Fairy tales of famous Russian writers. Great Russian storytellers

A literary fairy tale is probably one of the most popular genres of our time. Interest in such works is inexhaustible both among children and among their parents, and Russian fairy tale writers have made a worthy contribution to the common creative cause. It should be remembered that a literary fairy tale differs from folklore in several ways. First of all, because it has a specific author. There are also differences in the way the material is conveyed and the clear use of plots and images, allowing us to say that this genre has the right to complete independence.

Poetic tales of Pushkin

If you compile a list of fairy tales by Russian writers, it will take more than one sheet of paper. Moreover, works were written not only in prose, but also in poetry. A striking example here is A. Pushkin, who initially did not plan to compose children's works. But over time, the poetic works “About Tsar Saltan”, “About the priest and his worker Balda”, “About the dead princess and the seven heroes”, “About the Golden Cockerel” joined the list of fairy tales of Russian writers. A simple and figurative form of presentation, memorable images, vivid plots - all this is characteristic of the work of the great poet. And these works are still included in the treasury

Continuation of the list

The literary tales of the period under review include some other, no less famous ones. Russian fairy tale writers: Zhukovsky ("The War of Mice and Frogs"), Ershov ("The Little Humpbacked Horse"), Aksakov ("The Scarlet Flower") - made their worthy contribution to the development of the genre. And the great collector of folklore and interpreter of the Russian language, Dal, also wrote a certain number of fairy tales. Among them: “The Crow”, “The Snow Maiden Girl”, “About the Woodpecker” and others. You can recall other fairy tales by famous Russian writers: “The Wind and the Sun”, “The Blind Horse”, “The Fox and the Goat” by Ushinsky, “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” by Pogorelsky, “The Frog Traveler”, “The Tale of the Toad and the Rose” Garshina, “Wild Landowner”, “The Wise Minnow” by Saltykov-Shchedrin. Of course, this is not a complete list.

Russian fairy tale writers

Leo Tolstoy, Paustovsky, Mamin-Sibiryak, Gorky, and many others wrote literary fairy tales. Among the particularly outstanding works can be noted “The Golden Key” by Tolstoy Alexei. The work was planned as a free retelling of “Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi. But here is the case when the alteration surpassed the original - this is how many Russian-speaking critics evaluate the writer’s work. The wooden boy Pinocchio, familiar to everyone since childhood, won the hearts of little readers and their parents for a long time with his spontaneity and brave heart. We all remember Buratino's friends: Malvina, Artemon, Pierrot. And his enemies: the evil Karabas and the nasty Duremar, and the fox Alice. The vivid images of the heroes are so unique and original, recognizable that, once you read Tolstoy’s work, you remember them for the rest of your life.

Revolutionary tales

One of them can be confidently included the creation of Yuri Olesha “Three Fat Men”. In this tale, the author reveals the theme of class struggle against the backdrop of such eternal values as friendship, mutual assistance; The characters of the heroes are distinguished by courage and revolutionary impulse. And Arkady Gaidar’s work “Malchish-Kibalchish” tells about a difficult period for the formation of the Soviet state - the civil war. Malchish is a bright, memorable symbol of that era of struggle for revolutionary ideals. It is no coincidence that these images were subsequently used by other authors, for example, in the work of Joseph Kurlat, who revived the bright image of the hero in the fairy tale-poem “The Song of Malchish-Kibalchish.”

These authors include those who gave literature such fairy tales and plays as “The Naked King” and “The Shadow” - based on the works of Andersen. And his original creations “Dragon” and “Ordinary Miracle” (at first prohibited from production) were forever included in the treasury of Soviet literature.

The poetic works of the genre also include the fairy tales of Korney Chukovsky: “The Tsokotukha Fly”, “Moidodyr”, “Barmaley”, “Aibolit”, “Cockroach”. To this day, they are the most widely read poetic fairy tales in Russia for children of all ages. Instructive and daring, brave and monstrous images and characters of the heroes are recognizable from the first lines. What about Marshak’s poems and Kharms’ delightful creativity? What about Zakhoder, Moritz and Kurlat? It is impossible to list them all in this rather short article.

Modern evolution of the genre

We can say that the genre of literary fairy tales evolved from folklore, in a sense exploiting its plots and characters. So today, many Russian fairy tale writers are evolving into science fiction writers, giving birth to good works in the fashionable fantasy style. Such authors probably include Yemets, Gromyko, Lukyanenko, Fry, Oldie and many others. This is a worthy successor to previous generations of authors of literary fairy tales.

Amazing stories, beautiful and mysterious, full of extraordinary events and adventures, are familiar to everyone - both old and young. Who among us did not empathize with Ivan Tsarevich when he fought with the Serpent Gorynych? Didn’t you admire Vasilisa the Wise, who defeated Baba Yaga?

Creation of a separate genre

Heroes who have not lost their popularity for centuries are known to almost everyone. They came to us from fairy tales. No one knows when and how the first fairy tale appeared. But since time immemorial, fairy tales have been passed down from generation to generation, which over time acquired new miracles, events, and heroes.

The charm of ancient stories, fictional, but full of meaning, was felt with all my soul by A. S. Pushkin. He was the first to bring the fairy tale out of second-rate literature, which made it possible to distinguish the fairy tales of Russian folk writers into an independent genre.

Thanks to their imagery, logical plots and figurative language, fairy tales have become a popular teaching tool. Not all of them are educational and training in nature. Many perform only an entertainment function, but, nevertheless, the main features of a fairy tale as a separate genre are:

installation on fiction;
special compositional and stylistic techniques;
targeting a children's audience;
combination of educational, educational and entertainment functions;
the existence in the minds of readers of bright prototypical images.

The genre of fairy tales is very wide. This includes folk tales and original ones, poetic and prose, instructive and entertaining, simple single-plot tales and complex multi-plot works.

Fairy tale writers of the 19th century

Russian fairy tale writers have created a real treasury of amazing stories. Starting from A.S. Pushkin, fairy tale threads reached out to the works of many Russian writers. The origins of the fairy-tale genre of literature were:

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin;
Mikhail Yurjevich Lermontov;
Pyotr Pavlovich Ershov;
Sergey Timofeevich Aksakov;
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal;
Vladimir Fedorovich Odoevsky;
Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky;
Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky;
Mikhail Larionovich Mikhailov;
Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov;
Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin;
Vsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin;
Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy;
Nikolai Georgievich Garin-Mikhailovsky;
Dmitry Narkisovich Mamin-Sibiryak.

Let's take a closer look at their work.

Tales of Pushkin

The great poet’s turn to fairy tales was natural. He heard them from his grandmother, from the servant, from his nanny Arina Rodionovna. Experiencing deep impressions from folk poetry, Pushkin wrote: “What a delight these fairy tales are!” In his works, the poet widely uses folk speech, putting them into artistic form.

The talented poet combined in his fairy tales the life and customs of Russian society of that time and the wonderful magical world. His magnificent tales are written in simple, lively language and are easy to remember. And, like many fairy tales of Russian writers, they perfectly reveal the conflict of light and darkness, good and evil.

The tale of Tsar Saltan ends with a cheerful feast glorifying goodness. The tale of the priest makes fun of church ministers, the tale of the fisherman and the fish shows what greed can lead to, the tale of the dead princess tells of envy and anger. In Pushkin's fairy tales, as in many folk tales, good triumphs over evil.

Writers and storytellers contemporaries of Pushkin

V. A. Zhukovsky was a friend of Pushkin. As he writes in his memoirs, Alexander Sergeevich, fascinated by fairy tales, offered him a poetry tournament on the theme of Russian fairy tales. Zhukovsky accepted the challenge and wrote tales about Tsar Berendey, Ivan Tsarevich and the Gray Wolf.

He liked working on fairy tales, and over the next years he wrote several more: “The Little Thumb Boy,” “The Sleeping Princess,” “The War of Mice and Frogs.”

Russian fairy tale writers introduced their readers to the wonderful stories of foreign literature. Zhukovsky was the first translator of foreign fairy tales. He translated and retold in verse the story of “Nal and Damayanti” and the fairy tale “Puss in Boots”.

An enthusiastic fan of A.S. Pushkin M.Yu. Lermontov wrote the fairy tale “Ashik-Kerib”. She was known in Central Asia, the Middle East and Transcaucasia. The poet translated it into poetry, and translated each unfamiliar word so that it became understandable to Russian readers. A beautiful oriental fairy tale has turned into a magnificent creation of Russian literature.

The young poet P. P. Ershov also brilliantly put folk tales into poetic form. In his first fairy tale, “The Little Humpbacked Horse,” his imitation of his great contemporary is clearly visible. The work was published during Pushkin’s lifetime, and the young poet earned the praise of his famous fellow writer.

Tales with national flavor

Being a contemporary of Pushkin, S.T. Aksakov began writing at a late age. At the age of sixty-three, he began writing a biography book, the appendix of which was the work “The Scarlet Flower.” Like many Russian fairy tale writers, he revealed to readers a story he heard in childhood.

Aksakov tried to maintain the style of the work in the manner of the housekeeper Pelageya. The original dialect is palpable throughout the work, which did not prevent “The Scarlet Flower” from becoming one of the most beloved children's fairy tales.

The rich and lively speech of Pushkin’s fairy tales could not help but captivate the great expert on the Russian language, V. I. Dahl. The linguist-philologist, in his fairy tales, tried to preserve the charm of everyday speech, to introduce the meaning and morality of folk proverbs and sayings. These are the fairy tales “The Bear-Half-Maker”, “The Little Fox”, “The Girl Snow Maiden”, “The Crow”, “The Picky One”.

"New" fairy tales

V.F. Odoevsky is a contemporary of Pushkin, one of the first to write fairy tales for children, which was very rare. His fairy tale “The City in a Snuffbox” is the first work of this genre in which a different life was recreated. Almost all fairy tales told about peasant life, which Russian fairy tale writers tried to convey. In this work, the author talked about the life of a boy from a prosperous family living in abundance.

“About the Four Deaf People” is a fairy tale-parable borrowed from Indian folklore. The writer’s most famous fairy tale, “Moroz Ivanovich,” is completely borrowed from Russian folk tales. But the author brought novelty to both works - he talked about the life of a city home and family, and included children in boarding schools and schools in the canvas.

The fairy tale by A. A. Perovsky “The Black Hen” was written by the author for his nephew Alyosha. Perhaps this explains the excessive instructiveness of the work. It should be noted that the fabulous lessons did not pass without a trace and had a beneficial effect on his nephew Alexei Tolstoy, who later became a famous prose writer and playwright. This author penned the fairy tale “Lafertovskaya Poppy Plant”, which was highly appreciated by A. S. Pushkin.

Didactics is clearly visible in the works of K. D. Ushinsky, the great teacher-reformer. But the moral of his tales is unobtrusive. They awaken good feelings: loyalty, sympathy, nobility, justice. These include fairy tales: “Mice”, “Fox Patrikeevna”, “Fox and Geese”, “Crow and Crayfish”, “Kids and the Wolf”.

Other 19th century tales

Like all literature in general, fairy tales could not help but tell about the liberation struggle and revolutionary movement of the 70s of the 19th century. These include the tales of M.L. Mikhailova: “Forest Mansions”, “Dumas”. The famous poet N.A. also shows the suffering and tragedy of the people in his fairy tales. Nekrasov. Satirist M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in his works exposed the essence of the landowners' hatred of the common people and spoke about the oppression of the peasants.

V. M. Garshin touched upon the pressing problems of his time in his tales. The writer’s most famous fairy tales are “The Frog Traveler” and “About the Toad and the Rose”.

L.N. wrote many fairy tales. Tolstoy. The first of them were created for school. Tolstoy wrote short fairy tales, parables and fables. The great expert on human souls Lev Nikolaevich in his works called for conscience and honest work. The writer criticized social inequality and unjust laws.

N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky wrote works in which the approach of social upheaval is clearly felt. These are the fairy tales “Three Brothers” and “Volmai”. Garin visited many countries of the world and, of course, this was reflected in his work. While traveling throughout Korea, he recorded more than a hundred Korean fairy tales, myths and legends.

Writer D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak joined the ranks of glorious Russian storytellers with such wonderful works as “The Gray Neck”, the collection “Alenushka’s Tales”, and the fairy tale “About Tsar Pea”.

Later fairy tales of Russian writers also made a significant contribution to this genre. The list of remarkable works of the twentieth century is very long. But fairy tales of the 19th century will forever remain examples of classic fairy-tale literature.

Hans Christian Andersen

Danish prose writer and poet, author of world-famous fairy tales for children and adults: “The Ugly Duckling”, “The King’s New Clothes”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “Ole Lukoje”, “The Snow Queen” and many others. Despite the fact that Hans Christian Andersen is one of the best storytellers, he had a very bad character. In Denmark there is a legend about Andersen's royal origin.

In Denmark there is a legend about Andersen's royal origin

This is due to the fact that in his early autobiography the author himself wrote about how as a child he played with Prince Frits, later King Frederick VII, and he had no friends among the street boys. Only the prince. Andersen’s friendship with Frits, according to the storyteller’s fantasy, continued into adulthood, until the latter’s death, and, according to the writer himself, he was the only one, with the exception of relatives, who was allowed to visit the coffin of the deceased.

Charles Perrault

Few people know that Perrault was an academician of the French Academy, the author of famous scientific works. But it was not serious books that brought him worldwide fame and recognition from his descendants, but the beautiful fairy tales “Cinderella”, “Puss in Boots”, “Bluebeard”, “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty”.

Perrault was an academician of the French Academy, the author of scientific works

Perrault published his fairy tales not under his own name, but under the name of his 19-year-old son Perrault d'Armancourt, apparently trying to protect his already established literary reputation from accusations of working with the “low” fairy tale genre.

Brothers Grimm

Brothers Grimm: Jacob and Wilhelm - researchers of German folk culture and storytellers. They were born in the city of Hanau. For a long time they lived in the city of Kassel. ANDstudied the grammar of Germanic languages, the history of law and mythology. The fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm are known all over the world. They collected folklore and published several collections called Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular. At the end of their lives, they began creating the first dictionary of the German language.

Pavel Petrovich Bazhov

In 1939, a collection of Bazhov’s tales “The Malachite Box” was published.

He was born in the city of Sysert, Yekaterinburg district, Perm province. He graduated from the Ekaterinburg Theological School, and later from the Perm Theological Seminary. He worked as a teacher, political worker, journalist and editor of Ural newspapers. In 1939, a collection of Bazhov’s tales “The Malachite Box” was published.In 1944, “The Malachite Box” was translated into English and published in London and New York, then in Prague, and in 1947 in Paris. Translated into German, Hungarian, Romanian, Chinese, Japanese. In total, according to the library. Lenin, - into 100 languages of the world.

Astrid Lindgren

Lindgren's fairy-tale works are close to folk art; in them there is a tangible connection between fantasy and the truth of life.Author of a number of world-famous books for children, including “Baby and Carlson, who lives on the roof"and tetralogies about« Pippi Longstocking» . In Russian, her books became known and very popular thanks to translationLilianna Lungina.

Lindgren dedicated almost all of her books to children. “I have not written books for adults and I think that I will never do so,” Astrid stated decisively. She, along with the heroes of the books, taught children that “If you don’t live according to habit, your whole life will be a day!”

The writer herself always called her childhood happy (there were many games and adventures in it, interspersed with work on the farm and in its environs) and pointed out that it served as a source of inspiration for her work.

Rudyard Kipling

Famous writer, poet and reformer. Heborn in Bombay (India), at the age of 6 he was brought to England; he later called those years “years of suffering”. When the writer was 42 years old, he was awarded the Nobel Prize - and to this day he remains the youngest writer to win his nomination.

Kipling's most famous children's book is The Jungle Book.

Kipling’s most famous children’s book is, of course, “The Jungle Book”, the main character of which is the boy Mowgli. It is also very interesting to read other fairy tales: “The cat that walks by itself”, “Where does a camel get its hump?”, “How the leopard got his spots,” they all tell about distant lands and are very interesting.