Heroes of the work
The central character of the story is the young American Douglas. He is 12, and during the summer described, he is growing up, facing adult experiences. In addition to him, the reader also meets members of the Spalding family - a strict but understanding father, a gentle mother, Douglas's younger brother Thomas, and grandparents, who introduced the tradition of making dandelion wine.
Also in each chapter there are episodic characters with whom Douglas meets at one point or another in his life. They all teach the boy something, give him the opportunity to feel different emotions and draw some conclusions, which he writes down in his yellow notebook-diary.
In some chapters the author moves away from Douglas's story and talks about other characters. For example, the reader meets the inventor of the happiness machine, Leo Aufman, with his family, as well as an elderly woman, Mrs. Helen Bentley, and the maniac who killed Mrs. Lavinia.
Plot of the story
The main theme of Dandelion Wine is human happiness. A 12-year-old boy, Douglas, talks and discusses this, who had a completely ordinary, but still not ordinary, summer with his family. Doug grows up and begins to experience not only joyful moments, but also death and separation. However, he finds a way to capture happiness in every passing day.
The central place in the story is dandelion wine, which Douglas's grandfather brews every year. He bottles it and stores it in the basement, and Doug thinks those bottles are filled with happy summer days. Over time, he draws an allegory with people and their memories: in the same way, we can bottle up moments of happiness and store them, because they are us.
Retelling “Dandelion Wine” briefly chapter by chapter
The story takes place in the summer of 1928, in the American state of Illinois. The main character, a 12-year-old boy named Douglas, is looking forward to the summer holidays. He feels that these three months will be very happy. Douglas dreams of the joyful events awaiting him ahead, but his fantasies are interrupted by guests - relatives have come to visit the Spaldings. The house is filled with laughter and hubbub.
Chapter 1
Like other families, the Spaldings had their own traditions. One of them was that my father and brothers always went together to pick grapes. Douglas loved to go with his dad and younger brother to the forest, as its atmosphere was filled with mystery. In addition, he liked that his father taught him how to properly separate berries from branches and leaves, and also talked a lot about the surrounding nature.
At breakfast, Douglas's younger brother Tom shared his secret with the family. He said that he keeps a diary in which he writes down the events of the day every day - including how they pick grapes. Doug found this interesting, although he didn't say out loud that he wanted to keep a diary too.
Chapter 2
Douglas and Tom are picking grapes together. They talk, and Tom tells his brother that he keeps a snowflake saved from winter in the refrigerator.
It was on this day, having started a small fight with his brother, that Doug suddenly realized that he was alive. He clearly felt that he was part of this world, realized that he belonged to the surrounding nature. This filled him with joy, and for several hours after returning from the forest, Douglas was in high spirits.
Chapter 3
Another tradition in the Spalding family was Grandfather's. Every summer he made wine from the juice of dandelions, and the bottles were stored and opened throughout the following year. On the day described in this chapter, Grandfather had just asked Douglas and Tom to pick him some bright yellow flowers. Doug thought they could bottle summer with this wine. And when his family opens a bottle of a wonderful drink in winter, the surroundings will suddenly become warmer and the sun will appear.
In the story “Dandelion Wine” the plot is nonlinear. The events do not follow one another - they take place on different days of the described summer, and Douglas talks about them. As a result, the narrative turns out to be abstract and similar to diverse reflections on what happiness is.
Chapter 4
Grandfather had prepared summer wine from dandelions, and it was waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, Douglas had a big dream, by his standards - he was already imagining how he would play on the street in new tennis shoes. He looked at them in the store and realized that his father most likely would not be able to buy him a new thing. But Douglas really wanted to have it, so he brought into the store some coins that he had saved earlier and talked about his dream. The seller allowed him to take the shoes on the condition that he would complete a few errands and thereby complete the “purchase,” but Douglas behaved irresponsibly and simply left without fulfilling his promise.
In the same chapter, Douglas keeps a diary in a yellow notebook, which he divides into two parts - in one of them he writes about “ordinary things”, in the other - about “discoveries”.
Read a summary of Ray Bradbury's story Dandelion Wine
Douglas Spalding, a twelve-year-old boy, wakes up in a tower one summer morning. It's only June and the whole summer lies ahead. Together with his father and younger brother Tom, Douglas goes into the forest to collect wild grapes and strawberries. In the forest, Douglas makes the stunning discovery that he is a living being with a soul.
The children, at the request of their grandfather, collect dandelions to later make wine from them and drink it on winter evenings. Douglas and his boy friends John Hough and Chralie Woodman explore the outskirts of the city and a mysterious ravine.
Douglas notices new tennis shoes in the window of a shoe store and begins to dream about them. He agrees with the seller, old Mr. Sanderos, that he will work off part of the money that he did not have enough to buy shoes.
Every summer, the boy’s family performs familiar rituals that seem mysterious and enigmatic to him: they prepare lemonade, dandelion wine, and hang a swing on the veranda.
Men living in the town gather in the evening to discuss politics. Douglas's grandfather advises them to talk about something positive, and jeweler Leo Aufman decides to come up with a Happiness Machine for people.
On a late summer evening, Douglas's mother waits for her son and her husband to come home. She sends her youngest son, Tom, to Mrs. Singer's shop for ice cream. Afterwards, they go together to look for Douglas, and he sees how his mother is worried about him.
Gardener Bill Forester wants to plant a new kind of grass on Douglas's grandfather's lawn that doesn't require mowing. But it turns out that for grandpa, mowing the grass is one of the main joys of summer.
Leo Aufman builds a Happiness Machine, but it causes a quarrel in his own family. The car burns down along with the garage and the world is restored.
The children meet the elderly Mrs. Bentley. They don't believe her stories that she was once little. Mrs. Bentley decides to part with the cute little things that remind her of her past.
Old ladies Miss Roberta and Miss Fern, while riding in an electric car - the Green Car, accidentally hit Mr. Quartermain and hide in the attic, fearing that the police will come to them.
The tram line in the town is closed, and the tram driver, Mr. Tridden, invites the children on the last trip. They go on a picnic out of town and listen to Mr. Tridden talk about the past.
Douglas has a tragedy - his friend, John Hough, leaves to live in another city. His father found a job there. The boys separate for a long time, if not forever.
Elmira Brown, the wife of the local postman, learns that her neighbor and chairman of the Honeysuckle Women's Club, Clara Goodwater, is ordering books on witchcraft. Elmira believes that she can become the new chairman of the club if she destroys the witch's witchcraft. She brews a potion and drinks it, but Clara still defeats her at the meeting. Elmira falls down the stairs and Clara finally repents.
Old Colonel Freeley lives out his days locked alone in his bedroom. The only joy in his life is his phone - sometimes he calls his friend Jorge in Mexico City, listens to the noise of the streets and remembers his youth. On the day the nurse threatens to take away the phone, the colonel dies.
Reporter Bill becomes a friend of old Miss Loomis. They sit in her garden for a long time and, with the help of their imagination, travel to different countries. Miss Loomis dies, leaving Bill a letter.
In the town, everyone is afraid of the Murderer, a maniac who keeps the entire neighborhood in fear. Several murders of women have already occurred until Miss Lavinia stabs him with scissors.
Douglas's great-grandmother, who supported the whole house, dies. Before her death, she consoles the boy, saying that she will live in her grandchildren. Douglas reflects on what death is.
In the store, the boy finds a broken fortune-telling machine with a sad wax figure. He decides to save her by stealing her from her owner.
The van of a junk dealer, Mr. Jonas, rolls through the streets. He collects various things and gives them to people for free. Douglas falls ill, and the rag man comes to his aid, bringing a healing tincture. This is how summer ends.
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Chapter 5
This chapter reveals another tradition of the Spaulding family. Every summer they hang a swing on the porch so they can spend time together as a family. This year was no exception: first, grandfather made sure that the mechanism was working, and then the annual swing was installed. Douglas had a good time there with his grandfather and the whole family. Everyone was happy and laughing, and the boy thought that the whole summer would be like this - warm and happy.
Chapter 6
This chapter tells about the jeweler Leo Aufman. He decided to invent a happiness machine, worked hard on it, and finally everything was ready. However, things began to work differently than he expected. At first, Leo's wife, Lina, did not greet his invention with enthusiasm - she only reproached the jeweler for not spending enough time with his family. And then it turned out that the car gave happiness and euphoria only for a short time. Both Lina and son Leo remained happy for only a short time, and then the effect of the miracle mechanism ended.
Leo realized that he cannot change the whole world around him. But when he looked away from his invention and suddenly looked at his family, he suddenly felt happiness - it turns out that it consisted of simply noticing the joy in every moment.
Chapter 7
The central character of this chapter is a very elderly woman, Mrs. Bentley. She is lonely because she was divorced a long time ago and was left alone. All her life Mrs. Bentley lived on memories instead of creating something new. But one day she meets Leo Aufman's daughter and talks to her about her childhood. This conversation helps Mrs. Bentley understand that you cannot live only in the past days, otherwise you will not notice how old you are, and you will not have time to feel happiness.
Chapter 8
Colonel Freeley was a war veteran. He suffered an injury that left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. His memory also suffered, and he periodically forgot some details. But this did not stop him from telling interesting stories about the war, which the neighboring children (among them Thomas and Douglas Spalding) came to listen to.
But when the apples ripened in the colonel’s garden, his children forbade him to let the neighbor’s boys in - so that they would not steal the harvest. There were no more stories. Soon Colonel Freeley died, and for Doug and Tom it was a huge loss.
Chapter 9
The ninth chapter is dedicated to Douglas and Thomas's favorite tram. They rode on it throughout their childhood, but now it was decided to replace it with a new trolleybus. The boys are upset by this, but they decide to take the tram on the last trip. They celebrate their childhood memories with picnics and stories, but they still find it difficult to come to terms with the fact that the old tradition is passing away.
This material presents Ray Bradbury's story “Dandelion Wine” with a brief summary, which does not always fully reflect the interactions of the characters. Although some chapters focus on individual characters, most are connected to Douglas's main story. They teach each other what happiness is and how it should be felt.
Chapter 10
Douglas was in real trouble. His friend, Gene Huff, is moving to another city permanently. It is very difficult for Doug to say goodbye to his childhood playmate, and he even tried to trick him into staying, but nothing worked. For Douglas, this was the first real separation, and he took it very hard. He made his younger brother promise that he would never leave him.
Chapter 11
A serial killer appeared in the city where the Spaulding family lived. His victims were young girls. But Miss Lavinia Nebbs was able to fight back and killed the maniac with household scissors.
Douglas and Tom learned the story. In it, death seemed to them a fair punishment for the one who killed himself. However, the boys soon have to face another death. Their great-grandmother passes into another world, and the whole family grieves greatly. However, the elderly woman was not afraid of death, because her descendants would live. In this case, for her this is just another stage and even an adventure, because she has been in this world for a very long time.
Chapter 12
In the last month of summer, Douglas fell seriously ill. After the death of his great-grandmother, he was very worried and one day did not return home after playing in the ravine. His mother and brother found him, but Douglas came down with a fever. Doctors could not understand what caused the boy’s condition, and only ragpicker Jonas could help him. He brought Douglas bottles in which amazing phenomena were sealed - mountain air, fog, winds. With their help, the boy was able to return to life again.
Chapter 13
When Douglas and Tom see school supplies on sale, they realize that another summer is over. But it will forever remain in their memory, because they sealed each of the ninety days in a bottle of dandelion wine. There are several cold and perhaps difficult seasons ahead of them, but if they need a piece of summer and happy memories, they can always find them in the cellar.
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Ray Bradbury and his "Dandelion Wine": Poetry that requires a new translation
“Dandelion Wine” is one of the most famous works of writer Ray Bradbury. No less cult than The Martian Chronicles, although unformatted for the coryphaeus of space science fiction, who left us eight years ago, at 91 years old. It is interesting that Bradbury, who wrote about the future, did not like computers, was afraid of flying on airplanes, did not drive a car, and was generally far from many technical things.
When Bradbury was asked why his predictions about settlements on Mars by the beginning of this century were not realized, he replied: “Because people are idiots” and were busy with worthless things - marketing, dog suits and iPhones, beer and TV shows, instead of developing science . And he's right.
This great American wrote more than eight hundred works, he is a legend and a classic. His family included pioneers from England, and even a Salem witch. Unable to attend college, Ray spent all his free time in the library, wrote his first story at the age of 12, and at 17 he already joined the Los Angeles Science Fiction League.
Time Machine
The story “Dandelion Wine” was published in 1957, and, despite all its special features, it contains the same problems as in all of Bradbury’s works: longing for a lost paradise, the immensity of life, death and loneliness. In fact, “Wine” was written over 12 years (since 1944) - more precisely, it is collected from stories written at different times. And “The Martian Chronicles” was written not earlier, but in parallel. Bradbury called both books “casual novels,” jumping from one to the other in his work.
The publication of Wine was magic for Bradbury himself: he was 37 years old, going through a midlife crisis, his father had died, and his wife had almost left him.
So for him, the autobiographical “Dandelion Wine” became something like a time machine, taking him back to his childhood - from one experience to another. Yes, Bradbury was very sentimental. And when he was reproached for this, he replied: “You’re damn right!”
The story takes place in the summer of 1928 in Greentown, Illinois. Greentown is essentially Waukegan, Bradbury's hometown. All stories take place during the summer with the brothers Douglas and Tom Spalding, with their relatives, neighbors, friends and acquaintances.
Douglas is Bradbury himself (that was his middle name), and Spaulding is the surname of his paternal grandmother. And besides, Ray Bradbury’s grandfather also made wine from dandelions, so this wine is not a metaphor, it was actually made by squeezing one drop of juice from a bag of flowers with a press.
It would be difficult to determine the age of the little philosopher Douglas if it were not for Bradbury’s love of numbers. He emphasizes that Douglas is 12 years old, and Tom is 10. Douglas, like Ray, carefully counts the number of residents of the city, the dates, how much ice cream he ate in a year, how many steps he took, how many berries he picked.
It is interesting that in this city of childhood there are absolutely no poor people, or, in any case, poverty is simply not emphasized. All the families there are prosperous, complete, with grandparents, great-grandmothers - such a large American traditional family, with plentiful family dinners, with a love of work. And the whole family makes dandelion wine there - this is also a family tradition, a metaphor for preserving memories, healing lightness and summer sun. And the book itself, however, is healing for those who read it.
- "Solaris" quarreled Lem with Tarkovsky
One of the most important themes in the book is the theme of death. Douglas's discovery of his mortality is accompanied by some pretty scary things - his great-grandfather lying in a coffin, his dead little sister with frozen, blind blue eyes, the death of a girl, and the death of the Murderer. All these heartbreaking pieces about death are, by the way, Bradbury’s personal experiences. He had two older twin brothers and a sister, and one of the twins and a sister died.
Lost in translation
There is no intrigue in this book as such, it is all based on poetry, which is sometimes difficult to understand. The problem here is translation. It is still Soviet, but there is no other one.
Well, first of all, the music of the title is completely lost in translation. Dandelion Wine sounds much more beautiful - like bells, it has a rhyme and the ri sounds, alas, more boring. And in general, the magic of Bradbury's texts becomes dull in translation. And there is no need to be offended by the Russian language - no one can translate Pushkin without losing his poetic magic.
Let's say, a piece of text about new T-shirts sounds quite prosaic to the Russian reader, just some kind of materialism. But in the original it’s a wonderful anthem: new shoes, new summer, new smells, new feelings. It feels like the world has just woken up. Meanwhile, this episode was copied by Bradbury from reality - every year in June, Ray’s mother took Ray to the store to buy him a pair of new tennis shoes.
The children - Douglas and Tom - in the story, of course, are exotic, they speak in metaphors and philosophemes, although they also curse a lot. But in the Soviet translation, swearing was not allowed, and the childish naturalness sometimes disappears, and they turn out to be somehow completely well-mannered and even sterile.
- The world will not be the same: science fiction writer Lukyanenko predicted a severe crisis
The nickname of one of the characters - Soul Killer - sounds boring, but his actual name is Lonely One, that is, Lonely. And this, by the way, was a real man from Waukegan, whom everyone was terribly afraid of. He wasn't actually a murderer, but a serial robber. Having pulled off a deal, each time he sent a letter to the newspaper, or to the police, or to the store owner: they say, catch me! And from this man Bradbury invented a serial killer.
The romantic Bradbury also said that the happiness machine was invented two thousand years ago, that is, at the beginning of the Christian era. But in the Soviet translation, Christ was out of place, so it was said vaguely: “thousands of years ago.”
In general, literary scholars are confident that today this great work needs another translation, a modern one.
Dandelion Crater on the Moon
Douglas and Tom, of course, grew up and understood the world in a completely different way than Soviet children, who had the ideology of building communism and other nonsense crammed into their heads. It is clear that Greentown in the story is some kind of enchanted and isolated space, this is America in America, where old people are not just old people - but keepers of memory. But the fact that a child here has a reliable rear, a large American family and some kind of golden American childhood (no matter whether poor or rich) is an all-American value and fact. The majority of children in the Soviet Union (and even later) did not have such a rear, where, due to the war and its consequences, there were a lot of single-parent families. So many of us did not get this feeling of real childhood. All the more reason to read this book if you haven't already.
Not every masterpiece manages to obtain a residence permit outside our planet. But in July 1971, the crew of the Apollo 15 spacecraft named one small crater on the surface of the Moon Dandelion, or, in our opinion, Dandelion.
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The material was published in the Sobesednik+ publication No. 09-2020 under the title “Ray Douglas Bradbury: People are idiots.”
