thousands storms the building. A fire breaks out. The syndicate declares its insolvency. Allan's life is in danger. They forgave him for the death of people, but society does not forgive the loss of money.
Allan goes into hiding for several months. Ethel offers him her help. Since the day of Maud’s death, she has tried more than once to express her sympathy to Allan and offer help, but each time she encounters his indifference.
Allan returns to New York and puts himself in the hands of justice. Society demands a sacrifice, and it gets it. Allan was sentenced to six years in prison.
A few months later, the Supreme Court acquits Allan. He leaves prison with poor health and seeks loneliness. Allan settles in the deserted Mak-City, next to the dead tunnel. Ethel finds him with great difficulty, but realizes that he does not need him. A woman in love does not give up and achieves her goal with the help of her father. Allan turns to the government for help, but it is unable to finance his project. The banks are also refusing, they are watching Lloyd's actions. And Allan is forced to turn to Lloyd. At a meeting with him, he understands that the old man will not do anything for him without his daughter, but for his daughter he will do everything.
On the day of her wedding to Allan, Ethel establishes a large pension fund for tunnel workers. Three years later their son is born. Life with Ethel is not a burden for Allan, although he lives only in a tunnel.
By the end of the tunnel's construction, its shares are already worth a lot. People's money is returning. Mak-City has more than a million inhabitants, and many safety devices are installed in the adits. At any moment, Allan is ready to slow down the pace of work. He turned grey, they call him “old gray Mac.” The creator of the tunnel becomes its slave.
Finally the tunnel is completely ready. In a press article, Allan reports that prices for using the tunnel are publicly available, cheaper than air and sea ships. “The tunnel belongs to the people, businessmen, settlers.”
In the twenty-sixth year of construction, Allan launched the first train to Europe. It leaves at midnight American time and is scheduled to arrive in Vizcaya, on the European coast, at exactly midnight. The first and only passenger is “capital” – Lloyd. Ethel and her son see them off.
The whole world is intensely watching the movement of the train on television, the speed of which exceeds the world records of airplanes.
The last fifty kilometers the train is led by the one who is sometimes called “Odysseus” modern technology”, – Allan. The transatlantic train arrives in Europe with minimal delay - only twelve minutes.
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You are currently reading: Summary of the Tunnel – Kellerman Bernhard
Year of writing:
1913
Reading time:
Description of the work:
The novel "The Tunnel" became one of the largest works of the German writer Bernhard Kellermann. The plot of the book revolves around building a tunnel under the waters Atlantic Ocean. It must connect America and Europe. In essence, the author glorifies creative work and the power of the mind, which can bring almost any idea to life.
Very unusual fantastic story line, dynamics of events and severity social problems brought to the novel "Tunnel" great success. The main thing that Kellerman wanted to show was rapid development production forces are slowing down public relations. This vice of capitalism is clearly visible. Read the summary of the novel "The Tunnel".
Summary of the novel
Tunnel
The rich of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities gather for an unprecedented number of world-famous celebrities participating in a concert in honor of the opening of the newly built palace.
Engineer Mac Allan and his wife Maud occupy the box of their friend Hobby, the builder of the palace. Allan, already known as the inventor of diamond steel, came here for a ten-minute conversation with the most powerful and richest man, the tycoon and banker Lloyd. An engineer from Buffalo is indifferent to music, and his charming and modest wife is enjoying the concert.
Hobby, a talented and extravagant architect known throughout New York, introduces Allan to Lloyd. The banker's face resembles the muzzle of a bulldog, is eaten away by disgusting lichens, it scares people. But stocky and strong as a boxer, Aldan, with healthy nerves, calmly looks at Lloyd and makes a good impression on him. The banker introduces Allan to his daughter, the beautiful Ethel.
Lloyd has heard about the project Allan is developing, considers it grandiose, but quite feasible, and is ready to support it. Ethel, trying not to show too obvious interest in the engineer, declares herself his ally.
The meeting with Lloyd decides Allan's fate and opens "a new era in the relationship between the Old and New Worlds." When Allan shares his plans with Maud, the thought flashes through her mind that her husband’s creation is no less majestic than the symphonies that she listened to at the concert.
Rumors are circulating around New York about some extraordinary million-dollar enterprise that Allan is preparing with the support of Lloyd. But everything is still kept secret. Allan conducts preparatory work, negotiating with agents, engineers and scientists. Finally, a famous conference opens in one of the most prestigious hotels, a thirty-six-story skyscraper on Broadway. This is a congress of financial tycoons, whom Lloyd convenes on “a matter of paramount importance.”
The millionaires sitting in the hall understand that they are facing a gigantic battle of capital for the right to participate in the project, which Lloyd called “the greatest and most daring project of all time.”
Looking around those gathered with a calm gaze of clear, light eyes, hiding the excitement that gripped him, Allan reports that in fifteen years he undertakes to build an underwater tunnel that will connect two continents, Europe and America. Trains will cover a distance of five thousand kilometers in twenty-four hours.
The brains of the thirty most influential “slave owners” invited by Lloyd began to stir. Allan's business promises everyone huge profits in the future, they must decide to invest their money. Lloyd has already signed up for twenty-five million. At the same time, the rich know that Allan is just a tool in the hands of an all-powerful banker. Millionaires like Allan, they know that as a boy he worked as a horse guide in a mine, survived a collapse, losing his father and brother there. A wealthy family helped him study, and in twenty years he rose high. And on this day, people endowed with wealth, power, courage believed in Allan.
The next morning, newspapers in all languages inform the world about the establishment of the Atlantic Tunnel Syndicate. A recruitment announcement is made for one hundred thousand workers for the American station, of which Hobby has been appointed head. He is the first to recognize the pace of Allan’s work, “the hellish pace of America,” seven days a week, sometimes twenty hours a day.
Allan's orders are fulfilled by factories in many countries. Forests are being cut down in Sweden, Russia, Hungary and Canada. Allan's business spans the entire world.
The syndicate building is besieged by journalists. The press makes a lot of money from the tunnel. The hostile press, bribed by interested parties, advocates transatlantic shipping, while the friendly press reports amazing prospects.
The lightning-fast Tunnel City, Mc-City, has it all. Barracks are being replaced by workers' settlements with schools, churches, and sports grounds. There are bakeries, slaughterhouses, a post office, a telegraph office, and a general store. In the distance there is a crematorium, where urns with English, German, Russian and Chinese names are already appearing.
Allan calls on the whole world to sign up for tunnel promotions. The finances of the syndicate are managed by a certain Wolf, a former director of Lloyd's Bank. This is an outstanding financier who rose from the bottom of the Hungarian Jewish suburbs. Allan needs the shares to be bought up not only by the rich, but also by the people, whose property the tunnel should become. Gradually, the money of the “little people” began to flow like a river. The tunnel “swallows” and “drinks” money on both sides of the ocean.
At all five stations on the American and European continents, drilling machines cut through stone many kilometers deep. The place where the drilling machine works is called “hell” by workers; many people become deaf from the noise. Every day there are wounded and sometimes killed here. Hundreds are escaping from “hell,” but new ones are always taking their place. With old methods of work, it would have taken ninety years to complete the tunnel. But Allan "rushes through the stone", he fights furiously for seconds, forcing the workers to double their pace. Everyone is infected by his energy.
Maud suffers because her husband has no time for her and their little daughter. She already feels inner emptiness and loneliness. And then the thought of working in Mak-City comes to her mind. Maud becomes the caretaker of a home for convalescent women and children. She is helped by the daughters of the best families in New York. She is attentive and friendly with everyone, sincerely sympathizes with the grief of others, everyone loves and respects her.
Now she more often sees her husband, thinner, with a vacant look, absorbed only in the tunnel. In contrast, Hobby, who visits their house every day, relaxes and has fun after his twelve-hour work. Allan dearly loves his wife and daughter, but understands that it is better for someone like him not to have a family.
Wolf makes money for the tunnel. Dollars flock to him from America and Europe, and he immediately puts them into circulation throughout the globe. The financial genius has a weakness - love for beautiful girls, whom he generously pays. Wulf admires Allan and hates him, jealous of his power over people.
In the seventh year of construction, a terrible disaster occurs in the American adit. The huge explosion destroys and damages tens of kilometers of the adit. The few who escaped the collapse and fire are running, wandering and crawling, covering long distances, to the exit, choking from smoke. Rescue trains with dedicated engineers manage to take out only a small part of the exhausted people. At the top they are met by women distraught with fear and grief. The crowd goes wild, calling for revenge on Allan and the entire leadership. Enraged women, ready to destroy and kill, rush towards the engineers' houses. In such a situation, Allan alone could have prevented the disaster. But at this time he is rushing by car from New York, telegraphing from the road to his wife a categorical ban on leaving the house.
Maud cannot understand this, she wants to help the workers' wives, she is worried about Hobby, who is in the tunnel. Together with her daughter, she hurries to McCity and finds herself in front of an angry crowd of women. Both die under a hail of stones thrown at them.
The workers' anger subsided after Allan's arrival. Now he has the same grief as them.
Alldan with doctors and engineers are looking for and leading out of the smoke-filled adit the last survivors, including the half-dead Hobbie, who looks like an ancient old man. Subsequently, Hobby can no longer return to his work.
The disaster consumed about three thousand lives. Experts suggest that it is caused by gases that flared up when the stone exploded.
The workers, supported by their European comrades, go on strike. Allan is counting on hundreds of thousands of people. The dismissed behave threateningly until they find out that the management of Mak-City is provided with machine gun security. Allan had planned everything in advance.
The adits are maintained by engineers and volunteers, but Tunnel City seems to have died out. Allan goes to Paris, experiences his grief, visiting the places where he visited with Maud.
At this time, a new catastrophe broke out over the syndicate - financial, even more destructive. Wolfe, who has long been hatching a plan to rise above Allan, is “jumping in over his head.” He is preparing to annex the tunnel for a huge sum of money within ten years and is desperately speculating for this, violating the agreement. He fails.
Allan demands that he return seven million dollars to the syndicate and does not make any concessions. Tracked by Allan's detectives, Wulf throws himself under the wheels of a train.
Allan is haunted by the image of Wulf, deathly pale and helpless, also destroyed by the tunnel. Now there are no funds to restore the tunnel. Wolfe's death scared the whole world, the syndicate was shaken. Big banks, industrialists and ordinary people have invested billions in the tunnel. The syndicate's shares are sold for next to nothing. Workers in many countries are on strike.
At the cost of great material sacrifices, Lloyd manages to save the syndicate. Interest payment is announced. A crowd of thousands storms the building. A fire breaks out. The syndicate declares its insolvency. Allan's life is in danger. They forgave him for the death of people, but society does not forgive the loss of money.
Allan goes into hiding for several months. Ethel offers him her help. Since the day of Maud’s death, she has tried more than once to express her sympathy to Allan and offer help, but each time she encounters his indifference.
Allan returns to New York and puts himself in the hands of justice. Society demands a sacrifice, and it gets it. Allan was sentenced to six years in prison.
A few months later, the Supreme Court acquits Allan. He leaves prison with poor health and seeks loneliness. Allan settles in the deserted Mak-City, next to the dead tunnel. Ethel finds him with great difficulty, but realizes that he does not need him. A woman in love does not give up and achieves her goal with the help of her father.
Allan turns to the government for help, but it is unable to finance his project. The banks are also refusing, they are watching Lloyd's actions. And Allan is forced to turn to Lloyd. At a meeting with him, he understands that the old man will not do anything for him without his daughter, but for his daughter he will do everything.
On the day of her wedding to Allan, Ethel establishes a large pension fund for tunnel workers. Three years later their son is born. Life with Ethel is not a burden for Allan, although he lives only in a tunnel.
By the end of the tunnel's construction, its shares are already worth a lot. People's money is returning. Mak-City has more than a million inhabitants, and many safety devices are installed in the adits. At any moment, Allan is ready to slow down the pace of work. He turned gray and is called "old gray Mac." The creator of the tunnel becomes its slave.
Finally the tunnel is completely ready. In a press article, Allan reports that prices for using the tunnel are publicly available, cheaper than air and sea ships. “The tunnel belongs to the people, businessmen, settlers.”
In the twenty-sixth year of construction, Allan launched the first train to Europe. It leaves at midnight American time and is scheduled to arrive in Vizcaya, on the European coast, at exactly midnight. The first and only passenger is “capital” - Lloyd. Ethel and her son see them off.
The whole world is intensely watching the movement of the train on television, the speed of which exceeds the world records of airplanes.
The last fifty kilometers of the train are driven by the one who is sometimes called the “Odyssey of modern technology” - Allan. The transatlantic train arrives in Europe with minimal delay - only twelve minutes.
Please note that the summary of the novel "Tunnel" does not reflect the full picture of events and characteristics of the characters. We recommend you read it full version works.
A good brief retelling is the key to successful completion of the literature program. It, in turn, will be useful when passing the most important final exams. Therefore, the authors from the Literaguru team Special attention pay attention to writing works in abbreviation, where the main events and plot of the book are concisely and accurately described.
The preface describes the sea, the port, its sounds and smells. And in we explain why all this is described in the preface. And not only.
Chelkash is a thief and a drunkard; externally and internally he stood out among the people in the market through which he walked. The hero talks to the loader, finds out that they are looking for him, and a certain Mishka has not been seen for a long time. Chelkash goes further, he abruptly answers numerous acquaintances he meets. He was stopped by a watchman, and the hero treats him familiarly. Finally, the fate of Mishka (the thief-accomplice) becomes known: he ended up in the hospital. Chelkash accuses the watchman of theft. The hero walked to the tavern and wondered who could replace Mishka.
Then he saw a peasant guy. He speaks to Chelkash. The guy talks about the unprofitable mowing, he needs money and freedom. In Chelkash, a peasant awakened some kindred feelings with his stories about the village, and he offers the guy a part-time job: rowing at night while “catching fish.” The peasant's name is Gavrila. They went to a tavern, where they willingly lend money to Chelkash. The thief went out somewhere, and Gavrila was frightened by the oppressive atmosphere of the tavern. After Chelkash returned, they began to drink. The peasant became drunk and drank almost to the point of losing consciousness. The thief looked at him and realized that he could control this young life.
Chapter 2
At night, Chelkash and Gavrilo quietly swam out to do the job. The peasant has a hangover, but the thief eases it when he gives him something to drink. Gavrila is “afraid” of the sea, but Chelkash loves him for his freedom and vastness. The peasant interrupted his contemplation of the water surface with a natural question: where was the gear? The thief advises a random accomplice to do his job and not ask too much. Then their boat was hailed, Gavrilo was barely able to row to the harbor, having spent all his strength. He realized that the matter was dark and began to beg Chelkash to let him go. He refuses and forces his accomplice to stop “whining.” But the peasant’s hands literally give up; he cannot row. To motivate him to take action, Chelkash takes Gavrila’s passport before climbing onto some wall where they rowed. The peasant became scared; he wanted to, but could not run. Gavrilo began to wait impatiently for the thief.
Soon he came with something “cubic and heavy.” Half the battle is done. Gavrila wanted to quickly get rid of this dark matter; if everything went well, he would serve a prayer service to St. Nicholas the Wonderworker. There is only one cordon left to pass, and then it will all be over. When they came closer to him, the peasant was about to denounce his accomplice, but he was overcome by horror. After one more stress - a customs cruiser - the danger was over. Because of all the excitement that night, Gavrilo was half dead. Chelkash promises a quadruple ticket for work. He boasts about his craft: you don’t have to “go out of your way” all your life, 500 rubles per night, with the money a peasant would make his farm the first in the village.
The thief was also a peasant, and he was inspired by these memories. Gavrilo expresses the idea that without land there is nowhere (that is, he puts himself above Chelkash). He got angry, and then began to remember his life: his mother, his father, his younger self, his beautiful wife, then the service, after which everything changed. Soon the accomplices sailed to the barge, where they boarded to get money and lodging for the night.
Chapter 3
Chelkash woke up Gavrila; the thief was already dressed decently, and not in rags. He laughs at the peasant's fears. It's time for them to swim back. Chelkash received 540 rubles, this money amazes Gavrila. He is shaking with greed when the thief gives him 40 rubles. The peasant passionately talks about what can be done with the money. After their arrival, Gavrila’s excitement took such forms that even Chelkash felt uneasy. The peasant throws himself on his knees, humiliatingly begging for money. The thief becomes disgusted that his accomplice is losing human dignity for the sake of a nickel. But he gives money. Gavrilo rejoices and humbly thanks, admitting that he wanted to kill his accomplice because of them.
Chelkash got angry, grabbed him by the throat and took the money, and then threw him onto the sand. The peasant threw a stone at his head. The thief fell. Gavrilo ran away, but later returned and began to ask for forgiveness and give back the money. Chelkash takes 10 rubles, gives the rest back and staggers away. And the rain washes away all traces of people on the sand.
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