| Author | Alexei Tolstoy |
|---|---|
| Original title | Золотой ключик, или Приключения Буратино |
| Language | Russian |
| Genre | Fairy tale,children's literature |
Publication date | 1936 |
| Publication place |  Soviet Union |
| ISBN | 978-5-465-01370-3 |
The Golden Key, or The Adventures of Buratino (Russian:Золотой ключик, или Приключения Буратино) is a 1936 children'sfantasy novel by Soviet writerAlexei Tolstoy, which is a retelling ofCarlo Collodi's novelThe Adventures of Pinocchio. Tolstoy dedicated the book to his future fourth and last wife, Lyudmila Krestinskaya.
The creation of the story began when in 1923 Alexei Tolstoy, being in exile, edited the Russian translation of the fairy tale by Italian writer Carlo Collodi "The Adventures of Pinocchio. The Story of the Wooden Doll" (1883), carried out by Nina Petrovskaya. A year later this book was published in Berlin, in the publishing house "Nakanune" (when Tolstoy had already returned to the USSR).[1]
This translation under Tolstoy's editorship is notable due to attempts to adapt Italian realities for Russian readers with the help of stylistic alterations of the text (by adding Russian proverbs, sayings, etc.).[2] Tolstoy later used some of these adaptations to The Golden Key - in particular, in this translation, Geppetto was already renamed Carlo.
In October 1933, Tolstoy signed a contract with the publishing house "Detgiz" to write his own retelling of "Pinocchio" (co-authored with Nina Petrovskaya), but in December 1934 he had amyocardial infarction, so that Tolstoy had to postpone work on the story, and he returned to it only in the spring of 1935 (for this he had to postpone work on the trilogyThe Road to Calvary).[2][3][4]
Although Tolstoy had originally planned to simply publish his own translation of the original, he became fascinated by the original idea and created his own story, adding the story of the hearth painted on an old canvas and the golden key.[5] In the end, he strayed quite far from the original story for the reason that it was outdated for the period ofsocialist realism, and also because Collodi's tale is full of moralizing and cautionary maxims. On the other hand, Tolstoy wanted to infuse the characters with a more adventurous and fun spirit.[2]
In 1936, Tolstoy wrote the playThe Golden Key for the Central Children's Theater (nowRussian Academic Youth Theater [ru])[6] at the request of its founderNatalia Sats, and in 1939 he wrote the screenplay for a film of the same name, which was directed byAleksandr Ptushko.
By 1986, the fairy tale was published in the USSR 182 times and was translated into 47 languages. The total circulation was 14.587 million copies.[7]
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