A long time ago, in a certain town on the Mediterranean coast, the carpenter Giuseppe gives his friend the organ grinder Carlo a talking log, which, you see, does not want to be hewn. In a poor closet under the stairs, where even the hearth was painted on a piece of old canvas, Carlo cuts out a boy with a long nose from a log and gives him the name Pinocchio. He sells his jacket and buys his wooden son the alphabet so that he can study. But on the very first day, on the way to school, the boy sees a puppet theater and sells his ABC book to buy a ticket. During a performance in a booth, sad Pierrot, perky Harlequin and other dolls suddenly recognize Pinocchio. The performance of the comedy “The Girl with Blue Hair, or Thirty-Three Slaps on the Head” was disrupted. The theater owner, who is also the playwright and director Karabas Barabas, who looks like a bearded crocodile, wants to burn the wooden troublemaker. Here, the simple-minded Pinocchio, by chance, tells about the painted hearth at Papa Carlo’s, and Karabas, who has suddenly come to his senses, gives Pinocchio five gold coins. The main thing, he asks, is not to move anywhere from this closet. On the way back, Pinocchio meets two beggars - the fox Alice and the cat Basilio. Having learned about the coins, they invite Pinocchio to go to the beautiful Country of Fools. From the money buried there on the Field of Miracles, a whole money tree seems to grow by morning. On the way to the Country of Fools, Pinocchio loses his companions, and he is attacked in the night forest by robbers who suspiciously look like a fox and a cat. Pinocchio hides the coins in his mouth, and in order to shake them out, the robbers hang the boy upside down on a tree and leave. In the morning he is discovered by Malvina, a girl with blue hair, who, together with her poodle Artemon, escaped from Karabas Barabas, who oppressed poor puppet actors. With purely girlish enthusiasm, she takes on the task of raising an uncouth boy, which ends with him being placed in a dark closet. A bat takes him out from there, and, having met a fox and a cat, the gullible Pinocchio finally gets to the Field of Miracles, which for some reason looks like a landfill, buries the coins and sits down to wait for the harvest, but Alice and Basilio insidiously set local police bulldogs on him, and they throw the brainless wooden boy into the river. But a man made of logs cannot drown. The elderly turtle Tortila opens Pinocchio's eyes to the greed of his friends and gives him a golden key that a man with a long beard once dropped into the river. The key must open some door, and this will bring happiness. Returning from the Country of Fools, Pinocchio saves the frightened Pierrot, who also escaped from Karabas, and brings him to Malvina. While the lover Pierrot unsuccessfully tries to console Malvina with his poems, a terrible battle begins at the edge of the forest. The brave poodle Artemon, together with forest birds, animals and insects, beat the hated police dogs. Trying to grab Pinocchio, Karabas sticks his beard to a resinous pine tree. The enemies are retreating. Pinocchio overhears a conversation between Karabas and the leech merchant Duremar in a tavern and learns a great secret: a golden key opens a door hidden behind a painted fireplace in Carlo’s closet. The friends rush home, unlock the door, and barely have time to slam it behind them when the police burst into the closet with Karabas Barabas. An underground passage leads our heroes to a treasure - this is an amazingly beautiful... theater. This will be a new theater, without a director with a seven-tailed whip, a theater in which puppets become real actors. Everyone who has not yet escaped from Karabas runs to the Pinocchio Theater, where music is playing cheerfully, and hot lamb stew with garlic is waiting for the hungry artists backstage. Doctor of Puppet Science Karabas Barabas remains sitting in a puddle in the rain.
After reading the book about Pinocchio, I believed that it was written by A.N. Tolstoy, but it turns out I was wrong, the first person to write about the wooden boy was Carlo Lorenzini, known throughout the world under the literary name Collodi. And I only found out this today when I sat down to write a reader’s diary.
A.N. Tolstoy decided to retell Carlo Collodi’s book in his own way. In the preface to his fairy tale, which he called “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio,” the writer stated that he read “The Adventures of Pinocchio” as a child, often retold the story of the wooden doll to his comrades and invented adventures that were not at all in the book. The preface says: “When I was little, a very, very long time ago, I read one book: it was called “Pinocchio, or the Adventures of a Wooden Doll” (a wooden doll in Italian is Pinocchio). Having provided “The Golden Key” with a preface, the author he himself took care of the history of the fairy tale. Almost everyone who wrote about the “Golden Key” refers to this preface.
But in reality this is not the case. Tolstoy was already an adult when he first read the fairy tale about the log boy. It’s just that the writer, working on the retelling of “Pinocchio,” remembered his own childhood, his childhood fun and dreams of extraordinary adventures, so his Pinocchio is very similar to Alyosha Tolstoy himself, as he was in childhood. Of course, the writer invented the story about the golden key, but the character of Pinocchio is very reminiscent of his own.
Pinocchio is a terribly restless and curious boy. He pierced with his long nose a canvas with a painted fireplace that was in Papa Carlo’s closet, and through the hole he saw a secret door. It was then that the golden key came to her at the end of the fairy tale! In Carlo Collodi’s book “The Adventures of Pinocchio,” in the closet of the hero’s father (whose name is not Carlo, but Gepetto), a burning hearth was also painted on the wall, but the writer did not say anything more about it. And Alexei Tolstoy, reading Collodi’s fairy tale, drew attention to this hearth and decided, as if together with his hero, to look beyond it - and as a result, a new fairy tale appeared.
I also learned that Tolstoy’s fairy tale “The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio” was first published in the pages of the newspaper “Pionerskaya Pravda” in 1935. The first edition of “The Golden Key” was published in Leningrad in 1936 (50 thousand copies) and was equipped with the inscription: “I dedicate this book to Lyudmila Ilyinichna Krestinskaya,” and later “I dedicate this book to Lyudmila Ilyinichna Tolstoy.” I also learned that the characters Pinocchio and Pinocchio have a lot in common, only their names are different.
Differences between the fairy tales “The Golden Key or the Adventures of Pinocchio” and “The Adventures of Pinocchio”
material taken from Wikipedia pages The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Pinocchio
| "The Golden Key, or the Adventures of Pinocchio" | "The Adventures of Pinocchio" |
| The plot is good and quite childish. Although several deaths occur in the plot (the rat Shushara, old snakes, Governor Fox), there is no emphasis on this. Moreover, all the deaths occur not through the fault of Pinocchio (Shushara was strangled by Artemon, the snakes died a heroic death in a battle with police dogs, the Fox was dealt with by badgers). | The book contains scenes related to cruelty and violence. Pinocchio hit the Talking Cricket with a hammer, then lost his legs, which were burned in a brazier. And then he bit off the cat's paw. The cat killed the blackbird who was trying to warn Pinocchio. |
| Heroes Commedia dell'arte- Pinocchio, Harlequin, Pierrot. | Heroes Commedia dell'arte- Arlecchino, Pulcinella. |
| Fox Alice (female); There is also an episodic character - Governor Fox. | Fox (male). |
| Malvina with her poodle Artemon, who is her friend. | A fairy with the same appearance, who then changes her age several times. Poodle is a very old servant in livery. |
| The Golden Key is present, for information about which Karabas gives Buratino money. | The Golden Key is missing (at the same time, Majafoko also gives money). |
| Karabas-Barabas is a clearly negative character, an antagonist of Pinocchio and his friends. | Majafoko is a positive character, despite his fierce appearance, and sincerely wants to help Pinocchio. |
| Buratino does not change his character and appearance until the end of the plot. He stops all attempts to re-educate him. Remains a doll. | Pinocchio, who is read morals and lectures throughout the book, is re-educated, and in the end he turns from a nasty and disobedient wooden boy into a living, virtuous boy. |
| The dolls behave like independent animate beings. | It is emphasized that the dolls are just puppets in the hands of the puppeteer. |
| When Pinocchio lies, his nose does not change in length. | Pinocchio's nose lengthens when he lies. |
The books vary significantly in atmosphere and detail. The main plot coincides quite closely until the moment when the cat and the fox dig up the coins buried by Pinocchio, with the difference that Pinocchio is significantly kinder than Pinocchio. There are no further plot similarities with Pinocchio.
A story about a writer
Illustrations for the fairy tale
The plot of the tale
A girl with blue hair wants to raise Pinocchio
The next morning Buratino woke up cheerful and healthy, as if nothing had happened.
A girl with blue hair was waiting for him in the garden, sitting at a small table covered with doll dishes. Her face was freshly washed, there was flower pollen on her upturned nose and cheeks. While waiting for Pinocchio, she waved away the annoying butterflies with annoyance:
Come on, really...
She looked the wooden boy from head to toe and winced. She told him to sit down at the table and poured cocoa into a tiny cup. Buratino sat down at the table and tucked his leg under him. He stuffed the whole almond cake into his mouth and swallowed it without chewing. He climbed right into the vase of jam with his fingers and sucked them with pleasure. When the girl turned away to throw a few crumbs to the elderly ground beetle, he grabbed the coffee pot and drank all the cocoa from the spout. He choked and spilled cocoa on the tablecloth. Then the girl told him sternly:
Pull your leg out from under you and lower it under the table. Don't eat with your hands; that's what spoons and forks are for.
She batted her eyelashes in indignation.
Who is raising you, please tell me?
When Papa Carlo raises, and when no one does.
Now I will take care of your upbringing, rest assured. “I’m so stuck!” - thought Pinocchio.
A little about the book
| Title and author of the book | Main characters | Impressions-review of the book | Favorite phrases of heroes | Recommendations to peers | Links to text, video |
| A.N. Tolstoy "The Golden Key or the Adventures of Pinocchio" | Papa Carlo, Pinocchio, Cricket, Malvina or Girl with Blue Hair, etc. | fantasy, adventure tale about a naughty wooden boy |
“- Hey, master,” Buratino said importantly, “give us three crusts of bread...”, “- I’ll explain to you now. In the Country of Fools there is a magical field called the Field of Miracles... Dig a hole in this field, say three times: “Crex, fex, pex”, put the gold one in the hole, cover it with earth, sprinkle salt on top, water it well and go to sleep. The next morning a small tree will grow out of the hole, gold coins will hang on it instead of leaves, understand?” "- suppose that you have two apples in your pocket. Someone took one apple from you. How many apples do you have left? - Two. - Think carefully. Pinocchio wrinkled his face, - he thought so coolly. - Two... - Why? - I didn’t I’ll give Nect an apple, even if he fights! |
The organ grinder Carlo received a talking log as a gift from his friend Giuseppe. Sharmanshik carved out of it a doll with a long nose. He gave the doll the name Pinocchio, and it replaced his son. Carlo sold his jacket and bought a beautiful alphabet book for Pinocchio so that he could go to school. But instead of school, the boy went to the puppet theater. To do this, he exchanged his alphabet for a ticket.
The performance was disrupted because the dolls recognized Pinocchio. This greatly angered the bearded Karabas Barabas, who was the owner of the theater, its director and playwright. He wants to burn the wooden boy. But the fearless Pinocchio declares that in his dad Carlo’s closet there is a fake, painted fireplace. Hearing this, Karabas suddenly became better, gave him five gold coins and let him go.
On the way home, Pinocchio meets rogues: Alice the fox and Basilio the cat. The gullible boy let slip to strangers that he had five gold coins. New acquaintances tell Pinocchio about their fictional country of Fools, in which there is a Field of Miracles. According to them, if you bury money in this field, then in the morning a whole money tree will grow. Then the Fox and the Cat, dressed as robbers, attacked Pinocchio. But he hid the coins in his mouth. The robbers hung the boy upside down so that he would drop the money.
Pinocchio was found by the Malvina doll with the poodle Artemon. Malvina escaped from the Karabas theater. She wanted to re-educate the boy, but he turned out to be so ill-mannered that he had to be locked in a closet. Having got out of the closet, Pinocchio met with Alice and Basilio, who took him to the Field of Miracles. The boy buried the gold there, but did not leave, but waited. This was not part of the plans of the fox and the cat; they sent the police to him, who threw the boy into the river.
But the wooden boy did not drown. There he met the turtle Tortilla, who gave him a golden key. This key opens the door behind which is happiness. Buratino, having overheard a conversation between Karabas and Duremar, learned that the key opens the door hidden behind the canvas in Papa Carlo’s closet. The dolls open the door and find a beautiful theater.
A long time ago, in a certain town on the Mediterranean coast, the carpenter Giuseppe gives his friend the organ grinder Carlo a talking log, which, you see, does not want to be hewn. In a poor closet under the stairs, where even the hearth was painted on a piece of old canvas, Carlo cuts out a boy with a long nose from a log and gives him the name Pinocchio. He sells his jacket and buys his wooden son the alphabet so that he can study. But on the very first day, on the way to school, the boy sees a puppet theater and sells the alphabet to buy a ticket. During a performance in a booth, sad Pierrot, perky Harlequin and other dolls suddenly recognize Pinocchio. The performance of the comedy “The Girl with Blue Hair, or Thirty-Three Slaps on the Head” was disrupted. The theater owner, who is also the playwright and director Karabas Barabas, who looks like a bearded crocodile, wants to burn the wooden troublemaker. Here, the simple-minded Pinocchio, by chance, tells about the painted hearth at Papa Carlo’s, and Karabas, who has suddenly come to his senses, gives Pinocchio five gold coins. The main thing, he asks, is not to move anywhere from this closet.
On the way back, Pinocchio meets two beggars - the fox Alice and the cat Basilio. Having learned about the coins, they invite Pinocchio to go to the beautiful Country of Fools. From the money buried there on the Field of Miracles, a whole money tree seems to grow by morning. On the way to the Country of Fools, Pinocchio loses his companions, and he is attacked in the night forest by robbers who suspiciously look like a fox and a cat. Pinocchio hides the coins in his mouth, and in order to shake them out, the robbers hang the boy upside down on a tree and leave. In the morning, he is discovered by Malvina, a girl with blue hair, who, together with her poodle Artemon, escaped from Karabas Barabas, who was oppressing poor puppet actors. With purely girlish enthusiasm, she takes on raising the uncouth boy, which ends with his placement in a dark closet. A bat takes him out from there, and, having met a fox and a cat, the gullible Pinocchio finally gets to the Field of Miracles, which for some reason looks like a landfill, buries the coins and sits down to wait for the harvest, but Alice and Basilio insidiously set local police bulldogs on him, and they throw the brainless wooden boy into the river. But a man made of logs cannot drown. The elderly turtle Tortila opens Pinocchio's eyes to the greed of his friends and gives him a golden key that a man with a long beard once dropped into the river. The key must open some door, and this will bring happiness.
Returning from the Country of Fools, Pinocchio saves the frightened Pierrot, who also escaped from Karabas, and brings him to Malvina. While the lover Pierrot unsuccessfully tries to console Malvina with his poems, a terrible battle begins at the edge of the forest. The brave poodle Artemon, together with forest birds, animals and insects, beat the hated police dogs. Trying to grab Pinocchio, Karabas sticks his beard to a resinous pine tree. The enemies are retreating. Pinocchio overhears Karabas's conversation with the leech merchant Duremar in a tavern and learns a great secret: a golden key opens a door hidden behind a painted fireplace in Carlo's closet. The friends rush home, unlock the door and just manage to slam it behind them when the police with Karabas Barabas burst into the closet. An underground passage leads our heroes to a treasure - this is an amazingly beautiful... theater. This will be a new theater, without a director with a seven-tailed whip, a theater in which puppets become real actors. Everyone who has not yet escaped from Karabas runs to the Pinocchio Theater, where music plays cheerfully, and hot lamb stew with garlic awaits the hungry artists behind the scenes. Doctor of Puppet Science Karabas Barabas remains sitting in a puddle in the rain.
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