Brief summary of “Town in a Snuffbox” for a reader’s diary
Full name of the author : Odoevsky Vladimir Fedorovich
Title : “Town in a Snuff Box”
Number of pages : 28. Vladimir Odoevsky. "Town in a Snuff Box" Publishing house "Children's Literature". 1991
Genre : Fairy tale
Year of writing : 1834
The material was prepared jointly with a teacher of the highest category, Kuchmina Nadezhda Vladimirovna.
Experience as a teacher of Russian language and literature - 27 years.
Father's warning
The summary of “Town in a Snuffbox” continues with the fact that Misha wanted to get to this unusual town. The boy asked his father who his inhabitants were. His father answered him that bells live in it. He lifted the lid of the snuffbox.
The child saw bells and hammers. Interested in the device, he asked his father how the town started to move. Dad told Misha that he should try to figure everything out himself. I just warned him not to touch the spring, because if it was damaged, the music would no longer play.
Main characters
Misha is a little boy, kind, inquisitive, and sympathetic.
Misha's dad is a smart, kind man who wanted his son to figure out everything with his own mind.
Bell boys are cheerful, ringing inhabitants of the snuffbox.
Hammer guys are strict and very principled inhabitants of the snuff box.
Valik is a lazy and clumsy overseer.
Spring is an important but frivolous princess.
Please note that we also have:
for the most sociable -
The main characters of “Town in a Snuff Box”
Other characters
- Misha's dad and mom.
Residents of the town of Ding Ding:
- Bell boys are hospitable, kind, resilient musicians.
- The hammer guys are evil gentlemen with thin legs and long noses.
- Mr. Valik , the overseer of the hammers, spends the whole day lying in a robe on the sofa, tossing from side to side and clinging to the hammers.
- Princess Spring - pushes the roller to the side so that the musical mechanism of the snuff box operates.
Plot
One day dad gave Misha a wonderful tortoiseshell snuffbox to look at. To show how it works, dad lifted the lid and Misha saw numerous bells, hammers, a roller, and a spring. The boy began to ask his dad how it all worked, but he suggested that his son think about it himself. He only warned Misha not to touch the spring.
Misha peered into the snuff box for a long time and suddenly saw a silver boy in a golden skirt, who called him to follow him. On the city streets he saw many ringing bell boys of different heights. They complained to Misha about the hammer men who periodically tapped them. The boy asked the harsh knockers why they offended boys in skirts, but they sent him to the warden Valik.
The roller lay on the sofa and lazily turned over. When he did this, his hooks caught the hammers, and they in turn knocked on the bells. Misha asked why he was doing this, but Valik became angry and drove him away.
The boy went further and soon saw a beautiful tent in which Princess Spring was sitting. She curled up and turned around, pushing Valik. Misha asked her why everyone in the city was pushing each other and hitting each other, to which Spring replied that otherwise there would not be such beautiful music.
Misha wanted to check Spring's words. He pressed it with his finger, and it suddenly burst and the music stopped. Misha got scared and... woke up. He told his dream to his dad, and he said that in order to understand how music plays, you need to learn mechanics.
Summary
One day Misha's father called his son over and showed him a snuff box. She was beautiful, “motley, made of tortoiseshell.” Its lid was a real work of art: on it were gates, turrets, numerous houses and trees, behind which the sun rose with long pink rays.
Misha learned from his father that the name of this amazingly beautiful city is Tinkerbell. Dad touched some kind of spring, and suddenly the sounds of enchanting music flowed through the room, and the sun began to move across the sky. When it completely disappeared behind the hillock, a “horned moon” and an asterisk appeared in the sky.
Misha passionately wanted to get to this city to “find out what was going on there.” From his father he learned that bluebells live there. When the boy looked under the lid of the snuffbox, he saw “bells, and hammers, and a roller, and wheels.” Misha began asking daddy how the snuffbox worked and how it worked. He invited his son to carefully examine it and independently guess the principle of its operation. He only asked not to touch one spring: “otherwise everything will break.”
Misha sat for a long time over the snuffbox, trying to understand how the music played. Suddenly a door opened in it, from which “a boy with a golden head and a steel skirt” ran out. He beckoned Misha to him, and he was surprised to find that he had become as tiny as the boy from the snuff box.
There were other bell boys living in the city. Having learned that Misha wanted to visit them, they decided to invite him and show him how they live. A new acquaintance led Misha through arches made of colorful embossed paper. The boy was sure that he would never crawl through the small and narrow arches located in the distance, but the bell calmed him down. He explained to Misha that “from a distance everything seems small, but when you come up it looks big.”
Misha remembered how he recently wanted to draw his parents: his mother was playing the piano next to him, and his father was sitting at the other end of the room reading a book. However, he did not succeed, because at that time he did not yet know about the laws of perspective.
Misha and his guide continued on their way and soon came out onto a large and spacious city street. It was filled with bell boys of all sizes: those who were fatter and larger made low sounds, and the smallest bells were the loudest in the city.
Seeing Misha, the bell boys surrounded him and began to complain about their lives. They had no lessons, no activities, no parents, and they were very bored playing all day long. In addition, they were regularly beaten by evil “hammer men”, and the loudest bells got the most.
Misha felt sorry for his new friends. He walked up to the hammers and politely asked why they were beating the boys. The hammer men replied that they acted this way by order of the overseer, Mr. Valik. The bells couldn't complain about him - he lay on the sofa all day long and didn't bother anyone.
Coming closer to Valik, Misha noticed that his robe was hung with many hooks. Turning from side to side, he hooked the hammers with these hooks, and they, in turn, knocked on the bell boys. Plucking up courage, Misha approached Valik and asked him not to hook the hammer men. The warden replied that this did not concern him at all, and there was power over him too.
Misha went further and soon saw a golden tent in which Princess Spring was located. She constantly curled up and turned around, pushing the warden in the side. In turn, he hooked the hammer men, who knocked on the bell boys. Thanks to all these actions, the music from the snuff box sounded.
Wanting to check the veracity of Spring's words, Misha pressed her with his finger. As a result, the delicate mechanism was broken and the music stopped. Misha “remembered that daddy didn’t order him to touch the springs, got scared and... woke up.” He told his parents his extraordinary dream. The father praised his son for his curiosity and added that he would learn more when he studied mechanics.
Review
The main character was not afraid when he found himself in an unfamiliar place. At first, he defended the bell boys, but soon realized that everything in the magical city was arranged as it should be, in fairness.
Drawing-illustration for the fairy tale Town in a snuffbox.
Magic snuff box
The summary of “Town in a Snuff Box” begins with the fact that dad showed his little son Misha a skillfully made snuff box. On its lid was painted a wonderful city, over which the sun rose, illuminating the sky with its rays.
This town was called Ding Ding. The father pressed the spring, and the sounds of a wonderful melody were heard, and the sun began to move across the sky. When it hid in the sky, the stars lit up in the sky and the moon shone. It all looked like a fairy tale.
Residents of the town
The summary of “Town in a Snuff Box” continues with Misha thinking about his father’s words. The music sounded quieter, and suddenly an unusual boy appeared from the door. It had a golden head and a steel skirt. The stranger called Misha to the snuffbox.
The boy approached and was surprised: the door turned out to be suitable for his height! The bell stranger turned out to be a resident of this town. The same bells lived in it, who heard that Misha wanted to visit the town, and decided to invite him to visit them.
The bell boy led Misha through the paper arches, which became smaller and smaller. The hero doubted whether he could get through them. The bell, constantly repeating “ding,” explained that objects in the distance always seem smaller. Once upon a time the hero wanted to draw his parents: his father, and, at some distance from him, his mother. But he didn’t succeed, because at that time he still knew nothing about such a concept as perspective.
The bell was amused by this story and he laughed, Misha was offended. And, in turn, he noticed that there is no need to often use sayings in speech. The bell boy also felt offended. Misha saw that the same bells lived in the town, differing in size. At first he decided that it was just his imagination because of the perspective. But his guide explained that they were actually different. Big ones have a louder and “heavier” voice, while small ones have a sonorous voice. The bell boy told Misha that you can learn something from lovers of sayings.
Magical dream
Further, in the summary of “Town in a Snuff Box,” it is said that the boy decided to check whether the princess had deceived him, and pressed her with his finger. And then the roller spun vigorously, the hammers began to knock harder, and the music died down. And then Misha remembered his father’s ban, got scared and suddenly woke up.
Misha told his parents about the magical dream. The father praised his son for his curiosity and desire to independently understand how everything works. He said that the boy almost understood the mechanism of the snuff box, and he would learn more when he studied mechanics.
You can also read a summary of Odoevsky’s “Town in a Snuffbox,” but the original will allow you to feel all the magic of this wonderful story. This was one of the first scientific and educational children's books. This tale is also surprising because it touches on an unusual topic - mechanics. Its main principles are revealed using the example of the construction of a beautiful snuff box.
The main goal of this fairy tale is the desire to show children how amazing and beautiful the world of science is. Its phenomena and patterns seem like real magic to the child’s mind. V.F. Odoevsky is known for being fond of unusual theories. He wrote in the genre of fantastic romantic stories.
His tale about a magic snuffbox and its inhabitants also has features of romanticism and fantasy. Perhaps that is why children liked it so much with its combination of science and magic. Later, in 1976, the film “Box of Secrets” was made based on this tale. During the Soviet era, it was this work by Odoevsky that was published most often. Perhaps that is why it is the most famous of the works of Vladimir Fedorovich. It encourages children's fantasies and pushes children to explore the world and strive to gain new knowledge.
