Literary gem of the Urals - "Malachite box", summary

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

The work "Malachite Box" brought Pavel Petrovich Bazhov the fame of one of the best storytellers of the 20th century. He is one of the writers (like Gogol, Turgenev), whose lines are as melodic as poetry. His stories are truly enjoyable to read. A special unique creative style, replete with dialects of the Ural region and organically connected with local folklore, widely uses colloquial phrases. The difficult life and creative path led Bazhov to create a literary pearl only in the sixtieth year of his life. The classic, in love with the ancient legends of the Ural miners, managed to perform a miracle: having accumulated a huge layer of oral legends, stories, traditions, weave a new folk epic out of them. This is how Bazhov's fairy tales "The Malachite Box" appeared.

PavelPetrovich perceives the nature of his native land in his own way. For him, forests are malachite and emerald, rock crystal is a mountain lake, autumn mountain ash shimmers in ruby color. The main characters of Bazhov's Ural tales are craftsmen, prospectors who are looking for their happiness in the bowels of a rich land. Pavel Petrovich called the collection of his works "Malachite Box". A summary of numerous author's texts - immersing the reader in the folklore world of the Urals.

In the very first tale - “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain”, as well as in the subsequent “Stone Flower”, “Stone Branch”, “Malachite Box”, the most original character of the great storyteller appears - the Mistress of the Copper Mountain. The "stone girl", as she called herself, helped the master Stepan redeem his family to freedom. Meeting with her brings good luck to kind people, but does not add happiness. Stephen is dying. His son Mityunka, who surpassed his father's skill, makes a gooseberry branch from stone. Tanya, the daughter of Stepan, who herself became the keeper of the bowels, is the main character of the tale "The Malachite Box". Its summary is in the pride and beauty of a simple girl who, with the help of the Mistress of the Copper Mountain, eclipsed the queen herself. Only the most deserving help the sorceress. The key to fabulous underground riches is diligence, a kind heart, and love for one's land. What does she look like? The girl is fine, short, mobile, like mercury, differs in that the braid is pressed tightly to her back, and the dress is special - made of delicate silk malachite. In the braids - marvelous ribbons are woven - either red, or green. When the Mistress of the Copper Mountain moves, the ringing comes from these ribbons, when she cries, the tears freeze like emeralds. In her possessions, stone trees grow underground, stone grass rustles, even without the sun - it is light, as in the pre-sunset time. She is strict with people. They are not supposed to step over its prohibitions. Here is some of them. Human women are not supposed to go down the shaft. The craftsmen she patronizes should not marry.

The collection of fairy tales "Malachite Box" tells about the Ural gold. A brief summary of the tale "About the Great Snake" about a fabulous reptile that came in the guise of a man to help the impoverished children of a mining master. He gave the family a treasure. But the mighty serpent does not tolerate prospectors engaging in fraud, deceit, and offending other people. Therefore, he will drive away the unworthy from gold. People met and his daughter - a beauty with a golden scythe in ten sazhens. She lowers her scythe into the river - her water burns with fire, it hurts to look, I want to look away.

Gold veins coming to the surface are guarded by a tiny fairy-tale girl with a red scythe, the size of a doll, dressed in a blue sarafan, holding a blue handkerchief in her hand - Fire Jumper. Bazhov's tale of the same name tells that she suddenly appears in the middle of a fire, or from the smoke, dancing, begins to spin, increasing to the normal height of a girl. If it appears somewhere - look for gold there, you will definitely find it, though not much. But if an owl hoots nearby, the case is lost, it will disappeartreasure.

The fate of keeping treasures fell to the girl-grandmother Sinyushka, always old, always young, another unique character in the "Malachite Box" collection. The summary of the tale “Sinyushkin Well” is about how she gave nuggets to an honest and hard-working guy Ilya. And a greedy person will get only an illusion: he will bring a treasure home in his bosom, lo and behold - and only swamp fog remains from him.

Bazhov's special fabulous folklore world earned him fame as a classic of Russian literature. The name of the writer is immortalized not only in literature. In Moscow, there is an amazing square named after Pavel Petrovich Bazhov, with sculptures of characters from the Malachite Box. In the Urals: in Yekaterinburg and Sysert - monuments were erected. For many people, his "Malachite Box" has become one of the most beloved books.