Who wrote "Aibolit"? Children's fairy tale in verses by Korney Chukovsky

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Do children know who wrote "Aibolit" - the most popular fairy tale among lovers of literature of primary preschool age? How was the image of the doctor created, who was the prototype, and is it even worth reading this fairy tale to children? This is discussed in more detail below.

Who wrote Aibolit?

This tale was written by the famous children's writer and poet Korney Chukovsky, in 1929 it was first presented to the readers and immediately won the hearts of thousands of readers. She was loved not only by kids, whose caring parents read bedtime stories to them, but also by adults who liked the plot of the work.

The author of "Aibolit" did not just tell the story of a selfless medical worker who strictly observes the Hippocratic oath, but rhymed it into living verses that easily fall into memory and literally from the second reading are remembered by children.

Chukovsky considers Dr. Doolittle, the hero of an English fairy tale, who heals animals and understands their language, to be the prototype of Aibolit. Korney Ivanovich translated a fairy tale for Russian-speaking children and at some point thought that it would be nice to write his own fairy tale about the samewonderful person.

A summary of a rhyming tale

"Aibolit" is a story about how a general practitioner is engaged in medical activities, curing animals from various diseases, and sometimes his methods are quite peculiar: chocolate, sweet eggnog, which suggests that he is not just a skillful healer of bodies, but also of unfortunate souls. He accepts the sick, sitting under a tree, which suggests his altruism and complete dedication to the cause, while he does not divide animals into classes, castes or by occupation - for everyone there is a moment of attention and a method of treatment.

At some point, a messenger arrives on a horse with an urgent letter in which the inhabitants (animals) of Africa, having learned about his abilities, imploringly ask for help. Naturally, the compassionate Aibolit hurries to the rescue, and various animals and birds help him in this. Together, they defeat a terrible epidemic within ten days, not leaving even for a moment. As a result, the fame of the doctor's amazing abilities spreads throughout the world.

Characteristics of the main character

"Good Doctor Aibolit…" - this is exactly what the first line of the fairy tale sounds in verse, and it is she who defines the essence of this fabulous little man: his kindness and love for animals knows no bounds, because sometimes the doctor finds himself in critical situations, on the verge of life and death, and still makes a choice in favor of the sufferer, and not himself. His professional qualities do not for a second make one doubt the huge store of knowledge that Aibolit possesses. Chukovsky gave himsuch qualities as the breadth of the soul and fearlessness, gullibility, but at the same time the softness of the soul.

At the same time, the plot clearly shows that even such a wonderful and courageous person has moments of despair and breakdown, which makes him even more humane, closer to the common people, unlike European and American stories in which the main heroes were often endowed with "divine" qualities.

What does this piece teach?

The fairy tale "Aibolit" is designed to open in the hearts the knowledge that it does not matter what species, genus and family you belong to: in moments of grief, difficulties and suffering, living beings should help each other not only for payment or gratitude but simply at the behest of the heart and kindness of the soul. By acquiring such wisdom, a person rises to a higher stage of evolution - selfless love for animals and the whole world.

The one who wrote "Aibolit" made the work easy to understand even for the smallest listeners, knowing that the seeds of goodness planted in early childhood will surely germinate and bear great fruit, forming the moral and high moral spirit of a person.

Author about Aibolit

Korney Ivanovich chose rhymes for this fairy tale for quite a long time, sorting through hundreds of phrases and plot phrases, trying to put maximum meaning into a small number of words, knowing that an unnecessarily long "epopee" would tire a child who needs scrupulous descriptions of nature, objects and appearance uninteresting, because he himself can think it out, thanks to an amazing fantasy, which is verydeveloped in every baby.

At the same time, Chukovsky wanted the rhymes of the fairy tale not to be banal and primitive, because he was an admirer of the great poetry of Pushkin, Derzhavin and Nekrasov: he simply could not lower his creation to the level of tabloid rhymes. Therefore, the tale in verse was rewritten again and again: something was added, the other was categorically cut out, sometimes in large parts. The author wanted to focus the reader's attention on the character of the doctor, on his heroic attitude towards his profession, no! - rather, the path of life, when his honor and conscience did not allow him to leave the sufferer in trouble.

Therefore, the tale underwent several changes, was cut in half, and only then was presented to the readers.

Continuation of the fairy tale - yes

The one who wrote "Aibolit" did not stop there, because the popularity of the story was considerable: children wrote letters to Chukovsky, bombarding him with questions about what happened next, how the doctor lived, whether he had relatives and about other things that are of interest to children. Therefore, Korney Ivanovich decided to write a fairy tale in prose about the same doctor, but with a more detailed description of what was happening: if a fairy tale in verse was close to children under six years old, then the second version of the story was closer to children from six to 13 years old, since the plots in it more - as many as four, and each has a separate moral that Chukovsky wanted to convey to young readers.

This story was first published in 1936, several timesreworked by the author, finalized and in 1954 finally established itself in the finished version. The tale was liked by fans of Korney Ivanovich's work, but many admitted that he was better at fairy tales in verse.

It is worth mentioning that the character of Aibolit appears in two more fairy tales in verse by the same author: "Barmaley" (1925) and "We will overcome Barmaley" (1942). Judging by the dates, "Barmaley" was written earlier than "Aibolit", which means that the author first created a fleeting image, which he then fully revealed in a separate work.