"golden rose" and writing in the story "precious dust". Composition “K.G. Paustovsky “Golden Rose”
Konstantin Georgievich Paustovsky Already in my youth I realized that a real writer can be a person who knows the life around him well. He decided to go “to the people”, year after year he replenished his stock of life observations.
K. G. Paustovsky outlined the idea of the essence in one of his later works, a story surprisingly deep in content "Golden Rose". The book consists of several story chapters, not connected by plot, but aimed at achieving one goal.
The story is very important for understanding the idea of the entire book. "Precious Dust", beginning the work. It is in this chapter that the writer reveals the secret of the golden rose, the appearance of which is so reminiscent of the birth of a true work of fiction.
The main character of the story, Jean Chamet, a former soldier who took part in the colonial wars, first saw the daughter of his regimental commander, Suzanne, when she was still an eight-year-old child. The unknown was ahead of the girl returning to her homeland, so she felt lonely and “was silent all the time.”
A kind soldier, sensitive to the suffering of others, enthusiastically told Susie stories from his life, many of which turned into fiction. From him the girl learned about the golden rose, which, according to legend, brings happiness to everyone who touches it. “There will be some eccentric for you,” Shamet replied when his little companion asked if anyone would give her such a rose.
The life of Chamet, who became a Parisian garbage man, was hungry and monotonous; he smelled “dust and garbage heaps” everywhere, even “in armfuls of wet flowers” sold by “clean old women on the boulevards.” But even in the “yellow haze” of days, he knew how to notice the beautiful. The blue ribbon that Jean Chamet had left in memory of Susie still smelled of violets, and the girl’s old dress appeared in her memories as a “light pink cloud.”
“For five days an extraordinary sun rose over Paris,” when Suzanne, now a young woman, was again next to the former soldier. And again the generous Shamet shows interest in her fate. Saying goodbye to the girl, he reminds her of the golden rose.
The golden rose in K. Paustovsky's story symbolizes the dream of happiness. To forge this magical rose for Suzanne was the goal set by Jean Chamet, who turned from a poor Parisian garbage collector into a creator of human happiness. In order to give the girl happiness, “all the tenderness that has long been driven into the depths of his heart,” he is ready to be branded an eccentric, to hide, extracting gold from jewelry dust.
And when, finally, the precious dust has turned into a bar of gold, Shamet realizes how unattractive he has become: “a clumsy image, hobbling on rheumatic legs.” Having reached the goal, the path to which was long, Jean learns that the one for whom the golden rose was intended is no longer in Paris.
The anticipation of the meeting turned into pain and hopelessness, into a “prickly fragment” stuck near the heart. But created for happiness and thanks to faith in this happiness, the thinnest golden rose transformed Shamet’s life, changed it for the better.
The life story of Jean Ernest Chamet helped the writer who bought the rose think about the essence of the writer’s work. The ability to choose from the entire diversity of the world only what is truly beautiful and kind, from what surrounds a person in everyday life, from “precious dust”, to create a poem, a story, a novel - means to create your own golden rose. And, of course, every work by K. G. Paustovsky is the petals of a rose, born of the work of a talented Russian writer.
Writers - creators, custodians and lovers of books
I. Organizational moment
(Congratulations on the beginning of the school year, introduction, message about the volume of the literature course in 6th grade: three lessons per week.)
We are starting a new school year, it splits your school life in half. Now, every day, you will have less and less time left to study at school than you have already studied. And how much more do you have to read, decide, think about! You grow up and know how to do more and more. Fifth graders already seem small to you, but just a year ago you were the same. Let's remember what we read in literature lessons, what books we discussed.
II. Updating knowledge (slide 1)
– What is the name of the traditional beginning of a fairy tale? (Begin.)
– What types of fairy tales do you know? (Magical, everyday, fairy tales about animals.)
– What fairy tales did we read in 5th grade? (Folk tales “Ivan the Peasant Son and the Miracle Yudo”, “The Frog Princess”, “The Crane and the Heron”, “The Soldier’s Overcoat”; literary
fairy tales by V.A. Zhukovsky, A.S. Pushkin, A. Pogorelsky, K.G. Paustovsky, S.Ya. Marshak, H.K. Andersen.)
– How do literary fairy tales differ from folk tales? (Approximate answer. Literary fairy tales have an author, folk tales have an author - the people; literary fairy tales have no variants, unlike folk tales they are written in the language of fiction, their plot is usually more developed, pictures of real life are adjacent to miracles, etc. )
– The heroine of which Russian folk tale is an enchanted beauty? ("Princess Frog".)
– What literary tale is based on the Russian folk tale recorded by A.S. Pushkin from the words of nanny Arina Rodionovna: “The princess got lost in the forest. Finds the house empty - cleans it. Twelve brothers arrive. “Ah,” they say, “there was someone here - either a man or a woman: if it’s a man, he’d be our own father or brother; if a woman, be our mother or sister...”? (“The Tale of the Dead Princess...”)
– Determine the genre of the work based on the following criteria: it is a short story, often in poetry, usually about animals that speak and act like humans; in that
The story has a moral - the idea of the story. (This is a fable.)
– Name the most famous Russian fabulist. (Ivan Andreevich Krylov.)
– What fables by I.A. Do you remember Krylov? (Fable auction: whoever names the fable last wins.)
– From what poem are these lines: “Dear son, / I have already forgotten the distant homeland / Gloomy land ...”? (From the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” by A.S. Pushkin.)
– In the text of the poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” there are the lines: “The lamp goes out, the smoke runs ...”, “Hope perishes, faith goes out ...” What words are used in a figurative meaning? (Runs,
dies, goes out.)
– What are such means of artistic expression called? (Personification, metaphor.)
– In which work by N.V. Gogol's hero, for the sake of his beloved, makes an extraordinary journey riding on the devil? (In the fairy tale “The Night Before Christmas” from the series “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka”.)
– What other works by N.V. Have you read Gogol? (“Enchanted place.”)
– Which work by M. Yu. Lermontov tells about the events of the Patriotic War? (“Borodino.”)
– Restore Lermontov’s lines.(slide 2)
Well, it was a day!
Through the smoke... (volatile)
The French moved... (like clouds)
And everything is at our redoubt.
– What words did you insert (from the point of view of artistic expression)? (Epithet, comparison.)
– In which literary fairy tales does nature help girl heroines? (“The Snow Queen” by H.C. Andersen, “Twelve Months” by S.Ya. Marshak.)
– Name the genre of these works. (Tale)
– What did you read in the summer?(slide 3)
– What books do you remember?
– What did you like about the books you read?
III. Work on the topic of the lesson
1 Introduction to the textbook(slide 4)
– The textbook consists of two parts. Who are the authors and compilers of the textbook? (V.P. Polukhina, V.Ya. Korovina, V.P. Zhuravlev, V.I. Korovin.)
– Look at the reproductions of paintings on the cover and endpapers, read the poems.
– Look at the table of contents, determine the path for the whole year.
We will go from folklore to ancient Russian literature, from it to Russian literature of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, then we will get acquainted with some poetic works of the peoples of Russia and partially with foreign literature - from antiquity to the 20th century.
– How do the sections of literature to be studied relate to the illustrations on the cover and endpapers?
Pay attention to the brief glossary of literary terms at the end of Part 2 of the textbook, which will help you independently understand some complex issues.
2 Reading the article “Calling for the Road”(p. 3, 4) (slide 5)
IV. Reinforcing the material learned
(Work on questions and assignments 1, 2, 5 of the “Test yourself” section (p. 4, 5).)
V. Summing up the lesson
We use textbooks in all lessons, but the literature textbook is special. With its help, we can not only read works, but also try to understand how they are born, plunge into their depth, penetrate into the secrets of writing, learn to read for real, that is, thoughtfully and with joy.
(slide 6) At K.G. Paustovsky has a book about the secrets of writing - “Golden Rose”. It opens with a story in which the hero, former French army soldier Jean Chamet, dreams of giving the little girl Suzanne an extraordinary golden rose that brings happiness. But where can scavenger Shamet get gold?
“He usually threw out all the rubbish that had been swept out of the craft establishments during the day. But after that... he stopped throwing dust out of the jewelry workshops. He began to secretly collect it in a bag and take it to his shack. The neighbors decided that the garbage man had moved. Few people knew that this dust contained a certain amount of gold powder, since jewelers always grind off a little gold when working.
Shamet decided to sift gold from jewelry dust, make a small ingot from it, and forge a small rose from this ingot for Suzanne’s happiness.”
Suzanne grew up, life did not spoil her, and she still believed in the flower of happiness that Shamet told her about. But the poor scavenger died without ever meeting Suzanne again.
And the golden rose came to the writer, who wrote in his notes: “Every minute, every word and glance thrown by chance, every deep or playful thought, every imperceptible movement of the human heart, just like the flying fluff of a poplar or the fire of a star in a night puddle, – these are all grains of gold dust.
We, writers, have been extracting them for decades, these millions of grains of sand, collecting them unnoticed by ourselves, turning them into an alloy and then forging from this alloy our “golden rose” - a story, novel or poem.”
Why did the golden rose become a symbol of writing?
A writer does not just write “out of inspiration,” he collects life material bit by bit for a long time, transforms it with the power of his imagination, and “forges” a work that can bring happiness to the reader.
Homework (slide 7)
1 Answer the questions and complete tasks 3, 4 of the “Test yourself” section (p. 5).
2 Complete a creative task (p. 5).
3 Individually: prepare a message about Christmas and New Year calendar and ritual songs; pick up carols and prepare as a class.
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Slide captions:
Writers are creators, preservers and lovers of books...
Well, there was a day Through the smoke... The French moved,..., And everyone came to our redoubt.
What books did you read in the summer? What do you remember? What do you want to re-read again? Let's get acquainted with the textbook
How should you read a book? Why is a book compared to a road? Why is it so important to know a large number of books? What was the book for A.S. Pushkin and L.N. Tolstoy? Which book by L.N. Tolstoy considered the most important? Which of V. Shklovsky’s thoughts seemed especially important to you? Working with the textbook. Page 3-4.
Homework (optional): 1. Answer questions and complete tasks 3, 4 rubrics “Test yourself” (p. 5) (written) 2. Complete a creative task (p. 5) (written) 3. Individually: prepare a message about Christmas and New Year calendar and ritual songs; pick up for the olyadka.
The language and profession of a writer - K.G. writes about this. Paustovsky. “Golden Rose” (summary) is exactly about this. Today we will talk about this exceptional book and its benefits for both the average reader and the aspiring writer.
Writing as a vocation
"Golden Rose" is a special book in Paustovsky's work. It was published in 1955, at that time Konstantin Georgievich was 63 years old. This book can only be called a “textbook for beginning writers” only remotely: the author lifts the curtain on his own creative kitchen, talks about himself, the sources of creativity and the role of the writer for the world. Each of the 24 sections carries a piece of wisdom from a seasoned writer who reflects on creativity based on his many years of experience.
Unlike modern textbooks, “The Golden Rose” (Paustovsky), a brief summary of which we will consider further, has its own distinctive features: there is more biography and reflections on the nature of writing, and there are no exercises at all. Unlike many modern authors, Konstantin Georgievich does not support the idea of writing everything down, and for him writing is not a craft, but a vocation (from the word “call”). For Paustovsky, a writer is the voice of his generation, the one who must cultivate the best that is in a person.
Konstantin Paustovsky. "Golden Rose": summary of the first chapter
The book begins with the legend of the golden rose (“Precious Dust”). It talks about the scavenger Jean Chamet, who wanted to give a rose made of gold to his friend, Suzanne, the daughter of a regimental commander. He accompanied her on her way home from the war. The girl grew up, fell in love and got married, but was unhappy. And according to legend, a golden rose always brings happiness to its owner.
Shamet was a garbage man, he did not have money for such a purchase. But he worked in a jewelry workshop and thought of sifting the dust that he swept out of there. Many years passed before there were enough grains of gold to make a small golden rose. But when Jean Chamet went to Suzanne to give her a gift, he found out that she had moved to America...
Literature is like this golden rose, says Paustovsky. "The Golden Rose", a summary of the chapters of which we are considering, is completely imbued with this statement. The writer, according to the author, must sift through a lot of dust, find grains of gold and cast a golden rose that will make the life of an individual and the whole world better. Konstantin Georgievich believed that a writer should be the voice of his generation.
A writer writes because he hears a call within himself. He can't help but write. For Paustovsky, writing is the most beautiful and most difficult profession in the world. The chapter “The Inscription on the Boulder” talks about this.
The birth of the idea and its development
“Lightning” is chapter 5 from the book “Golden Rose” (Paustovsky), the summary of which is that the birth of a plan is like lightning. The electric charge builds up for a very long time in order to later strike with full force. Everything that a writer sees, hears, reads, thinks, experiences, accumulates in order to one day become the idea of a story or book.
In the next five chapters, the author talks about naughty characters, as well as the origins of the idea for the stories “Planet Marz” and “Kara-Bugaz”. In order to write, you need to have something to write about - the main idea of these chapters. Personal experience is very important for a writer. Not the one that is created artificially, but the one that a person receives by living an active life, working and communicating with different people.
"Golden Rose" (Paustovsky): summary of chapters 11-16
Konstantin Georgievich reverently loved the Russian language, nature and people. They delighted and inspired him, forced him to write. The writer attaches enormous importance to knowledge of language. Everyone who writes, according to Paustovsky, has his own writer's dictionary, where he writes down all the new words that impress him. He gives an example from his life: the words “wilderness” and “swei” were unknown to him for a very long time. He heard the first from the forester, the second he found in Yesenin’s verse. Its meaning remained unclear for a long time, until a philologist friend explained that svei are those “waves” that the wind leaves on the sand.
You need to develop a sense of words in order to be able to convey its meaning and your thoughts correctly. In addition, it is very important to use punctuation marks correctly. An instructive story from real life can be read in the chapter "Incidents at Alschwang's Store."
On the Uses of Imagination (Chapters 20-21)
Although the writer seeks inspiration in the real world, imagination plays a big role in creativity, says The Golden Rose, whose summary would be incomplete without this, is replete with references to writers whose opinions about imagination differ greatly. For example, a verbal duel with Guy de Maupassant is mentioned. Zola insisted that a writer does not need imagination, to which Maupassant responded with a question: “How then do you write your novels, having only one newspaper clipping and not leaving the house for weeks?”
Many chapters, including "Night Stagecoach" (chapter 21), are written in short story form. This is a story about the storyteller Andersen and the importance of maintaining a balance between real life and imagination. Paustovsky is trying to convey to the aspiring writer a very important thing: under no circumstances should one give up a real, full life for the sake of imagination and a fictional life.
The art of seeing the world
You cannot feed your creative juices only with literature - the main idea of the last chapters of the book “The Golden Rose” (Paustovsky). The summary boils down to the fact that the author does not trust writers who do not like other types of art - painting, poetry, architecture, classical music. Konstantin Georgievich expressed an interesting idea on the pages: prose is also poetry, only without rhyme. Every Writer with a capital W reads a lot of poetry.
Paustovsky advises training your eye, learning to look at the world through the eyes of an artist. He tells his story of communicating with artists, their advice and how he himself developed his aesthetic sense by observing nature and architecture. The writer himself once listened to him and reached such heights of mastery of words that he even knelt before him (photo above).
Results
In this article we have analyzed the main points of the book, but this is not the complete content. “The Golden Rose” (Paustovsky) is a book that is worth reading for anyone who loves the work of this writer and wants to know more about him. It will also be useful for beginning (and not so beginning) writers to find inspiration and understand that a writer is not a prisoner of his talent. Moreover, a writer is obliged to live an active life.
Lesson 1. Topic: Literature opens up the world.
Purpose: to give an idea of fiction as a special form
knowledge of reality; repetition of what was learned in 5th grade; familiarization with the textbook - anthology.
During the classes
When I see around me how people don't
knowing what to do with your free time
time, seek the most pitiful
activities and entertainment I'm looking for
book and say to myself: this one
enough for a lifetime.
F.M. Dostoevsky
Piece of art
Expressive reading and discussion of the textbook article “Calling for the Road” (from the thoughts of V.B. Shklovsky) (pp. 3-5)
Answer the textbook questions (page 5)
Exercise 1.
Why V.B. Does Shklovsky call the book “dear”?
A book is a road that leads us through life, helping us with the knowledge that we have learned from it.
As V.B. advises viewing and reading the book. Shklovsky?
The book needs to be viewed and read carefully, like a watchmaker - a watch or a driver - a car.
What should you not be afraid of?
There is no need to be afraid that so many books have been written, there is no need to be afraid to read many different books - they will all be useful.
How did you feel about the book by A.S. Pushkin?
Pushkin read a lot, so he knew a lot. His interests were very wide, so he read a wide variety of books. He knew how to read books correctly - seriously, carefully.
How did L.N. feel about the book? Tolstoy?
Tolstoy knew how to take from books more than what was written in them, therefore, while reading Jules Verne, he thought about gravity, weightlessness...
“Books for Pushkin and Tolstoy are an object for thought, material for thought. They don’t stop at it, it seems to push them forward and further. And they move on from her.”
How did N.V. feel about the book? Gogol?
Gogol compiled his dictionaries from the knowledge gained in books.
Task 5
What book did L.N. consider? Tolstoy the most important?
L.N. Tolstoy believed that the book you are reading now is the most important.
Task 2
Do you agree with Andre Maurois' opinion?
Andre Maurois (French writer): “How should you read? If a book captivates us, then the first time we read it quickly and enthusiastically. We just devour the pages. But in the future (and a good book is read and re-read many times) you need to read it with a pencil or pen in hand.
Nothing shapes good taste and correct judgment more than the habit of writing out a passage you like or marking a deep thought.
You have to promise yourself not to miss anything when reading writers you really appreciate.”
We can agree with the estate of A. Maurois. You always read an interesting book quickly, enthusiastically flipping through one page after another. We are interested to know how the story ends. But later you re-read this book with a pencil in your hands. We write down the expressions, passages, and thoughts of the author that we like. For us, the main thing in reading is not to miss anything interesting.
Do you agree with Somerset Maugham's opinion?
Somerset Maugham (English writer): “I still read a lot of criticism because I like this literary genre. It's interesting to agree with the author; It’s interesting to argue with him; and it’s always interesting to know what an intelligent person thinks about a writer.”
Maugham says that he reads a lot of criticism because he likes this literary genre. The author is interested in arguing and agreeing with the critic. And it’s always interesting to know what a critic thinks about a writer. I think Maugham is right.
K.G. Paustovsky about the secret of writing in the book “Golden Rose”.
At K.G. Paustovsky has a book about the secret of writing, “Golden Rose”. It opens with a story in which the hero, former French army soldier Jean Chamet, dreams of giving the little girl Suzana an extraordinary golden rose that brings happiness. But where can scavenger Shamet get gold? “He usually threw out all the rubbish that had been swept out of the craft establishments during the day. But after that he stopped throwing dust out of jewelry workshops. He began to secretly collect it in a bag and take it to his shack. The neighbors decided that the garbage man had gone crazy. Few people knew that this dust contained a certain amount of gold powder, since jewelers always grind off a little gold when working.”
Shamet decided to sift gold from jewelry dust, make a small ingot from it, and forge a small rose from this ingot for Suzanne’s happiness.
Suzanne grew up, life did not spoil her, but she believed in the flower of happiness that Shamet told her about. But the scavenger died without ever meeting Suzanne again. And the golden rose came to the writer, who wrote in his notes: “Every minute, every word or glance thrown by chance, every deep or playful thought, every imperceptible movement of the human heart, just like the flying fluff of a poplar or the fire of a star in a night puddle - These are all grains of golden dust.
We, writers, have been extracting them for decades, these millions of grains of sand, collecting them unnoticed by ourselves, turning them into an alloy and then forging from this alloy our “golden rose” - a story, novel or poem.”
Why did the “golden rose” become a symbol of writing?
A writer does not just write “out of inspiration,” he spends a long time collecting vital material bit by bit, transforms, “forges” a work that can bring happiness to the reader.
The work of art and the author.
- What is a work of art?
Look at the cover of the textbook with a fragment of a painting by I.I. Levitan “After the rain. Plyos"
- If you stood in the very place where the artist stood, with a camera in your hands, and photographed the Volga and the city of Plyos, what would the photograph turn out to be?
-Would it look like a painting?
- What would distinguish a photograph from a Levitan painting?
With the help of photography, we will be able to more accurately and in detail convey the landscape we saw, but we will not be able to reflect our impression and the mood that this area evokes in us.
- What can a work of art be compared to? Is it a photograph that accurately reflects the world, or a painting that expresses the author’s moods and thoughts?
A work of art is a work of art said by a writer or poet about the world, which reflects the surrounding reality and the personality of the author.
- Who is the author?
An author is the creator of a literary work. In the work, the author expresses his thoughts and feelings, his assessment of reality.
- Why does the author create his works?
Introduction to the textbook.
Homework.
1. Read pages 3 – 5. Make a memo “How to treat a book” (in a notebook)
2. To choose from (written in a notebook):
1. Prepare a message “Books and reading in my life” (6 – 10 sentences)
2. Write a note for the school electronic newspaper “How I choose books to read” (6 – 10 sentences)
Very briefly About writing and the psychology of creativity
Precious Dust
Scavenger Jean Chamet cleans up craft workshops in a Parisian suburb.
While serving as a soldier during the Mexican War, Shamet contracted a fever and was sent home. The regimental commander instructed Shamet to take his eight-year-old daughter Suzanne to France. All the way, Shamet took care of the girl, and Suzanne willingly listened to his stories about the golden rose that brings happiness.
One day, Shamet meets a young woman whom he recognizes as Suzanne. Crying, she tells Shamet that her lover cheated on her, and now she has no home. Suzanne moves in with Shamet. Five days later she makes peace with her lover and leaves.
After parting with Suzanne, Shamet stops throwing away rubbish from jewelry workshops, in which a little gold dust always remains. He builds a small winnowing fan and winnows the jewelry dust. Shamet gives the gold mined over many days to a jeweler to make a golden rose.
Rose is ready, but Shamet finds out that Suzanne has left for America, and her trace has been lost. He quits his job and gets sick. Nobody takes care of him. Only the jeweler who made the rose visits him.
Soon Shamet dies. The jeweler sells a rose to an elderly writer and tells him the story of Shamet. The rose appears to the writer as a prototype of creative activity, in which, “like from these precious specks of dust, a living stream of literature is born.”
Inscription on a boulder
Paustovsky lives in a small house on the Riga seaside. Nearby lies a large granite boulder with the inscription “In memory of all who died and will die at sea.” Paustovsky considers this inscription a good epigraph for a book about writing.
Writing is a calling. The writer strives to convey to people the thoughts and feelings that concern him. At the behest of the call of his time and people, a writer can become a hero and endure difficult trials.
An example of this is the fate of the Dutch writer Eduard Dekker, known under the pseudonym “Multatuli” (Latin for “long-suffering”). Serving as a government official on the island of Java, he defended the Javanese and took their side when they rebelled. Multatuli died without receiving justice.
The artist Vincent Van Gogh was equally selflessly devoted to his work. He was not a fighter, but he contributed his paintings glorifying the earth to the treasury of the future.
Flowers made from shavings
The greatest gift remaining to us from childhood is a poetic perception of life. A person who has retained this gift becomes a poet or writer.
During his poor and bitter youth, Paustovsky writes poetry, but soon realizes that his poems are tinsel, flowers made from painted shavings, and instead writes his first story.
First story
Paustovsky learns this story from a resident of Chernobyl.
The Jew Yoska falls in love with the beautiful Christa. The girl loves him too - small, red-haired, with a squeaky voice. Khristya moves into Yoska’s house and lives with him as his wife.
The town begins to worry - a Jew lives with an Orthodox woman. Yoska decides to be baptized, but Father Mikhail refuses him. Yoska leaves, cursing the priest.
Upon learning of Yoska's decision, the rabbi curses his family. For insulting a priest, Yoska goes to prison. Christia dies of grief. The police officer releases Yoska, but he loses his mind and becomes a beggar.
Returning to Kyiv, Paustovsky writes his first story about this, in the spring he rereads it and understands that the author’s admiration for Christ’s love is not felt in it.
Paustovsky believes that his stock of everyday observations is very poor. He gives up writing and wanders around Russia for ten years, changing professions and communicating with a variety of people.
Lightning
The idea is lightning. It arises in the imagination, saturated with thoughts, feelings, and memory. For a plan to appear, we need a push, which can be everything happening around us.
The embodiment of the plan is a downpour. The idea develops from constant contact with reality.
Inspiration is a state of elation, consciousness of one’s creative power. Turgenev calls inspiration “the approach of God,” and for Tolstoy, “inspiration consists in the fact that suddenly something is revealed that can be done...”
Riot of Heroes
Almost all writers make plans for their future works. Writers who have the gift of improvisation can write without a plan.
As a rule, the heroes of a planned work resist the plan. Leo Tolstoy wrote that his heroes do not obey him and do as they want. All writers know this inflexibility of heroes.
The story of one story. Devonian limestone
1931 Paustovsky rents a room in the city of Livny, Oryol region. The owner of the house has a wife and two daughters. Paustovsky meets the eldest, nineteen-year-old Anfisa, on the river bank in the company of a frail and quiet fair-haired teenager. It turns out that Anfisa loves a boy with tuberculosis.
One night Anfisa commits suicide. For the first time, Paustovsky witnesses immense female love, which is stronger than death.
The railway doctor Maria Dmitrievna Shatskaya invites Paustovsky to move in with her. She lives with her mother and brother, geologist Vasily Shatsky, who went crazy in captivity among the Basmachi of Central Asia. Vasily gradually gets used to Paustovsky and begins to talk. Shatsky is an interesting conversationalist, but at the slightest fatigue he begins to delirium. Paustovsky describes his story in Kara-Bugaz.
The idea for the story appears in Paustovsky during Shatsky’s stories about the first explorations of the Kara-Buga Bay.
Studying geographical maps
In Moscow, Paustovsky takes out a detailed map of the Caspian Sea. In his imagination, the writer wanders along its shores for a long time. His father does not approve of the hobby of geographical maps - it promises a lot of disappointments.
The habit of imagining different places helps Paustovsky to correctly see them in reality. Trips to the Astrakhan steppe and Emba give him the opportunity to write a book about Kara-Bugaz. Only a small part of the collected material is included in the story, but Paustovsky does not regret it - this material will be useful for a new book.
Notches on the heart
Every day of life leaves its marks in the writer’s memory and heart. A good memory is one of the foundations of writing.
While working on the story “Telegram,” Paustovsky manages to fall in love with the old house where the lonely old woman Katerina Ivanovna, the daughter of the famous engraver Pozhalostin, lives, for its silence, the smell of birch smoke from the stove, and the old engravings on the walls.
Katerina Ivanovna, who lived with her father in Paris, suffers greatly from loneliness. One day she complains to Paustovsky about her lonely old age, and a few days later she becomes very ill. Paustovsky calls Katerina Ivanovna’s daughter from Leningrad, but she is three days late and arrives after the funeral.
Diamond tongue
Spring in low forest
The wonderful properties and richness of the Russian language are revealed only to those who love and know their people and feel the charm of our land. In Russian there are many good words and names for everything that exists in nature.
We have books by experts on nature and folk language - Kaigorodov, Prishvin, Gorky, Aksakov, Leskov, Bunin, Alexei Tolstoy and many others. The main source of language is the people themselves. Paustovsky talks about a forester who is fascinated by the kinship of words: spring, birth, homeland, people, relatives...
Language and nature
During the summer Paustovsky spent in the forests and meadows of Central Russia, the writer relearned many words that were known to him, but distant and unexperienced.
For example, “rain” words. Each type of rain has a separate original name in Russian. The stinging rain is pouring vertically and heavily. A fine mushroom rain falls from the low clouds, after which mushrooms begin to grow wildly. People call blind rain falling in the sun “The princess is crying.”
One of the beautiful words in the Russian language is the word “zarya”, and next to it is the word “zarnitsa”.
Piles of flowers and herbs
Paustovsky fishes in a lake with high, steep banks. He sits near the water in dense thickets. Above, in a meadow overgrown with flowers, village children are collecting sorrel. One of the girls knows the names of many flowers and herbs. Then Paustovsky finds out that the girl’s grandmother is the best herbalist in the region.
Dictionaries
Paustovsky dreams of new dictionaries of the Russian language, in which it would be possible to collect words related to nature; apt local words; words from different professions; garbage and dead words, bureaucracy that clogs the Russian language. These dictionaries should have explanations and examples so that they can be read like books.
This work is beyond the power of one person, because our country is rich in words that describe the diversity of Russian nature. Our country is also rich in local dialects, figurative and euphonious. The maritime terminology and spoken language of sailors is excellent, which, like the language of people of many other professions, deserves a separate study.
Incident at Alschwang's store
Winter 1921. Paustovsky lives in Odessa, in the former ready-to-wear store Alschwang and Company. He serves as a secretary at the newspaper "Sailor", where many young writers work. Of the old writers, only Andrei Sobol often comes to the editorial office, he is always an excited person about something.
One day Sobol brings his story to The Sailor, interesting and talented, but torn and confused. No one dares to suggest that Sobol correct the story because of his nervousness.
Corrector Blagov corrects the story overnight, without changing a single word, but simply by placing the punctuation marks correctly. When the story is published, Sobol thanks Blagov for his skill.
It's like nothing
Almost every writer has his own kind genius. Paustovsky considers Stendhal his inspiration.
There are many seemingly insignificant circumstances and skills that help writers work. It is known that Pushkin wrote best in the fall, often skipped places that were not given to him, and returned to them later. Gaidar came up with phrases, then wrote them down, then came up with them again.
Paustovsky describes the features of the writing work of Flaubert, Balzac, Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Andersen.
Old man in the station cafeteria
Paustovsky tells in great detail the story of a poor old man who did not have money to feed his dog Petya. One day an old man walks into a cafeteria where young people are drinking beer. Petit starts begging them for a sandwich. They throw a piece of sausage to the dog, insulting its owner. The old man forbids Petya to take a handout and buys her a sandwich with his last pennies, but the barmaid gives him two sandwiches - this will not ruin her.
The writer discusses the disappearance of details from modern literature. Detail is needed only if it is characteristic and closely related to intuition. Good detail evokes in the reader a true picture of a person, event, or era.
White Night
Gorky is planning to publish a series of books “The History of Factories and Plants.” Paustovsky chooses an old plant in Petrozavodsk. It was founded by Peter the Great to cast cannons and anchors, then produced bronze castings, and after the revolution - road cars.
In the Petrozavodsk archives and library, Paustovsky finds a lot of material for the book, but he never manages to create a single whole from scattered notes. Paustovsky decides to leave.
Before leaving, he finds in an abandoned cemetery a grave topped by a broken column with the inscription in French: “Charles Eugene Lonseville, artillery engineer of Napoleon's Grand Army...”.
Materials about this person “consolidate” the data collected by the writer. A participant in the French Revolution, Charles Lonseville was captured by the Cossacks and exiled to the Petrozavodsk plant, where he died of fever. The material was dead until the man who became the hero of the story “The Fate of Charles Lonseville” appeared.
Life-giving principle
Imagination is a property of human nature that creates fictional people and events. Imagination fills the voids of human life. The heart, imagination and mind are the environment where culture is born.
Imagination is based on memory, and memory is based on reality. The law of associations sorts memories that are intimately involved in creativity. The wealth of associations testifies to the richness of the writer’s inner world.
Night stagecoach
Paustovsky plans to write a chapter on the power of imagination, but replaces it with a story about Andersen, who travels from Venice to Verona by night stagecoach. Andersen's traveling companion turns out to be a lady in a dark cloak. Andersen suggests turning off the lantern - the darkness helps him invent different stories and imagine himself, ugly and shy, as a young, lively handsome man.
Andersen returns to reality and sees that the stagecoach is standing, and the driver is bargaining with several women who are asking for a ride. The driver demands too much, and Adersen pays extra for the women.
Through the lady in the cloak, the girls try to find out who helped them. Andersen replies that he is a predictor, he can guess the future and see in the dark. He calls the girls beauties and predicts love and happiness for each of them. In gratitude, the girls kiss Andersen.
In Verona, a lady who introduces herself as Elena Guiccioli invites Andersen to visit. When they meet, Elena admits that she recognized him as a famous storyteller, who in life is afraid of fairy tales and love. She promises to help Andersen as soon as necessary.
A long-planned book
Paustovsky decides to write a book-collection of short biographies, among which there is room for several stories about unknown and forgotten people, unmercenaries and ascetics. One of them is the river captain Olenin-Volgar, a man with an extremely eventful life.
In this collection, Paustovsky also wants to mention his friend - the director of a local history museum in a small town in Central Russia, whom the writer considers an example of dedication, modesty and love for his land.
Chekhov
Some stories of the writer and doctor Chekhov are exemplary psychological diagnoses. Chekhov's life is instructive. For many years he squeezed the slave out of himself drop by drop - this is exactly what Chekhov said about himself. Paustovsky keeps a part of his heart in Chekhov's house on Outka.
Alexander Blok
In Blok’s early little-known poems there is a line that evokes all the charm of foggy youth: “The spring of my distant dream...”. This is an insight. The entire Block consists of such insights.
Guy de Maupassant
Maupassant's creative life is as swift as a meteor. A merciless observer of human evil, towards the end of his life he was inclined to glorify love-suffering and love-joy.
In his last hours, it seemed to Maupassant that his brain was being eaten away by some kind of poisonous salt. He regretted the feelings he had rejected in his hasty and tiresome life.
Maksim Gorky
For Paustovsky, Gorky is all of Russia. Just as one cannot imagine Russia without the Volga, one cannot imagine that there is no Gorky in it. He loved and knew Russia thoroughly. Gorky discovered talents and defined the era. From people like Gorky, one can begin the chronology.
Victor Hugo
Hugo, a frantic, stormy man, exaggerated everything he saw in life and wrote about. He was a knight of freedom, its herald and messenger. Hugo inspired many writers to love Paris, and for this they are grateful to him.
Mikhail Prishvin
Prishvin was born in the ancient city of Yelets. The nature around Yelets is very Russian, simple and sparse. This property of hers lies the basis of Prishvin’s literary vigilance, the secret of Prishvin’s charm and witchcraft.
Alexander Green
Paustovsky is surprised by Green's biography, his hard life as a renegade and restless vagabond. It is not clear how this withdrawn and suffering from adversity man retained the great gift of a powerful and pure imagination, faith in man. The prose poem “Scarlet Sails” ranked him among the wonderful writers seeking perfection.
Eduard Bagritsky
There are so many fables in Bagritsky’s stories about himself that sometimes it is impossible to distinguish the truth from the legend. Bagritsky's inventions are a characteristic part of his biography. He himself sincerely believed in them.
Bagritsky wrote magnificent poetry. He died early, without having achieved “a few more difficult peaks of poetry.”
The art of seeing the world
Knowledge of areas adjacent to art - poetry, painting, architecture, sculpture and music - enriches the writer’s inner world and gives special expressiveness to his prose.
Painting helps a prose writer to see colors and light. An artist often notices something that writers don't see. Paustovsky sees for the first time all the variety of colors of Russian bad weather thanks to Levitan’s painting “Above Eternal Peace.”
The perfection of classical architectural forms will not allow the writer to create a ponderous composition.
Talented prose has its own rhythm, depending on the sense of language and a good “writer's ear”, which is connected with a musical ear.
Poetry enriches the language of a prose writer most of all. Leo Tolstoy wrote that he would never understand where the border between prose and poetry is. Vladimir Odoevsky called poetry a harbinger of “that state of humanity when it will stop achieving and begin to use what has been achieved.”
In the back of a truck
1941 Paustovsky rides in the back of a truck, hiding from German air raids. A fellow traveler asks the writer what he thinks about during times of danger. Paustovsky answers - about nature.
Nature will act on us with all its strength when our state of mind, love, joy or sadness comes into full harmony with it. Nature must be loved, and this love will find the right ways to express itself with the greatest strength.
Parting words to yourself
Paustovsky finishes the first book of his notes on writing, realizing that the work is not finished and there are many topics left that need to be written about.