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''The Malachite Box'' or ''The Malachite Casket'' () is a book of folk tales (also known as ''skaz'') of the Ural region of Siberia compiled by Pavel Bazhov and published from 1936 to 1945. It is written in contemporary language and blends elements of everyday life with fantastic characters. It was awarded the Stalin prize in 1942. Bazhov's stories are based on oral legends of the miners and gold prospectors. All stories were released as a single volume on 28 January 1939. It consisted of 14 stories and an introduction, which contained some information about the life, industry and culture of the Urals and which the author tried to include into every edition of the collection. Every edition ended with the dictionary of unusual words and concepts.〔 Later versions contained about 40 stories. All tales can be divided into several groups, one being the series about craftsmen (the most famous tales are "The Stone Flower", "The Master Craftsman", "A Fragile Twig"); the tales about some mysterious forces, which contain surreal plots and mythical creatures ("The Mistress of the Copper Mountain", "The Malachite Casket", "Sinyushka's Well", "Cat's Ears"); the satirical tales about gold prospectors or greedy bailiffs ("The Manager's Boot-Soles", "Sochen and His Stones"); the tales about mining pioneers ("Sinyushka's Well"). Pavel Bazhov indicated that his stories can be divided into two groups based on tone: "child-toned" (e.g. "The Fire-Fairy", "Silver Hoof"), and "adult-toned" ("The Stone Flower", "Mark's Stone").〔 == Background == In the 1930s the Communist Party of the Soviet Union greatly encouraged the interest in the past of the country and the people. The Party drew public attention to the development of the historical science. Maxim Gorky, supported by the Communist Party, initiated the publication of such books as ''The History of Factories and Plants'' (). History books and various historical fiction titles were published one after another.〔Batin 1983, p. 1.〕 General interest in the history of the country transformed into the interest in folk art and folklore. The famous folklore expert N. Andreyev later wrote about that period that the folklore collections "have never been published before in such quantities, not even in the "Golden Age" of the folkloristics of the 60s". At the First Сongress of the Soviet Writers Maxim Gorky reminded the writers that "the art of words begins with folklore" and encouraged to collect and study it.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Malachite Box」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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