From early childhood, we learn the world from the books that our mother reads to us. At first, we only remember the favorite heroes: Carlson, Mowgli, Rapunzel. As we grow older, we learn that Carlson was “born” in Sweden, which means that it is there that people with hard-to-pronounce surnames love meatballs and buns. Mowgli is a hot, humid India, it has jungle and lost cities. And there is also the country of England, in which fogs often occur, and people are neat, prim, seemingly cold, but inside full of mysteries and mischief, like our favorite heroine of the book of the same name by Pamela Travers - Mary Poppins. A photo of actress Natalya Andreichenko, who played this role in the Soviet film adaptation of a classic English book, catches my eye, you should hear the name of this famous character.
Profession Mary Poppins
The peculiarity of this story is that, unlike the characters in most fairy tales, this heroine is not a princess, not a sorceress, not a genie from a bottle. On the contrary, in appearance - this is the most ordinary person who is engaged in the most ordinary business. After all, who was Mary Poppins by profession? A simple nanny, besides with the smallest salary. Simple, but not quite, or rather, quite complicated. As you read a series of books about Mary Poppins, it turns out that she can fly, conjure, and understand the language of animals and babies.
The author of these tales - Pamela Travers immersed the reader in the world of magic, dreams and children's fantasies. All this is intertwined with reality so much that no one can still understand who Mary Poppins was by profession, a nanny for children or a
fairy-tale character, or maybe her job was to glue stars to the sky or help the constellations fly to the earth once a year and to collect fragrant herbs? Who is this lady without age, who remained unperturbed in any situation, made friends or was related to most of the characters in English fairy tales, and most importantly, was able to manage children, animals, and adults with any rank and position in society? In fact, what kind of profession was Mary Poppins, if on her birthday all the fish (from royal salmon to sprats) were gathered, then all the animals from the
London Zoo led by the king cobra, and once shadows with all of England? The answer was ready to fall off her lips many times, but the question remained open.
The plot of the story of Mary Poppins
The main storyline of this work is quite simple: one day a new nanny comes to the Banks family living in London on Cherry Street. More precisely, it flies in, holding on to the handle of an open umbrella, driven by the north wind. In her care are two older children - Jane and Michael, and twin babies John and Barbara. (There are two children in the Soviet film - Jane and Michael.) In the last books of the series, the fifth child appears - baby Anabel. The new nanny cleverly manages this entire “company”, plus it keeps their parents, the maid and the whole Cherry Street under control. Even the obstinate park watchman finally obeys her.
Children adore their nanny, despite her outward severity, because they know that every day spent in her company will bring new amazing adventures.
And no matter who Mary Poppins was by profession. Many royal cats would envy her dignity, intelligence, sense of justice and measure, let alone the kings themselves and their courtiers ...