The image of the book in Ivan Shmelev's early prose

Ivan Sergeyevich Shmelev began his career in literature as a children’s writer. In his early works addressed to children one of the most frequent images was the image of the book. Throughout the pages of children’s books the writer once and again talks about the necessity of introducing children to the world of fiction, about its ability to influence the formation and evolution both of a young hero’s worldview and of an adult’s attitude, about an ability of the book not only to expand the boundaries of knowledge, but also to become a stage in spiritual development of a person. The origins of Shmelev’s belief in the moral force of an artistic word and its positive influence on child development are seen in the writer’s biography, accustomed to reading since his childhood. A sacred tie between a person and books in the artistic world of the writer becomes a kind of criterion of “spirituality” or “spiritual impoverishment” of the characters. A symbolic content of the image of the book in the works of Shmelev dates back to Biblical and Christian figurativeness. A reading man is depicted as a carrier of high spiritual culture, transmitting it to others. The image of the book in writer’s early works mainly implements its direct mission, accompanied with its symbolic meaning of “life as a book”. That is why the heroes’ most cherished memories are repeatedly called “bright pages” by the author. The focus of the author on Christian understanding of a book as the Word, largely embodied in his later works, is manifested in his first works for children.