| Reception | |
| Setting: | A railway station five verstas away from the small town of Verkhneye Myamlino |
| Orig Lang: | Russian |
Reception (Russian: Встреча|translit=Vstrecha) is a one-act comedy by Maxim Gorky.[1] 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 (Russian: Дети|translit=Deti), via the Berlin-based Ladyzhnikov Publishers.[1]
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.[2]
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.