Tales of Saltykov Shchedrin short description. wise scribbler

The book "Tales" includes thirty-two works that were created over four years (1883-1886). For Shchedrin's satire, the methods of artistic exaggeration, fantasy, allegory, and the convergence of the exposed social phenomena with the phenomena of the animal world are common. In the context of government reaction, fairy tale fiction to some extent served as a means of artistic disguise for the sharpest ideological and political ideas of the satirist. In the complex ideological content of the writer's tales, three main themes can be distinguished: satire on the governmental elite of the autocracy and on the exploiting classes ("The Bear in the Voivodeship", "The Wild Landowner"), the depiction of the life of the masses in Tsarist Russia ("The Tale of how one peasant fed two generals”) and denunciation of the behavior and psychology of the philistine-minded intelligentsia (“The wise scribbler”, “Liberal”, “Karas-idealist”). In his fairy tales, Saltykov-Shchedrin continues the traditions (folklore, fable, satirical, combinations of the real and the fantastic) that were formed in Russian literature before him. In The Tale of How One Peasant Feeded Two Generals, Shchedrin, using the techniques of witty fairy tale fiction, shows that the source of not only material well-being, but also the so-called noble culture is the work of the peasant. Parasite generals, who are accustomed to living on the labor of others, found themselves on a desert island without servants, discovered the habits of hungry wild animals, ready to devour each other. The appearance of the muzhik saved them from the final brutalization and returned them to their usual "general" appearance. With bitter satire, the satirist portrayed the slavish behavior of the peasant. By depicting the pitiful fate of the hero of the fairy tale "The Wise Scribbler", distraught with fear, who walled himself up in a dark hole for life, the satirist publicly shamed the philistine intellectual, expressed contempt for those who, obeying the instinct of self-preservation, moved away from active social struggle into the narrow world of personal interests .

Summary Once upon a time there was a piskar. Before his death, his parents bequeathed him to live, looking at both. Piskar feels that trouble lies in wait for him everywhere, which can come from piskar neighbors, from big fish, from a person. The scribbler's father was nearly boiled in the ear. Piskar makes himself such a dwelling that only he could fit in it, and in such a place; where no one gets. At night he goes in search of food. All day long he “trembles” in his dwelling, suffers hardships, but tries to save his life. His life is threatened by crayfish, pike, but he manages to stay alive. A piskar cannot start a family for practical reasons: "I would like to live on my own." Piskar lived in loneliness and fear "for more than a hundred years." The pikes praise the squash for his caution, hoping that he will relax and they will be able to eat him. But the scribbler values his life and is therefore vigilant. He thinks about the words of the pikes: “If only everyone lived like this wise scribbler lives ...”, and it becomes obvious to him that if all squeakers lived like him, then there would be no scribblers for a long time. His life is barren and useless. Such scribblers "live, take up space for nothing and eat food." Piskar decides to get out of his home and once in a lifetime swim along the river. But he is so afraid that he does not carry out his plan. And dying, the scribbler is in fear. No one asks him how you can live a hundred years. He is called not wise, but "stupid". Piskary disappears. “Most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying scribbler, and besides, a wise one?”

Summary On a desert island, there were two generals who had served all their lives “in some kind of registry; there they were born, brought up and grew old, therefore, they did not understand anything. They didn’t even know any words, except: “Receive the assurance of my perfect respect and devotion.” Waking up, the generals tell each other that they dreamed that they were on a desert island.

BARAN-NEPOMNYASHCHY
The forgetful ram is the hero of a fairy tale. He began to see vague dreams that disturbed him, forcing him to suspect that "the world does not end with the walls of a barn." The sheep began mockingly calling him "wise man" and "philosopher" and shunned him. The ram withered and died. Explaining what had happened, the shepherd Nikita suggested that the deceased "saw a free ram in a dream."

BOGATYR
The hero is the hero of a fairy tale, the son of Baba Yaga. Sent by her to exploits, he uprooted one oak tree, crushed another with his fist, and when he saw the third, with a hollow, he climbed in there and fell asleep, frightening the neighborhood with snoring. His fame was great. The hero was both afraid and hoped that he would gain strength in a dream. But centuries passed, and he was still sleeping, not coming to the aid of his country, no matter what happened to it. When, during an enemy invasion, they approached him to help him out, it turned out that the Bogatyr had long been dead and rotted. His image was so clearly aimed against the autocracy that the tale remained unpublished until 1917.

WILD LANDMAN
The wild landowner is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. Having read the retrograde newspaper Vest, he foolishly complained that "there are too many divorced ... peasants," and tried in every possible way to oppress them. God heard the tearful peasant prayers, and "there was no peasant in the entire space of the possessions of the stupid landowner." He was delighted (the “clean” air became), but it turned out that now he could neither receive guests, nor eat himself, nor even wipe the dust from the mirror, and there was no one to pay taxes to the treasury. However, he did not deviate from his "principles" and as a result became wild, began to move around on all fours, lost his human speech and became like a predatory beast (once he did not bully the police officer himself). Worried about the lack of taxes and the impoverishment of the treasury, the authorities ordered "to catch the peasant and put him back." With great difficulty they also caught the landowner and brought him to a more or less decent appearance.

KARAS-IDEALIST
Karas-idealist - the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. Living in a quiet backwater, he is sympathetic and cherishes dreams of the triumph of good over evil, and even of the opportunity to reason with Pike (which he had never seen) that she has no right to eat others. He eats shells, justifying himself by the fact that "they climb into their mouths" and they have "not a soul, but steam." Having appeared before Pike with his speeches, for the first time he was released with the advice: "Go to sleep!" In the second, he was suspected of "sicilism" and pretty much bitten during interrogation by Okun, and the third time, Pike was so surprised at his exclamation: "Do you know what virtue is?" - that she opened her mouth and almost involuntarily swallowed her interlocutor. "The features of contemporary liberalism are grotesquely captured in the image of Karas.

SANITARY HARE
The sensible hare - the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, "reasoned so sensibly that it fit the donkey." He believed that "every animal is given its own life" and that, although "everyone eats" hares, he is "not picky" and "agrees to live in every possible way." In the heat of this philosophizing, he was caught by the Fox, who, bored with his speeches, ate him.

KISSEL
Kissel, the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, "was so flamboyant and soft that he did not feel any inconvenience from what he ate. The gentlemen were so fed up with them that they provided pigs with food, so, in the end, "only jelly was left dried scrapes". In a grotesque form, both peasant humility and the post-reform impoverishment of the village, robbed not only by the "masters" - landlords, but also by new bourgeois predators, who, according to the satirist, like pigs, "satiety ... do not know ".

The generals are characters in "The Tale of How One Man Feeded Two Generals." Miraculously, they found themselves on a desert island in the same nightgowns and with orders around their necks. They couldn’t do anything and, starving, they almost ate each other. Having changed their minds, they decided to look for a peasant and, having found it, demanded that he feed them. In the future, they lived by his labors, and when they got bored, he also built "such a vessel so that it was possible to cross the ocean-sea." Upon returning to St. Petersburg, G. received a pension accumulated over the past years, and a glass of vodka and a nickel of silver were granted to their breadwinner.

Ruff is a character in the fairy tale "Karas-Idealist". He looks at the world with bitter sobriety, seeing strife and savagery everywhere. Karas ironically over the reasoning, convicting him of complete ignorance of life and inconsistency (Karas is indignant at Pike, but eats shells himself). However, he admits that “after all, you can talk with him alone to your liking,” and at times even slightly hesitates in his skepticism, until the tragic outcome of the “dispute” between Karas and Pike confirms his innocence.

Liberal is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. “He was eager to do a good deed,” but out of apprehension he moderated his ideals and aspirations more and more. At first, he acted only “if possible”, then agreeing to receive “at least something” and, finally, acting “in relation to meanness”, consoling himself with the thought: “Today I’m wallowing in the mud, and tomorrow the sun will come out, dry the dirt - I’m done again -Well done!" The eagle-philanthropist is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. He surrounded himself with a whole court staff and even agreed to start sciences and arts. However, he soon got tired of it (however, the Nightingale was driven out immediately), and he brutally cracked down on the Owl and the Falcon, who tried to teach him to read and write and arithmetic, imprisoned the historian Woodpecker in a hollow, etc. The wise scribbler is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name, “enlightened, moderately -liberal". From childhood, he was frightened by his father's warnings about the danger of getting into the ear and concluded that "you need to live in such a way that no one notices." He dug a hole, just to fit himself, did not make any friends or family, lived and trembled, having even received pike praise in the end: “Now, if everyone lived like that, it would be quiet in the river!” It was only before his death that the “wise man” realized that in such a case “perhaps the entire screech family would have died out long ago.” The story of the wise scribbler in exaggerated form expresses the meaning, or rather the entire nonsense, of the cowardly attempts to "dedicate oneself to the cult of self-preservation," as the book Abroad says. The features of this character are clearly visible, for example, in the heroes of Modern Idyll, in Polozhilov and other Shchedrin heroes. The remark made by the then critic in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper is also characteristic: “We are all more or less scribblers ...”

WISE PISKAR
The wise scribbler is the "enlightened, moderately liberal" hero of the tale. From childhood, he was frightened by his father's warnings about the danger of getting into the ear and concluded that "you need to live in such a way that no one notices." He dug a hole, just to fit himself, did not make any friends or family, lived and trembled, Having even received pike praise in the end: "Now, if everyone lived like that, it would be quiet in the river!" It was only before his death that the “wise man” realized that in this case, “perhaps the entire piss-kary family would have died out long ago.” The story of the wise scribbler in exaggerated form expresses the meaning, or rather the entire nonsense, of the cowardly attempts to "devote oneself to the cult of self-preservation," as it is said in the book Abroad. The features of this character are clearly visible, for example, in the heroes of "Modern Idyll", in Polozhilov and other Shchedrin heroes. Characteristic is the remark made by the then critic in the Russkiye Vedomosti newspaper: "We are all more or less scribblers..."

Pustoplyas is a character in the fairy tale "Konyaga", the "brother" of the hero, unlike him, leading an idle life. The personification of the local nobility. Arguments of idle dancers about Konyaga as the embodiment of common sense, humility, “life, spirit and spirit of life”, etc., are, as a contemporary critic wrote to a writer, “an insulting parody” of the then theories that sought to justify and even glorify “hard labor” peasants, their downtroddenness, darkness and passivity.

Ruslantsev Seryozha - the hero of the "Christmas Tale", a ten-year-old boy. After a sermon on the need to live the truth, said, as the author seems to say in passing, “for the holiday,” S. decided to do so. But both the mother, the priest himself, and the servants warn him that "one must live with the truth looking back." Shocked by the discrepancy between high words (indeed - a Christmas tale!) and real life, stories about the sad fate of those who tried to live by the truth, the hero fell ill and died. The selfless hare is the hero of the fairy tale of the same name. Caught by the Wolf and meekly sitting in anticipation of his fate, not daring to run even when the brother of his bride comes for him and says that she is dying of grief. Released to see her, he returns, as he promised, receiving condescending wolf praise.

Toptygin 1st - one of the heroes of the fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship". He dreamed of capturing himself in history with a brilliant atrocity, but with a hangover he mistook a harmless siskin for an “internal adversary” and ate it. He became a universal laughing stock and was no longer able to improve his reputation even with his superiors, no matter how hard he tried - “he climbed into the printing house at night, smashed the machines, mixed the type, and dumped the works of the human mind into the waste pit.” "And if he started right from the printing houses, he would be ... a general."

Toptygin 2nd - a character in the fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship". Arriving at the voivodeship in the hope of destroying the printing house or burning down the university, he found that all this had already been done. I decided that it was no longer necessary to eradicate the "spirit", but "to be taken straight for the skin." Having climbed up to a neighboring peasant, he pulled up all the cattle and wanted to destroy the yard, but he was caught and planted in disgrace on a horn.

Toptygin the 3rd is a character in the fairy tale "The Bear in the Voivodeship". I faced a painful dilemma: “If you mess up a little, they will ridicule you; if you mess up a lot, they’ll raise it on a horn ... ”Arriving at the voivodeship, he hid in a den, without taking control, and found that even without his intervention everything in the forest was going on as usual. He began to leave the lair only “to receive the appropriated maintenance” (although in the depths of his soul he wondered “why the governor was sent”). Later he was killed by hunters, like "all fur-bearing animals", also in a routine manner.

The satirical tale "The Wise Minnow" ("The Wise Piskar") was written in 1882-1883. The work was included in the cycle "Tales for children of a fair age." In Saltykov-Shchedrin's fairy tale "The Wise Minnow", cowardly people who live in fear all their lives without doing anything useful are ridiculed.

main characters

wise scribbler- "enlightened, moderately liberal", lived for more than a hundred years in fear and loneliness.

Piskar's father and mother

“Once upon a time there was a scribbler. Both his father and mother were smart. Dying, the old scribbler taught his son to "look at both." The wise scribbler realized that dangers lay around him - a large fish could swallow it, cut the cancer with claws, torture the water flea. The scribbler was especially afraid of people - even his father once almost hit him in the ear.

Therefore, the scribbler carved a hole for himself, into which only he could fall. At night, when everyone was asleep, he went out for a walk, and during the day he “sat in a hole and trembled.” He was sleep deprived, malnourished, but avoided danger.

Somehow, the scribbler dreamed that he won two hundred thousand, but, waking up, found that half of his head had “poked out” of his hole. Almost every day, danger awaited him at the hole, and, having avoided another, he exclaimed with relief: “Thank you, Lord, he is alive!” ".

Fearing everything in the world, the piskar did not marry and had no children. He believed that earlier “and the pikes were kinder and the perches didn’t covet us, small fry,” so his father could still afford a family, and he “as if only to live on his own.”

The wise scribbler lived in this way for more than a hundred years. He had no friends or relatives. "He doesn't play cards, he doesn't drink wine, he doesn't smoke tobacco, he doesn't chase red girls." Already the pikes began to praise him, hoping that the squatter would listen to them and get out of the hole.

"How many years have passed after a hundred years - it is not known, only the wise scribbler began to die." Reflecting on his own life, the piskary realizes that he is “useless” and if everyone lived like that, then “the entire piskary family would have died out long ago”. He decided to get out of the hole and “swim like a gogol across the river”, but again he was frightened and trembled.

Fish swam past his hole, but no one was interested in how he lived to a hundred years. Yes, and no one called him wise - only "dumb", "fool and shame".

Piskar falls into oblivion and then again he had a dream of old, how he won two hundred thousand, and even “grew by a whole polar inch and swallows the pike himself”. In a dream, a piskar accidentally fell out of a hole and suddenly disappeared. Perhaps his pike swallowed it, but “most likely, he died himself, because what sweetness is it for a pike to swallow an ailing, dying scribbler, and besides, a wise one?” .

Conclusion

In the fairy tale "The Wise Scribbler" Saltykov-Shchedrin reflected a contemporary social phenomenon common to him among the intelligentsia, which was concerned only with its own survival. Despite the fact that the work was written more than a hundred years ago, it does not lose its relevance today.

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Everyone knows that children read fairy tales with pleasure, but the fairy tale genre exists not only for children. Covering various social problems, Saltykov-Shchedrin resorted to the fairy tale genre. Let's get acquainted with the fairy tale for adults The Wild Landowner, which is useful for our reader's diary.

The summary of the tale of Saltykov-Shchedrin introduces the reader to the prince, who was rich, but too stupid. Every now and then he leafed through the daily newspaper Vesti and laid out his solitaire games, thinking about how useless the peasant was. Often he asked God to rid the estate of the peasant, but the Almighty did not heed his request, realizing how stupid the landowner was. To achieve his goal, he begins to crush the men with fines and taxes. They asked God not to have a single peasant on the estate. And this time the Lord granted the request.

The landowner lives, he does not get enough of clean air. True, everyone called him a fool because of such a desire. Now there was no one to cook and clean. I thought of inviting the theater to my place, but there was no one to even lift the curtain. The actors left. I decided to invite guests who came hungry, but apart from gingerbread and candy, the prince had nothing. Dissatisfied guests fled, calling the landowner a stupid fool.

The prince stands his ground, constantly thinking about English cars. Dreaming of a garden that will grow near the house, and of cows that he will breed on his estate. Sometimes the landowner forgets, calls the servant, but no one comes. Somehow a police officer came to the landowner, complaining that now there was no one to pay taxes to, there was no peasant. The market is empty, the estate is falling into decay. And he also calls the landowner stupid. He himself, the landowner, began to think, is he really stupid, but he still sticks to his own.

Meanwhile, the estate was overgrown, deserted, even a bear appeared. The landowner himself became wild, overgrown with hair that even in the cold he was not cold. Even human speech began to be forgotten. He began to hunt a hare, and, like a savage, eat prey right with the skin. He became strong and even made friends with the bear.

At this time, the police officer raised the issue of the disappearance of the peasants and at the council they decide to catch the peasant and return him back. The prince should be set on the right path, so that he does not create obstacles in the future and does not create obstacles regarding the receipt of taxes to the treasury. And so it was done. The peasant is now at the estate, the owner has been put in order. The estate immediately became profitable. Products appeared on the markets. The owner was entrusted under the supervision of the servant Senka, while taking away his favorite newspaper from the prince. The landowner lives to this day, occasionally washing himself under compulsion and at times mumbling and regretting the wild stage of his life.

Saltykov - Shchedrin Mikhail Evgrafovich (real name Saltykov, pseudonym N. Shchedrin) (1826-1889), writer, publicist.

Born on January 27, 1826 in the village of Spas-Ugol, Tver province, in an old noble family. In 1836 he was sent to the Moscow Noble Institute, from where two years later he was transferred to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum for excellent studies.

In August 1844, Saltykov joined the office of the Minister of War. In this, his first stories "Contradiction" and "A Tangled Case" were published, which caused the wrath of the authorities.

In 1848, Saltykov-Shchedrin was exiled to Vyatka (now Kirov) for a "harmful way of thinking", where he received the post of senior official for special assignments under the governor, and after a while - adviser to the provincial government. Only in 1856, in connection with the death of Nicholas I, the restriction on residence was lifted.

Returning to St. Petersburg, the writer resumed his literary activity, while working in the Ministry of the Interior and participating in the preparation of the peasant reform. In 1858-1862. Saltykov served as vice-governor in Ryazan, then in Tver. After retiring, he settled in the capital and became one of the editors of the Sovremennik magazine.

In 1865, Saltykov-Shchedrin returned to public service again: at various times he headed the state chambers in Penza, Tula, Ryazan. But the attempt was unsuccessful, and in 1868 he agreed with the proposal of N. A. Nekrasov to enter the editorial office of the journal Domestic Notes, where he worked until 1884.

A talented publicist, satirist, artist, Saltykov-Shchedrin in his works tried to direct Russian society to the main problems of that time.

“Provincial essays” (1856-1857), “Pompadours and pompadours” (1863-1874), “Poshekhonskaya old times” (1887-1889), “Tales” (1882-1886) stigmatize theft and bribery of officials, cruelty of landowners, tyranny of chiefs. In the novel Lord Golovlevs (1875-1880), the author depicted the spiritual and physical degradation of the nobility in the second half of the 19th century. In the "History of a City" (1861-1862), the writer not only satirically showed the relationship between the people and the authorities of the city of Glupov, but also rose to criticism of the government leaders of Russia.