Tolstoy's author's tales are the best suited for family reading. The list includes works that are of interest to preschoolers, demanding teens and adult readers. Fairy tales are bright, kind, truly brilliant, like all the work of this outstanding literary figure.
Leo Tolstoy: fairy tales and other works for children
A writer writes a huge number of works. From the variety of genres in which the great master of words worked, Tolstoy's author's tales can be singled out in a special group.
Their appearance cannot be called random. The writer was very seriously interested in folk art. He talked with storytellers, peasants, and other ordinary people who were experts in oral folk art. From their words, he wrote down proverbs, sayings, folk signs and other works of folklore. So appeared in manuscripts, and later Tolstoy's fairy tales in processing were published. The list of such works is quite large - Three Bears, The Wolf and the Goat, The Water and the Pearl, The Squirrel and the Wolf, The Baba and the Chicken, and several dozen short instructive stories are included in the writer's legacy. The language of Tolstoy's fairy tales is distinguished by expressiveness, utmost clarity of presentation, which is very important for the consciousness of a small reader. The moral teachings that are necessarily present in fairy tales are very short and accurate. This helps the child fully understand and remember the idea of ​​the work.
The pedagogical activity of the writer
In the eventful biography of Leo Tolstoy, the period stands out when he actively worked in the field of teaching and raising children. This refers to 1871, when schools for peasant children were created, work began on the creation of books to teach schoolchildren to read. His "ABC" is published in 1872. Together with other works, Tolstoy’s author’s tales are also included in the content of books.
In 1874, the article "On Public Education" was published, and a year later the New Alphabet and four volumes of Russian Books to Read were published. In the table of contents of these collections there is again a list of Tolstoy's fairy tales. Authors and processed folk tales, stories, and parables familiarize readers with the life of peasants and ordinary people. The list of works included in the collections is very long. The most famous are the following: “Swans”, “Kitten”, “Hares”, “King and shirt”, “Righteous judge”, “Girl and robbers”, “Reward”, “Lion and dog”, “How the wolves teach their children " and others. Together with the books of Konstantin Dmitrievich Ushinsky, the collections of Leo Tolstoy for a long time were the only books on which children were taught to read. Their popularity was so high that they were published in over thirty editions. Textbooks were distributed in millions of copies in all the provinces of Russia.
Publisher "Intermediary"
In 1884, Leo Tolstoy, obsessed with the idea of ​​enlightening the common people, conceived the opening of a special publishing house where works for popular reading would be printed. An innovative idea was brought to life. The publishing house began to work and received the name "Mediator".
Specially for this project, the author’s fairy tales were written by Tolstoy Lev Nikolaevich - “Two brothers and gold”, “How much man does earth need”, “Ilyas”, “The Tale of Ivan the Fool”, “Where there is love, there is a god”, “Miss fire - you can’t put out "," Two Old Men "," Candle "and many others. As you can see, the list is not limited to fairy tales, it includes fables, there were stories, parables.
The writer’s attitude to children's literature
Tales of Leo Tolstoy to this day are an example of fiction not only in Russia but throughout the world. First of all, this was made possible thanks to the unique talent of the writer.
But do not lose sight of the fact that Tolstoy treated the composition of works for children. He wrote short tales , pondering each word. Often he had to rewrite them several times. After all, any of his narratives, besides describing some events or facts from life, also contained morality, was educational in nature. The result of the painstaking work of the writer was the emergence of a whole library of works for children, through the reading of which hard work, kindness, courage, honesty and other positive character traits of a small person are brought up.
Leo Tolstoy - a connoisseur of the human soul
Analyzing the content and list of Tolstoy's fairy tales (the author’s and retold folk works), it is not difficult to conclude that the writer created them taking into account the knowledge of the characteristics of the human soul. Unobtrusively, correctly, he models the behavior of a small citizen, and gives an adult competent advice on raising a child. Simple straightforward stories described in his works always end in such a way that a person wants to express his own attitude to the heroes, their actions. It is not difficult for the author to draw a conclusion himself, but he intentionally attracts a reader to this work, who, to some extent, becomes a co-author of the great master of the Russian word.
Reviews of modern readers
According to adult readers, Tolstoy’s author’s tales must be included in the circle of children's reading. They teach only good, their content is informative. Despite the fact that the works were written more than a hundred years ago, the language of fairy tales is understandable to modern children. Moreover, the texts of fairy tales are excellent material for the child to master the technique of reading.
A child, reading fairy tales, suddenly begins to realize that any lie is revealed sooner or later, brings shame and psychological suffering to the person who has lied. Or, on the contrary, doing a good deed today, you care about your future. After all, a planted tree will someday begin to bear fruit and feed not only the one who raised it, but also other people. The truths propagated by Leo Tolstoy are eternal. That is why his works do not lose their relevance, and a hundred years after their birth.