Red sails. Scarlet Sails

The famous Russian writer Alexander Grin (Grinevsky) 94 years ago - November 23, 1922 - finished a work in Petrograd that became one of the brightest and most life-affirming in the history of Soviet literature. Almost a century later, the fairy tale “Scarlet Sails” is reborn again on the cinema screens, theatrical stage and right on the Neva, where at the end of June a fabulous brig appears.

“It was hard to imagine that such a bright flower, warmed by love for people, could be born here, in gloomy, cold and half-starved Petrograd, in the winter twilight of the harsh 1920; and that he was raised by a man outwardly gloomy, unfriendly and as if closed in a special world, where he did not want to let anyone in, ”Soviet poet Vsevolod Rozhdestvensky recalled about Green.

the site has collected interesting facts about the story-extravaganza "Scarlet Sails", which tells about a lofty dream and unshakable faith in a miracle.

Toy store book

Alexander Green left a rather clear memory of how the idea of the text originated in him. So, in the drafts for his novel "Running on the Waves," the author recalls that in the window of one of the shops in the city on the Neva, he saw a boat with a beautiful wing-shaped, but only white sail.

“This toy told me something, but I didn’t know what, then I wondered if the sail of red would say more, and better than that - scarlet, because there is bright jubilation in scarlet. Jubilation means knowing why you are happy. And now, unfolding from this, taking the waves and a ship with scarlet sails, I saw the purpose of his being, "Green wrote.

The first notes related to "Scarlet Sails", Alexander Green began to make in 1916. Preliminary work on Scarlet Sails was completed four years later. In the future, the author repeatedly made edits to the manuscript - changed and rewrote the text until he achieved what he wanted. Green strove to create an ideal world where wonderful heroes live and where love, dream, fairy tale can overcome rudeness and callousness.

Only in one of the last versions of the story "Red Sails" were replaced by scarlet ones, and the expression itself became a word-symbol.

Alexander Green in St. Petersburg in 1910. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

A story for Nina

In the life of Alexander Green, three marriages happened. After several years of wandering and revolutionary activities, the future writer was arrested in Sevastopol. He was taken for speeches of illegal content, as well as the dissemination of revolutionary ideas. Green had no acquaintances or relatives, so Vera Abramova, the daughter of a wealthy official, who sympathized with revolutionary ideals, visited him under the guise of a bride. Subsequently, the "imaginary wife" became his first wife.

Green was released under an amnesty, but was arrested again in St. Petersburg, and then sent into exile in Turinsk for four years. He escaped three days later, got himself another passport, again arrived in the city on the Neva and began to write. In 1911, the deception was revealed, and Green, together with Abramova, went to Pinega, where he created several works - The Life of Gnor and The Blue Cascade of Telluri. Here the couple was allowed to get married. A year later, the spouses were allowed to return to St. Petersburg, but their life together was short-lived. Abramova left Green, unable to withstand his unpredictability and uncontrollability, besides, the writer, having started to earn money, often boozed and spent all the money.

The writer saw his third wife for the first time in 1918 - she was a nurse Nina Mironova, who worked at that time in the newspaper "Petrogradskoe Echo". Greene met her again in 1921. She was absolutely destitute and sold things on the street. A month later, he proposed to his chosen one and did not part with Mironova until his death. It was to her that Green dedicated "Scarlet Sails" - she became the prototype of Assol. “The Author presents and dedicates to Nina Nikolaevna Green. PBG, November 23, 1922 ", - this is how the author wrote.

After Green's death, the fate of his last wife was not easy - during the German occupation of Crimea, she remained in the Old Crimea and after the war received 10 years in camps for staying with a seriously ill mother in the temporarily Nazi-occupied territory, working as a proofreader and editor for an occupation newspaper "Official Bulletin of the Staro-Krymsk District". The occupation authorities used the name of the widow of the famous writer for their propaganda purposes. Subsequently, Mironova was hijacked for labor work in Germany, waited for release, returned to Crimea, was arrested, and was imprisoned in Stalin's camps. Nina Nikolaevna was completely rehabilitated in 1997.

The third wife of the Soviet writer Nina Morozova. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Kaperna instead of Petersburg

The famous Petrograd House of Arts, founded in 1919, set itself the task of providing social assistance to artists. Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam and Alexander Grin lived and worked here. For several years of its existence, it became the center of the literary life of Petrograd. It was compared to a ship or an ark that saved the Petersburg intelligentsia in the years of post-revolutionary famine and devastation. Unfortunately, it existed only until 1922.

Here Green created most of the Scarlet Sails text. In this building, the author's plan also matured to make the plot of the story unfold in the scenery of the city on the Neva. Only in the course of work did the writer transfer the action to the fictional fishing village of Kaperna. It is curious that some literary scholars subsequently found here consonance with the Gospel Capernaum.

However, the brig himself with scarlet sails nevertheless began to visit Petersburg in reality.

The embankments of the city on the Neva could be included in the text of the story. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Graduation party

The only holiday of graduates in the USSR originated in Leningrad in 1968. It was then that for the first time in the water area of the Neva appeared the secret from the pages of Green's story with scarlet sails. The river was then engulfed in the bright lights of torches, which held them young men and women, who became participants in a grand performance, crowned with a triumphal fireworks. The dialogue of the announcers sounded on the air. They talked about Green, about his ship: "Fair wind to you, ship of joy, ship of youth, ship of happiness!"

Since that year, "Scarlet Sails" began to be celebrated traditionally until 1979, until officials intervened - the head of the Leningrad Regional Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Grigory Romanov, closed the celebration, fearing a large gathering of young people.

The event in the format of a multimedia show with a major concert was resumed in 2005. The vivid performance ends with the exit to the water area of the brig with "Scarlet Sails" - a kind of living monument to the immortal work of Alexander Green.

Every summer, graduates in St. Petersburg see a fairy tale come to life. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Screen adaptations

The story has survived several dozen theatrical performances, and bards and popular rock musicians have composed more than one song for their records based on it. However, in the domestic cinema "Scarlet Sails" appeared only once.

For the first time the text of Alexander Grin was filmed in 1961 by director Alexander Ptushko. For the main female role, the director invited 16-year-old Anastasia Vertinskaya, for whom the role of Assol was her first film work. The brilliant Vasily Lanovoy became her partner.

A happy fate awaited the film, just like the book. Despite the cool reception of critics, the picture aroused keen interest among the audience: in the first rental year alone, "Scarlet Sails" was watched by more than 22 million people.

It is curious that the manufacture of sails for Gray's ship took, according to various sources, from five hundred to two thousand square meters of scarlet silk.

The famous Soviet film adaptation of the story by Alexander Grin. Still from the film

Another film "The True Story of Scarlet Sails", produced by Ukrainian filmmakers, appeared in 2010. The mini-series was shown on television, but the audience did not like it - today the picture has already been forgotten.

Nina Nikolaevna Green presents and dedicates

Chapter I
Prediction

Longren, sailor of the Orion, a stout three-hundred-ton brig 1
Brig- a two-masted sailing vessel with straight rigging on both masts.

On which he served for ten years and to which he was more attached than any son to his own mother, he 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, his wife Mary on the threshold of the house, throwing her hands up, and then running towards him until she lost her breath. Instead, an agitated neighbor stood by the crib — a new item in Longren’s small house.

“For three months I followed her, old man,” she said. “Look at your daughter.

Dead, Longren bent down and saw the eight-month-old creature gazing intently at his long beard, then sat down, looked down and began twirling his mustache. The mustache was wet as from the 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 wood-burning shed, and he thought that the fire of a simple lamp - if now they were all together, three of them - would be an indispensable joy for a woman who had gone to an unknown country.

About three months ago, the household affairs of the young mother were very bad. Of the money left by Longren, a good half went to treatment after a difficult birth, to take care of the health of the newborn; finally, the loss of a small, but necessary for life, amount forced Mary to ask for a loan from Menners. Menners kept an inn, a shop and was considered a wealthy man.

Mary went to see 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 the city to lay her wedding ring. She added that Menners agreed to give money, but demanded love for it. Mary has achieved nothing.

“We don't even have a crumb of food in our house,” she told a neighbor. "I will go to the city, and the girl and I will interrupt somehow before my husband returns."

The weather was cold, windy that evening; the narrator in vain tried to persuade the young woman not to go to Liss at night. "You will get wet, Mary, it is raining, and the wind, just be sure, will bring a 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 hardly a single family where I would not borrow bread, tea or flour. I'll put the ring on, and it's over. " She went, came back, and the next day she fell ill in a fever and delirium; bad weather and evening drizzle struck her with bilateral pneumonia, as the city doctor said, summoned by the kind storyteller. A week later, an empty space was left 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, he healed the lonely life of a widower, concentrating all thoughts, hopes, love and memories on a little 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 sailing ships, cruisers, steamers - in a word, what he knew closely, which, due to the nature of his work, partly replaced the rumble of port life and painting. voyages. In this way, Longren produced enough to live in a modest economy. Uncommunicative by nature, after the death of his wife, he became even more withdrawn and unsociable. On holidays he was sometimes seen in the tavern, but he never sat down, but hastily drank a glass of vodka at the counter and left, briefly throwing around: "yes", "no", "hello", "goodbye", "little by little" - on all the calls and nods of neighbors. He could not stand the guests, quietly sending them off, not by force, but with such hints and fictitious circumstances that the visitor had no choice but to invent a reason not to allow him to sit longer.

He himself did not visit anyone either; thus, a cold alienation fell between him and his fellow countrymen, and if Longren's work - toys - were less independent from the affairs of the village, he would have had to experience the consequences of such relations more tangibly. He bought goods and food from the city - Menners couldn't even boast of the box of matches Longren had 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.

It was spring, early and harsh like winter, but in a different way. For three weeks a sharp coastal north fell to the cold ground.

Fishing boats pulled ashore formed a long row of dark keels on the white sand, reminiscent of the ridges of huge fish. No one dared to go fishing in such weather. On the only street in the village, it was rare to see a person leaving the house; the cold whirlwind that swept from the coastal hills into the void horizon made the open air a harsh torture. All the chimneys of the Kaperna smoked from morning to evening, fluttering the smoke over the steep roofs.

But these days the Nord lured Longren out of his warm little house more often than the sun, throwing blankets of airy gold on the sea and Kapern in clear weather. Longren went out onto a bridge, laid along long rows of piles, where, at the very end of this boardwalk, he smoked a pipe blown by the wind for a long time, watching as the bottom exposed near the coast smoked with gray foam, barely keeping pace with the ramparts, the rumbling run of which to the black, stormy horizon filled the space with herds of fantastic maned creatures, rushing in unbridled ferocious despair to distant consolation. Moans and noises, the howling fire of huge rises of water and, it seemed, a visible stream of wind stripping the surroundings - so strong was its even run - gave the exhausted soul of Longren that dullness, deafening, which, reducing grief to vague sadness, is equal to the action of deep sleep ...

On one of these days, Menners' twelve-year-old son, Hin, noticing that his father's boat was beating against the piles under the footbridge, breaking the sides, went and told his father about it. The storm has begun recently; Menners forgot to put the boat out 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. On the shore, except for two of them, there was no one else. Menners walked along the walkway to the middle, went down into the furiously splashing water and untied the sheet; standing in the boat, he began to make his way to the shore, grabbing the piles with his hands. He did not take the oar, and at the moment when, staggering, he missed grabbing the next pile, a strong blow of the wind threw the bow of the boat from the walkway towards the ocean. Now, even the entire length of his body, Menners could not reach the nearest pile. The wind and waves, swaying, 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 belated, since the boat was already spinning near the end of the breakwater, where the considerable depth of the water and the fury of the ramparts promised certain death. Between Longren and Menners, carried away into the stormy distance, there was no more than ten fathoms still a saving distance, since on the walkways near Longren's hand hung a bundle of rope with a weight woven into one end. This rope was hung in case of a berth in stormy weather and was thrown from the walkways.

- Longren! Shouted the mortally frightened Menners. - What have you become like a tree stump? See, it blows me away; drop the dock!

Longren was silent, calmly looking at Menners rushing about in the boat, only his pipe began to smoke harder, and he, after a pause, took it out of his mouth in order to better see what was happening.

- Longren! - cried Menners, - you hear me, I am dying, save me!

But Longren did not say a word to him; he did not seem to hear the desperate cry. Until the boat was carried so far that Menners' words-shouts barely reached, he did not even step from foot to foot. Menners sobbed with horror, begged 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 racing of the boat. "Longren, - came to him dully, as from the roof - sitting inside the house, - save!" Then, taking a breath and taking a deep breath so that not a word was lost in the wind, Longren shouted:

- She also asked you! Think about it while you're still alive, Menners, and don't forget!

Then the screams ceased, and Longren went home. Assol, waking up, saw her father sitting in front of a dying lamp in deep thought. Hearing the voice of the girl calling him, he went up to her, kissed her hard and covered her with a loose blanket.

“Sleep, dear,” he said, “it's still a long way from the morning.

- What are you doing?

- I made a black toy, Assol - sleep!

On the next day, only the inhabitants of Kaperna were talking about the missing Menners, and on the sixth day they brought him himself, dying and spiteful. His story quickly spread throughout the surrounding villages. Menners wore until evening; shattered by tremors on the sides and bottom of the boat, during the terrible struggle with the ferocity of the waves, which threatened, without getting tired, to throw the distraught shopkeeper into the sea, he was picked up by the steamer "Lucretia", sailing to Cassette. A cold and a shock of terror ended Menners' days. He lived a little less than forty-eight hours, calling upon Longren all the calamities possible on earth and in the imagination. Menners' story of how a sailor watched his death, refusing to help, eloquent especially since the dying man was breathing with difficulty and groaning, amazed 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 grieve as much as he grieved for Mary for the rest of his life - they were disgusted, incomprehensible, amazed them that Longren was silent. Silently, until his last words, sent in pursuit of 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 shouted, expressing with gestures or fussiness of malevolence, or something else, his triumph at the sight of Menners' despair, the fishermen would understand him, but he acted differently than they did - he did impressive, incomprehensible and by this he put himself above others, in a word, he did what they do not forgive. No one bowed to him anymore, did not stretch out his hands, did not cast a recognizing, greeted glance. He remained completely aloof from village affairs forever; the boys, seeing him, shouted after him: "Longren drowned Menners!" He paid no attention to it. In the same way, he 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 solidified an earlier 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 Kaperna, soaked like a sponge with water, a rough family beginning, the basis of which was the unshakable authority of mother and father, receptive, like all children in the world, once and for all erased little Assol from the sphere of their patronage and attention. This happened, of course, gradually, through the suggestion and shouts of adults, it acquired the character of a terrible prohibition, and then, reinforced by gossip and rumors, it grew in children's minds with fear of the sailor's house.

Moreover, Longren's withdrawn lifestyle freed the now hysterical language of gossip; they used to say about the sailor that he 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 remorse of a criminal conscience." While playing, the children chased Assol if she approached them, threw mud and teased that her father ate human flesh and now makes counterfeit money. One after another, her naive attempts at rapprochement 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?" “Eh, Assol,” Longren said, “can they really love? You have to be able to love, but this is something they cannot do. " - "Like this - be able to? " - "That's how!" He took the girl in his arms and firmly kissed the sad eyes, which were screwed up with tender pleasure. Assol's favorite pastime was in the evenings or on a holiday, when his father, setting aside jars of paste, tools and unfinished work, sat down, taking off his apron, to rest with a pipe in his teeth, - climb onto his lap and, spinning in the gentle ring of his father's hand, touch different 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 extraordinary 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 the windlass, the steering wheel, the mast or some type of boat, etc., played a role, and from individual illustrations of these passed on to broad pictures of sea wanderings, weaving superstition into reality, and reality - into the images of his fantasy. Here appeared a tiger cat, the messenger of a shipwreck, and a talking flying fish, to disobey whose orders meant to go astray, and the "Flying Dutchman" 3
Flying Dutchman- in nautical legends - a ghost ship, abandoned by the crew or with a crew from the dead, as a rule, a harbinger of trouble.

With its frantic crew; omens, ghosts, mermaids, pirates - in a word, all the fables that while away the sailor's leisure in calm or favorite tavern. Longren also talked about the wrecked, about people who had run wild and forgotten how to talk, about mysterious treasures, riots of convicts and much more, which the girl listened to more attentively than, perhaps, the first time Columbus had listened to the story of the new continent. “Well, say more,” Assol begged, when Longren, lost in thought, fell silent and fell asleep on his chest with a head full of wonderful dreams.

... - The bot was five shoots. - Look what the strength is - and the cage 5
Draft - the depth of immersion of the vessel in the water.

And kindness? This boat will withstand fifteen people in any weather. " In the end, the quiet fidgeting of the girl purring over her apple deprived Longren of his courage and desire to argue; he yielded, and the clerk, having filled the basket with excellent, durable toys, left, laughing in his mustache.

Longren did all the housework himself: he chopped wood, carried water, heated 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 to occasionally take her with him to the city, and then even send one, if there was a need to intercept money in the store or to demolish the goods. This did not happen often, although Liss lay only four versts from Kaperna, but the road to it went through a forest, and in the forest, much can frighten children, in addition to physical danger, which, however, is difficult to meet at such a close distance from the city, but all- it does not hurt to keep in mind. Therefore, only on good days, in the morning, when the thicket surrounding the road is full of sunny rain, flowers and silence, so that Assol's impressionability was not threatened by phantoms 6
Phantom- a ghost, a ghost.

Imagination, Longren let her go to the city.

One day, in the middle of such a trip to the city, a girl sat down by the road to eat a piece of pie put in a basket for breakfast. While eating, she went over 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; it was a white boat carrying scarlet sails, made from scraps of silk used by Longren for pasting the steamship 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 - scraps of scarlet silk. Assol was delighted. The fiery cheerful color burned so brightly in her hand, as if she were holding fire. The road was crossed by a stream with a railroad bridge thrown over it; the brook left and right went into the forest. "If I put her on the water to swim a little," Assol reflected, "she won't get wet, I will wipe her off later." Having gone into the forest behind the bridge, along the stream of the stream, the girl carefully launched the ship that had captivated her into the water at the very shore; the sails immediately flashed a scarlet reflection in the transparent water; the light, penetrating matter, lay in a quivering pink radiation on the white stones of the bottom. “Where did you come from, captain? - Assol asked importantly an imaginary face and, answering to herself, said: - I have arrived ... I have arrived ... I have come from China. - What did you bring? - What I brought, I will not say about that. - Oh, you are so, captain! Well, then I'll put you back in the basket. " The captain had just prepared to humbly answer that he was joking and that he was ready to show the elephant, when suddenly the quiet run-off of the coastal stream turned the yacht with its bow to the middle of the stream, and, like a real one, leaving the coast at full speed, she floated straight down. Instantly the scale of what was visible changed: the stream seemed to the girl a huge river, and the yacht seemed to be a distant, large vessel, towards which, almost falling into the water, frightened and dumbfounded, she stretched out her hands. “The captain was frightened,” she thought, and ran after the floating toy, hoping that it would be washed ashore somewhere. Hastily dragging a not heavy, but interfering basket, Assol kept repeating: “Oh, Lord! After all, it happened. ”She tried not to lose sight of the beautiful, smoothly running triangle of sails, stumbled, fell and ran again.

Assol had never been so deep in the forest as she is now. She, consumed with an impatient desire to catch the toy, did not look around; near the shore, where she fussed about, there were enough obstacles that occupied the attention. Mossy trunks of fallen trees, pits, tall ferns, rose hips, jasmine and hazel hindered her at every step; overpowering them, she gradually lost strength, stopping more and more often to rest or brush the sticky cobweb from her face. When the sedge and reed thickets stretched in wider places, Assol completely lost sight of the scarlet sparkle of the sails, but, having run around the bend of the current, she again saw them, sedately and steadily running away. Once she looked around, and the forest mass, with its variegation, passing from smoky columns of light in the foliage to the dark crevices of the dense twilight, deeply struck the girl. For a moment shy, she remembered again about the toy and, several times releasing a deep "f-fu-oo-oo", ran with all her might.

In such an unsuccessful and alarming pursuit, about an hour passed, when, with surprise, but also with relief, Assol saw that the trees ahead freely parted, missing the blue flood of the sea, the clouds and the edge of the yellow sandy cliff, onto which she ran out, almost falling from fatigue. Here was the mouth of the brook; spreading narrowly and shallowly, so that the flowing blueness of the stones could be seen, he disappeared in the oncoming sea wave. From a low cliff, dug by roots, Assol saw that by the stream, on a flat large stone, with his back to her, a man was sitting, holding a runaway yacht in his hands, and comprehensively examining it with the curiosity of an elephant that had caught a butterfly. Partly reassured by the fact that the toy was intact, Assol slid down the cliff and, coming close to the stranger, looked at him with a searching glance, waiting for him to raise his head. But the unknown was so immersed in the contemplation of the forest surprise that the girl managed to examine it from head to toe, establishing that she had never seen people like this stranger.

But before her was none other than the hiking Egle, a renowned collector of songs, legends, traditions and fairy tales. The gray curls fell out in folds from under his straw hat; a gray blouse tucked into blue trousers and high boots gave him the look of a hunter; a white collar, a tie, a belt studded with silver badges, a cane and a bag with a brand new nickel clasp - they showed the city dweller. His face, if you can call a face nose, lips and eyes, peering out from a rapidly growing radiant beard and a lush, fiercely rocked up mustache, seemingly languidly transparent, if not for his eyes, gray like sand, and shining like pure steel, with a look bold and strong.

A. S. Green

SCARLET SAILS

(extravaganza)

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 finally to leave the service.

It happened like this. On one of his rare returns home, he did not see, as always from afar, his wife Mary on the threshold of the house, throwing her hands up, and then running towards him until she lost her breath. Instead, a worried neighbor stood by the crib — a new item in Longren’s small house.

“For three months I followed her, old man,” she said. “Look at your daughter.

Dead, Longren bent down and saw the eight-month-old creature gazing intently at his long beard, then sat down, looked down and began twirling his mustache. The mustache was wet as from the rain.

- When did Mary die? - he asked.

Mary went to see him at six o'clock in the evening. About seven, the narrator met her on the road to Liss. Crying and upset, Mary said that she was going to the city to lay the wedding ring. She added that Menners agreed to give money, but demanded love for it. Mary has achieved nothing.

“We don’t even have a crumb of food in our house,” she said to her neighbor. - I will go to the city, and the girl and I will interrupt somehow before my husband returns.

The weather was cold, windy that evening; the narrator in vain tried to persuade the young woman not to go to the Fox at night. "You will get wet, Mary, it is raining, and the wind, just be sure, will bring a 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 hardly a single family where I would not borrow bread, tea or flour. I'll put the ring on, and it's over. " She went, came back, and the next day she fell ill in a fever and delirium; bad weather and evening drizzle struck her with bilateral pneumonia, as the city doctor said, summoned by the kind storyteller. A week later, an empty space was left 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.

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 sailing ships, cruisers, steamers - in a word, what he knew closely, which, due to the nature of his work, partly replaced the rumble of port life and painting. voyages. In this way, Longren produced enough to live in a modest 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 hastily drank a glass of vodka at the counter and left, briefly throwing “yes”, “no”, “hello”, “goodbye”, “little by little” around the sides. addresses and nods of neighbors. He could not stand the guests, quietly sending them off, not by force, but with such hints and fictitious circumstances that the visitor had no choice but to invent a reason not to allow him to sit longer.

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 lap, she worked on the secret of a buttoned waistcoat or humorously hummed sailor songs - wild jealousy. 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 fell to the cold ground.

Fishing boats pulled ashore formed a long row of dark keels on the white sand, reminiscent of the ridges of huge fish. No one dared to go fishing in such weather. On the only street in the village, it was rare to see a person leaving the house; a cold whirlwind, rushing from the coastal hills into the void horizon, made the "open air" a severe torture. All the chimneys of the Kaperna smoked from morning to evening, fluttering the smoke over the steep roofs.

Alexander Stepanovich Green

Scarlet Sails

Scarlet Sails
Alexander Green

Greene contemplated and wrote Scarlet Sails amid death, hunger and typhus. The light and calm power of this book is beyond words, except those chosen by Green himself. Suffice it to say that this is a story about a miracle that two people performed for each other. And the writer is for all of us ...

Green wrote "about storms, ships, love, recognized and rejected, about fate, the secret paths of the soul and the meaning of chance." In the features of his heroes - firmness and tenderness, the names of the heroines - sound like music. In his books, Greene created the romantic world of human happiness. "Scarlet Sails" is a quivering poem about love, a book in Green's way "strange", written passionately and spiritual youth and the belief that a person in a fit of happiness is able to work miracles with his own hands ...

Alexander Green

Scarlet Sails

Nina Nikolaevna Green presents and dedicates

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 leave this service at last.

“For three months I followed her, old man,” she said. “Look at your daughter.

Dead, Longren bent down and saw the eight-month-old creature gazing intently at his long beard, then sat down, looked down and began twirling his mustache. The mustache was wet as from the rain.

- When did Mary die? - he asked.

“We don't even have a crumb of food in our house,” she told a neighbor. "I will go to the city, and the girl and I will interrupt somehow before my husband returns."

“Besides,” she added, “it's boring without such a fool.

It was spring, early and harsh like winter, but in a different way. For three weeks a sharp coastal north fell to the cold ground.

- Longren! Shouted the mortally frightened Menners. - What have you become like a tree stump? See, it blows me away; drop the dock!

- Longren! - cried Menners, - you hear me, I am dying, save me!

- She also asked you! Think about it while you're still alive, Menners, and don't forget!

“Sleep, dear,” he said, “it's still a long way from the morning.

- What are you doing?

- I made a black toy, Assol - sleep!

On the next day, only the inhabitants of Kaperna were talking about the missing Menners, and on the sixth day they brought him himself, dying and spiteful. His story quickly spread throughout the surrounding villages. Menners wore until evening; shattered by tremors on the sides and bottom of the boat, during the terrible struggle with the ferocity of the waves, which threatened, without getting tired, to throw the distraught shopkeeper into the sea, he was picked up by the steamer "Lucretia", sailing to Cassette. A cold and a shock of terror ended Menners' days. He lived a little less than forty-eight hours, calling upon Longren all the calamities possible on earth and in the imagination. Menners' story of how a sailor watched his death, refusing to help, eloquent especially since the dying man was breathing with difficulty and groaning, amazed 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 grieve as much as he grieved for Mary for the rest of his life - they were disgusted, incomprehensible, amazed them that Longren was silent. Silently, until his last words sent in pursuit of Menners, Longren stood; stood motionless, stern and quiet, like a judge, showing deep contempt for Menners - more than hatred was in his silence, and everyone felt it. If he shouted, expressing with gestures or fussiness of malevolence, or something else, his triumph at the sight of Menners' despair, the fishermen would understand him, but he acted differently than they did - he acted impressively, incomprehensibly, and thus placed himself above others, in a word, did what is not forgiven. No one bowed to him anymore, did not stretch out his hands, did not cast a recognizing, greeted glance. He remained completely aloof from village affairs forever; the boys, seeing him, shouted after him: "Longren drowned Menners!" He paid no attention to it. In the same way, he 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 solidified an earlier incomplete alienation. Having become complete, it caused a strong mutual hatred, the shadow of which fell on Assol.

Moreover, Longren's withdrawn lifestyle freed the now hysterical language of gossip; they used to say about the sailor that he 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 remorse of a criminal conscience." While playing, the children chased Assol if she approached them, threw mud and teased that her father ate human flesh and now makes counterfeit money. One after another, her naive attempts at rapprochement ended in bitter crying, bruises, scratches and other manifestations of public opinion; she finally stopped being offended, but still sometimes asked her father: "Tell me, why don't they like us?" “Eh, Assol,” Longren said, “can they really love? You have to be able to love, but this is something they cannot do. " - "How is it to be able?" - "That's how!" He took the girl in his arms and firmly kissed the sad eyes, which were screwed up with tender pleasure. Assol's favorite pastime was in the evenings or on a holiday, when his father, setting aside jars of paste, tools and unfinished work, sat down, taking off his apron, to rest with a pipe in his teeth, - climb onto his lap and, spinning in the gentle ring of his father's hand, touch different 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 extraordinary 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 the windlass, the steering wheel, the mast or some type of boat, etc., played a role, and from individual illustrations of these passed on to broad pictures of sea wanderings, weaving superstition into reality, and reality - into the images of his fantasy. Here appeared the tiger cat, the messenger of the shipwreck, and the talking flying fish, to disobey the orders of which meant to go astray, and the "Flying Dutchman" with its frantic crew; omens, ghosts, mermaids, pirates - in a word, all the fables that while away the sailor's leisure in calm or favorite tavern. Longren also talked about the wrecked, about people who had run wild and forgotten how to talk, about mysterious treasures, riots of convicts and much more, which the girl listened to more attentively than, perhaps, the first time Columbus had listened to the story of the new continent. “Well, say more,” Assol begged, when Longren, lost in thought, fell silent and fell asleep on his chest with a head full of wonderful dreams.

It also served her a great, always materially significant pleasure, the appearance of the clerk of the city toy shop, who willingly bought Longren's work. To appease her father and bargain for too much, the clerk took with him a couple of apples, a sweet pie, a handful of nuts for the girl. Longren usually asked for real value out of dislike for bargaining, and the clerk would slow down. “Eh, you,” Longren said, “yes, I sat over this bot for a week. - The bot was five shoots. - Look, what kind of strength - and the cage, and the kindness? This boat will withstand fifteen people in any weather. " In the end, the quiet fidgeting of the girl purring over her apple deprived Longren of his courage and desire to argue; he yielded, and the clerk, having filled the basket with excellent, durable toys, left, laughing in his mustache.

One day, in the middle of such a trip to the city, a girl sat down by the road to eat a piece of pie put in a basket for breakfast. While eating, she went over 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; it was a white boat carrying scarlet sails, made from scraps of silk used by Longren for pasting the steamship 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 - scraps of scarlet silk. Assol was delighted. The fiery cheerful color burned so brightly in her hand, as if she were holding fire. The road was crossed by a stream with a railroad bridge thrown over it; the brook left and right went into the forest. "If I put her on the water to swim a little," Assol reflected, "she won't get wet, I will wipe her off later." Having gone into the forest behind the bridge, along the stream of the stream, the girl carefully launched the ship that had captivated her into the water at the very shore; the sails immediately flashed a scarlet reflection in the transparent water; the light, penetrating matter, lay in a quivering pink radiation on the white stones of the bottom. “Where did you come from, captain? - Assol asked importantly an imaginary face and, answering to herself, said: - I have arrived ... I have arrived ... I have come from China. - What did you bring? - What I brought, I will not say about that. - Oh, you are so, captain! Well, then I'll put you back in the basket. " The captain had just prepared to humbly answer that he was joking and that he was ready to show the elephant, when suddenly the quiet run-off of the coastal stream turned the yacht with its bow to the middle of the stream, and, like a real one, leaving the coast at full speed, she floated straight down. Instantly the scale of what was visible changed: the stream seemed to the girl a huge river, and the yacht seemed to be a distant, large vessel, towards which, almost falling into the water, frightened and dumbfounded, she stretched out her hands. “The captain was frightened,” she thought, and ran after the floating toy, hoping that it would be washed ashore somewhere. Hastily dragging a not heavy, but interfering basket, Assol kept repeating: “Oh, Lord! After all, if it happened ... ”She tried not to lose sight of the beautiful, smoothly running triangle of sails, stumbled, fell and ran again.

“Now give it to me,” the girl said timidly. - You've already played. How did you catch her?

Years of writing: 1916-1922

Genre: fairy tale

Main characters: young dreamer Assol, father Assol sailor Longren, ship captain Arthur Gray.

Plot:

The action takes place in the fictional small town of Kaperne. From the very first lines, we see how the writer shows the image of one of the main characters of Longren, a sullen, taciturn man who lives in complete seclusion with his daughter. This gloomy man is engaged in the manufacture of various models of sailboats, which he then sells. Such work helps him to somehow live. The townspeople do not like him because of an incident that happened many years ago.

Longren once sailed at sea, and his wife always patiently waited for him from a long voyage. And one day, returning home, he learns that his wife has died. The woman, having spent all the savings on her treatment due to the difficult birth, was forced to turn to the innkeeper for help. But Menners, instead of helping the unfortunate petitioner, made her an indecent proposal. Denying the shameless man, Mary went to the city to sell her last jewel.

Chilling on the road, she gets pneumonia. The poor woman quickly faded away, since she had no money at all. Longren had to raise his daughter alone, in his soul he burned hatred for the innkeeper. And now an opportunity turned up to take revenge on him. Once a strong storm arose, and suddenly a huge wave swept over Menners and began to carry him out to sea. But Longren, in spite of pleas for help, stood silently, and did not even try to pull him out of the water. A few days later, the villagers rescued the innkeeper, and before his death he told about this episode.

After the incident, everyone in the city began to bypass this family. So they lived quietly and unnoticed by everyone. Assol was considered a crazy girl, because as a child, a storyteller told her that she would meet her lover in the form of a captain, who would appear in front of her on a ship with scarlet sails. Everyone laughed at her, but the prophecy came true. And one day a handsome young man named Gray comes to their city. Despite the evil slander against the girl and her father, he falls in love with her and decides to make Assol's dream come true.

With his work, the author wanted to convey to us that boundless love and faith in good people that lived in the heart of Assol. Green, in the image of a sweet girl, showed faith in the realization of an unfulfilled dream. After all, when you believe very strongly, then all your desires will definitely come true.

Chapter 1. "Prediction"

Reading the first pages of the story, we get to know the sailor Longren, where we learn sad moments from the narration of life. For a long time, sailing the seas, the man did not suspect how hard it was for his wife. Barely recovering from childbirth, she falls ill. No one can help the unfortunate woman, and Mary goes to the innkeeper. But Menners, taking advantage of her position, invites her to enter into an intimate relationship with him. But a decent woman refuses. She has to go to the city to sell her dear ring thing. On the way, having caught a cold, she catches a cold and gets pneumonia. Without drugs, in need, Longren's wife dies, leaving him to raise a little daughter.

Since then, he began every day to think about how to take revenge on the innkeeper. And then, one day, a storm carried the boat with Menners into the open sea. The embittered sailor did not help him, despite requests for help. Six days later, the boat with the dying innkeeper is pulled ashore and the residents learn of Longren's indifference. Then the fellow villagers stopped communicating with Assol and her father.

One of the beautiful days, the girl launched toy boats along the stream, and saw a storyteller, who predicted her in the future a meeting with a beautiful young man who sailed on a yacht with scarlet sails. Having overheard the conversation, the tramp told about this to the townspeople of Capern. And the girl began to be considered just crazy, naively believing in fairy tales.

Chapter 2. "Gray"

Following further events, we get to know another hero of the story - Gray. Smart, not for the weather, a boy who grew up in a wealthy family, from childhood, he wanted to become a captain. A merry man by nature and just a very kind child was brought up without much parenting. After all, his mother and father, being aristocrats, devoted their entire lives to collecting portraits of their ancestors. They raised their son in the same way. Arthur learned life from the conversations of servants and literature. At the age of twelve, he was shocked by a painting depicting a ship proudly rising on the crest of sea waves. And the boy realized that he would devote his further life to the sea. His passion for distant countries captivated him so much that at the age of 15 he escaped from home. The persistent young man had to endure many trials before he became a captain. At that time, his father was no longer alive, his mother, who had grown very old, who did not at all expect that Gray would go on long voyages, was proud of him.

Chapter 3. "Dawn"

Further we find ourselves off the coast of Kaperna, where the ship stopped to unload the goods. Anxious expectation forces the young man to go fishing with one of the sailors. Early in the morning, Gray discovers a sleeping girl who has struck him with her beauty. Some incomprehensible feeling seized the young captain, and he decides to leave her a beautiful ring.

The desire to find out about her does not leave the young man, and he, together with Letikos, goes to Capern, where he finds the tavern of the deceased Menners. His son, according to the description, begins to tell Gray all sorts of nonsense about the girl. He poured a lot of dirt on the late Longren. And perhaps he would have believed this gossip, if not the pure and bright look of the girl, which so touched Gray's heart. And then Arthur decided to find out the whole truth about this beauty.

Chapter 4. "On the Eve"

The narration of the next chapter introduces the events that happened to Assol before meeting his future lover. It says that toy boats have ceased to be sold, as other interesting things have appeared, and Longren has to go on a long voyage again. But he was afraid to leave his daughter alone, because with her beauty she could captivate anyone. Any dress looked like a princess on her. The girl's father forbade her to work, but she, trying to help, was engaged in sewing. Walking through the forest, admiring nature, she unexpectedly lay down on the grass and fell asleep. Finding a little later on her hand a ring, Assol did not say anything about the unusual find.

Chapter 5. Combat preparations

Wanting to make the girl's beautiful dream come true, the young captain goes to the city and buys two thousand meters of red silk. He returns to his ship and decides to sew scarlet sails from the purchased material. On the way, he meets a wandering musician and invites him to go to his ship with his orchestra.

Chapter 6. "Loneliness of Assol"

The girl, returning home from a walk, meets an old coal miner and two of his comrades on the way. Radiant and inspired, she tells everyone that she will soon set off on a long journey. But, considering Assol a little strange, they simply did not pay attention to her phrase.

Chapter 7. "Scarlet Sails"

And in the final lines of the story, we see how the ship, led by Captain Arthur Gray, rushes to Capern in all its red sails. The young man eagerly wants to see the girl as soon as possible and reveal his feelings to her. When the ship approached the shore, Assol was keen on reading. All residents, seeing such beauty, were amazed. Assol, having come running along with everyone, was impatiently awaiting the approach of the yacht.

A handsome young man, having sailed on a boat, asked her if the girl remembered Gray. And having received an affirmative answer, the young man's heart was inflamed with even greater love for this beauty. Music played all around. In honor of such an event, the sailors drank wine. And only the old sailor played his instrument and indulged in reflections on happiness.

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"This is the last snow melting in the field ..."

Red sails. Scarlet Sails. Toy store book