Goodwin the Terrible
Goodwin the Terrible is a children's book by the Russian writer Sergei Sukhinov .
Details
The story was published in 2001 under the original title Гудвин, Великий и Ужасный with illustrations by Leonid Wladimirski . This is a prehistory to The Magician of the Emerald City , the first volume in the Zauberland series by Alexander Volkov , which was continued by other authors after his death. In 2002 the volume was also published in German .
action
The hapless dreamer James Goodwin has only one great wish, he wants to become a millionaire. But whatever he starts, he doesn't have much success. After unsuccessful careers as an actor and shopkeeper, he ended up as a balloonist for the circus. One day he gets caught in a storm that takes him to a wonderful magical land.
There he ends up in the Green Land of the Arsalen, the only one of the color-coded countries that is not ruled by any magician. Because he fell from the sky, Goodwin is mistaken for a wizard by the Arsals. He does not contradict this view and allows the residents to crown himself their ruler. His first big project is the building of the emerald city, for which he uses the stones of the yellow brick path that runs aimlessly through the whole magical land. In the future, this will only lead from the land of the cheese to the emerald city. But since the stones are not enough, Goodwin goes on a tour of discovery with his balloon. He wants to find out where the stones for the brick path came from. He finds the Stone Forest, where the yellow stones grow like fruit on the trees. This solves the problem of the building material. But where should he get the green marble and emeralds from? His research leads him to the land of the underground ore graves, which can provide him with both marble and emeralds. But the amount is not enough. Then a thought occurs to him. He decides to take simple crystals, which can also be found in large quantities in the Stone Forest. In order to deceive the Arsalen, however, he issues the order that all residents and visitors to the city must wear green glasses in future so that they cannot see that most of the emeralds are not real and that the green marble is only for the city's exterior facades was enough.
After the city is finished, Goodwin soon begins to get bored. He decides to take action against the wicked witch Bastinda, who rules the Violet Land. The campaign ends in disaster when the witch calls on the flying monkeys for help. Goodwin withdraws more and more to his palace and can no longer be seen in public. In the meantime, he tinkered ever more terrible creatures with which he received guests. Soon he only receives information from the outside world via a magic mirror that the fairy godmother Stella gave him. Thereby he also learns about the arrival of Elli from Kansas and that the good witch Willina sent her to him. Through the mirror he experiences all of her adventures, which are described in detail in the volume The Magician of the Emerald City.
Since Goodwin has grown tired of the magic land and longs for his homeland, he decides to fly back to Kansas with Elli in his balloon. But a gust of wind prevents Elli from getting into the balloon. Goodwin has to leave her helpless in the Emerald City. On the way, the fairy Stella appears to him again and announces to him that it was her and Willina's intention that Elli still has to stay in the magic land, as she still has some tasks to do before she can return home. Goodwin is reassured.
The book ends with the prediction that Goodwin will return to Magic Land one more time later.
There are a number of other volumes of Zauberland by Sergei Sukhinov that have not yet been published in German.
Continuity failure
A number of errors have crept into the narrative that contradict Volkov's statements. One of the most serious is certainly that the witch Bastinda lets one of the flying monkeys carry her into the green land to find out whether Goodwin is really as powerful a wizard as he claims to be. However, from the volume The Magician of the Emerald City it is known that the witch can only call them three times: 1. She conquered the Violet Land with them, 2. She defeated Goodwin's army with them, 3. She had Elli captured and the Scheuch and destroy the Iron Lumberjack. Furthermore, most of the emeralds at Wolkow are made of glass, while in the present volume it is crystals. It is also mentioned that Willina gave Elli the silver shoes to the evil witch Gingema, although Totoschka, near Wolkow, only found her in her cave after Willina had long since said goodbye.
In part, Sukhinov seems to have stuck to the Oz novels by Lyman Frank Baum in this novel , where Dorothy actually got the silver shoes from the northern witch. The implied return is also reminiscent of the American model, as is the fact that Goodwin collects magical artifacts and magic tricks from Sukhinov.
literature
- Sergei Sukhino, Goodwin the Terrible . Translated by Aljonna and Klaus Möckel, LeiV Leipziger Kinderbuchverlag GmbH, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-89603-095-7
- Alexander Wolkow, The great and terrible magician , LeiV Leipziger Kinderbuchverlag GmbH, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-89603-244-5