Fairy tales

The collection of the famous novelist, screenwriter and playwright Evgeny Lvovich Shvarts (1896-1958) for the first time includes all nine of his fairy tales: "The Tale of Lost Time", "The New Adventures of Puss in Boots", "Two Brothers", "The Scattered Wizard", "The Leningrad Tale", "The Story of the Old Balalaika", "Two Friends - Homut and Podpruga", "The War of Petrushka and Stepka Rastrepka" and "Petka the Cock, the Village Shepherd". Illustrations in the book are made by the People's Artist of the Russian Federation V. A. Chizhikov. A. Chizhikov.
"Tale of Lost Time" Evgeny Lvovich Shvarts wrote for the puppet theater before the war in 1940. By this time, having realized his dream, he was already an accomplished writer and playwright who had found his own language and theme. Even as a child, Eugene, when asked by his mother what he wanted to become, embarrassedly whispered: "a novelist." He early began to make up his own stories, and all of them were sure to have a happy ending. Even as a child, Eugene felt a craving for literature and theater. While studying at the Faculty of Law at Moscow University, almost all the money sent by his parents, he spent on theater tickets. No wonder that Schwartz soon joined the list of failed lawyers, among whom were Charles Perrault, the Grimm brothers and Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann. But an amazing storyteller was born - Eugene Schwartz. In 1921 he came to Petrograd on tour with actors from the Rostov "Theater Workshop" and quickly gained fame as a brilliant storyteller-improviser. A little later he began working in the children's editorial office of Gosizdat under the direction of Samuil Marshak. Shvarts began writing stories for the children's magazines "Chizh" and "Hedgehog". At this time his first fairy tales appeared; all of them are included in this unique collection. They are not just for children. Nikolai Pavlovich Akimov once said of Shvarts that "...there was a magician who, having retained his power over children, managed to conquer adults as well". Shvarts' tales in this book are illustrated with drawings by Viktor Aleksandrovich Chizhikov. He is known to millions of Russians as the author of the cute smiling Bear, who became the symbol of the XXII Summer Olympic Games. In Victor's drawings not only bears, dogs, cats, hares and mice smile, but even frogs and crocodiles. It is immediately obvious that these images are invented by a talented and cheerful person. Chizhikov seriously thought about the profession of illustrator after meeting with Kukryniksy. They liked Chizhikov's school drawings, and the famous cartoonists advised Victor not to give up drawing. As a result, Chizhikov entered the art department of the Moscow Polygraphic Institute and as a student began to cooperate with the magazines "Crocodile", "Veselye Kartinki" and "Murzilka". His drawings regularly appeared on the pages of magazines "Pioneer", "Young Naturalist" and "Around the World". Chizhikov illustrated more than two hundred books, including works by Andersen, Chukovsky, Mikhalkov, Milne, Zakhoder, Marshak and Uspensky. In 1981 he became Honored Artist of the RSFSR, and in 2016 he became People's Artist of the Russian Federation.