Nothing to be sad about

• Published in: BMJ Vol. 337; no. dec29 3; p. a3088
• Main Author: Dalrymple, Theodore
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London British Medical Journal Publishing Group 29-12-2008; BMJ Publishing Group LTD
• Subjects: Murders & murder attempts
• ISSN: 0959-8138; 1468-5833; 1756-1833
• DOI: 10.1136/bmj.a3088

The residents arranged for their social security payments to be paid on different days, so there was always money enough for the 3 l bottles of strong cider that were their main interest in life, the lack of which would cause them acute suffering. In the second act of the play, one of the residents, Anna, who is 30 years old, dies, almost certainly from tuberculosis (from which Gorky himself suffered for much of his life, though it is more likely that he died by murder than from the disease).