Мангуста

by Boris Zhitkov

В книгу вошли рассказы о животных замечательного русского писателя Бориса Степановича Житкова.

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1931

About the author

Boris Stepanovich Zhitkov (Russian: Борис Степанович Житков; 11 September 1882 — 19 October 1938) was a Russian author, mainly of children's books.

Zhitkov was born in Novgorod; his father was a mathematics teacher and his mother a pianist. His works include numerous books in which he, in a figurative form, described various professions. His books are based on his rich experience as a sailor, ship captain, scientist, traveler and explorer. Between 1916 and 1924 he was a sailor and, later, a ship's captain. He also worked as a navigator, an ichthyologist, a metal worker, a shipbuilding engineer, a teacher of physics and drafting, and a technical college headmaster.

In 1924 Zhitkov started to be published and soon became a professional writer. He is best known for the hugely successful children's travel book What I Saw (Russian: Что я видел) about the summer vacation adventures of a curious little boy nicknamed Pochemuchka. He was a close friend of Korney Chukovsky.

Zhitkov's 1941 historical novel about the 1905 Revolution, Viktor Vavich (Russian: Виктор Вавич), was immediately destroyed and republished in 1999 only thanks to Lydia Chukovskaya having saved a copy; Boris Pasternak called it "the best thing that has ever been written about 1905; it's shameful that nobody knows this book."

Reviews

[V. · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know I read them as a child - I wish I could remember what they were like back then. There is something sad and very melancholic to them. Something very real, the grown-up me would say. Animal stories. For children. And hardly one of them with what may be called a happy end (but perhaps it's just the grown-up me who reads between the lines and is spooked by the depth of the sadness and hopelessness and its contrast to the language of a children's book, hence the two stars).