Scarlet Sails
Original title: Алые паруса
- Year
- 1923
- Chapters
- 7
About the work
In the seaside village of Kaperna a girl named Assol is growing up. One day a storyteller tells her that a ship with scarlet sails will come for her. The village laughs at the dreamer, while far away Arthur Grey grows up, a boy who has wanted to be a captain since childhood. A fairy tale about believing in miracles and about people who can make miracles happen with their own hands.
Contents
Reading clubs
How it was written
Grin worked on the book for several years and finished it by the end of 1922; it came out in 1923. He dedicated it to his wife, Nina Nikolaevna Grin.
Context
The story takes place in an imaginary seaside country that readers call Grinlandia. The language is vivid and figurative, with nautical vocabulary - a text for confident readers.
Interesting facts
- Grin himself called the work a feerie (fairy extravaganza).
- Since 1968 Leningrad, and later St Petersburg, has held the Scarlet Sails celebration for school graduates.
- In 1961 Alexander Ptushko made a film of the same name based on the book.