Who wrote Pinocchio? Children's fairy tale or talented hoax

Who wrote "Pinocchio"? This question will be answered by the majority of readers of all ages living in the post-Soviet space. "The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio" - is the full title of a story-tale, composed by the Soviet classic Alexei Tolstoy, based on Carlo Collodi's fairy tale "The Adventures of Pinocchio."

Since the advent of Tolstoy's fairy tale, disputes have begun - what is this, translation, retelling, translation, literary processing? Even in emigration in 1923-24, Alexei decided to translate the fairy tale of Collodi, but other ideas and plans captured him, and the vicissitudes of his personal destiny were taken away from the children's book. By Pinocchio Tolstoy returns ten years later. Time was already different, life circumstances changed - he returned to Russia.

Tolstoy just suffered a heart attack and took a short time out in hard work on the novel-trilogy "Walking through the agony". And an amazing thing, he begins with an exact following of the plot line of the source, but gradually moves away from him further and further, so whether he was the one who wrote Pinocchio, or it was a modified Pinocchio, one can argue that literary scholars do. The writer did not want to make his story through moralizing, as it was with Collodi. Alexei Nikolaevich himself recalled that at first he tried to translate the Italian, but it turned out to be boring. Pushed him to a radical alteration of this story S. Ya. Marshak. The book is finished in 1936.

And he makes Tolstoy Pinocchio and his friends completely different than the heroes of the fairy tale about Pinocchio. The author wanted the readers to feel the spirit of fun, games, adventurism. I must say, he succeeds. This is how the story lines of the hearth painted on the old canvas, the mysterious door hidden under it, the golden key that the heroes are looking for, appear and which should open this mysterious door.

It can not be said that there are no moralistic maximas in the tale. The one who wrote Pinocchio was not alien to them. Therefore, the wooden boy is taught by the cricket living in the chamber of Pope Carlo (useless!), And the girl Malvina, who, moreover, locks the guilty hero in the closet. And like any boy, a wooden little man strives to do everything in his own way. And he learns only from his mistakes. That's how he gets into the clutches of crooks - fox Alice and cat Basilio - wanting soon enrichment. The famous field of Miracles in the country Fools, probably the most famous metaphor of a fairy tale, though not the only one, the Golden Key himself is worth something too!

The narrative line of Karabas-Barabas, the exploiter of dolls, who wants to find a secret door, leads our heroes to this secret door, behind which there is a brand-new puppet theater Molniya. In the daytime doll pupils will study, and in the evenings play plays in it.

The popularity fell upon Tolstoy incredible. Children did not even think who wrote Pinocchio, they read the book with pleasure, and it was reprinted only in the USSR 148 times, it was translated into many languages of the world, it was photographed many times. The first screen version was released in 1939, the director of the film was A. Ptushko.

The fairy tale of Tolstoy is also interesting for adults. The master stylist and mocker, the author refers us to Fonvizinsky's "Inexoruity" (a lesson of Pinocchio, a task with apples), the dictation that the hero writes is the palette of Fet: "A rose fell on Azora's paw", in the image of Karabas-Barabas see a parody of something Nemirovich-Danchenko, then to Meyerhold, and to the fact that Piero was written off from A. Blok, many literary critics refer.

Happy Soviet childhood passed with toffee "Golden Key" and soda "Pinocchio", now it would be called a promoted brand.

And still the children and parents read and reread a fairy tale that teaches good without tedious edification.