Yu Olesha, "Three fat men": reviews of the book. The Tale of Three Fat Men: Reviews

"In a fairy tale - a lie, yes in it ..." With the continuation of this well-known and somewhat erased quote, all Russian-speaking readers are familiar. Given Pushkin's capacious definition of the tale is relevant to this day, because for many this genre remains the standard of infinite wisdom, enclosed in simple forms and images. Such works are remembered for the rest, adult life. One of them - the book "Three Fat Men" - is discussed in this article.

Biography Facts

Despite the fact that the literary legacy of Yu. Olesha, consisting of the above-mentioned fairy tale, the novel "Envy", short stories and plays, is rather small, he deserved his place in Russian literature. A future writer was born in Elisavetgrad (present-day Kirovograd), but spent his childhood and youth in Odessa. His entourage were eminent writers like Bagritsky and Kataev. Together with them, he moves to Moscow, which has just moved away from the revolutionary events. There he meets with writers who arrived in the capital from Kiev (for example, Bulgakov), arranged in the newspaper "Gudok" and, taking the pseudonym "Zubilo", it is decided to compose feuilletons. The latter enjoyed a stunning success.

Story

The book "Three Fat Men" was written throughout 1924. The author had a plan when he saw the girl Valya Grunzayd in the window of the next house, who was reading Andersen's tales. The writer promised her that he would create something similar, and immediately, without much thought about the issues of the party line, he set to work.

The creative process took place in the building "Gudka", which served as a part-time shelter for homeless writers. Olesha with pleasure recalled the ever rolling keg, which prevented the writer. With one hand he had to hold the naughty element of the poor furniture of the printing house, and the other to create the book on rolls. In the end, the fairy tale "Three Fat Men" was written and sent for printing.

The plot component

From the first pages the reader is immersed in a fictional country, ruled by three fat men. In their state, divided into poor and rich, the revolution is gradually maturing. One of her ideological inspirations - the armorer Prospero - goes to jail. But his comrade, the rope-walker Tibul, who is still hiding from the all-seeing guard Doctor Gaspard, who sympathizes with the poor, is still at large. The revolutionary learns of the hidden underground passage leading directly to the Tolstyakov's palace ...

Meanwhile, the guardsmen are breaking the doll of the heir of the rulers, the boy Tutti. The damaged toy is given to Gaspar, who must fix it for the night, otherwise the death penalty awaits him. Knowing that the order can not be carried out, the doctor takes the doll back to the palace, but loses it on the way. Looking for a toy, he stumbles upon a van of artists, where he meets a girl named Suok, who looks like two drops of water for a loss. The girl on the initiative of Tibul goes to the palace and releases Prospero. For this she faces the death penalty, but the revolutionaries are ultimately lucky: the guards are on their side, and the unjust power is discarded. So the fairytale ends.

Characters, ideological level, intertextuality

The image of the main character of the fairy tale - Suok - was associated with dramatic events for the writer. Critics who wrote on the "Three Fat Men" reviews about the book, could not help but notice that the girl's name is consonant with the name of Olga Suok - Olesha's wife. This was indicated by the writer himself in the dedication, somewhat fooling himself and the readers, because until the end of his days he remained in love with his younger sister, Seraphim. The girl reciprocated, however, being a very special person by nature, she constantly left Olesha. The last of her men was the well-known Viktor Shklovsky, and Yuri, who had been upset by his love affair, married Olga. The image of a doll girl has not only a personal but also a literary basis. Suffice it to recall the cardboard characters from Blok's "Balaganchik" or Olympia from the famous "Sandman" Hoffmann.

If the Soviet critic, intending to write a review on the "Three Fat Men" review, would certainly emphasize the revolutionary nature of the work, then modern interpretations allow us to delve into the problem level of the fairy tale. Thus, the motive of the person's struggle with the machine is related to the doll already mentioned, and also to the scientist Tub, who was imprisoned with Prospero. It was he who created the mechanical girl and refused, on the orders of the Fat Men, to forge a mechanical heart for Tutti. Here, an obvious reference to the famous scene in The Snow Queen, Andersen, slips.

Tutti throughout the narrative as it moves from the "mechanical" to the "living" world. Despite the fact that the venture with the heart failed, the Fat men limited the circle of communication of the heir with wild beasts and a mechanical doll. It is no coincidence that it was the latent desire to open the real life to the boy, even if manifested in an ugly form, moving the guard when the sword was pierced by a mechanical analogue of Suok. From loss, the boy cried, and this was for Tolstyakov a far greater danger than all the speeches of the revolutionary Prospero. Emotions that arose in Tutti, testified to the existence of a living soul, which means that the plan of the magnates remained unfulfilled.

Initial rejection

After the end, the fairy tale "Three Fat Men" was supposed to lie at Olesha's table for three years. As you know, all the fantastic was not very welcomed at that time. The future builder of communism can not exactly read fairy tales like the Three Fat Men. Reviews about the book were negative - well, this should be expected. So, one of the few reviews was called something like this: "How not to write books for children." Now it seems surprising how the authority of the expressionist novel "Envy", far from the aesthetics of socialist realism, was able to contribute to the publication of the writer's fairy tale in 1928.

Review by L. Chukovskaya

In 1940, the "Three Fat Men" was published for the second time. Reviews of the book again were generally negative. Among them was a review of Lydia Chukovskaya, who, noting the undoubted merits of the book (the presence of an exciting story), claimed that the tale was "cold." According to the critic, she is not able to cause empathy for the main characters, in contrast to the works of the same Mark Twain. The main accusation of Lidia was that his works Yu. Olesha - "Three Fat Men", "Envy" and stories - satiated with excessive attention ... to the subjects. So, for such interest in non-living objects, there was to be a complete indifference to people.

Despite the fact that the ideological tale was sustained, a few extravagant turns - like "roses spilled like compote" - made it much more difficult to perceive the main theme, that is, the struggle of the people against the oppressors. However, it is hardly worth creating a personal opinion about the writer, relying on such comments and responses: "Three fat people" Olesha wrote on the eve of the expressionistic manner of "Envy", which became a visiting card of Russian literature of the 1920s. Moreover, Lydia Chukovskaya, in addition to her will, showed an excellent mastery of this style, referring to the "whims of the plot", sinking syrup and mountains of sugar in the waterfall.

Positive reviews

Osip Mandelstam appreciated "Three Fat Men". Reviews about the book (or rather, the tip), the poet began with the assumption: if the tale of Olesha was a translation, then any of the Russian readers would remember and admit that he did not know about such a skilful author. Meanwhile, Mandelstam bitterly noted that criticism, with its fear of praising the young author, decided to bypass the fairy tale with the party. And absolutely nothing, it is a prose of European scale, which will be read by both adults and children.

Olesha's work and the present

As we see, Mandelstam's prophecies came true. The tale of Tibul and Suok was beyond the control of time. She was filmed, created theatrical versions, books with the inscription "Yu. Olesha "Three Fat Men" "decorated the shelves of libraries and shops, which once again shows the interest of the reading public to this work.