The first books and the first spanking

Eduard Vilde’s childhood was connected with three manorial estates. He was born in Pudivere on 4 March 1865 but already a few weeks after the birth of their son his parents moved to Muuga. Jüri Vilde, the father of the would-be writer, was appointed the keeper of the granary there that enabled him to provide for his family better. Vilde grew up in Muuga and he spent all his school holidays there until 1880 when his parents moved to Karjaküla Manor in Harjumaa.

“Here, in the woodlands, far away from the plastered manners of Europe, I spent the only days of total freedom in my life – I learned to stand on my own two feet but I could also climb any tree.” (K.Mihkla, 1972)

At the Vildes’ home spiritual and national atmosphere prevailed, his mother taught her children to read and write and take an interest in the world around and farther away. Jüri Vilde was a modest man, extremely conscientious in his work. Both parents were religious as well. Vilde’s father presented his son with the Bible he had bought in Rakvere already when the boy was but three weeks old. It became clear pretty soon that Eduard, Eedi to his family, was keen on reading and learning and had a good mind. Eduard Vilde has said about himself, “I take entirely after my mother, being her universal heir both in my mind and character, having inherited next to nothing from my father. Mother’s quickly flammable temper, her impulsiveness, restlessness and inconstancy I have got in my blood; I have even less practical sense than my mother.” (E. Vilde, Collected Works, 1957)

His childhood adventures in Muuga gave the writer an impulse to write his only story for children – My First Spanking. The failure at discovering new lands on a raft in the manorial pond and the inimical relationship with the young master descend from his childhood adventures.

On the one hand, Vilde was not indifferent to the beauty of the manor-house, on the other hand, he was always aware of the poverty and humiliation that were the lot of the peasants. The injustice he witnessed in his youth never left him, having a constant influence on him as a writer. The relationship between the nobles and peasants and the latters’ revolts were the centrepiece of his work for many a year.