Analysis of Pogorelsky's tale the black hen or underground inhabitants. The tale of the black hen, or underground inhabitants

Lesson summary based on the fairy tale "The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants" by Anthony Pogorelsky

Lesson objectives:

Develop fluent expressive reading skills,

Develop the ability to answer questions competently,

Develop the ability to analyze and summarize material,

Learn to identify the main idea of ​​a work,

To develop in students the ability to draw conclusions for themselves by observing the actions of literary heroes.

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1. Organizing time

1. Goal setting:

Guys, today we have an unusual lesson, we will go to a fairy tale

Anthony Pogorelsky "Black chicken or underground inhabitants"

We will meet the boy Alyosha and discuss what mysterious story happened to him.

1. Work with text

So, I want to invite you to a fairy tale.

(open title page)

Petersburg. 1829 We found ourselves on Vasilyevsky Island, in the first line, in front of us is a two-story building.

We read the beginning, preserving the fabulous, ancient style:“Forty years ago, in St. Petersburg on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men’s boarding house...”

Let's explain:

Saint Petersburg.

Vasilyevsky Island.

Line.

Boarding house.

Saint Petersburg . Peter I, having defeated the Swedes in 1702, decided to found a new fortress in the Neva delta. The day when construction of the bastions of the new fortress began - May 13 (27), 1703 - is generally considered the day of the founding of St. Petersburg, although the first significant structures appeared only three to four years later. Therefore, by decision of the Russian government, the founding of St. Petersburg is celebrated in 2003.

Vasilyevsky Island, the largest island (1050 hectares) in the Neva delta, historical district of St. Petersburg.

Line - the name of each side of the street on Vasilyevsky Island.

Pension (French pension, from Latin pensio - payment). In the Russian Empire and some foreign countries, a closed educational institution with a dormitory and full student support.)

So what is this building on the screen? (pension)

Guys, let's find in our “guide” to the fairy tale - this is a description of the boarding house in the text,

“The house, which you now - as I already told you - will not find, was about two

floors, covered with Dutch tiles. The porch along which one entered it was wooden and overlooked the street. From the vestibule a rather steep staircase led to the upper housing, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the keeper of the boarding house lived on one side, and classrooms on the other. The dormitories, or children’s bedrooms, were located on the lower floor, on the right side of the entryway, and on the left lived two old Dutch women, each of whom was over a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even spoke to him.”

What unfamiliar words did you come across?

(dormitories, vestibule)

Let's find out what it is. (We ask the children or read on the slide.

Dormitory - bedrooms, canopy – entrance hall, corridor).

What other unfamiliar words did you come across in the text?

(Children name some of them and read on the slide)

These words, guys, have fallen out of our use and are called outdated words or archaisms.

Let's write down these terms in a notebook

Our journey through the fairy tale continues, and here he is, our main character of the fairy tale, the boy Alyosha, your age. Let's read his description:

(“...in that boarding school there was one boy named Alyosha, who was then no more than 9 or 10 years old. Alyosha was a smart, cute boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him. However, despite this, he was often bored happened in the boarding school, and sometimes even sad... The days of study passed quickly and pleasantly for him, but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. On Sundays and holidays he was left alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books. Alyosha already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights. His favorite pastime on long winter evenings, on Sundays and other holidays was to mentally transport himself to ancient, long-past centuries... Another pastime of Alyosha was to feed the chickens ", who lived near the fence. Among the chickens, he especially loved the black crested one, named Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate to him than the others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought the best pieces to her")

Let's now remember what happened to him.

Let's do this in the form of a quick survey, for each correct answer you receive a symbol of this fairy tale - a grain.

1. Why was Alyosha left alone in the boarding house? (all students went on vacation)
2. What was his consolation in his lonely hours? (reading books, playing with chickens in the yard)
3. Which chicken did Alyosha love the most? (Chernushka)
4. How did Alyosha save Chernushka? (He begged the cook to let the chicken go, cried, hung on his hand, and the chicken ran away)
5. What was Alyosha afraid of at night? (the sheet on the next bed moved, and a chicken came out from under it)
6. How did Chernushka cope with the knights? (spread her wings, became ruffled, became big, and fought off the knights)
7. Where did the chicken take the boy? (to the underworld)
8. Who turned out to be Chernushka in the underworld? (chief minister)
9. What wish did Alyosha make? (so that he always knows the lesson without teaching him)
10. What object was given to Alyosha to make his wish come true? (grain)
11. What condition did the king set for Alyosha? (don't tell anyone about the dungeon)
12. How did the king react to Alyosha’s wish? (he was surprised that Alyosha turned out to be so lazy)

Physical education minute

Okay, well done, I see that you know the text of the work well, and now let’s look at an excerpt from the cartoon “The Black Hen or the Underground Inhabitants” and compare the depicted fragment with an excerpt from the text.

(EXCERPT from a cartoon about saving the nigella. 00.42 – 3.25 )

You watched a fragment of an animated film and try to determine whether there is a difference in the depiction of the rescue of Chernushka by Antony Pogorelsky and the creators of the cartoon.

(The difference is that Antony Pogorelsky in the fairy tale shows how Alyosha asks the cook Trinushka not to cut the chicken. In the cartoon, the rescue scene is presented differently: a kite suddenly swoops in, Alyosha boldly rushes at it with a stick and beats Chernushka off)

Why do you think Chernushka decided to tell Alyosha her secret?

(Alyosha was a kind boy. Chernushka wanted to thank the boy for saving her life. Chernushka probably wanted to make Alyosha’s life more interesting and educational).

– Now watch another fragment of the animated film.

8.35 – 9.40

– What interesting trees grew in the fairy garden?

(There were trees whose fruits could make a person wise; on another tree the seeds of kindness ripened; a tree of health grew).

Yes, you are right, but, nevertheless, Alyosha still chose what as a gift? That's right, a seed that makes it possible not to learn lessons.

Let's see what came of it.

1. Practical work.

Guys, we continue to travel through the fairy tale.

So, Alyosha received the magic grain, and his life changed, and he himself changed. Let's characterize Alyosha before receiving the grain, and after receiving the grain.

On the board there are words that characterize Alyosha. Arrange these words in two columnsBefore receiving the grain and After receiving the grain.

Kind

Cruel

Affectionate

Communicative

Bold

Curious

Modest

Naughty

Shy

Stubborn

Proud

Proud

Self-test A. I show the correct answer.

Let's conclude why Alyosha turned from an obedient, kind, affectionate boy into a stubborn, disobedient, impudent one.

(answer)

1. Conclusion: He had nothing to do, and from idleness Alyosha began to play pranks, be rude, and misbehave.

It’s not for nothing that folk wisdom says:The day until the evening is boring if there is nothing to do!

Guys, our journey through the fairy tale is coming to an end, and what is the ending of any fairy tale? – good conquers evil!

Guys, have we ever encountered such evil in any fairy tale? (No)

What evil, or what evil heroes, have we read about? (Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal, Serpent Gorynych and the like. In fairy tales, evil is usually personified or objectified)

Has the boy tried to fight this evil?(Yes)

How? (Sometimes Alyosha still felt ashamed, his conscience tormented him. This means that in his soul there was a struggle between virtue and vices.)

What won? (Good won, Alyosha punished himself: he suffered for several days. From this torment, his health was undermined, and when one day Chernushka came to him in a dream again and a farewell scene took place between them, Alyosha fainted and lay unconscious for several days with severe fever. After Alyosha recovered, he again tried to be obedient, kind, modest and diligent. This means that good won, won in Alyosha’s soul.)

Remember how Alyosha was punished. What was the hardest punishment for him?

Conclusion: good defeated evil, Alyosha became his former obedient boy.

(EXCERPT from the cartoon 17.05 – 19.30 )

So our journey through the fairy tale has ended.

1. Homework

“...Alyosha was ashamed to talk about it...”

Have you ever been ashamed of your actions?

Write the answer to the question

What way out of this situation did you find?

1. Reflection

Guys, today at the lesson many of you received magic grains, you can also try to make a wish, write what wish you made on the grain. Describe it, but first think about what consequences it could lead to.

Composition

A. Pogorelsky's fairy tale has an unusual plot; in it the real is intertwined with the fantastic. The real is the life of a ten-year-old boy Alyosha in a boarding school in St. Petersburg, the fantastic is his dreams of the underground kingdom of gnomes. The action in the work is dynamic and exciting. One day Alyosha saved Chernushka, a black hen who brightened up his loneliness. Chernushka, in gratitude for her salvation, led the boy into the underground kingdom of the gnomes. The underground king gave Alyosha a magic seed. Now, without doing anything, without learning anything, the boy always knew his lesson. His success made him dizzy, he became arrogant, and became a bad friend.

Gradually, he completely lost the habit of working and could no longer remember the lesson when he lost the magic seed. And fearing punishment, he revealed the secret of the dwarves’ presence in the dungeon. The fairy tale ends with Alyosha's illness, his recovery and return to life, to himself, to his former self. The image of the main character evokes sympathy and awakens empathy. Alyosha is a kind, brave, impressionable boy. He is mistaken, makes mistakes, but at the same time he thinks about serious questions: what is the real value of a person? What is fidelity to one's word? What can happen if you don't listen to the voice of conscience?

The author of the work urges the reader: be honest, hardworking, modest. And the last scene - Chernushka’s farewell to Alyosha, the excitement of a small people leaving their kingdom, the despair of the protagonist from realizing the irreparability of his rash act - is a serious moral lesson taught to us by a talented writer.

"Black Chicken, or Underground Inhabitants" -
magic story for children (fairy tale)
Anthony Pogorelsky (Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky),
written in 1829.
The first author's work of literature for children in Russian.
The tale was published many times in the Soviet Union and in the Russian Federation.

Plot

The boy Alyosha, approximately nine to ten years old, studied at a boarding school in St. Petersburg in the 1790s. His parents lived far away, and during the holidays he stayed in a boarding house. In his free time, he often fed the chickens kept in the kitchen, and especially singled out the black crested Chernukha. One day, the cook Trinushka decided to slaughter her for dinner, but Alyosha begged her not to do this, giving her a gold imperial, his only jewel. At night the boy heard Chernukha calling him and was surprised that the chicken could speak. She called him along and eventually led Alyosha to the underground kingdom, where little men half an arshin tall lived. The king met him and expressed gratitude for saving his chief minister. It turned out that the chicken Chernukha is actually the minister of the underworld. Alyosha asked for the favor of being able to always know a lesson without studying anything, and the king gave him a hemp seed, although he was dissatisfied with the boy’s laziness. The king made it a condition not to tell anyone about what he had seen underground, and the minister then explained to Alyosha that, according to the customs of the underground inhabitants, they must leave the lands where they live if the person who found out about them brags about it.

The king's gift turned out to be effective, and Alyosha began to show phenomenal abilities. At first he was embarrassed, but then he got used to it and became proud. But one day he lost the seed, and with it the ability to respond. He was severely punished, considering his inability to be a whim, but Chernushka returned and returned the lost grain to him, although she was saddened by his behavior. Alyosha used the magic and instantly learned several pages, but the teacher suspected something was wrong and began to figure out how he did it. Out of fear of the rods, Alyosha forgot the king’s prohibition and began to talk about the underground inhabitants, but the teacher considered this to be fiction and still whipped the boy.

On the night of that day, the minister of the underground kingdom appeared to Alyosha and told the boy that because of his offense, the people of the underground inhabitants had to leave their homes, and the minister himself was condemned by the king to wear golden shackles, which Alyosha saw with horror in his hands. They said goodbye forever with tears. Alyosha, having been in a severe fever for six weeks, again became a diligent and kind boy, although he had lost his magical abilities.

History of creation

A. Pogorelsky composed this fairy tale for his nephew, Alexei Tolstoy, to whose upbringing he paid a lot of attention. The hero's name coincides with both the real name of the author (Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky) and the name of his nephew. The tale contains autobiographical motifs. The publication was met with positive press reviews.

Analysis of a fairy tale

O. I. Timanova notes the “romantic dual world” of the fairy tale, “the narrative of which is distributed along two main lines (magical and realistic).” At the same time, the magical in the fairy tale is discredited: everything acquired by the hero with the help of magic brings him and others only trouble. The motif of “doubleness” is, in principle, inherent in Pogorelsky’s work. According to Timanova, the story is based on the tradition of the magical knightly novel, which affirms the “high” as the norm of life, and has a pronounced didacticism characteristic of the works of that era. Timanova also draws parallels with various myths and legends, comparing Alyosha’s travels to the underworld with the mystical experience of traveling “to the next world” for the purpose of initiation, with the “werewolf” black chicken minister being the guide.

A.P. Efremov, in his essayistic article, points out that Pogorelsky’s fairy tale originates in the tendency of “perpetual spiritual contrition” of the heroes after they commit some unworthy act, “sin,” in children’s literature of the 19th century. Efremov notes that a sign of sin in children's literature becomes “the impossibility for heroes, even fairy tales, to forgive each other what they have done,” this function is assigned to higher powers, God, and the time of atonement is not limited in any way. In fact, “The Black Hen” gives rise to the “literature of conscience.”

N. N. Podosokorsky examined Masonic motifs in Pogorelsky’s story and substantiated the hypothesis that one of the main sources of the work could be the magical grimoire “The Black Hen” by an anonymous author: “The Black Hen is, first of all, a story about initiation, that is, about its hero going through certain tests/journeys, as a result of which he receives new spiritual experience. And this initiation has a pronounced Masonic character.”

Source:
Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_chicken_or_Underground_inhabitants

Tale of the Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants

read:

About forty years ago in St. Petersburg, on Vasilyevsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men's boarding house, which to this day, probably, remains in the fresh memory of many, although the house where the boarding house was located has long been has already given way to another, not at all similar to the previous one. At that time, our St. Petersburg was already famous throughout Europe for its beauty, although it was still nowhere near what it is now. At that time, there were no cheerful shady alleys on the avenues of Vasilyevsky Island: wooden stages, often knocked together from rotten boards, took the place of today’s beautiful sidewalks. Isaac's Bridge - narrow and uneven at that time - presented a completely different appearance than it does now; and St. Isaac's Square itself was not like that at all. Then the monument to Peter the Great was separated from St. Isaac's Church by a ditch; The Admiralty was not surrounded by trees; The Horse Guards riding arena did not decorate the square with its beautiful current façade; in a word, Petersburg then was not the same as it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age... however, that’s not what we’re talking about now. Another time and on another occasion, perhaps I will talk to you at greater length about the changes that took place in St. Petersburg during my century - now let’s turn again to the boarding house, which, forty years ago, was located on Vasilievsky Island, in the First Line .

The house, which now - as I already told you - you will not find, was about two floors, covered with Dutch tiles. The porch along which one entered it was wooden and overlooked the street... From the entryway a rather steep staircase led to the upper housing, which consisted of eight or nine rooms, in which the owner of the boarding house lived on one side, and on the other there were classrooms. The dormitories, or children's bedrooms, were located on the lower floor, on the right side of the entryway, and on the left lived two old women, Dutch women, each of whom was more than a hundred years old and who saw Peter the Great with their own eyes and even spoke to him. At the present time, it is unlikely that in all of Russia you will meet a person who would have seen Peter the Great: the time will come when our traces will be erased from the face of the earth! Everything passes, everything disappears in our mortal world... But that’s not what we’re talking about now!

Among the thirty or forty children studying at that boarding school, there was one boy named Alyosha, who was then no more than nine or ten years old. His parents, who lived far, far from St. Petersburg, had brought him to the capital two years earlier, sent him to a boarding school and returned home, paying the teacher the agreed upon fee several years in advance. Alyosha was a smart, cute boy, he studied well, and everyone loved and caressed him; however, despite this, he was often bored at the boarding house, and sometimes even sad. Especially at first, he could not get used to the idea that he was separated from his family; but then, little by little, he began to get used to his situation, and there were even moments when, playing with his friends, he thought that it was much more fun in the boarding house than in his parents' house. In general, the days of study passed quickly and pleasantly for him; but when Saturday came and all his comrades hurried home to their relatives, then Alyosha bitterly felt his loneliness. On Sundays and holidays he was left alone all day, and then his only consolation was reading books that the teacher allowed him to take from his small library. The teacher was a German by birth, and at that time the fashion for chivalric novels and fairy tales dominated in German literature, and the library that our Alyosha used consisted mostly of books of this kind.

So, Alyosha, while still ten years old, already knew by heart the deeds of the most glorious knights, at least as they were described in the novels. His favorite pastime on long winter evenings, on Sundays and other holidays, was to be mentally transported to ancient, long-past centuries... Especially during vacant times - such as Christmas or Bright Sunday - when he was separated for a long time from his family. comrades, when he often sat for whole days in solitude - his young imagination wandered through knightly castles, through terrible ruins or through dark dense forests.

I forgot to tell you that this house had a fairly spacious courtyard, separated from the alley by a wooden fence made of baroque planks. The gate and gate that led to the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never had the opportunity to visit this alley, which greatly aroused his curiosity. Whenever they allowed him to play in the yard during rest hours, his first movement was to run up to the fence. Here he stood on tiptoe and looked intently into the round holes with which the fence was dotted. Alyosha did not know that these holes came from the wooden nails with which the barges had previously been knocked together, and it seemed to him that some kind sorceress had drilled these holes on purpose for him. He kept expecting that someday this sorceress would appear in the alley and through the hole would give him a toy, or a talisman, or a letter from daddy or mummy, from whom he had not received any news for a long time. But, to his extreme regret, no one even resembling the sorceress appeared.

Alyosha’s other occupation was to feed the chickens, who lived near the fence in a house specially built for them and played and ran around in the yard all day long. Alyosha got to know them very briefly, knew everyone by name, broke up their fights, and the bully punished them by sometimes not giving them anything from the crumbs for several days in a row, which he always collected from the tablecloth after lunch and dinner. Among the chickens, he especially loved one black crested one, named Chernushka. Chernushka was more affectionate to him than others; she even sometimes allowed herself to be stroked, and therefore Alyosha brought her the best pieces. She was of a quiet disposition; she rarely walked with others and seemed to love Alyosha more than her friends.

One day (it was during the holidays between New Year and Epiphany - the day was beautiful and unusually warm, no more than three or four degrees below zero) Alyosha was allowed to play in the yard. That day the teacher and his wife were in great trouble. They gave lunch to the director of the schools, and the day before, from morning until late evening, they washed the floors everywhere in the house, wiped the dust and waxed the mahogany tables and chests of drawers. The teacher himself went to buy provisions for the table: white Arkhangelsk veal, a huge ham and Kiev jam from the Milyutin shops. Alyosha, too, contributed to the preparations to the best of his ability: he was forced to cut out a beautiful mesh for a ham from white paper and decorate six wax candles that had been specially purchased with paper carvings. On the appointed day, early in the morning, the hairdresser appeared and showed his art on the teacher’s curls, toupee and long braid. Then he set to work on his wife, pomaded and powdered her curls and chignon, and piled a whole greenhouse of different flowers on her head, between which sparkled skillfully placed two diamond rings, once given to her husband by her parents’ students. After finishing the headdress, she threw on an old, worn-out robe and went to work on the housework, watching strictly so that her hair would not somehow get damaged; and for this reason she herself did not enter the kitchen, but gave her orders to the cook, standing in the doorway. When necessary, she sent her husband there, whose hair was not so high.

During all these worries, our Alyosha was completely forgotten, and he took advantage of this to play in the yard in the open space. As was his custom, he first approached the plank fence and looked through the hole for a long time; but even on this day almost no one passed along the alley, and with a sigh he turned to his kind chickens. Before he had time to sit down on the log and had just begun to beckon them to him, he suddenly saw a cook next to him with a large knife. Alyosha never liked this cook - an angry and scolding little girl; but since he noticed that she was the reason that the number of his chickens was decreasing from time to time, he began to love her even less. When one day he accidentally saw in the kitchen a pretty, very beloved cockerel, hanging by the legs with its throat cut, he felt horror and disgust for her. Seeing her now with a knife, he immediately guessed what it meant - and, feeling with sorrow that he was unable to help his friends, he jumped up and ran far away.

Alyosha, Alyosha! Help me catch the chicken! - the cook shouted.

But Alyosha began to run even faster, hid by the fence behind the chicken coop and did not notice how tears rolled out of his eyes one after another and fell to the ground.

He stood by the chicken coop for quite a long time, and his heart was beating strongly, while the cook ran around the yard, either beckoning to the chickens: “Chick, chick, chick!”, or scolding them in Chukhon.

Suddenly Alyosha’s heart began to beat even faster... he thought he heard the voice of his beloved Chernushka!

She cackled in the most desperate way, and it seemed to him that she was shouting:

Where, where, where, where, where

Alyosha, save Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu,

Chernukha, Chernukha!

Alyosha could not remain in his place any longer... he, sobbing loudly, ran to the cook and threw himself on her neck at the very moment she caught Chernushka by the wing.

Dear, dear Trinushka! - he cried, shedding tears. - Please don’t touch my Chernukha!

Alyosha threw himself so suddenly on the cook’s neck that she lost Chernushka from her hands, who, taking advantage of this, flew out of fear onto the roof of the barn and continued cackling there. But Alyosha now heard as if she were teasing the cook and shouting:

Where, where, where, where, where

You didn't catch Chernukha!

Kuduhu, kuduhu,

Chernukha, Chernukha!

Meanwhile, the cook was beside herself with frustration!

Rummal pois! [A stupid boy! (Finnish)] - she shouted. - Now I’ll fall into cassain and fool around. Shorna kuris nada cut... He's lazy... he doesn't do anything, he doesn't sit around.

Then she wanted to run to the teacher, but Alyosha did not allow her. He clung to the hem of her dress and began to beg so touchingly that she stopped.

Darling, Trinushka! - he said. - You are so pretty, clean, kind... Please leave my Chernushka! Look what I'll give you if you're kind!

Alyosha took out of his pocket the imperial coin that made up his entire estate, which he cherished more than his own eyes, because it was a gift from his kind grandmother... The cook looked at the gold coin, looked around the windows of the house to make sure that no one saw them, - and stretched out her hand for the imperial... Alyosha was very, very sorry for the imperial, but he remembered Chernushka - and with firmness he gave the Chukhonka a precious gift.

Thus Chernushka was saved from cruel and inevitable death.

As soon as the cook retired into the house, Chernushka flew off the roof and ran up to Alyosha. She seemed to know that he was her savior: she circled around him, flapping her wings and clucking in a cheerful voice. All morning she followed him around the yard like a dog, and it seemed as if she wanted to tell him something, but couldn’t. At least he couldn't make out her cackling sounds.

About two hours before dinner, guests began to gather. Alyosha was called upstairs, they put on a shirt with a round collar and cambric cuffs with small folds, white trousers and a wide blue silk sash. His long brown hair, which hung almost to his waist, was thoroughly combed, divided into two even parts and placed in front on both sides of his chest. This is how children were dressed up back then. Then they taught him how he should shuffle his foot when the director enters the room, and what he should answer if any questions are asked of him. At another time, Alyosha would have been very happy about the arrival of the director, whom he had long wanted to see, because, judging by the respect with which the teacher and teacher spoke of him, he imagined that this must be some famous knight in shiny armor and helmet with large feathers. But that time this curiosity gave way to the thought that exclusively occupied him then - about the black chicken. He kept imagining how the cook was running after her with a knife and how Chernushka was cackling in different voices. Moreover, he was very annoyed that he could not make out what she wanted to tell him - and he was drawn to the chicken coop... But there was nothing to do: he had to wait until lunch was over!

Finally the director arrived. His arrival was announced by the teacher, who had been sitting by the window for a long time, looking intently in the direction from which they were waiting for him. Everything was in motion: the teacher rushed headlong out of the door to meet him below at the porch; the guests got up from their places, and even Alyosha forgot about his chicken for a minute and went to the window to watch the knight get off his zealous horse. But he did not manage to see him, for he had already entered the house; at the porch, instead of a zealous horse, there stood an ordinary carriage sleigh. Alyosha was very surprised by this! “If I were a knight,” he thought, “I would never drive a cab - but always on horseback!”

Meanwhile, all the doors were opened wide, and the teacher began to curtsy in anticipation of such an honorable guest, who soon appeared. At first it was impossible to see him behind the fat teacher who stood right in the doorway; but when she, having finished her long greeting, sat down lower than usual, Alyosha, to extreme surprise, saw from behind her... not a feathered helmet, but just a small bald head, whitely powdered, the only decoration of which, as Alyosha later noticed, was small bunch! When he entered the living room, Alyosha was even more surprised to see that, despite the simple gray tailcoat that the director wore instead of shiny armor, everyone treated him with unusual respect.

No matter how strange all this seemed to Alyosha, no matter how much at another time he would have been delighted by the unusual decoration of the table, on which the ham decorated with it also paraded, but on that day he did not pay much attention to it. The morning incident with Chernushka kept wandering through his head. Dessert was served: various kinds of preserves, apples, bergamots, dates, wine berries and walnuts; but even here he did not stop thinking about his chicken for a single moment, and they had just gotten up from the table when, with his heart trembling with fear and hope, he approached the teacher and asked if he could go play in the yard.

Come,” answered the teacher, “just be there for a short time; it will soon become dark.

Alyosha hastily put on his red cap with squirrel fur and a green velvet cap with a sable band and ran to the fence. When he arrived there, the chickens had already begun to gather for the night and, sleepy, were not very happy about the crumbs he had brought. Only Chernushka seemed to have no desire to sleep: she ran up to him cheerfully, flapped her wings and began to cackle again. Alyosha played with her for a long time; Finally, when it became dark and it was time to go home, he himself closed the chicken coop, making sure in advance that his dear chicken sat on the pole. When he left the chicken coop, it seemed to him that Chernushka’s eyes glowed in the dark like stars, and that she quietly said to him:

Alyosha, Alyosha! Stay with me!

Alyosha returned to the house and sat alone in the classrooms all evening, while at the other half of the hour until eleven the guests stayed and played whist at several tables. Before they parted, Alyosha went to the bedroom downstairs, undressed, went to bed and put out the fire. For a long time he could not fall asleep; Finally, sleep overcame him, and he had just managed to talk with Chernushka in his sleep when, unfortunately, he was awakened by the noise of the guests leaving. A little later, the teacher, who was seeing off the director with a candle, entered his room, looked to see if everything was in order, and went out, locking the door with the key.

It was a month's night, and through the shutters, which were not tightly closed, a pale ray of moonlight fell into the room. Alyosha lay with his eyes open and listened for a long time as in the upper dwelling, above his head, they walked from room to room and put chairs and tables in order. Finally everything calmed down...

He looked at the bed next to him, slightly illuminated by the monthly glow, and noticed that the white sheet, hanging almost to the floor, moved easily. He began to peer more closely... he heard as if something was scratching under the bed, and a little later it seemed that someone was calling him in a quiet voice:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

Alyosha was scared!.. He was alone in the room, and the thought immediately occurred to him that there must be a thief under the bed. But then, judging that the thief would not have called him by name, he became somewhat encouraged, although his heart was trembling. He rose a little in bed and saw even more clearly that the sheet was moving... he heard even more clearly that someone was saying:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

Suddenly the white sheet lifted, and out from under it came... a black chicken!

Oh! It's you, Chernushka! - Alyosha cried out involuntarily. - How did you come here?

Chernushka flapped her wings, flew up to his bed and said in a human voice:

It's me, Alyosha! You're not afraid of me, are you?

Why should I be afraid of you? - he answered. - I love you; It’s only strange for me that you speak so well: I didn’t know at all that you could speak!

If you are not afraid of me,” the hen continued, “then follow me; I'll show you something nice. Get dressed quickly!

How funny are you, Chernushka! - said Alyosha. - How can I get dressed in the dark? Now I won’t find my dress; I can hardly see you too!

“I’ll try to help this,” said the chicken.

Then she cackled in a strange voice, and suddenly, out of nowhere, small candles appeared in silver chandeliers, no bigger than Alyosha’s little finger. These sandals ended up on the floor, on the chairs, on the windows, even on the washstand, and the room became as light as if it were daytime. Alyosha began to dress, and the hen handed him a dress, and thus he was soon completely dressed.

When Alyosha was ready, Chernushka cackled again, and all the candles disappeared.

Follow me,” she told him, and he boldly followed her. It was as if rays came out of her eyes and illuminated everything around them, although not as brightly as small candles. They walked through the front...

“The door is locked with a key,” said Alyosha; but the chicken did not answer him: she flapped her wings, and the door opened by itself...

Then, having passed through the hallway, they turned to the rooms where hundred-year-old Dutch women lived. Alyosha had never visited them, but he had heard that their rooms were decorated in the old-fashioned way, that one of them had a large gray parrot, and the other had a gray cat, very smart, who knew how to jump through a hoop and give her paw. He had long wanted to see all this, and therefore he was very happy when the chicken flapped its wings again and the door to the old woman’s chambers opened. In the first room Alyosha saw all sorts of strange furniture: carved chairs, armchairs, tables and chests of drawers. The large couch was made of Dutch tiles, on which people and animals were painted in blue. Alyosha wanted to stop to look at the furniture, and especially the figures on the couch, but Chernushka did not allow him. They entered the second room - and then Alyosha was happy! A large gray parrot with a red tail sat in a beautiful golden cage. Alyosha immediately wanted to run up to him. Chernushka again did not allow him.

“Don’t touch anything here,” she said. - Be careful not to wake up the old ladies!

Only then did Alyosha notice that next to the parrot there was a bed with white muslin curtains, through which he could make out an old woman lying with her eyes closed: she seemed to him like wax. In another corner there was an identical bed where another old woman was sleeping, and next to her sat a gray cat and washed itself with its front paws. Passing by her, Alyosha could not resist asking her for her paws... Suddenly she meowed loudly, the parrot ruffled its feathers and began shouting loudly: “Durrrak! Stupid!” At that very time it was visible through the muslin curtains that the old women had risen up in bed... Chernushka hastily left, Alyosha ran after her, the door slammed hard after them... and for a long time the parrot could be heard shouting: “Durrrak! !"

Aren `t you ashamed! - said Chernushka when they moved away from the old women’s rooms. - You probably woke up the knights...

What knights? - asked Alyosha.

“You will see,” answered the chicken. - Don’t be afraid, however, nothing, follow me boldly.

They went down the stairs, as if into a cellar, and walked for a long, long time along various passages and corridors that Alyosha had never seen before. Sometimes these corridors were so low and narrow that Alyosha was forced to bend down. Suddenly they entered a hall illuminated by three large crystal chandeliers. The hall had no windows, and on both sides hung on the walls knights in shiny armor, with large feathers on their helmets, with spears and shields in iron hands. Chernushka walked forward on tiptoe and ordered Alyosha to follow her quietly, quietly... At the end of the hall there was a large door made of light yellow copper. As soon as they approached her, two knights jumped from the walls, struck their spears on their shields and rushed at the black chicken. Chernushka raised her crest, spread her wings... Suddenly she became big, tall, taller than the knights, and began to fight with them! The knights advanced heavily on her, and she defended herself with her wings and nose. Alyosha became scared, his heart fluttered violently - and he fainted.

When he came to his senses again, the sun was illuminating the room through the shutters, and he was lying in his bed: neither Chernushka nor the knights were visible. For a long time Alyosha could not come to his senses. He did not understand what happened to him at night: did he see everything in a dream or did it really happen? He got dressed and went upstairs, but he could not get out of his head what he had seen the previous night. He was looking forward to the moment when he could go play in the yard, but all that day, as if on purpose, it was snowing heavily, and it was impossible to even think about leaving the house.

During lunch, the teacher, among other conversations, announced to her husband that the black chicken had hidden in some unknown place.

However,” she added, “it wouldn’t be a big problem even if she disappeared; she had long been assigned to the kitchen. Imagine, my dear, that since she has been in our house, she has not laid a single egg.

Alyosha almost began to cry, although the thought occurred to him that it would be better for her not to be found anywhere than for her to end up in the kitchen.

After lunch, Alyosha was again left alone in the classrooms. He constantly thought about what happened the previous night, and could not console himself about the loss of his dear Chernushka. Sometimes it seemed to him that he must certainly see her the next night, despite the fact that she had disappeared from the hen house; but then it seemed to him that this was an impossible task, and he again plunged into sadness.

It was time to go to bed, and Alyosha impatiently undressed and went to bed. Before he had time to look at the next bed, again illuminated by the quiet moonlight, the white sheet began to move - just like the day before... Again he heard a voice calling him: “Alyosha, Alyosha!” - and a little later Chernushka came out from under the bed and flew up to his bed.

Oh! Hello, Chernushka! - he cried beside himself with joy. - I was afraid that I would never see you; are you healthy?

“I’m healthy,” answered the hen, “but I almost fell ill due to your mercy.”

How is it, Chernushka? - Alyosha asked, frightened.

“You are a good boy,” the hen continued, “but at the same time you are flighty and never obey the first word, and this is not good!” Yesterday I told you not to touch anything in the old women’s rooms, despite the fact that you couldn’t resist asking the cat for a paw. The cat woke up the parrot, the old women's parrot, the old women's knights - and I managed to cope with them!

It’s my fault, dear Chernushka, I won’t go forward! Please take me there again today. You will see that I will be obedient.

“Okay,” said the chicken, “we’ll see!”

The hen cackled as the day before, and the same small candles appeared in the same silver chandeliers. Alyosha got dressed again and went to get the chicken. Again they entered the old women's chambers, but this time he did not touch anything. When they passed through the first room, it seemed to him that the people and animals drawn on the couch were making various funny faces and beckoning him to them, but he deliberately turned away from them. In the second room, the old Dutch women, just like the day before, lay in beds like wax; the parrot looked at Alyosha and blinked his eyes; The gray cat was washing itself with its paws again. On the dressing table in front of the mirror, Alyosha saw two porcelain Chinese dolls, which he had not noticed yesterday. They nodded their heads to him, but he remembered Chernushka’s order and walked on without stopping, but he could not resist bowing to them in passing. The dolls immediately jumped off the table and ran after him, still nodding their heads. He almost stopped - they seemed so funny to him; but Chernushka looked back at him with an angry look, and he came to his senses.

The dolls accompanied them to the door and, seeing that Alyosha was not looking at them, returned to their places.

They again went down the stairs, walked along passages and corridors and came to the same hall, illuminated by three crystal chandeliers. The same knights were hanging on the walls, and again - when they approached the door made of yellow copper - two knights came down from the wall and blocked their way. It seemed, however, that they were not as angry as the day before; they barely dragged their feet, like autumn flies, and it was clear that they held their spears with force... Chernushka became large and ruffled; but as soon as she hit them with her wings, they fell apart - and Alyosha saw that they were empty armor! The copper door opened of its own accord, and they moved on. A little later they entered another hall, spacious, but low, so that Alyosha could reach the ceiling with his hand. This hall was lit by the same small candles that he had seen in his room, but the candlesticks were not silver, but gold. Here Chernushka left Alyosha.

“Stay here a little,” she told him, “I’ll come back soon.” Today you were smart, although you acted carelessly by worshiping porcelain dolls. If you had not bowed to them, the knights would have remained on the wall. However, you didn’t wake up the old ladies today, and that’s why the knights had no power. - After this, Chernushka left the hall.

Left alone, Alyosha began to carefully examine the hall, which was very richly decorated. It seemed to him that the walls were made of Labradorite, such as he had seen in the mineral cabinet available in the boarding house; the panels and doors were of pure gold. At the end of the hall, under a green canopy, on an elevated place, there were armchairs made of gold.

Alyosha admired this decoration very much, but it seemed strange to him that everything was in the smallest form, as if for small dolls.

While he was looking at everything with curiosity, a side door, previously unnoticed by him, opened, and many small people, no more than half an arshin tall, in elegant multi-colored dresses, entered. Their appearance was important: some looked like military men by their attire, others looked like civil officials. They all wore round hats with feathers, like the Spanish ones. They did not notice Alyosha, walked sedately through the rooms and spoke loudly to each other, but he could not understand what they were saying. He looked at them silently for a long time and just wanted to approach one of them with a question, when a large door opened at the end of the hall... Everyone fell silent, stood against the walls in two rows and took off their hats. In an instant the room became even brighter; all the small candles lit up even brighter - and Alyosha saw twenty little knights, in golden armor, with crimson feathers on their helmets, who entered in pairs in a quiet march. Then, in deep silence, they stood on both sides of the chairs. A little later, a man with a majestic posture entered the hall, wearing a crown glittering with precious stones on his head. He wore a light green robe, lined with mouse fur, with a long train carried by twenty little pages in crimson dresses. Alyosha immediately guessed that it must be the king. He bowed low to him. The king responded to his bow very affectionately and sat down in the golden chairs. Then he ordered something to one of the knights standing next to him, who approached Alyosha and told him to come closer to the chairs. Alyosha obeyed.

“I have known for a long time,” said the king, “that you are a good boy; but the day before yesterday you rendered a great service to my people and for that you deserve a reward. My chief minister informed me that you saved him from inevitable and cruel death.

When? - Alyosha asked in surprise.

“It’s yesterday,” answered the king. - This is the one who owes his life to you.

Alyosha looked at the one the king was pointing at, and then only noticed that among the courtiers stood a small man dressed all in black. On his head he had a special kind of crimson-colored cap, with teeth at the top, worn slightly to one side; and on his neck there was a scarf, very starched, which made it look a little bluish. He smiled touchingly, looking at Alyosha, to whom his face seemed familiar, although he could not remember where he had seen him.

No matter how flattering it was for Alyosha that such a noble deed was attributed to him, he loved the truth and therefore, bowing deeply, said:

Mister King! I can't take it personally for something I've never done. The other day I had the good fortune to save from death not your minister, but our black hen, which the cook did not like because she did not lay a single egg...

What are you saying? - the king interrupted him with anger. - My minister is not a chicken, but an honored official!

Then the minister came closer, and Alyosha saw that in fact it was his dear Chernushka. He was very happy and asked the king for an apology, although he could not understand what this meant.

Tell me what do you want? - continued the king. - If I am able, I will certainly fulfill your demand.

Speak boldly, Alyosha! - the minister whispered in his ear.

Alyosha became thoughtful and didn’t know what to wish. If they had given him more time, he might have come up with something good; but since it seemed discourteous to him to make him wait for the king, he hastened to answer.

“I would like,” he said, “that, without studying, I would always know my lesson, no matter what I was given.”

“I didn’t think you were such a sloth,” answered the king, shaking his head. - But there is nothing to do: I must fulfill my promise.

He waved his hand, and the page brought a golden dish on which lay one hemp seed.

Take this seed,” said the king. - As long as you have it, you will always know your lesson, no matter what you are given, with the condition, however, that under no pretext do you say a single word to anyone about what you saw here or will see in the future. The slightest immodesty will deprive you of our favors forever, and will cause us a lot of trouble and trouble.

Alyosha took the hemp grain, wrapped it in a piece of paper and put it in his pocket, promising to be silent and modest. The king then got up from his chair and left the hall in the same order, first ordering the minister to treat Alyosha as best he could.

As soon as the king left, all the courtiers surrounded Alyosha and began to caress him in every possible way, expressing their gratitude for the fact that he had saved the minister. They all offered him their services: some asked if he wanted to take a walk in the garden or see the royal menagerie; others invited him to hunt. Alyosha didn’t know what to decide. Finally, the minister announced that he himself would show the underground rarities to his dear guest.

First he took him to the garden, arranged in English style. The paths were strewn with large multi-colored reeds, reflecting the light from countless small lamps with which the trees were hung. Alyosha really liked this shine.

“You call these stones,” said the minister, “precious.” These are all diamonds, yachts, emeralds and amethysts.

Oh, if only our paths were strewn with this! - Alyosha cried.

Then they would be just as valuable to you as they are here,” answered the minister.

The trees also seemed extremely beautiful to Alyosha, although at the same time very strange. They were of different colors: red, green, brown, white, blue and purple. When he looked at them with attention, he saw that they were nothing more than various kinds of moss, only taller and thicker than usual. The minister told him that this moss was ordered by the king for a lot of money from distant countries and from the very depths of the globe.

From the garden they went to the menagerie. There they showed Alyosha wild animals that were tied on golden chains. Peering more closely, he, to his surprise, saw that these wild animals were nothing more than large rats, moles, ferrets and similar animals living in the ground and under floors. He found this very funny, but out of politeness he did not say a word.

Returning to the rooms after a walk, Alyosha found a set table in the large hall, on which various kinds of sweets, pies, pates and fruits were placed. The dishes were all made of pure gold, and the bottles and glasses were carved from solid diamonds, yachts and emeralds.

“Eat whatever you want,” said the minister, “you are not allowed to take anything with you.”

Alyosha had a very good dinner that day, and therefore he did not feel like eating at all.

“You promised to take me hunting with you,” he said.

“Very good,” answered the minister. - I think the horses are already saddled.

Then he whistled, and the grooms came in, leading with reins - sticks, the knobs of which were carved and represented horses' heads. The minister jumped onto his horse with great dexterity; Alyosha was let down much more than others.

Be careful,” said the minister, “that the horse does not throw you: it is not one of the quietest.”

Alyosha laughed internally at this, but when he took the stick between his legs, he saw that the minister’s advice was not useless. The stick began to dodge and maneuver under him, like a real horse, and he could barely sit up.

Meanwhile, the horns were blown, and the hunters began to gallop at full speed along various passages and corridors. They galloped like this for a long time, and Alyosha did not lag behind them, although he could hardly restrain his mad stick... Suddenly, several rats jumped out from one side corridor, such large ones that Alyosha had never seen. They wanted to run past, but when the minister ordered them to be surrounded, they stopped and began to defend themselves bravely. Despite this, however, they were defeated by the courage and skill of the hunters. Eight rats lay down on the spot, three took flight, and the minister ordered one, quite seriously wounded, to be cured and taken to the menagerie.

At the end of the hunt, Alyosha was so tired that his eyes involuntarily closed... with all that, he wanted to talk about many things with Chernushka, and he asked permission to return to the hall from which they left for the hunt.

The minister agreed to this; They rode back at a fast trot and, upon arriving in the hall, handed the horses over to the grooms, bowed to the courtiers and hunters, and sat down next to each other on the chairs brought to them.

Tell me, please,” Alyosha began, “why did you kill the poor rats that don’t bother you and live so far from your home?”

If we had not exterminated them, said the minister, they would soon have kicked us out of our rooms and destroyed all our food supplies. In addition, mice and rat furs have a high price in our country because of their lightness and softness. Some noble persons are allowed to use them here.

Yes, tell me, who are you? - Alyosha continued.

Have you never heard that our people live underground? - answered the minister. - True, not many people manage to see us, but there were examples, especially in the old days, of us coming out into the world and showing ourselves to people. Now this rarely happens because people have become very immodest. And we have a law that if the one to whom we have appeared does not keep this a secret, then we are forced to immediately leave our location and go far, far away to other countries. You can easily imagine that it would be sad for our king to leave all the local establishments and move with the whole people to unknown lands. And therefore I earnestly ask you to be as modest as possible, because otherwise you will make us all unhappy, and especially me. Out of gratitude, I begged the king to call you here; but he will never forgive me if, due to your immodesty, we are forced to leave this region...

“I give you my word of honor that I will never talk about you to anyone,” Alyosha interrupted him. - I now remember that I read in one book about gnomes who live underground. They write that in a certain city a shoemaker became very rich in a very short time, so that no one understood where his wealth came from. Finally, somehow they found out that he sewed boots and shoes for the gnomes, who paid him very dearly for it.

“Perhaps this is true,” answered the minister.

But,” Alyosha said to him, “explain to me, dear Chernushka, why do you, being a minister, appear in the world in the form of a chicken and what connection do you have with the old Dutch women?”

Chernushka, wanting to satisfy his curiosity, began to tell him in detail about many things; but at the very beginning of her story, Aleshina’s eyes closed and he fell fast asleep. When he woke up the next morning, he was lying in his bed.

For a long time he could not come to his senses and did not know what to think... Blackie and the minister, the king and the knights, the Dutch women and the rats - all this was mixed up in his head, and he mentally put in order everything he had seen the previous night. Remembering that the king had given him hemp seed, he hastily rushed to his dress and actually found in his pocket a piece of paper in which the hemp seed was wrapped. “We’ll see,” he thought, whether the king will keep his word! Classes will begin tomorrow, and I haven’t had time to learn all my lessons yet.”

The history lesson particularly bothered him: he was asked to memorize several pages from Shrek's World History, and he still didn't know a single word! Monday came, the boarders arrived, and classes began. From ten o'clock to twelve o'clock the owner of the boarding house taught history. Alyosha’s heart was beating strongly... By the time it was his turn, he several times felt the piece of paper with a hemp seed in his pocket... Finally they called him. With trepidation, he approached the teacher, opened his mouth, not yet knowing what to say, and - unmistakably, without stopping, he said what was asked. The teacher praised him very much, but Alyosha did not accept his praise with the pleasure that he had previously felt in such cases. An inner voice told him that he did not deserve this praise, because this lesson did not cost him any effort.

For several weeks, the teachers could not praise Alyosha enough. Without exception, he knew all the lessons perfectly, all the translations from one language to another were without errors, so one could not be surprised at his extraordinary successes. Alyosha was internally ashamed of these praises: he was ashamed that they were setting him up as an example to his comrades, when he did not deserve it at all.

During this time, Chernushka did not come to him, despite the fact that Alyosha, especially in the first weeks after receiving the hemp seed, did not miss almost a single day without calling her when he went to bed. At first he was very sad about this, but then he calmed down with the thought that she was probably busy with important matters according to her rank. Subsequently, the praise that everyone showered on him occupied him so much that he rarely remembered her.

Meanwhile, rumors about his extraordinary abilities soon spread throughout the whole of St. Petersburg. The director of the schools himself came to the boarding school several times and admired Alyosha. The teacher carried him in his arms, for through him the boarding house entered into glory. Parents came from all over the city and pestered him to take their children into his home, in the hope that they too would be scientists like Alyosha. Soon the boarding house was so full that there was no longer room for new boarders, and the teacher and teacher began to think about renting a house, much larger than the one in which they lived.

Alyosha, as I said above, at first was ashamed of the praise, feeling that he did not deserve it at all, but little by little he began to get used to it, and finally his pride reached the point that he accepted, without blushing, the praise that was showered on him . He began to think a lot about himself, put on airs in front of other boys and imagined that he was much better and smarter than all of them. As a result, Aleshin’s character completely deteriorated: from a kind, sweet and modest boy, he became proud and disobedient. His conscience often reproached him for this, and his inner voice said to him: “Alyosha, don’t be proud! Don’t attribute to yourself what doesn’t belong to you; thank fate for the fact that it brought you benefits against other children, but don’t think that you better than them. If you do not improve, then no one will love you, and then you, with all your learning, will be the most unfortunate child! "

Sometimes he even intended to improve; but, unfortunately, his pride was so strong that it drowned out the voice of his conscience, and he became worse day by day, and day by day his comrades loved him less.

Moreover, Alyosha became a terrible naughty man. Having no need to repeat the lessons that were assigned to him, he was engaged in pranks while other children were preparing for classes, and this idleness spoiled his character even more. Finally, everyone was so tired of him with his bad temper that the teacher seriously began to think about ways to correct such a bad boy - and for this purpose he gave him lessons twice and three times greater than others; but this didn’t help at all. Alyosha did not study at all, but still knew the lesson from beginning to end, without the slightest mistake.

One day the teacher, not knowing what to do with him, asked him to memorize twenty pages by the next morning and hoped that he would at least be more subdued that day. Where! Our Alyosha didn’t even think about the lesson! On this day he deliberately played more naughty than usual, and the teacher vainly threatened him with punishment if he did not know his lesson the next morning. Alyosha laughed internally at these threats, being sure that the hemp seed would certainly help him. The next day, at the appointed hour, the teacher picked up the book from which Alyosha’s lesson was assigned, called him over and ordered him to say what was assigned. All the children turned their attention to Alyosha with curiosity, and the teacher himself did not know what to think when Alyosha, despite the fact that he had not taught the lesson at all the day before, boldly stood up from the bench and approached him. Alyosha had no doubt that this time he would be able to show his extraordinary ability: he opened his mouth... and could not utter a word!

Why are you silent? - the teacher told him. - Say a lesson.

Alyosha blushed, then turned pale, blushed again, began to knead his hands, tears welled up in his eyes from fear... everything was in vain! He could not utter a single word, because, hoping for hemp grain, he did not even look into the book.

What does this mean, Alyosha? - the teacher shouted. - Why don’t you want to talk?

Alyosha himself didn’t know what to attribute such strangeness to; he stuck his hand into his pocket to feel the seed... but how can one describe his despair when he didn’t find it! Tears poured from his eyes like hail... he cried bitterly and still could not say a word.

Meanwhile, the teacher was losing patience. Accustomed to the fact that Alyosha always answered accurately and without hesitating, it seemed impossible to him that he did not at least know the beginning of the lesson, and therefore attributed the silence to his stubbornness.

Go to the bedroom,” he said, “and stay there until you know the lesson completely.”

Alyosha was taken to the lower floor, given a book and locked the door with a key.

As soon as he was left alone, he began to look everywhere for hemp seeds. He rummaged in his pockets for a long time, crawled on the floor, looked under the bed, sorted through the blanket, pillows, sheets - all in vain! There was no trace of the dear grain anywhere! He tried to remember where he could have lost it, and finally became convinced that he had dropped it the day before while playing in the yard. But how to find it? He was locked in the room, and even if he had been allowed to go out into the yard, it probably would have been of no use, for he knew that chickens were greedy for hemp, and probably one of them managed to get a grain of it. peck! Desperate to find him, he decided to call Chernushka to his aid.

Dear Chernushka! - he said. - Dear Minister! Please appear to me and give me another grain! I'll be more careful moving forward...

But no one answered his requests, and he finally sat down on a chair and again began to cry bitterly.

Meanwhile, it was time for lunch; the door opened and the teacher entered.

Do you know the lesson now? - he asked Alyosha.

Alyosha, sobbing loudly, was forced to say that he didn’t know.

Well, stay here while you learn! - said the teacher, ordered to give him a glass of water and a piece of rye bread and left him alone again.

Alyosha began to repeat it by heart, but nothing entered his head. He has long been unaccustomed to studying, and how can he proofread twenty printed pages! No matter how much he worked, no matter how much he strained his memory, but when evening came, he did not know more than two or three pages, and even then poorly. When it was time for the other children to go to bed, all his comrades rushed into the room at once, and the teacher came with them again.

Alyosha! Do you know the lesson? - he asked.

And poor Alyosha answered through tears:

I only know two pages.

“So it seems that tomorrow you will have to sit here on bread and water,” said the teacher, wished the other children a good night’s sleep and left.

Alyosha stayed with his comrades. Then, when he was a kind and modest child, everyone loved him, and if he happened to be punished, then everyone pitied him, and this served him as a consolation; but now no one paid attention to him: everyone looked at him with contempt and did not say a word to him. He decided to start a conversation with one boy, with whom he had previously been very friendly, but he turned away from him without answering. Alyosha turned to another, but he didn’t want to talk to him either and even pushed him away when he spoke to him again. Then unfortunate Alyosha felt that he deserved such treatment from his comrades. Shedding tears, he lay down in his bed, but could not sleep.

He lay like this for a long time and remembered with sorrow the happy days that had passed. All the children were already enjoying a sweet sleep, only he could not fall asleep! “And Chernushka left me,” thought Alyosha, and tears flowed from his eyes again.

Suddenly... the sheet next to him began to move, just like on the first day when the black chicken came to him. His heart began to beat faster... he wanted Chernushka to come out from under the bed again; but he did not dare hope that his wish would come true.

Chernushka, Chernushka! - he finally said in an undertone... The sheet lifted, and a black chicken flew onto his bed.

Ah, Chernushka! - said Alyosha, beside himself with joy. - I didn’t dare hope that I’d see you! Have you forgotten me?

“No,” she answered, “I cannot forget the service you rendered, although the Alyosha who saved me from death is not at all like the one I see before me now.” You were a kind boy then, modest and courteous, and everyone loved you, but now... I don’t recognize you!

Alyosha cried bitterly, and Chernushka continued to give him instructions. She talked to him for a long time and with tears begged him to improve. Finally, when daylight was already beginning to appear, the hen said to him:

Now I have to leave you, Alyosha! Here is the hemp seed that you dropped in the yard. It was in vain that you thought that you had lost him forever. Our king is too generous to deprive you of it for your carelessness. Remember, however, that you gave your word of honor to keep everything you know about us secret... Alyosha! To your current bad qualities, do not add even worse - ingratitude!

Alyosha took his kind seed from the chicken’s feet with admiration and promised to use all his strength to improve!

You will see, dear Chernushka,” he said, “that today I will be completely different...

“Don’t think,” answered Chernushka, “that it is so easy to recover from vices when they have already taken over us. Vices usually enter through the door and exit through a crack, and therefore, if you want to improve, you must constantly and strictly look after yourself. But goodbye!.. It's time for us to part!

Alyosha, left alone, began to examine his grain and could not stop admiring it. Now he was completely calm about the lesson, and yesterday’s grief did not leave any traces on him. He thought with joy how everyone would be surprised when he spoke twenty pages without a mistake, and the thought that he would again prevail over his comrades who did not want to talk to him caressed his vanity. Although he did not forget about correcting himself, he thought that it could not be as difficult as Chernushka said. “As if it’s not up to me to improve!” he thought. “I just have to want it, and everyone will love me again...”

Alas! Poor Alyosha did not know that in order to correct himself, he must begin by putting aside pride and excessive arrogance.

When the children gathered in their classes in the morning, Alyosha was called upstairs. He entered with a cheerful and triumphant look.

Do you know your lesson? - asked the teacher, looking at him sternly.

“I know,” Alyosha answered boldly.

He began to speak and spoke all twenty pages without the slightest error or stop. The teacher was beside himself with surprise, and Alyosha looked proudly at his comrades.

Aleshin’s proud appearance did not hide from the teacher’s eyes.

“You know your lesson,” he told him, “it’s true,” but why didn’t you want to say it yesterday?

“I didn’t know him yesterday,” Alyosha answered.

It can’t be,” the teacher interrupted him. “Yesterday evening you told me that you only knew two pages, and even then poorly, but now you’ve spoken all twenty without a mistake!” When did you learn it?

I learned it this morning!

But then suddenly all the children, upset by his arrogance, shouted in one voice:

He is telling lies; He didn’t even pick up a book this morning!

Alyosha shuddered, lowered his eyes to the ground and did not say a word.

Answer me! - the teacher continued, - when did you learn your lesson?

But Alyosha did not break the silence: he was so amazed by this unexpected question and the hostility that all his comrades showed him that he could not come to his senses.

Meanwhile, the teacher, believing that the day before he did not want to teach the lesson out of stubbornness, considered it necessary to punish him severely.

The more natural abilities and gifts you have, he said to Alyosha, the more modest and obedient you should be. God did not give you a mind so that you could use it for evil. You deserve punishment for yesterday’s stubbornness, and today you have increased your guilt by lying. Gentlemen! - the teacher continued, turning to the boarders. “I forbid all of you to talk to Alyosha until he completely reforms.” And since this is probably a small punishment for him, order the rod to be brought.

They brought rods... Alyosha was in despair! For the first time since the boarding school existed, they were punished with rods, and who - Alyosha, who thought so much about himself, who considered himself better and smarter than everyone else! What a shame!..

He, sobbing, rushed to the teacher and promised to completely improve...

“We should have thought about this before,” was his answer.

Alyosha's tears and repentance touched his comrades, and they began to ask for him; and Alyosha, feeling that he did not deserve their compassion, began to cry even more bitterly! Finally the teacher was brought to pity.

Fine! - he said. - I will forgive you for the sake of the request of your comrades, but so that you admit your guilt in front of everyone and announce when you learned the given lesson?

Alyosha completely lost his head... he forgot the promise he made to the underground king and his minister, and began to talk about the black chicken, about knights, about little people...

The teacher didn't let him finish...

How! - he cried with anger. - Instead of repenting of your bad behavior, you still decided to fool me by telling me a fairy tale about a black hen?.. This is too much. No, children! You see for yourself that he cannot but be punished!

And poor Alyosha was whipped!!

With his head bowed and his heart torn, Alyosha went to the lower floor, to the bedrooms. He felt like he was dead... shame and remorse filled his soul! When, after a few hours, he calmed down a little and put his hand in his pocket... there was no hemp seed in it! Alyosha cried bitterly, feeling that he had lost him irrevocably!

In the evening, when the other children came to bed, he also went to bed, but could not sleep! How he repented of his bad behavior! He resolutely accepted the intention to improve, although he felt that it was impossible to return the hemp seed!

Around midnight, the sheet next to the bed moved again... Alyosha, who had been happy about this the day before, now closed his eyes... he was afraid to see Chernushka! His conscience tormented him. He remembered that just yesterday evening he had so confidently told Chernushka that he would certainly improve, and instead... What would he tell her now?

For some time he lay with his eyes closed. He heard the rustle of the sheet rising... Someone approached his bed - and a voice, a familiar voice, called him by name:

Alyosha, Alyosha!

But he was ashamed to open his eyes, and meanwhile tears rolled out of them and flowed down his cheeks...

Suddenly, someone pulled the blanket... Alyosha involuntarily looked out, and Chernushka stood in front of him - not in the form of a chicken, but in a black dress, in a crimson cap with teeth and in a white starched neckerchief, just as he saw her in the underground hall .

Alyosha! - said the minister. - I see that you are not sleeping... Goodbye! I came to say goodbye to you, we won’t see each other again!..

Alyosha sobbed loudly.

Goodbye! - he exclaimed. - Goodbye! And, if you can, forgive me! I know that I am guilty before you, but I am severely punished for it!

Alyosha! - the minister said through tears. - I forgive you; I can’t forget that you saved my life, and I still love you, although you made me unhappy, perhaps forever!.. Farewell! I am allowed to see you for the shortest possible time. Even during this night, the king and his entire people must move far, far from these places! Everyone is in despair, everyone is shedding tears. We lived here so happily, so peacefully for several centuries!..

Alyosha rushed to kiss the minister’s little hands. Grabbing his hand, he saw something shiny on it, and at the same time some extraordinary sound struck his ear...

What it is? - he asked in amazement.

The minister raised both hands up, and Alyosha saw that they were chained with a gold chain... He was horrified!..

Your immodesty is the reason that I am condemned to wear these chains,” said the minister with a deep sigh, “but don’t cry, Alyosha!” Your tears can't help me. You can only console me in my misfortune: try to improve and be again the same kind boy as you were before. Goodbye for the last time!

The minister shook Alyosha's hand and disappeared under the next bed.

Chernushka, Chernushka! - Alyosha shouted after him, but Chernushka did not answer.

The whole night he could not close his eyes for a minute. An hour before dawn, he heard something rustling under the floor. He got out of bed, put his ear to the floor and for a long time heard the sound of small wheels and noise, as if many small people were passing by. Between this noise one could also hear the crying of women and children and the voice of Minister Chernushka, who shouted to him:

Goodbye Alyosha! Goodbye forever!..

The next morning, the children woke up and saw Alyosha lying on the floor, unconscious. They raised him up, put him to bed, and sent for the doctor, who declared that he had a violent fever.

Six weeks later, Alyosha, with God’s help, recovered, and everything that happened to him before his illness seemed to him like a heavy dream. Neither the teacher nor his comrades reminded him a word about the black chicken or the punishment he had suffered. Alyosha himself was ashamed to talk about it and tried to be obedient, kind, modest and diligent. Everyone loved him again and began to caress him, and he became an example for his comrades, although he could no longer learn by heart twenty printed pages all of a sudden - which, however, he was not asked to do.

Russian prose literary fairy tale of the first half of the 19th century

Plan:

1. The tale of A. Pogorelsky “The Black Chicken, or Underground Inhabitants.” Problems, ideological meaning, plot, image of the main character, originality of style, genre specificity.

2. The main aspects of V.F.’s creativity Odoevsky.

3. Further development of the literary fairy tale in Russia

Literature

1. Mineralova I.G. Children's literature. - M., 2002, p. 60 - 61, 72 - 76, 92-96

2. Sharov A. Wizards come to people. - M., 1979

Romantic writers discovered the fairy tale genre for “high” literature. In parallel with this, in the era of romanticism, childhood was discovered as a unique, inimitable world, the depth and value of which attracts adults.

Researcher of Russian romanticism N. Verkovsky wrote that romanticism established the cult of the child and the cult of childhood. In search of the ideal of romance, they turned to an unclouded child's view of the world, contrasting it with the sometimes selfish, crudely material world of adults. The world of childhood and the world of fairy tales are ideally combined in the work of A. Pogorelsky. His magical story “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” has become a classic work, originally addressed to young readers.

Anthony Pogorelsky is the pseudonym of Alexei Alekseevich Perovsky, the son of the noble Catherine’s nobleman A.K. Razumovsky. As a child, A. Perovsky received a varied education at home, then graduated from Moscow University in just over two years. He left the university with the title of Doctor of Philosophy and Literary Sciences, received for his lectures in the natural sciences. During the War of 1812, Perovsky was a military officer, participated in the battles of Dresden, Kulm, and served in Saxony. Here he met the famous German musician and romantic writer T. Amadeus Hoffmann. Communication with Hoffmann left an imprint on the nature of Perovsky’s work.

The ironic pseudonym “Antony Pogorelsky” is associated with the name of the writer’s estate Pogoreltsy in the Chernigov province and the name of St. Anthony of Pechersk, who once retired from the world to Chernigov. Antony Pogorelsky is one of the most mysterious figures in Russian literature. Friends called him the Byron of St. Petersburg: he was also smart, talented, recklessly brave, and even outwardly resembled the famous English poet.

A. Pogorelsky wrote poetry, articles about literature, in prose he largely anticipated the appearance of Gogol, and stood at the origins of the fantastic trend in Russian literature. The collection of stories “The Double, or My Evenings in Little Russia” (1828) attracted people with the mystery of either mysterious or touching stories told with a fair amount of clever irony; the novel “The Monastery” (1 part - 1830, 2 parts - 1833) was at one time noted as the first successful work about the Russian provincial nobility, and finally, the magic story for children “The Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” (1829) throughout For more than a hundred years, he has been captivating children with fairy-tale plots, without edifying, convincing them of the true value of goodness, truth, honesty and hard work. Pogorelsky contributed to the development of Russian literature by contributing to the education and literary development of his nephew, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy.

"The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants" (1828).

Problems, ideological meaning. The story is subtitled “A Magic Tale for Children.” There are two lines of narration in it - real and fabulous-fantastic. Their bizarre combination determines the plot, style, and imagery of the work. Pogorelsky wrote a story for his ten-year-old nephew. He calls the main character Alyosha. Translated from Greek, Alexey means intercessor, so the dedication to his nephew, the literary character’s own name and his essence happily coincided. But in the fairy tale there are tangible echoes not only of Alyosha Tolstoy’s childhood, but also of the author himself (also Alexei). As a child, he was placed in a boarding house for a short time, suffered from separation from home, ran away from it, and broke his leg. The high wooden fence enclosing the boarding yard and the living space of its pupils is not only a realistic detail in “The Black Hen”, but also a symbolic sign of the author’s “memory of Childhood”.

“The gate and gate that led to the alley were always locked, and therefore Alyosha never managed to visit this alley, which greatly aroused his curiosity. Whenever they allowed him to play in the yard during rest hours, his first movement was to run up to the fence.”

Round holes in the fence are the only connection with the outside world. The boy is lonely, and he feels this especially bitterly during the “vacant time”, when he is separated from his comrades.

A sad, poignant note permeates Pogorelsky's story. The narration is told on behalf of the author-narrator, with frequent appeals to imaginary listeners, which gives special warmth and trust. The time and place of the events that took place are specified: “Forty years ago, in St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men’s boarding house...” Before the reader there appears Petersburg at the end of the 19th century, a boarding house, a teacher with curls, a toupee and a long braid, his wife, powdered and pomaded, with a whole greenhouse of different colors on her head. Alyosha's outfit is written out in detail.

All descriptions are bright, picturesque, convex, given taking into account children's perception. For a child, detail is important in the overall picture. Finding himself in the kingdom of the underground inhabitants, “Alyosha began to carefully examine the hall, which was very richly decorated. It seemed to him that the walls were made of marble, such as he had seen in the mineral study of the boarding house. The panels and doors were pure gold. At the end of the hall, under a green canopy, on an elevated place, there were armchairs made of gold. Alyosha admired this decoration, but it seemed strange to him that everything was in the smallest form, as if for small dolls.”

Realistic objects, everyday details in fairy-tale episodes (tiny lit candles in silver chandeliers, nodding goal porcelain Chinese dolls, twenty little knights in gold armor, with crimson feathers on their hats) bring the two levels of narration together, making it natural Alyosha's transition from the real world to the magical and fantastic one.

Everything that happened to the hero makes the reader think about many serious questions. How to feel about success? How not to be proud of unexpected great luck? What can happen if you don't listen to the voice of conscience? What is fidelity to one's word? Is it easy to overcome the bad in yourself? After all, “vices usually enter through the door and exit through a crack.” The author poses a complex of moral problems without condescension to either the hero’s age or the reader’s age. A child’s life is not a toy version of an adult: everything in life happens once and in earnest.

Is The Black Hen didactic? The educational pathos is obvious. If we ignore the artistic fabric of the story, it can be expressed in words: be honest, hardworking, modest. But Pogorelsky managed to put the educational idea into such a romantically elevated and at the same time life-convincing, truly magical-fairy-tale form that the child reader perceives the moral lesson with his heart.

The plot of the story. The serious problems of Pogorelsky's story are easily absorbed by children thanks to the fascinating fairy-tale plot and the very successful central image of the hero - the reader's peer.

Analysis of the plot of the story convinces that in terms of genre the work is not so unambiguous, which additionally imparts artistic completeness and pedagogical depth to its content.

The story begins with exposition (prehistory of events unfolding directly within the artistic time of the work).

The beginning- Alyosha’s intercession for Chernushka.

Climax(the highest point of tension of all problem lines), a kind of event “node” of the conflict - Alyosha’s choice in the magical gardens of the underground inhabitants of hemp seeds , and not other grown beautiful flowers and fruits . This very choice is accompanied by seduction(it’s hard not to succumb to the temptation to easily know everything perfectly). But, having once given in to his thought, which seems harmless to others, the little man embarks on the path of first a very small, and then increasingly growing lie. So, it seems, forgetting the rules also magically comes to him. and promises. Then the kind and compassionate boy begins to express pride, an unjustified sense of superiority over others. This pride grows from a magical remedy - hemp seed, datura herb.

Moreover, the loss of a hemp seed by the hero is not yet the end; the boy is twice given a chance to get out of the current situation without moral losses, but, having found the hemp seed again, he embarks on the same disastrous path.

The denouement there will be an exposure of deception, “betrayal” of the underground inhabitants, and their departure is already an epilogue (events that are sure to follow, and no one can change them). Lyrically, the denouement is Alyosha’s repentance, a bitter, irreparable feeling of loss, pity for the heroes with whom he must part, and nothing can be changed either in his own actions or in the actions of others. The event side is the reason for the beginning of the “work of the soul.”

Intuitively, the reader comes to a conclusion, albeit not verbally formulated: pride and arrogance are overcome by remorse, repentance, complicity, compassion, pity for others. Moral conclusions sound aphoristic: “The lost are corrected by people, the wicked are corrected by angels, and the proud are corrected by the Lord GOD himself.”(St. John Climacus)

The image of the main character

The image of Alyosha, a nine-year-old pupil of an old St. Petersburg boarding school, was developed by the writer with special attention to his inner life. For the first time in a Russian children's book, a living boy appeared here, every emotional movement of which speaks of the author's deep knowledge of child psychology. Alyosha is endowed with features characteristic of a child of his age. He is emotional, impressionable, observant, inquisitive; reading ancient chivalric novels (the typical reading repertoire of an 18th-century boy) developed his naturally rich imagination. He is kind, brave, sympathetic. And at the same time, nothing childish is alien to him. He is playful, restless, easily succumbed to the temptation to not learn a boring lesson, to play cunning, to hide his childhood secrets from adults.

Like most children, fairy tales and reality are fused together in his mind. In the real world, the boy clearly sees traces of the miraculous, elusive for adults, and he himself continuously creates a fairy tale every minute in everyday life. So it seems to him that the holes in the fence, knocked together from old boards, were turned by a sorceress, and, of course, there is nothing surprising if she brings news from home or a toy. An ordinary chicken, fleeing the persecution of the cook, suddenly can easily speak and ask for help. That’s why magic knights, coming to life porcelain dolls, a mysterious underground kingdom with its peaceful and kind people, a grain with magical powers, and other wonders of a fairy tale with all the rights and laws.

How easily a fairy tale invades the life of Pogorelsky’s hero, so freely, in turn, the techniques of realistic writing are introduced into the story of the mysterious: accuracy in the description of everyday details and elements of psychological analysis unusual for a fairy tale.

The details of everyday life in the fairy-tale episodes of the story seem to have been suggested to the artist by a child, filled with naive faith in the reality of everything wonderful. Tiny lit candles in silver candlesticks, the size of Alyosha’s little finger, appear on the chairs, washstand and on the floor of the dark room, the chicken Chernushka comes for Alyosha; a large couch made of Dutch tiles, on which people and animals are painted in blue glaze, is encountered on their way to the underworld. They also see antique beds with white muslin canopies. It is easy to notice that all these objects came into the story not from an unknown magical land, but from an ordinary St. Petersburg mansion of the 18th century. Thus, the writer and the hero, as it were, “revive” the fairy tale, convincing the reader of the authenticity of the plot’s fiction.

The further Alyosha and Chernushka go into the mysterious world of underground inhabitants, the less historical and everyday flavor becomes in the text. But the clarity of a child’s vision, children’s vigilance and concreteness of ideas remain: twenty knights in golden armor, with crimson feathers on their armor, quietly marching in pairs into the hall, twenty little pages in crimson dresses carrying the royal robe. The clothes of the courtiers, the decoration of the palace chambers - everything was painted by Pogorelsky with a thoroughness that captivates a child, creating the illusion of “realness”, which he values ​​so much both in games and in fairy tales.

Almost all the events of a fairy tale can be explained, say, by the hero’s tendency to daydream, to fantasize. He loves chivalric romances and is often ready to see the ordinary in a fantastic light. The director of the schools, for whose reception the boarding house is excitedly preparing, in his imagination appears as “a famous knight in shiny armor and a helmet with shiny feathers,” but, to his surprise, instead of a “feathered helmet,” Alyosha sees “ just a small bald head, whitely powdered, the only decoration of which... was a small bun.” But the author does not seek to destroy the fragile balance between fairy tales and life; he leaves unsaid, for example, why Chernushka, being a minister, appears in the form of a chicken and what connection the underground inhabitants have with the old Dutch women.

A developed imagination, the ability to dream, fantasize constitute the wealth of the personality of a growing person. That is why the main character of the story is so charming. This is the first living, non-schematic image of a child, a boy in children's literature. Alyosha, like any ten-year-old child, is inquisitive, active, and impressionable. His kindness and responsiveness manifested itself in the rescue of his beloved chicken Chernushka, which served as the beginning of the fairy tale plot. It was a decisive and courageous act: the little boy threw himself on the cook’s neck, who inspired him with “horror and disgust” with her cruelty (the cook at that moment grabbed Chernushka by the wing with a knife in her hands). Alyosha, without hesitation, parted with his precious imperial gift from his kind grandmother. For the author of a sentimental children's story, this episode would be quite enough to reward the hero a hundredfold for his kind heart. But Pogorelsky paints a living boy, childishly spontaneous, playful, unable to resist the temptation of idleness and vanity.

Alyosha takes the first step towards his troubles unintentionally. At the king’s tempting offer to name his wish, Alyosha “hastened to answer” and said the first thing that could come to mind for almost every schoolchild: “I would like that, without studying, I would always know my lesson, no matter what I was given.”

The denouement of the story - the scene of Chernushka's farewell to Alyosha, the noise of the small people leaving their kingdom, Alyosha's despair at the irreparability of his rash act - is perceived by the reader as an emotional shock. For the first time, perhaps in his life, he and the hero are experiencing the drama of betrayal. Without exaggeration, one can speak of catharsis - the elevation of the enlightened soul of the young reader, who succumbed to the magic of Pogorelsky's fairy tale.

Style Features

The originality of the thinking of the child, the hero of the story, through whose eyes many of the events of the story were seen, prompted the writer to select visual means. Therefore, every line of “The Black Hen” resonates with readers who are the hero’s peers.

The writer, inventive in fantastic fiction, is attentive to the careful recreation of genuine life. The landscapes of old St. Petersburg, full of details, as if copied from life, more precisely, of one of its oldest streets - the First Line of Vasilyevsky Island, with its wooden sidewalks, small mansions covered with Dutch tiles, and spacious courtyards fenced with baroque boards. Pogorelsky described in detail and carefully Alyosha’s clothes, the decoration of the festive table, and the complex hairstyle of the teacher’s wife, made in the fashion of that time, and many other details of everyday life in St. Petersburg in the 18th century.

The everyday scenes of the story are marked by the author's slightly mocking smile. This is exactly how the pages depicting the funny bustle in the teacher’s house before the principal’s arrival were made.

The vocabulary and style of the story are extremely interesting. The style of “Black Chicken” is free and varied. In an effort to make the story entertaining for a child, Pogorelsky does not allow simplification, does not strive for such accessibility, which is achieved by impoverishing the text. When encountering thoughts and images in a work that are complex and not fully understandable, the child assimilates their context in a generalized way, not being able to approach them analytically. But mastering a text that requires certain mental efforts from the reader, designed “for growth,” is always more fruitful than easy reading.

“The Black Hen” is easily perceived by the modern reader. There is practically no archaic vocabulary or outdated figures of speech here. And at the same time, the story is structured stylistically diverse. There is an epic leisurely exposition, an emotional story about the rescue of Chernushka, about miraculous incidents associated with underground inhabitants. Often the author resorts to lively, relaxed dialogue.

In the style of the story, a significant role belongs to the writer’s reproduction of children’s thoughts and speech. Pogorelsky was one of the first to pay attention to its specificity and use it as a means of artistic representation. “If I were a knight,” Alyosha reflects, “I would never drive a cab.” Or: “She (the old Dutch woman) seemed to him (Alyosha) like wax.” Thus, Pogorelsky uses childish intonation both for the hero’s speech characteristics and in the author’s speech. Stylistic diversity, bold appeal to lexical layers of varying degrees of complexity and at the same time attention to the peculiarities of perception of the child reader made Pogorelsky's story a classic children's book.

“The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” is charming in its artless instructiveness and the brightness of its naive meaning about a wonderful bird that helps a kind and honest boy, and leaves him when he becomes a frivolous and vain sloth. It truthfully depicts the life of old Petersburg, convincingly reveals the inner world of a child, who for the first time in Russian literature became the main character of a work, unobtrusively deduces a moral and subtly reveals Pogorelsky’s characteristic organic interweaving of everyday life, humor and fantasy.

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Slide captions:

Moral content and whimsical plot of a literary fairy tale The presentation was made by a teacher of Russian language and literature of the highest category of GBOU secondary school No. 135 with in-depth study of the English language in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg, Svetlana Fedorovna Kanunnikova 1

Antony Pogorelsky “Black Hen, or Underground Inhabitants” 2

Biography of the writer The real name of the writer is Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky. The bastard son of Count A.K. Razumovsky. The dates of his life are 1787-1836. Received home education. In 1805 -1807 he successfully graduated from Moscow University. 1811 -1830 – organized the Society of Lovers of Russian Literature at Moscow University. One of the most educated people in Russia. Participant in the War of 1812. In 1822, after the death of his father, he inherited the Pogoreltsy estate. I chose a pseudonym based on the name of the estate. 4

The fairy tale “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” was first published in 1829. The magical story, as the author himself defined the genre of the work, “THE BLACK CHICKEN, OR THE UNDERGROUND RESIDENTS” was written for Alyosha’s ten-year-old nephew, who would become the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy. 5

Alexey Alekseevich Perovsky Alexey Konstantinovich Tolstoy 6

“The Black Hen, or the Underground Dwellers” is charming in its artless instructiveness and the brightness of its naive meaning about a wonderful bird that helps a kind and honest boy, and leaves him when he becomes a frivolous and vain sloth. It truthfully depicts the life of old Petersburg, convincingly reveals the inner world of a child, who for the first time in Russian literature became the main character of a work, unobtrusively deduces a moral and subtly reveals Pogorelsky’s characteristic organic interweaving of everyday life, humor and fantasy. 7

“Forty years ago in St. Petersburg on Vasilievsky Island, in the First Line, there lived the owner of a men’s boarding house...” 8

Find Vasilyevsky Island on the map. Line is the name of the side of the street on Vasilyevsky Island. A boarding school is a school with a dormitory. 9 Vasilievsky Island va

“At that time, our St. Petersburg was already famous throughout Europe for its beauty, although it was far from what it is now...” 10

“Isaakievsky Bridge, narrow and uneven at that time, had a completely different appearance than it does now...” 11

“...and St. Isaac’s Square itself was not like that at all.” 12

“Then the monument to Peter the Great was separated from St. Isaac’s Square by a ditch...” 13

“The Admiralty was not surrounded by trees...” 14

“... the Horse Guards riding arena did not decorate the square with its beautiful current façade...” 16

“...in a word, Petersburg at that time was not the same as it is now. Cities have, by the way, the advantage over people that they sometimes become more beautiful with age...” 18

“In modern times, it is unlikely that in all of Russia you will meet a person who has seen Peter the Great; the time will come when our traces will be erased from the face of the earth! Everything passes, everything disappears in our mortal world...” 19

The main character of the fairy tale is Alyosha. How old is Alyosha? Why is Alyosha lonely? What helps Alyosha cope with boredom? 20

What else besides reading books brightened up Aleshino’s loneliness? Chernushka is an affectionate, tufted chicken. . 21

How did Alyosha save the chicken from certain death? Imperial is a gold coin. 22

Description of the festive dinner. 1. Find in the text and read the description of the festive dinner. 2.What struck you? 3. What features of life and everyday life are associated with a bygone era? Description of clothes Description of hairstyles Table decoration 23

But Alyosha is not interested in all this. It seemed to him that a black hen called him. “He sat alone in the classrooms all evening, and at night...” What happened at night? 24

Alyosha and the underground inhabitants Tell us about the path of Alyosha and Chernushka to the underground kingdom and about the condition that Chernushka sets. In what meaning is the word modest used? Immodesty is the inability to keep a secret. 25

Alyosha in front of the underground king What wish does Alyosha ask to fulfill? Does success for which he made no effort bring him joy? 26

He forgot about the most important thing: everything in the world is given to a person by labor. It takes work to cook food, build a house, and gain knowledge. Only the knowledge that is acquired through labor remains firmly in the head, only no one can take it away. 27

Why did Alyosha’s character begin to change? What happened to Alyosha when he lost the magic seed? 28

Did Alyosha violate the condition set by Chernushka at the beginning of the fairy tale? Did he betray the underground inhabitants? Why did Minister Black Hen suffer? 29

The one who loves always suffers. Now Minister Black Chicken is chained, because the underground inhabitants paid because of Alyosha, whom he brought to them. Does the Black Hen minister reproach, accuse, or scold Alyosha? thirty

Minister Black Hen forgives Alyosha and leaves forever. He asks Alyosha to again become the kind boy he was before. 31

How did the fairy tale end? 32

What is the wisdom of the fairy tale? Everything comes from your own labor, then it is valued and brings joy. 33

What laws of a fairy tale are observed in this work? A fairytale beginning - ONCE upon a time there was a magical remedy - a seed Helper, giver - Black chicken Underground kingdom 34

What negative human qualities are condemned? Idleness Pride Betrayal 35

The wisdom of the Black Hen is that he (the Minister) knows how to be noble and knows how to forgive. And this turns out to be the most powerful and wise lesson for Alyosha. 36

Homework assignment: write a miniature essay “What the magic story “The Black Hen, or the Underground Inhabitants” taught me.” 37

38 Thanks for the lesson!