According to one version, the idea of the story "Scarlet Sails" arose during Alexander Grin's walk along the Neva embankment in St. Petersburg. Passing by one of the shops, the writer saw an incredibly beautiful girl. He looked at her for a long time, but did not dare to meet. The beauty of the stranger so excited the writer that after some time he began to create a story.
An introverted, gloomy man named Longren lives a solitary life with his daughter Assol. Longren makes model sailboats for sale. For a small family, this is the only way to make ends meet. Countrymen hate Longren because of one incident that happened in the distant past.
Once Longren was a sailor and went on a voyage for a long time. Returning once again from swimming, he learned that his wife was no longer alive. Having given birth to a child, Mary had to spend all the money on medicines for herself: the birth was very difficult, and the woman needed urgent treatment.
Mary did not know when her husband would return and, left without a livelihood, went to the innkeeper Menners to borrow money. The innkeeper made an obscene offer to Mary in exchange for help. The honest woman refused and went into town to pawn the ring. On the way, the woman caught a cold and subsequently died of pneumonia.
Longren was forced to raise his daughter on his own and could no longer work on the ship. The former sea knew who destroyed his family happiness.
One day he had a chance to take revenge. During a storm, Menners was swept out to sea on a boat. Longren was the only witness to what happened. The innkeeper called in vain for help. The former sailor stood calmly on the shore and smoked a pipe.
When Menners was already far enough from the coast, Longren reminded him of what he had done with Mary. A few days later, the innkeeper was found. Dying, he managed to tell who was "guilty" of his death. Fellow villagers, many of whom did not know what Menners really was, condemned Longren for his inaction. The former sailor and his daughter became outcasts.
When Assol was 8 years old, she accidentally met the collector of fairy tales Egl, who predicted the girl that years later she would meet her love. Her lover will sail on a ship with scarlet sails. At home, the girl told her father about the strange prediction. Their conversation was overheard by a beggar. He is a retelling of what Longren's countrymen heard. Since then, Assol has become the object of ridicule.
The noble origin of the young man
Arthur Gray, unlike Assol, did not grow up in a miserable hut, but in a castle and came from a rich and noble family. The boy's future was predetermined: he would live the same prim life as his parents. However, Gray has other plans. He dreams of being a brave sailor. The young man secretly left home and entered the Anselm schooner, where he went through a very harsh school. Captain Gop, noticing good inclinations in the young man, decided to make a real sailor out of him. At the age of 20, Gray bought a three-masted galliot "Secret", on which he became the captain.
After 4 years, Gray accidentally finds himself in the vicinity of Liss, a few kilometers from which was Caperna, where Longren lived with his daughter. By chance, Gray meets Assol, sleeping in the thickets.
The beauty of the girl impressed him so much that he took off the old ring from his finger and put it on Assol. Then Gray heads to Kaperna, where he tries to find out at least something about an unusual girl. The captain wandered into the Menners tavern, where his son was now in charge. Hin Menners told Gray that Assol's father is a murderer, and the girl herself is crazy. She dreams of a prince who will sail to her on a ship with scarlet sails. The captain doesn't trust Menners too much. His doubts were finally dispelled by a drunk coal miner, who said that Assol was indeed a very unusual girl, but not crazy. Gray decided to make someone else's dream come true.
Meanwhile, old Longren decides to return to his former occupation. As long as he is alive, his daughter will not work. Longren set sail for the first time in many years. Assol was left alone. One fine day, she notices a ship with scarlet sails on the horizon and realizes that he has sailed for her...
Character characteristics
Assol is the main character of the story. In early childhood, the girl is left alone because of the hatred of others for her father. But loneliness is habitual for Assol, it does not depress and does not frighten her.
She lives in her own fictional world, where the cruelty and cynicism of the surrounding reality do not penetrate.
At the age of eight, a beautiful legend comes into the world of Assol, in which she believed with all her heart. The life of a little girl takes on a new meaning. She starts to wait.
Years go by, but Assol remains the same. Ridicule, offensive nicknames and hatred of fellow villagers for her family did not embitter the young dreamer. Assol is still naive, open to the world and believes in prophecy.
The only son of noble parents grew up in luxury and prosperity. Arthur Gray is a hereditary aristocrat. However, aristocracy is completely alien to him.
Even as a child, Gray was distinguished by courage, audacity and the desire for absolute independence. He knows that he can truly prove himself only in the fight against the elements.
Arthur is not attracted to high society. Social events and dinner parties are not for him. The picture hanging in the library decides the fate of the young man. He leaves home and, having passed the ordeal, becomes the captain of the ship. Audacity and courage, reaching recklessness, do not prevent the young captain from remaining a kind and sympathetic person.
Probably, among the girls of the society in which Gray was born, there would not have been a single one capable of captivating his heart. He does not need stiff ladies with refined manners and a brilliant education. Gray is not looking for love, she finds it herself. Assol is a very unusual girl with an unusual dream. Arthur sees before him a beautiful, bold and pure soul, similar to his own soul.
At the end of the story, the reader has a feeling of a miracle, a dream come true. Despite all the originality of what is happening, the plot of the story is not fantastic. There are no wizards, fairies, or elves in Scarlet Sails. The reader is presented with a completely ordinary, unadorned reality: poor people forced to fight for their existence, injustice and meanness. Nevertheless, it is precisely for its realism and lack of fantasy that this work is so attractive.
The author makes it clear that a person himself creates his dreams, he believes in them and he himself embodies them into reality. It makes no sense to wait for the intervention of some otherworldly forces - fairies, wizards, etc. To understand that a dream belongs only to a person and only a person decides how to dispose of it, you need to trace the entire chain of creating and implementing a dream.
Old Aigle created a beautiful legend, apparently to please a little girl. Assol believed in this legend and cannot even imagine that the prophecy will not come true. Gray, falling in love with a beautiful stranger, makes her dream come true. As a result, an absurd, divorced from life fantasy becomes part of reality. And this fantasy was embodied not by creatures endowed with supernatural abilities, but by the most ordinary people.
Faith in a miracle
A dream, according to the author, is the meaning of life. Only she is able to save a person from the daily gray routine. But a dream can become a big disappointment for someone who is inactive and for someone who is waiting for the embodiment of their fantasies from outside, because help from “above” can never be expected.
Gray would never have become a captain by staying in his parent's castle. The dream must turn into a goal, and the goal, in turn, into energetic action. Assol did not have the opportunity to take any action to achieve his goal. But she had the most important thing, something that, perhaps, is more important than action - faith.
5 (100%) 2 votes
Alexander Stepanovich Green
Scarlet Sails
Nina Nikolaevna Green offers and dedicates the Author
I. PREDICTION
Longren, a sailor of the Orion, a strong three-hundred-ton brig, on which he served for ten years and to which he was more attached than any son to his own mother, had to finally leave the service.
It happened like this. On one of his rare returns home, he did not see, as always from a distance, on the threshold of the house his wife Mary, clasping her hands, and then running towards him until she lost her breath. Instead, at the crib - a new item in Longren's small house - stood an excited neighbor.
For three months I followed her, old man, she said, look at your daughter.
Dead, Longren leaned over and saw an eight-month-old creature staring intently at his long beard, then sat down, looked down and began to twist his mustache. The mustache was wet, as from rain.
When did Mary die? - he asked.
The woman told a sad story, interrupting the story with a touching gurgle to the girl and assurances that Mary was in paradise. When Longren found out the details, paradise seemed to him a little lighter than a woodshed, and he thought that the fire of a simple lamp - if now they were all together, the three of them - would be an irreplaceable joy for a woman who had gone to an unknown country.
About three months ago, the economic affairs of the young mother were very bad. Of the money left by Longren, a good half was spent on treatment after a difficult birth, on caring for the health of the newborn; finally, the loss of a small but necessary amount of money forced Mary to ask for a loan of money from Menners. Menners kept a tavern, a shop and was considered a wealthy man.
Mary went to him at six o'clock in the evening. About seven the narrator met her on the road to Liss. Tearful and upset, Mary said that she was going to town to pawn her wedding ring. She added that Menners agreed to give money, but demanded love in return. Mary got nowhere.
We don’t even have a crumb of food in our house,” she said to a neighbor. - I'll go to the city, and the girl and I will get along somehow before her husband returns.
It was cold, windy weather that evening; the narrator tried in vain to persuade the young woman not to go to Lisa by nightfall. "You'll get wet, Mary, it's drizzling, and the wind is about to bring downpour."
Back and forth from the seaside village to the city was at least three hours of fast walking, but Mary did not heed the advice of the narrator. “It’s enough for me to prick your eyes,” she said, “and there is almost no family where I would not borrow bread, tea or flour. I'll pawn the ring and it's over." She went, returned, and the next day she took to her bed with a fever and delirium; bad weather and evening drizzle struck her with bilateral pneumonia, as the city doctor said, called by a kind-hearted narrator. A week later, an empty space remained on Longren's double bed, and a neighbor moved into his house to nurse and feed the girl. It was not difficult for her, a lonely widow. Besides," she added, "it's boring without such a fool.
Longren went to the city, took the calculation, said goodbye to his comrades and began to raise little Assol. Until the girl learned to walk firmly, the widow lived with the sailor, replacing the orphan's mother, but as soon as Assol stopped falling, bringing her leg over the threshold, Longren decisively announced that now he would do everything for the girl himself, and, thanking the widow for her active sympathy, lived the lonely life of a widower, focusing all his thoughts, hopes, love and memories on a small creature.
Ten years of wandering life left very little money in his hands. He began to work. Soon his toys appeared in city stores - skillfully made small models of boats, boats, single-deck and double-deck sailboats, cruisers, steamers - in a word, what he knew intimately, which, due to the nature of the work, partly replaced for him the roar of port life and painting voyages. In this way, Longren produced enough to live within the limits of moderate economy. Uncommunicative by nature, after the death of his wife, he became even more withdrawn and unsociable. On holidays, he was sometimes seen in a tavern, but he never sat down, but hurriedly drank a glass of vodka at the counter and left, briefly throwing “yes”, “no”, “hello”, “goodbye”, “little by little” - to everything calls and nods from neighbors. He could not stand the guests, quietly sending them away not by force, but by such hints and fictitious circumstances that the visitor had no choice but to invent a reason for not allowing him to stay longer.
He himself did not visit anyone either; thus a cold alienation lay between him and his countrymen, and had Longren's work - toys - been less independent of the affairs of the village, he would have had to experience the consequences of such relations more tangibly. He bought goods and food in the city - Menners could not even boast of a box of matches that Longren bought from him. He also did all the housework himself and patiently went through the complex art of raising a girl, unusual for a man.
Assol was already five years old, and her father began to smile softer and softer, looking at her nervous, kind face, when, sitting on his knees, she worked on the secret of a buttoned waistcoat or funnyly hummed sailor songs - wild rhymes. In the transmission in a child's voice and not everywhere with the letter "r" these songs gave the impression of a dancing bear, decorated with a blue ribbon. At this time, an event occurred, the shadow of which, falling on the father, covered the daughter as well.
It was spring, early and harsh, like winter, but in a different way. For three weeks, a sharp coastal north crouched on the cold earth.
Fishing boats pulled ashore formed a long row of dark keels on the white sand, resembling the ridges of huge fish. No one dared to fish in such weather. In the village's only street, it was rare to see a man leave his house; a cold whirlwind rushing from the coastal hills into the emptiness of the horizon made "open air" a severe torture. All the chimneys of Caperna smoked from morning to evening, blowing smoke over the steep roofs.
But these days of the north lured Longren out of his small warm house more often than the sun, throwing blankets of airy gold over the sea and Kaperna in clear weather. Longren went out to the bridge, laid on long rows of piles, where, at the very end of this wooden pier, he smoked a pipe blown by the wind for a long time, watching how the bottom, bare by the coast, smoked with gray foam, barely keeping up with the ramparts, the roaring run of which to the black, stormy horizon filled space with herds of fantastic maned creatures, rushing in unbridled ferocious despair to distant consolation. Moans and noises, the howling firing of huge surges of water and, it seemed, a visible stream of wind slashing the surroundings - so strong was its even run - gave Longren's tormented soul that dullness, deafness, which, reducing grief to vague sadness, is equal to the effect of deep sleep .
On one of these days, the twelve-year-old son of Menners, Khin, noticing that his father's boat was beating against the piles under the walkways, breaking the sides, went and told his father about it. The storm has just begun; Menners forgot to put the boat on the sand. He immediately went to the water, where he saw at the end of the pier, with his back to him, standing, smoking, Longren. There was no one else on the beach except for the two of them. Menners walked along the bridge to the middle, descended into the wildly splashing water and untied the sheet; standing in the boat, he began to make his way to the shore, clutching the piles with his hands. He did not take the oars, and at that moment, when, staggering, he missed grabbing another pile, a strong blow of the wind threw the bow of the boat from the bridge towards the ocean. Now, even the entire length of Menners' body could not reach the nearest pile. The wind and waves, rocking, carried the boat into the disastrous expanse. Realizing the situation, Menners wanted to throw himself into the water in order to swim to the shore, but his decision was too late, since the boat was already spinning not far from the end of the pier, where a significant depth of water and the fury of the waves promised certain death. Between Longren and Menners, carried away into the stormy distance, there was no more than ten sazhens of still saving distance, since on the walkways at hand Longren hung a bundle of rope with a load woven into one end. This rope hung in case of a berth in stormy weather and was thrown from the bridges.
The work described in the future is associated with a very beautiful and happy fairy tale about a prince, which every girl dreams of. However, not everyone knows the author of the fairy tale "Scarlet Sails". Who wrote it, let's find out. First of all, this is necessary in order to understand where such extraordinary fantasies could have been born in his head. Let's start with the biography of the author.
Biography
The writer and novelist known as Greene, who lived from 1880 to 1932, is most often associated with writing sea adventure stories. This, in principle, is the answer to the question of who wrote the Scarlet Sails. The full name of the writer is Alexander Stepanovich Grinevsky, and "Grin" became an abbreviation and later his pseudonym.
He was born on August 11 (23 according to the old style) in the town of Slobodskoy. His father's name was Stefan Grinevsky, he was a Polish gentry, who was sent to Siberia for participating in the Polish uprising of 1863. After the expiration of the term, in 1868, he was allowed to move to the Vyatka province. There he meets 16-year-old nurse Anna Stepanovna Lepkova, who becomes his wife. They had no children for seven years. Alexander became the first-born, and two more sisters appeared after him - Ekaterina and Antonina. Alexander's mother died when he was 15 years old.
Very often, readers have questions about the work "Scarlet Sails" (who wrote it and what biographical data is present in the epic of the writer himself as a person who passionately fell in love with the sea).
Returning to his biography, it is worth noting that Alexander was captured by the theme of the sea after he independently read Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels at the age of 6. After graduating from the Vyatka four-year city school in 1896, he moved to Odessa and wanted to become a sailor. At first he had to wander and starve, but then, with the help of his father's friend, he gets a job as a sailor on the steamer "Platon" and begins to ply along the route Odessa-Batumi-Odessa.
Further illuminating the question of who wrote Scarlet Sails, the author of this work (Green) can be called a rebel, a fidget looking for adventure. The sailor's work was very difficult and did not bring him any moral satisfaction, and then in 1897 he returned to Vyatka, and then went to Baku, where he was a fisherman and laborer in the railway workshops. Then he again returned to his father, where he worked as a gold digger in the Urals, a miner, a lumberjack, and a theater copyist.
rebellious soul
What is Scarlet Sails about, who wrote it and how romantic was the author of this work, let's try to figure it out further. And here it is necessary to pay attention to the formation of the personality of young Green, because in 1902 he becomes a simple soldier of the reserve infantry battalion stationed in Penza. Then he deserted twice and hid in Simbirsk.
The SRs liked his flamboyant performances. He even had an underground nickname - "Lanky". But in 1903 he was arrested in Sevastopol for propaganda against the existing system. After his release, he goes to St. Petersburg, where he is again arrested and deported to Siberia. From there, he will again run away to Vyatka, where he will get someone else's passport, with which he will move to Moscow.
1906-1908 became a turning point for him - he becomes a writer and begins to work hard on romantic short stories, including Reno Island, Zurbagan Shooter, Captain Duke, a collection of short stories Lanfier Colony, etc.
creative period
Covering the topic “Who wrote the Scarlet Sails”, it must be said that in 1917 Green moved to Petrograd, hoping for improvements in society. But then, a little later, he will be disappointed in all the events taking place in the country.
In 1919, the future writer will go to serve as a signalman in the Red Army. During these years, he began to publish in the journal Flame, edited by A. Lunacharsky.
Green believed that all the most beautiful things on earth depend on the will of kind, strong and pure in heart and soul people. Therefore, such magnificent works as “Scarlet Sails”, “Running on the Waves”, “Shining World”, etc. are born in him.
In 1931, he will have time to write his autobiographical story. And in 1932, on July 8, at the age of 52, he will die of stomach cancer in Stary Krym. Two days before his death, like a true Orthodox, he will invite a priest to him, take communion and confess. Wife Nina will choose exactly the place for the grave, from where the view of the sea will be opened. A monument to Tatyana Gagarina, a girl running on the waves, will be erected on the writer's grave.
How "Scarlet Sails" was born
So, returning to the work "Scarlet Sails" (who wrote this story), one can already approximately understand what kind of person the author of this literary masterpiece was. But it is necessary to note the sad page of his biography. When Grin served as a signalman in 1919, he fell ill with typhus and was treated for a month in the hospital, where Maxim Gorky once sent tea, bread and honey to him, seriously ill.
After recovery, again with the help of the same Gorky, Green managed to get rations and a room at 15 Nevsky Prospekt, in the "House of Art", where N. S. Gumilyov, V. Kaverin, O. E. Mandelstam, V. A. Rozhdestvensky.
Who wrote "Scarlet Sails"?
Our story would not be entirely complete without the following details. Neighbors recalled that Green lived like a hermit in his own world, where he did not want to let anyone in. At the same time, he will begin work on his touching and poetic work "Scarlet Sails".
In the spring of 1921, Green marries a widow, Nina Nikolaevna Mironova. She worked as a nurse, but they met in 1918. For the next 11 years of their life together, they did not part and considered their meeting a gift of fate.
Answering the question about who wrote the "Scarlet Sails" and to whom the work was dedicated, only one thing can be said: Green presented this literary masterpiece as a gift on November 23, 1922 to Nina Nikolaevna Green. It will be first published in full in 1923.
Who wrote "Scarlet Sails". Summary
One of the main characters, gloomy and unsociable Longren, lived on the fact that he was engaged in the manufacture of various crafts, model sailboats and steamers. The locals were wary of this man. And all because of the case when, during a storm, the innkeeper Menners was dragged into the open sea, but Longren did not even think of saving him, although he heard how he begged for help. The grouchy old man only shouted at the end: "My wife Mary once also asked you for help, but you refused her!" A few days later, Menners was picked up by a passenger ship, and just before his death, he accused Longren of his death.
Assol
However, the shopkeeper did not even mention that five years ago, Longren's wife, when her husband was on the voyage, turned to Menners to borrow some money from her. She recently gave birth to a girl, Assol, the birth was difficult, all the money was spent on treatment. But Menners indifferently answered her that if she were not so touchy, then he could help her.
Then the unfortunate woman decided to pawn the ring and went to the city, after which she caught a bad cold and soon died of pneumonia. Her husband, a fisherman, Longren, who returned, was left with a baby in his arms and never again went to sea.
In general, be that as it may, the locals hated Father Assol. Their hatred spread to the girl herself, who therefore plunged into the world of her fantasies and dreams, as if she did not need to communicate with her peers and friends at all. Her father replaced everyone.
aigle
One day, her father sent eight-year-old Assol to the city to sell new toys. Among them was a miniature sailboat with scarlet silk sails. Assol lowered a boat into the stream, and a stream of water brought it to the mouth, where she saw the old storyteller Egl, who, holding her boat, said that soon a ship with scarlet sails and a prince would come after her, who would take her with him into his boat. distant country.
Returning, Assol told her father about everything, but a beggar who happened to be nearby accidentally overheard their conversation and spread the story about the ship with the prince all over Kaperna, after which the girl began to be teased and considered crazy.
Arthur Gray
And the prince showed up. Arthur Gray is the only heir to a noble family, living in a family castle, a very determined and fearless young man with a lively and sympathetic soul. Since childhood, he loved the sea and wanted to become a captain. At the age of 20, he bought himself a three-masted ship "Secret" and began to sail.
Once, being near Kaperna, early in the morning he and his sailor decided to set sail in a boat in order to find places for fishing. And suddenly on the coast he finds sleeping Assol. The girl so impressed him with her beauty that he decided to put his old ring on her little finger.
Then, in a local tavern, Gray learned a story related to the crazy Assol. But the drunk coal miner assured that all this was a lie. And the captain, even without outside help, managed to understand the soul of this extraordinary girl, since he himself was a little out of this world. He immediately went to the city, where he found scarlet silk in one of the shops. In the morning his "Secret" went to sea with scarlet sails, and by the middle of the day it was visible from Kaperna.
Assol, seeing the ship, was beside herself with happiness. She immediately rushed to the sea, where a lot of people had already gathered. A boat left the ship, and the captain stood on it. A few minutes later, Assol was already on the ship with Gray. And so it all happened, as the far-sighted old man predicted.
On the same day, a barrel of hundred-year-old wine was opened, and the next morning the ship was already very far away and forever carried away the crew of the Secret from Kaperna.
On this, you can close the topic “Who wrote the work “Scarlet Sails”?” Alexander Stepanovich Green (Grinevsky) gave all his readers an extraordinary tale about a dream.
returns home, where sad news awaits. The wife died, leaving a little daughter. The woman spent her savings on recovery after childbirth. Hoping to get money, she went to Menners (a wealthy innkeeper) to pawn her wedding ring. But he demanded love from a woman for money, and having achieved nothing, he did not lend. Longren took the calculation and devoted himself to his little daughter Assol.
The man made toys to somehow earn a living. When the child was 5 years old, a smile began to appear on the sailor's face. Longren loved to wander along the coast, peering into the raging sea. On one of these days, a storm began, Menners' boat was not pulled ashore. The merchant decided to bring the boat, but a strong wind carried him into the ocean. Longren silently smoked and watched what was happening, there was a rope under his hands, it was possible to help, but the sailor watched how the waves carried away the hated person. He called his act a black toy.
The shopkeeper was brought in 6 days later. Residents expected remorse and screams from Longren, but the man remained calm, he placed himself above gossipers and screamers. The sailor stepped aside, began to lead a life of aloofness and isolation. Attitude towards him passed on to his daughter. She grew up without girlfriends, hanging out with her father and imaginary friends. The girl climbed onto her father's lap and played with parts of the toys prepared for gluing. Longren taught the girl to read and write, let her go to the city.
One day the girl stopped to rest and decided to play with toys for sale. She pulled out a yacht with scarlet sails. Assol released the boat into the stream, and it rushed quickly, like a real sailboat. The girl ran after the scarlet sails, deepening far into the forest.
Asol met a stranger in the forest. It was the collector of songs and fairy tales Egl. His unusual appearance was reminiscent of a wizard. He spoke to the girl, told her the amazing story of her fate. He predicted that when Assol becomes big, a ship with scarlet sails and a handsome prince will come for her. He will take her away to a brilliant land of happiness and love.
Assol returned home inspired and retold the story to her father. Longren did not refute Aigl's predictions. He hoped that the girl would grow up and forget. The beggar heard the story, he passed it on in the tavern in his own way. The inhabitants of the tavern began to mock the girl, tease her with sails and an overseas prince.
Chapter 2 Gray
Gray was born at heart as a brave captain. He studied the castle in which he grew up. I imagined it as a huge ship. The boy looked admiringly at the sea depicted in the picture. It captivated him. From the age of 8, it became clear that the child perceives the world in a special way. He could not look at the bloodied hands of Christ. He covered the nails with blue paint. The boy was friends with all the residents of the house, did not disdain the servants, so he grew up sociable and versatile. The child was afraid of the kitchen. Gray was worried about the cook Betsy, to help her, he broke the piggy bank, on behalf of the leader of the band of robbers, Robin Hood, offered the girl money.Mother, a noble lady, indulged her son. He could do whatever he wanted. The father gave in to his wife's wishes. When the young man was 15 years old, Arthur ran away from home on the schooner Anselm. He aspired to be a "devilish" sailor. The captain of the Anselm hoped for a quick completion of the journey of a boy from a wealthy family, but Gray went to his goal. The captain decided to make a real sailor out of the young man. There were many lessons, but all of them only hardened Gray.
At the age of 20, he visited his parents' castle as a completely different person, but his soul remained the same. He returned from home with money, announced that he would swim separately. His ship is the galliot "Secret". After 4 years, fate brought the young man to Lisa, but he returned home to his mother more often.
Chapter 3
The ship "Secret" embarked on a raid. The captain was overwhelmed by anguish, the cause of which he did not understand. It seemed to the young man that someone was calling him, but he did not understand where. No activities distracted from melancholy, he called Letiki and went on a boat to the sea, then to the shore.The sailor became interested in fishing, and the captain lay down by the fire, thought about life, then dozed off. Waking up from a slumber, he left the thicket and went to the hill. In an open meadow, he saw Assol sleeping. The dangerous find was so beautiful that Gray began to quietly examine it. For Gray, it was a picture without explanation. The young man took off the ancient ring from his hand and put it on the girl's finger.
Letika approached the captain. He boasted of his catch. The captain took the sailor away from the find so as not to disturb the beauty's sleep. They went not to the boat, but to the nearest houses. This was Menners' house. Gray asked the owner about the girl, he replied that she was crazy. The young man calmly reacted to this fact, asked why the merchant thinks so. He told the girl's story, but it sounded like gossip, rude and flat. “Her name is Assol Korabelnaya,” Menners concluded the story. At this time, Gray looked up and saw Assol passing by the tavern. Menners wanted to slander Longren some more, but he was interrupted by a basket-carrier, a collier. He, not being afraid of the merchant, said that he was lying. Assol, according to him, talks only with kind people, which does not include Hin Menners. The merchant was offended, Gray left Letika to listen and watch. The captain, inspired by love, went to the harbor.
Chapter 4
7 years have passed since Egl told the tale about Assol's future. The girl, as usual, carried toys to the shop. The merchant showed the account book, where the debt increased. He refused handicrafts, explaining that foreign goods had come into fashion. Homemade products are of no interest to anyone. Assol came home and told everything to her father. He listened angrily, as if imagining what was going on in the toy store. Longren did not want to leave his daughter for a long time, but he understood that they could not live differently. The daughter reassured her father, saying that she loved him, and they sat side by side together on the same stool. Assol looked at the rest of the food and understood that they would not be enough until the end of the week. She sat down to sew a skirt out of old fabric and looked into the mirror. Assol united two girls in herself: one made toys, her father's beloved daughter, the other believed in miracles and fairy tales. The second saw magic in simple objects and natural phenomena.Assol loves to read, believes in a dream. She walks to the seashore and peers into the distance, waiting for the sails promised by the wizard from childhood. Outwardly, the girl is slim and short. The look is serious and intelligent, the face is sweet and original. The author characterizes it in one word - charm. The attitude of the inhabitants of Caperna was understandable. In the village, dense and heavy women of the bazaar type were popular.
The father went to sea, the girl was not afraid for him, confident that nothing bad could happen to him. That evening the girl could not sleep, but she knew how to induce sleep herself. Favorite night story - songs, secrets, flowering trees and sparkling water. The morning star woke Assol, she got up and went for a walk in the meadow. In the forest she was happy and joyful with good friends. Having reached the hill by the sea, the girl stopped and began to peer into the distance. She lay down on the grass and fell into a peaceful sleep. When she woke up, Gray's radiant ring flashed on her hand. Assol shouted, asking who was joking, but no one responded. The ring immediately became his own. She removed it from her finger, tried to look inside, then tucked it behind her bodice. The girl's face lit up with joy and delight. She got up and went home. It was the morning of a summer day when two people found each other.
Chapter 5
The captain's mate noticed Gray's unusual condition. He ordered the instructions to be given to the people on the ship, and he himself went to the city. Gray formed a clear plan in his head. He visited three trading shops, choosing fabric for sails. He cared about the details and color. When he found the material he needed, delight played on his face. The shade of the fabric is a scarlet morning jet, proud and regal. Then the captain met a familiar musician. He offered to earn money, it was necessary to find friends who would play in such a way that the listener would cry.Gray swam with the same crew, they were all like one family. Carried "Secret" goods that were in the interests of the captain. Gray, without explaining anything, simply said that the sails would be changed, and only after that they would go to sea. The musicians took their places on the ship. Panten decided that the changes concerned the contraband that the captain decided to transport. Gray did not become angry, but dismissed his friend's guess. He said that Panten was mistaken, sent him to bed and was left alone among his thoughts.
Chapter 6
Longren wandered aimlessly under sail on the sea. It became easier for him in such a wandering. He could think and restore his mental strength, which the man on the shore lacked so much. Longren returned his thoughts to his beloved, caring for his daughter overwhelmed his heart. Two dear women stood before my eyes. Returning home, he did not find the girl at home. Assol entered the house changed outwardly, she radiated something incomprehensible, her father began to doubt whether her daughter was sick. The girl was so carried away by her own thoughts that she surprised her father with fun, which was unusual for her.Longren told the girl that he had decided to join the mail steamer. The father saw the changes and decided to clarify the reason for the joy. The daughter, in order to calm him, became calm and serious. She packed a bag for him, listened to advice. After seeing off her father, Assol tried to do her usual things, but could not. She decided to go to Lissa. The girl rejoiced at the flight of the bird, the spray of the fountain. The collier Philip met her. Assol confessed her love to him and said that she would leave soon. The collier was amazed, the girl took his hand and said goodbye to the kind man as soon as she knew how to do it. The girl said that she did not know where she would go, but she felt it.
Chapter 7
Gray was afraid of the shallows and stood at the helm himself. Scarlet sails glowed over the sea. The captain explained to his crew the purpose of the ship's transformation. He wants to fulfill that beautiful unrealizable that lives in the soul of a girl who has fallen in love with him. Gray rushed to the goal. They began to talk about love throughout the ship: from the saloon to the hold. "Secret" headed for the desired shore.The dreamer at that time was sitting over a book, reading and examining a bug crawling through the pages. The bug froze on the word "look", the girl turned her gaze to the sea, where she saw such a welcome vision: a white ship with scarlet sails. Music came from afar. Assol, beside herself, rushed towards the "Secret". When the ship was hidden behind a cape or other obstacle, the girl stopped, then continued her run.
Kaperna was in shock. Excitement gripped all the inhabitants. Scarlet sails for them were mockery, grins, a fiction of a sick imagination. Now they are becoming a reality. The closer the sails approached the shore, the faster the screaming crowd gathered on the shore. Some people were angry, others worried. Anger, fear, nervous trembling, snake hissing - the state of people standing in the crowd. Everything fell silent as the girl approached them. A boat departed from the ship, in it stood the one whom Assol had been waiting for since childhood. Gray asked the girl if she recognized him. Happiness shone in Assol's entire appearance. She didn't even notice how she ended up in the cabin. Assol's first question is about his father. She asked if the young man would take her father Longren. He answered positively. On the ship began a fun holiday. Assol was named the best cargo of the "Secret". When the ship was already far from Caperna, the magic music of happiness sounded on it.
This concludes a brief retelling of the fairy tale "Scarlet Sails", which includes only the most important events from the full version of the work!
Nina Nikolaevna Green offers and dedicates
Chapter 1
Prediction
Longren, a sailor of the Orion, a strong three-hundred-ton brig, on which he had served for ten years and to whom he was more attached than any son to his own mother, had to finally leave this service.
It happened like this. On one of his rare returns home, he did not see, as always from afar, on the threshold of the house his wife Mary, clasping her hands, and then running towards him until she lost her breath. Instead, by the crib, a new item in Longren's small house, stood an excited neighbor.
“I followed her for three months, old man,” she said, “look at your daughter.
Dead, Longren leaned over and saw an eight-month-old creature staring intently at his long beard, then sat down, looked down and began to twist his mustache. The mustache was wet, as from rain.
When did Mary die? - he asked.
The woman told a sad story, interrupting the story with a touching gurgle to the girl and assurances that Mary was in paradise. When Longren found out the details, paradise seemed to him a little brighter than a woodshed, and he thought that the fire of a simple lamp - if now they were all together, the three of them - would be an irreplaceable joy for a woman who had gone to an unknown country.
About three months ago, the economic affairs of the young mother were very bad. Of the money left by Longren, a good half was spent on treatment after a difficult birth, on caring for the health of the newborn; finally, the loss of a small but necessary amount of money forced Mary to ask Menners for a loan of money. Menners kept a tavern, a shop and was considered a wealthy man.
Mary went to him at six o'clock in the evening. About seven the narrator met her on the road to Liss. Tearful and upset, Mary said she was going into town to pawn her wedding ring. She added that Menners agreed to give money, but demanded love in return. Mary got nowhere.
“We don’t even have a crumb of food in our house,” she told a neighbor. “I’ll go to the city, and the girl and I will make ends meet somehow until the husband returns.”
It was cold, windy weather that evening; the narrator tried in vain to persuade the young woman not to go to Liss by nightfall. "You'll get wet, Mary, it's drizzling, and the wind is about to bring downpour."
Back and forth from the seaside village to the city was at least three hours of fast walking, but Mary did not heed the advice of the narrator. “It’s enough for me to prick your eyes,” she said, “and there is almost no family where I would not borrow bread, tea or flour. I'll pawn the ring and it's over." She went, returned, and the next day she took to her bed with a fever and delirium; bad weather and evening drizzle struck her with bilateral pneumonia, as the city doctor said, called by a kind-hearted narrator. A week later, an empty space remained on Longren's double bed, and a neighbor moved into his house to nurse and feed the girl. It was not difficult for her, a lonely widow.
“Besides,” she added, “it’s boring without such a fool.
Longren went to the city, took the calculation, said goodbye to his comrades and began to raise little Assol. Until the girl learned to walk firmly, the widow lived with the sailor, replacing the orphan's mother, but as soon as Assol stopped falling, bringing her leg over the threshold, Longren decisively announced that now he would do everything for the girl himself, and, thanking the widow for her active sympathy, lived the lonely life of a widower, focusing all his thoughts, hopes, love and memories on a small creature.
Ten years of wandering life left very little money in his hands. He began to work. Soon his toys appeared in city stores - skillfully made small models of boats, cutters, single-deck and double-deck sailboats, cruisers, steamers - in a word, what he knew intimately, which, due to the nature of the work, partly replaced for him the roar of port life and painting voyages. In this way, Longren produced enough to live within the limits of moderate economy. Uncommunicative by nature, after the death of his wife he became even more withdrawn and unsociable. On holidays, he was sometimes seen in a tavern, but he never sat down, but hurriedly drank a glass of vodka at the counter and left, briefly throwing around: “yes”, “no”, “hello”, “goodbye”, “little by little” - on all the appeals and nods of the neighbors. He could not stand the guests, quietly sending them away not by force, but by such hints and fictitious circumstances that the visitor had no choice but to invent a reason for not allowing him to stay longer.
He himself did not visit anyone either; thus a cold alienation lay between him and his countrymen, and had Longren's work - toys - been less independent of the affairs of the village, he would have had to experience the consequences of such relations more tangibly. He bought goods and food in the city - Menners could not even boast of a box of matches that Longren bought from him. He also did all the housework himself and patiently went through the complex art of raising a girl, unusual for a man.
Assol was already five years old, and her father began to smile softer and softer, looking at her nervous, kind face, when, sitting on his knees, she worked on the secret of a buttoned waistcoat or hummed amusingly sailor songs - wild rhymes. In the transmission in a child's voice and not everywhere with the letter "r" these songs gave the impression of a dancing bear, decorated with a blue ribbon. At this time, an event occurred, the shadow of which, falling on the father, covered the daughter as well.
It was spring, early and harsh, like winter, but in a different way. For three weeks, a sharp coastal north crouched on the cold earth.
Fishing boats pulled ashore formed a long row of dark keels on the white sand, resembling the ridges of huge fish. No one dared to fish in such weather. In the village's only street, it was rare to see a man leave his house; a cold whirlwind rushing from the coastal hills into the emptiness of the horizon made the open air a severe torture. All the chimneys of Caperna smoked from morning to evening, blowing smoke over the steep roofs.
But these days of the north lured Longren out of his small warm house more often than the sun, throwing blankets of airy gold over the sea and Kaperna in clear weather. Longren went out to the bridge, laid on long rows of piles, where, at the very end of this wooden pier, he smoked a pipe blown by the wind for a long time, watching how the bottom, bare by the coast, smoked with gray foam, barely keeping up with the ramparts, the roaring run of which to the black, stormy horizon filled space with herds of fantastic maned creatures, rushing in unbridled ferocious despair to distant consolation. Moans and noises, the howling firing of huge surges of water and, it seemed, a visible stream of wind slashing the surroundings - so strong was its even run - gave Longren's tormented soul that dullness, deafness, which, reducing grief to vague sadness, is equal to the effect of deep sleep .
On one of these days, the twelve-year-old son of Menners, Khin, noticing that his father's boat was beating against the piles under the walkways, breaking the sides, went and told his father about it. The storm has just begun; Menners forgot to put the boat on the sand. He immediately went to the water, where he saw at the end of the pier, with his back to him, standing, smoking, Longren. There was no one else on the beach except for the two of them. Menners walked along the bridge to the middle, descended into the wildly splashing water and untied the sheet; standing in the boat, he began to make his way to the shore, clutching the piles with his hands. He did not take the oars, and at that moment, when, staggering, he missed grabbing another pile, a strong blow of the wind threw the bow of the boat from the bridge towards the ocean. Now, even the entire length of Menners' body could not reach the nearest pile. The wind and waves, rocking, carried the boat into the disastrous expanse. Realizing the situation, Menners wanted to throw himself into the water in order to swim to the shore, but his decision was too late, since the boat was already spinning not far from the end of the pier, where a significant depth of water and the fury of the waves promised certain death. Between Longren and Menners, carried away into the stormy distance, there was no more than ten sazhens of still saving distance, since on the walkways at hand Longren hung a bundle of rope with a load woven into one end. This rope hung in case of a berth in stormy weather and was thrown from the bridges.
- Longren! shouted the mortally frightened Menners. - What have you become like a stump? You see, I'm being carried away; leave the dock!
Longren was silent, calmly looking at Menners, who was rushing about in the boat, only his pipe began to smoke more strongly, and he, after a pause, took it out of his mouth in order to better see what was happening.
- Longren! - Menners called out, - you hear me, I'm dying, save me!
But Longren did not say a single word to him; he did not seem to hear the desperate cry. Until the boat was carried so far that the words-cries of Menners could barely reach, he did not even step from foot to foot. Menners sobbed in horror, conjured the sailor to run to the fishermen, call for help, promised money, threatened and cursed, but Longren only came closer to the very edge of the pier, so as not to immediately lose sight of the throwing and jumping of the boat. “Longren,” came to him muffledly, as if from a roof, sitting inside the house, “save me!” Then, taking a breath and taking a deep breath so that not a single word would be lost in the wind, Longren shouted:
She asked you the same! Think about it while you're still alive, Manners, and don't forget!
Then the cries ceased, and Longren went home. Assol, waking up, saw that her father was sitting before the dying lamp in deep thought. Hearing the voice of the girl calling him, he went up to her, kissed her tightly and covered her with a tangled blanket.
“Sleep, my dear,” he said, “till morning is still far away.
- What are you doing?
- I made a black toy, Assol, - sleep!
The next day, the inhabitants of Kaperna had only conversations about the missing Menners, and on the sixth day they brought him himself, dying and vicious. His story quickly spread around the surrounding villages. Menners wore until evening; shattered by concussions on the sides and bottom of the boat, during a terrible struggle with the ferocity of the waves, which threatened to tirelessly throw the distraught shopkeeper into the sea, he was picked up by the steamer Lucretia, which was going to Kasset. A cold and a shock of terror ended Menners' days. He lived a little less than forty-eight hours, calling on Longren all the disasters possible on earth and in the imagination. The story of Menners, how the sailor watched his death, refusing to help, is eloquent, all the more so because the dying man breathed with difficulty and groaned, struck the inhabitants of Kaperna. Not to mention the fact that a rare of them was able to remember an insult and more serious than that suffered by Longren, and mourn as much as he grieved for Mary until the end of his life - they were disgusted, incomprehensible, struck them that Longren was silent. Silently, until his last words sent after Menners, Longren stood; stood motionless, stern and quiet, as judge, showing deep contempt for Menners - more than hatred was in his silence, and everyone felt it. If he had shouted, expressing his triumph at the sight of Menners' despair with gestures or fussiness, or something else, his triumph at the sight of Menners' despair, the fishermen would have understood him, but he acted differently from what they did - acted impressive, incomprehensible and by this he set himself above others, in a word, he did what is not forgiven. No one bowed to him anymore, held out his hand, cast a recognizing, greeting look. He remained forever aloof from village affairs; the boys, seeing him, shouted after him: “Longren drowned Menners!” He paid no attention to it. He also did not seem to notice that in the tavern or on the shore, among the boats, the fishermen fell silent in his presence, stepping aside, as if from the plague. The Menners case cemented a previously incomplete alienation. Having become complete, it caused a strong mutual hatred, the shadow of which fell on Assol.
The girl grew up without friends. Two or three dozen children of her age, who lived in Kapern, soaked like a sponge with water, with a rude family principle, the basis of which was the unshakable authority of mother and father, imitative, like all children in the world, crossed out little Assol once and for all from the sphere of their patronage and attention. This happened, of course, gradually, through the suggestion and shouting of adults, it acquired the character of a terrible prohibition, and then, reinforced by gossip and rumors, it grew in the children's minds with fear of the sailor's house.
Moreover, Longren's secluded way of life now freed the hysterical language of gossip; it was said about the sailor that he had killed someone somewhere, because, they say, they no longer take him to serve on ships, and he himself is gloomy and unsociable, because "he is tormented by the remorse of a criminal conscience." While playing, the children chased Assol if she approached them, threw mud and teased her that her father ate human meat, and now he was making counterfeit money. One after another, her naive attempts to get closer ended in bitter crying, bruises, scratches and other manifestations. public opinion; she finally stopped being offended, but still sometimes asked her father: "Tell me, why don't they like us?" “Hey, Assol,” said Longren, “do they know how to love? You have to be able to love, but that's something they can't." - "Like this - be able to? - "And like this!" He took the girl in his arms and kissed her sad eyes, squinting with tender pleasure. Assol's favorite entertainment was in the evenings or on a holiday, when his father, putting aside jars of paste, tools and unfinished work, sat down, taking off his apron, to rest with a pipe in his teeth - to climb on his knees and, spinning in the gentle ring of his father's hand, touch various parts of toys, asking about their purpose. Thus began a kind of fantastic lecture on life and people - a lecture in which, thanks to Longren's former way of life, accidents, chance in general, outlandish, amazing and unusual events were given the main place. Longren, naming the girl the names of gear, sails, marine items, gradually got carried away, moving from explanations to various episodes in which either the windlass, the steering wheel, the mast or some type of boat, etc. played a role, and from individual illustrations of these, he moved on to broad pictures of sea wanderings, weaving superstition into reality, and reality into images of his fantasy. Here appeared a tiger cat, the messenger of a shipwreck, and a talking flying fish, whose orders meant to go astray, and the Flying Dutchman with her furious crew; signs, ghosts, mermaids, pirates - in a word, all the fables that while away the leisure of a sailor in a calm or favorite tavern. Longren also told about the wrecked, about people who had gone wild and forgot how to speak, about mysterious treasures, riots of convicts, and much more, which the girl listened to more attentively than, perhaps, the story of Columbus about the new continent was listened to for the first time. “Well, say more,” Assol asked, when Longren, lost in thought, fell silent, and fell asleep on his chest with a head full of wonderful dreams.
It also served her as a great, always materially significant pleasure, the appearance of the clerk of the city toy shop, who willingly bought the work of Longren. To appease the father and bargain for the excess, the clerk took with him a couple of apples, a sweet pie, a handful of nuts for the girl. Longren usually asked for the real value out of dislike for bargaining, and the clerk slowed down. “Oh, you,” said Longren, “yes, I spent a week working on this bot. - The boat was five-vershkovy. - Look, what kind of strength - and cage, and kindness? This boat of fifteen people will survive in any weather. In the end, the quiet fuss of the girl, purring over her apple, deprived Longren of his stamina and the desire to argue; he yielded, and the clerk, having filled the basket with excellent, durable toys, went away, laughing in his mustache.
Longren did all the household work himself: he chopped wood, carried water, stoked the stove, cooked, washed, ironed linen and, in addition to all this, managed to work for money. When Assol was eight years old, her father taught her to read and write. He began occasionally taking it with him to the city, and then even sending one if there was a need to intercept money in a store or demolish goods. This did not happen often, although Liss lay only four miles from Kaperna, but the road to it went through the forest, and in the forest there are many things that can frighten children, in addition to the physical danger, which, it is true, is difficult to meet at such a close distance from the city, but still still doesn't hurt to keep in mind. Therefore, only on good days, in the morning, when the thicket surrounding the road is full of sunny showers, flowers and silence, so that Assol's impressionability was not threatened by phantoms of the imagination, Longren let her go to the city.
Once, in the middle of such a trip to the city, a girl sat down by the road to eat a piece of cake, put in a basket for breakfast. As she nibbled, she sorted through the toys; two or three of them were new to her: Longren had made them at night. One such novelty was a miniature racing yacht; this white boat carried scarlet sails made from scraps of silk used by Longren to cover steamer cabins - toys of a wealthy buyer. Here, apparently, having made a yacht, he did not find a suitable material for the sails, using what was available - shreds of scarlet silk. Assol was delighted.
