Alexander Grin’s ‘Scarlet Sails’: A short summary

The plot takes place in a fictional land. A former sailor named Longren lives by the sea with his daughter Assol. He now earns money by making toy ships and selling them. 

Their situation is quite dramatic, as Assol’s mother passed away when the girl was only three months old. 

And, in their own village, Longren and Assol are considered outsiders and bullied by the neighbors. They blame Longren for not saving a tavern keeper when he was drowning. What they don’t know is that Longren blames that very tavern keeper for the death of Assol's mother. He was away working in the sea back then; the woman, meanwhile, became sick and reluctantly asked the tavern keeper for some money. But, he would only give it for a night together with her. So, she obviously refused and died soon after. 

The villagers don’t like young Assol, either, finding her strange. And that reputation only gets worse one day. While Assol is carrying toys made by her father, she meets an old man, who tells her that, one day, a charming prince will arrive on a ship with scarlet sails and will take her to his princedom.  

Assol believes him and starts to dream of it. However, the poor girl is ridiculed for it, causing another wave of bullying and laughter from the neighbors. 

Then, one day, a young man from a wealthy family named Gray reaches that village on his personal ship. And he sees a sleeping beauty (who was actually Assol). In the village, he hears the rumors about her and the story about the scarlet sails. 

So, Gray changes his white sails to scarlet and returns to the shore where Assol's house stands. He proposes to her and to go with him to his wonderland. 

All the villagers are shocked when this happens. But, Assol is happy and they take her old father with them. 

What’s behind the novel

You might be surprised that such a fictional story with non-Russian character names and non-Russian sceneries was written by a Russian author. 

Alexander Grin’s real surname was Grinevsky and he was exiled in tsarist times for taking part in revolutionary movements. 

He took a pen name and escaped reality by creating a whole new fictional world, though very similar to ours. The plot takes place in a fictional land. Actually, many Soviet writers copied the idea after him, causing a boom of science fiction, as well. This way was easier to deal with censorship, as the censors had no complaints about fairy tales.  

Grin himself defined a genre as an “extravaganza novel”. Critics praised the novel, finding it full of symbolism and neo-romanticism. 

‘Scarlet Sails’ was adapted to the screen several times and the most iconic adaptation is the 1961 movie by Alexander Ptushko, in which beautiful actress Anastasia Vertinskaya plays Assol.