“Let the Dolls’ House Perish!”: The Image of a Toy “Estate” in “The Tale of Two Bad Mice” by B. Potter and Its Poetic Arrangement “The Dolls’ House” by P. S. Solovieva

This article is an attempt to read two literary texts addressed to children, “The Tale of Two Bad Mice” (1904) by B. Potter and its translation (or rather, free verse retelling) “The Dolls’ House” (1916) by P. S. Solovieva, in a new, metaphorical key. We will pay attention to what new meanings are enriched in both works, being seen in the context of the biographies of the two writers, the social changes that shook the society of their time, new literary trends, and, finally, in the biblical key, which was especially close to P. S. Solovieva, the sister of a religious philosopher. Our focus will be on the rise of the Labor movement in Great Britain and the Russian Revolution, and finally, the parable of the grain and the rebirth through destruction — layers that, in our opinion, are hidden in this simple at first glance fairy tale. All of them, as we will see, are connected with the image of a doll’s house — a toy “estate,” the skeleton around which the plot of both works is built.