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Classic Fairy Tales
Hans Christian Andersen is one of the world's most popular storytellers, and his fairy tales are among the best-loved works of literature. Readers the world over know his poignant tale of "The Little Mermaid," who sacrifices everything for love, and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," whose affection for a paper ballerina is symbolized by his transformation into a small tin heart. Several of Andersen's stories are so well known—among them "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Ugly Duckling"—that their titles alone have become meaningful figures of speech.
Hans Christian Andersen: Classic Fairy Tales collects 100 of Andersen's incomparable fairy tales and stories, among them "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Red Shoes," "The Wild Swans," and his fantasy masterpiece, "The Snow-Queen." The book is abundantly illustrated with more than 100 hundred drawings and color plates by Dugald Stewart Walker and Hans Tegner, two of Andersen's best-known illustrators.
Hans Christian Andersen: Classic Fairy Tales collects 100 of Andersen's incomparable fairy tales and stories, among them "Thumbelina," "The Little Match Girl," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Red Shoes," "The Wild Swans," and his fantasy masterpiece, "The Snow-Queen." The book is abundantly illustrated with more than 100 hundred drawings and color plates by Dugald Stewart Walker and Hans Tegner, two of Andersen's best-known illustrators.
697 pages, Leather Bound
First published January 1, 1835
470 people are currently reading
4815 people want to read
About the author
Hans Christian Andersen
7,802 books3,536 followersHans Christian Andersen (often referred to in Scandinavia as H.C. Andersen) was a Danish author and poet. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, Andersen is best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children; his stories — called eventyr, or "fairy-tales" — express themes that transcend age and nationality.
Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.
Andersen's fairy tales, which have been translated into more than 125 languages, have become culturally embedded in the West's collective consciousness, readily accessible to children, but presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers as well. Some of his most famous fairy tales include "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Nightingale", "The Emperor's New Clothes" and many more. His stories have inspired plays, ballets, and both live-action and animated films.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 224 reviews
January 5, 2016
Good gravy but something was wrong with Hans Christian Anderson. If household objects aren't chatting about their social status, then people are dying in the streets of Copenhagen! I mean, seriously. I knew the original story of The Little Mermaid, but my kids didn't. The horror on their faces was priceless. I also knew the basic story of The Snow Queen, mostly from the Faerie Tale Theatre version. I'd never read the whole thing. I think the best part was when Gerda asks the flowers if they've seen Kai, and they all reply with weird, existential imagery, and Gerda says, "Well, that's not at all helpful!" HILARIOUS.
This is a beautiful edition, though. Color and black-and-white illustrations, gilt-edged, rich paper. Very nice!
This is a beautiful edition, though. Color and black-and-white illustrations, gilt-edged, rich paper. Very nice!
October 12, 2016
this is a beautiful barnes & noble edition has some of my favorite fairy tales in it.
also some i've never read before.
with wonderful illustrations some in colour and full page.
also some i've never read before.
with wonderful illustrations some in colour and full page.
June 6, 2009
Fairytales are the only place I find validation.
February 2, 2010
These stories make me cry. Grimm's fairy tales are cautionary fables. These are tiny little slices of tragic reality, dressed up in doll's clothing or hidden behind animal masks. Check out "The Steadfast Tin Soldier,""The Ugly Duckling,"and "The Little Match Girl." Devastating.
October 18, 2017
I'm not going to lie- this was a bit of a slog. Some of the stories are very good (typically the famous ones, like the Little Mermaid, or the Emperor's New Clothes). Many others dragged on, and were too moral for me (eg. a little girl loves wearing red shoes, so she is punished for her vanity).
Would not recommend- especially not this 1000+ page anthology. I'd never have gotten through it without some back to back flights.
Would not recommend- especially not this 1000+ page anthology. I'd never have gotten through it without some back to back flights.
August 10, 2020
Wow, the original fairy tales are weird. These are so different from the sanitized versions that we encounter in children's books. Some are sad, some are weird, and all are written in an almost (but not quite) unreadable language. Pro tip: don't read at bedtime. I did not find these stories relaxing.
December 19, 2023
There are two frequent observations made about fairy tales, and these two supposed truisms contradict one another. The first is that fairy tales are actually more shocking than we realised, and the second is that children can endure this better than we think they can, and they enjoy the darkness of the original tales.
Clearly if the second comment was true, then adults would not be so shocked to learn what is really in fairy tales. In reality, we only learn about the dark side of fairy tales when we are adults because we are carefully protected from them when we are children, often given abridged versions of the books or Disneyfied movies that remove the more frightening or upsetting scenes.
Whether or not children really enjoy macabre tales is open to question, but I can only say that I would have been repelled by any tale that offered bleak endings and grim happenings with no great moral to them.
Andersen’s fairy tales fit well into this model. Whilst they are not the most shocking children’s stories around, they offer up tales of beheadings, mutilation, hypothermia and needless deaths and sufferings.
For Andersen, there is none of the certainties of ‘once upon a time’ or ‘lived happily ever after’. He sometimes improbably insists that the stories are true, and sometimes says that there is no happy ending, or at least not in this world.
It is difficult to summarise the contents of a collection of short stories, and in any case the reader probably knows many of the tales, albeit perhaps not in their original form. Andersen provided the world with The (Little) Mermaid, The Red Shoes, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen (made into the movie ‘Frozen’), The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling.
The stories are characterised by a certain imaginative empathy that allows Andersen to put himself in the place of his talking animals or inanimate, but sentient objects. What would a bottle stopper or the moon see, and how would they feel about it? How would animals talk to each other? This quality, along with plenty of flowery and romantic descriptions, is one of the aspects of Andersen that makes his tales so appealing.
Another appealing quality is the brevity of the stories. The stories are short, sometimes very short. The longest ones would barely supply half a novella. This ensures that none of the tales outstay their welcome, even when they descend into morbid sentimentality or trite pieties. The length of the tales also makes them child-friendly, and good bedtime stories.
As a final advantage, a short story is useful to anyone who wishes to adapt the tale, since they can keep the bare bones of the story whilst imposing their own individual stamp on it. This is clear in the many movie versions of Andersen’s stories, but sometimes his works have a more subtle influence.
When we read of a corrupted young boy who leaves with a Snow Queen, we can detect echoes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A supporting character in another story is a master builder who builds castles in the air, and later Ibsen went on to write a play about just that.
The other appealing quality about Andersen is that his tales are innocent and literal-minded, sometimes to the point of absurdity. We live in an age where children’s stories are a little too knowing and stuffed with subtext and postmodernist winks to the adult members of the readership or audience.
There are many advantages to this latter style, and we now finally have family fiction, something that can appeal to all ages. However, it is hard not to hark back to the innocence of the days of earlier storytelling for children where the story is told simply and we are left to impose our own meaning on it.
This is something that people can easily do with Andersen, and it is easy to apply your own criteria to his tales – Marxist, feminist, and (especially) psychoanalytical. However, none of this is put there intentionally by the author. His tales pour out their meanings in an entirely artless and unconscious way, and perhaps this is what makes them so seemingly rich in alternative meanings.
In reality, there is little even of allegorical or metaphorical meaning in Andersen. The Emperor’s New Clothes seems to come closest, but even this tale can be read literally as an exemplary tale, rather than as a metaphor.
If there is any subtext in Andersen, it is perhaps autobiographical, and it is here that we can find some glimpses into the political, moral and religious thoughts and feelings of its author. Indeed, Andersen admits that his characters were based on real people.
The tale that seems to come closest to telling that of Andersen’s life is The Ugly Duckling, in which an unattractive and awkward duckling is shunned by everyone until it grows up into a beautiful swan that is admired by everyone.
Andersen had a difficult start to his life. He knew poverty and hard conditions, and he remained socially awkward throughout his life, forming unsuccessful and often embarrassing attachments to both men and women. He famously visited Dickens once, but stayed so long that Dickens and his wife grew heartily sick of him, leading to a rift that he never understood.
This may explain why Andersen’s stories often deal with people who are hard on their luck, and have known suffering. A notable example is the tale of The Little Match Girl. Shivering in the cold, she lights the matches and fantasises about beautiful things, including her grandmother coming to take her to Heaven. The next day she is found frozen to death.
Andersen then had compassion for suffering and for people who are hard on their luck. The tale also illustrates another element of his fairy tales, which is that they are suffused with Christian sentiment, often of a morbid and mawkish nature, and the stories often end with characters ascending to Heaven.
The morality of the tales is curious though. Sometimes there is a very harsh Christian judgmentalism in them, and at other times there is a strangely amoral tinge. Hence a little girl is punished very harshly for pride in The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, experiencing a living death beneath the marshes because she chooses to protect her shoes by treading on a loaf.
However, in The Tinder Box, a soldier decapitates a witch who has helped him to a fortune, purely because she has refused to hand him a tinder box. In spite of improvidently spending this fortune, he is saved at the end of the tale by an act of mass-murder which includes regicide, and is able to marry the dead king’s daughter.
Andersen often refers to Old Testament tales as if they are true. It is not clear, however, whether he believes they are literally true or if this is simply the respect given by one spinner of fairy tales to another.
However, while morality and justice are often confused in the stories, and often only to be found in the next world, there is always a romanticism about the tales, and we are left in little doubt about Andersen’s enthusiasm for the past, and the writers he likes. He fills the tales with beautiful descriptive passages that are a pleasure to read, and he writes with great imagination and variety.
Clearly if the second comment was true, then adults would not be so shocked to learn what is really in fairy tales. In reality, we only learn about the dark side of fairy tales when we are adults because we are carefully protected from them when we are children, often given abridged versions of the books or Disneyfied movies that remove the more frightening or upsetting scenes.
Whether or not children really enjoy macabre tales is open to question, but I can only say that I would have been repelled by any tale that offered bleak endings and grim happenings with no great moral to them.
Andersen’s fairy tales fit well into this model. Whilst they are not the most shocking children’s stories around, they offer up tales of beheadings, mutilation, hypothermia and needless deaths and sufferings.
For Andersen, there is none of the certainties of ‘once upon a time’ or ‘lived happily ever after’. He sometimes improbably insists that the stories are true, and sometimes says that there is no happy ending, or at least not in this world.
It is difficult to summarise the contents of a collection of short stories, and in any case the reader probably knows many of the tales, albeit perhaps not in their original form. Andersen provided the world with The (Little) Mermaid, The Red Shoes, Thumbelina, The Snow Queen (made into the movie ‘Frozen’), The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Ugly Duckling.
The stories are characterised by a certain imaginative empathy that allows Andersen to put himself in the place of his talking animals or inanimate, but sentient objects. What would a bottle stopper or the moon see, and how would they feel about it? How would animals talk to each other? This quality, along with plenty of flowery and romantic descriptions, is one of the aspects of Andersen that makes his tales so appealing.
Another appealing quality is the brevity of the stories. The stories are short, sometimes very short. The longest ones would barely supply half a novella. This ensures that none of the tales outstay their welcome, even when they descend into morbid sentimentality or trite pieties. The length of the tales also makes them child-friendly, and good bedtime stories.
As a final advantage, a short story is useful to anyone who wishes to adapt the tale, since they can keep the bare bones of the story whilst imposing their own individual stamp on it. This is clear in the many movie versions of Andersen’s stories, but sometimes his works have a more subtle influence.
When we read of a corrupted young boy who leaves with a Snow Queen, we can detect echoes of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. A supporting character in another story is a master builder who builds castles in the air, and later Ibsen went on to write a play about just that.
The other appealing quality about Andersen is that his tales are innocent and literal-minded, sometimes to the point of absurdity. We live in an age where children’s stories are a little too knowing and stuffed with subtext and postmodernist winks to the adult members of the readership or audience.
There are many advantages to this latter style, and we now finally have family fiction, something that can appeal to all ages. However, it is hard not to hark back to the innocence of the days of earlier storytelling for children where the story is told simply and we are left to impose our own meaning on it.
This is something that people can easily do with Andersen, and it is easy to apply your own criteria to his tales – Marxist, feminist, and (especially) psychoanalytical. However, none of this is put there intentionally by the author. His tales pour out their meanings in an entirely artless and unconscious way, and perhaps this is what makes them so seemingly rich in alternative meanings.
In reality, there is little even of allegorical or metaphorical meaning in Andersen. The Emperor’s New Clothes seems to come closest, but even this tale can be read literally as an exemplary tale, rather than as a metaphor.
If there is any subtext in Andersen, it is perhaps autobiographical, and it is here that we can find some glimpses into the political, moral and religious thoughts and feelings of its author. Indeed, Andersen admits that his characters were based on real people.
The tale that seems to come closest to telling that of Andersen’s life is The Ugly Duckling, in which an unattractive and awkward duckling is shunned by everyone until it grows up into a beautiful swan that is admired by everyone.
Andersen had a difficult start to his life. He knew poverty and hard conditions, and he remained socially awkward throughout his life, forming unsuccessful and often embarrassing attachments to both men and women. He famously visited Dickens once, but stayed so long that Dickens and his wife grew heartily sick of him, leading to a rift that he never understood.
This may explain why Andersen’s stories often deal with people who are hard on their luck, and have known suffering. A notable example is the tale of The Little Match Girl. Shivering in the cold, she lights the matches and fantasises about beautiful things, including her grandmother coming to take her to Heaven. The next day she is found frozen to death.
Andersen then had compassion for suffering and for people who are hard on their luck. The tale also illustrates another element of his fairy tales, which is that they are suffused with Christian sentiment, often of a morbid and mawkish nature, and the stories often end with characters ascending to Heaven.
The morality of the tales is curious though. Sometimes there is a very harsh Christian judgmentalism in them, and at other times there is a strangely amoral tinge. Hence a little girl is punished very harshly for pride in The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf, experiencing a living death beneath the marshes because she chooses to protect her shoes by treading on a loaf.
However, in The Tinder Box, a soldier decapitates a witch who has helped him to a fortune, purely because she has refused to hand him a tinder box. In spite of improvidently spending this fortune, he is saved at the end of the tale by an act of mass-murder which includes regicide, and is able to marry the dead king’s daughter.
Andersen often refers to Old Testament tales as if they are true. It is not clear, however, whether he believes they are literally true or if this is simply the respect given by one spinner of fairy tales to another.
However, while morality and justice are often confused in the stories, and often only to be found in the next world, there is always a romanticism about the tales, and we are left in little doubt about Andersen’s enthusiasm for the past, and the writers he likes. He fills the tales with beautiful descriptive passages that are a pleasure to read, and he writes with great imagination and variety.
September 4, 2022
I knew Grimm’s fairy tales were….grim but I didn’t realize Andersen was equally disturbing 😳 I played this as I put the boys to bed over a few Saturday nights (Saturday I have bedtime duty). They all seemed completely unphased and enjoyed the book. Me? I’m obviously a girl 😂
November 22, 2021
3.5 stars // finished November 2021
A unique blend of childlike awe with melancholy, with elements bizarre enough to rival Wonderland. One heart-rending story focuses on a mother trying to wrest her child out of the clutches of Death, while the next talks about a collar flirting with a pair of scissors.
My favorite story was the Clerk’s encounter with the “Shoes of Fortune.” (The parrot’s infatuation with the phrase “Come, let us be men!” made me laugh. 😛)
*Note: I didn’t read this specific HCA anthology; I read a different one but couldn’t find it on Goodreads so I’m writing my review here. The book I read was shorter.
A unique blend of childlike awe with melancholy, with elements bizarre enough to rival Wonderland. One heart-rending story focuses on a mother trying to wrest her child out of the clutches of Death, while the next talks about a collar flirting with a pair of scissors.
My favorite story was the Clerk’s encounter with the “Shoes of Fortune.” (The parrot’s infatuation with the phrase “Come, let us be men!” made me laugh. 😛)
*Note: I didn’t read this specific HCA anthology; I read a different one but couldn’t find it on Goodreads so I’m writing my review here. The book I read was shorter.
March 20, 2018
I finally finished this book!!! My reading was improved since the first half took me about 4 moths while the second half took me less than 15 days!!!
Most of the stories deal with Death and Sorrow, is also a very religious book.
I’m so use to ‘happy endings’ with fairy tales that was, for my surprise, not the case with most of the stories. The fact that is more realistic with the idea of death and how to deal with it made me get more engaged than I expected.
It has a lot of fantasy elements but not in the way of ‘finding a godmother with a magic wand that can change the life of the characters’.
The book is perfect for fall/winter! I got to say is very atmospheric.
I like most of the stories, I didn’t understand a few and I was really disappointed with ‘Snow Queen’ (I have to say it!!!). Overall a great book to read.
Most of the stories deal with Death and Sorrow, is also a very religious book.
I’m so use to ‘happy endings’ with fairy tales that was, for my surprise, not the case with most of the stories. The fact that is more realistic with the idea of death and how to deal with it made me get more engaged than I expected.
It has a lot of fantasy elements but not in the way of ‘finding a godmother with a magic wand that can change the life of the characters’.
The book is perfect for fall/winter! I got to say is very atmospheric.
I like most of the stories, I didn’t understand a few and I was really disappointed with ‘Snow Queen’ (I have to say it!!!). Overall a great book to read.
June 17, 2007
I could never imagine that there comes a day in my life when I read H.C.Andersen in his own language! I would say Andersen has more dimensions than I imagined him in Persian.
Read
May 26, 2020What's left after finishing this collection is a memory of beautifully described nature, of quircky characters all struggling with being in whatever form they are being, and the joy of reading these fairy tales aloud to someone else, commenting on these weird tales as we went on and on and on.
I noticed that reading them with someone else really upped my enjoyment, because as I was left to finish the last ones on my own I kind of didn't care anymore. Maybe that's due to the fairy tales becoming sort of weird towards the end, a kind of weirdness where it felt the tales themselves were not really going anywhere. Before they felt dark and weird, but good weird in the sense that there was humor and silly random things happening. Most of the tales are concerned with kings and queens and princesses and (talking/thinking/feeling) animals and trees - that sounds less coherent than I wanted it to sound. Just, maybe that's nice to know.
I'm definitely giving the collection at least 3.5 stars. It's a very well put together selection of Andersen's fairy tales, I'm assuming, and the introduction is quite interesting! If you decide to read it, please do read it to someone else or let someone else read it to you (if possible), no matter your age - well, maybe not when you're two years old, maybe.
Some tales that stood out for me were: "Little Claus and big Claus", "The little mermaid", "The emperor's new clothes", "The ugly duckling", "The shadow" & "The snowman".
I noticed that reading them with someone else really upped my enjoyment, because as I was left to finish the last ones on my own I kind of didn't care anymore. Maybe that's due to the fairy tales becoming sort of weird towards the end, a kind of weirdness where it felt the tales themselves were not really going anywhere. Before they felt dark and weird, but good weird in the sense that there was humor and silly random things happening. Most of the tales are concerned with kings and queens and princesses and (talking/thinking/feeling) animals and trees - that sounds less coherent than I wanted it to sound. Just, maybe that's nice to know.
I'm definitely giving the collection at least 3.5 stars. It's a very well put together selection of Andersen's fairy tales, I'm assuming, and the introduction is quite interesting! If you decide to read it, please do read it to someone else or let someone else read it to you (if possible), no matter your age - well, maybe not when you're two years old, maybe.
Some tales that stood out for me were: "Little Claus and big Claus", "The little mermaid", "The emperor's new clothes", "The ugly duckling", "The shadow" & "The snowman".
Read
April 7, 2020Baśnie Andersena czytała mi mama, a jeżeli mnie pamięć nie myli to "Calineczkę" przerabialiśmy w szkole. Troszeczkę byłam zaskoczona czytając tę książkę teraz, że niektóre bajki były dość smutne i momentami okrutne, szczególnie przykra była dla mnie lektura "Dziewczynki z zapałkami", strasznie mi było jej żal. Oczywiście znajdziemy tu również pokrzepiające zakończenia i bardziej pogodne opowieści. Moją najulubieńszą baśnią były zawsze "Dzikie łabędzie" i w tej materii nic się nie zmieniło.
March 1, 2024
Będąc dzieckiem wprost zachwycałam się Basniami Andersena... Będąc dorosłym czytelnikiem niestety nie zrobiły na mnie wielkiego wrażenia. Fakt faktem w tym zbiorze znajdują się perełki, które warto przeczytać, ale reszta wyszła mizernie.
Wychodzę więc z założenia, że czasami lepiej pozostawić ulubione książki z dzieciństwa... w dzieciństwie, bo istnieje możliwość utraty wartości ich treści...
Wychodzę więc z założenia, że czasami lepiej pozostawić ulubione książki z dzieciństwa... w dzieciństwie, bo istnieje możliwość utraty wartości ich treści...
Want to read
December 6, 2021i found this one at the thrift mwahaha
Read
December 29, 2024Naprawdę słodko było wrócić do tych baśni i przypomnieć sobie niektóre z dzieciństwa, a także poznać wiele nowych.
Czytało mi sie je bardzo przyjemnie, idealnie na wieczory tuż przed snem.
Zdecydowanie jeszcze do nich wrócę
🫶🏻
Czytało mi sie je bardzo przyjemnie, idealnie na wieczory tuż przed snem.
Zdecydowanie jeszcze do nich wrócę
🫶🏻
March 21, 2022
My scandalous thoughts about fairy tales while sharing my all time favorite: The Little Mermaid.
This fairy tale was written by the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, and published in 1837. Illustrations by Edmund Dulac. Unlike later sanded-down retellings, the original is a sad tale about yearning, love, sacrifice, and redemption. There are some gruesome elements like a tongue being chopped off, dead mermaids, a house made of ship wrecked man bones, and pain that feels like knife stabbings on the feet. Yet, I will be a bit scandalous here and say that I think children can handle the sharp edges of the earliest forms of fairy tales. I would even go so far to say, that they benefit from these forms. Sugarcoated fairytales, that take out all the pain, and death, and scary parts, rob children of the chance to build emotional muscles when they inevitably face tough times. When we shelter our kids from stories of terrible situations and the heroes that respond rightly in them, we deny them the chance to discover the ability in themselves to adapt to adversity.
I don’t want to miss telling you about the unique spin on this old version of the story. In this gloriously illustrated version, there is a young mermaid (15) who is willing to give up her enchanting life in the sea complete with a sea garden and five passionate sisters for the chance to love a prince she rescued from a ship wreck. The surprising angle lies in her motivation to gain a human soul. You see, through the love of a human, she will gain a soul and inherit eternal life in the spirit realm along with other humans. Mermaids do not have this chance. In the end, the little mermaid displays the type of sacrificial love reminiscent of the one true love, “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
This fairy tale was written by the Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen, and published in 1837. Illustrations by Edmund Dulac. Unlike later sanded-down retellings, the original is a sad tale about yearning, love, sacrifice, and redemption. There are some gruesome elements like a tongue being chopped off, dead mermaids, a house made of ship wrecked man bones, and pain that feels like knife stabbings on the feet. Yet, I will be a bit scandalous here and say that I think children can handle the sharp edges of the earliest forms of fairy tales. I would even go so far to say, that they benefit from these forms. Sugarcoated fairytales, that take out all the pain, and death, and scary parts, rob children of the chance to build emotional muscles when they inevitably face tough times. When we shelter our kids from stories of terrible situations and the heroes that respond rightly in them, we deny them the chance to discover the ability in themselves to adapt to adversity.
I don’t want to miss telling you about the unique spin on this old version of the story. In this gloriously illustrated version, there is a young mermaid (15) who is willing to give up her enchanting life in the sea complete with a sea garden and five passionate sisters for the chance to love a prince she rescued from a ship wreck. The surprising angle lies in her motivation to gain a human soul. You see, through the love of a human, she will gain a soul and inherit eternal life in the spirit realm along with other humans. Mermaids do not have this chance. In the end, the little mermaid displays the type of sacrificial love reminiscent of the one true love, “greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”
October 16, 2023
Hans Christian Andersen is a master of language and storytelling, he wrote the most beautiful sentences like a magical poet. The Little Mermaid is one of the best most beautiful stories ever written. It has had profound personal meaning in my life and for just this story alone I give five stars, but the other stories are wonderful too. I wanted to include excerpts and quotes from the book, maybe I still can. They’re too incredible not to share in detail.
July 1, 2018
De sprookjes van Andersen behoren tot de canon. Terecht als je het mij vraagt: het boek staat vol met prachtige verhalen. Enkele van mijn favorieten: de prinses op de erwt, de nieuwe kleren van de keizer, de nachtegaal, de kleine zeemeermin, het meisje met de zwavelstokjes en Klaas Vaak. In menig sprookje ligt de christelijke moraal er wel erg dik bovenop (bijvoorbeeld: de rode schoentjes) en sommige sprookjes doorstaan de tand des tijds niet, maar dan blijven er nog meer dan genoeg creatieve en mooi vertelde sprookjes over. Kies dus de (beroemde) parels uit en laaf je aan de creativiteit van Andersen, als kind en/of als volwassene.
October 8, 2012
This book is intresting. although its a fairy tale book and you would say these story are pretty obvious and i know most of them since i was a kid, but no they are very different from the stories we have read when younger it has much of grown ups content. Really intresting and you wont get bored of. Its just amazing how you recall a story from childhood and expect a certain ending but you see something that is totally different from what you know.
May 20, 2014
Some of these are excellent (The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New Clothes), some are entertaining (The Ugly Duckling, Shadow), some are downright heartbreaking (The Little Match Girl, Snowman), but then there are some that are tedious and boring (The Ice Maiden, Traveling Companion). All in all, I enjoyed it, but I've come to the opinion that Andersen was at his best when he was at his briefest.
May 22, 2007
Very different from the sanitized versions most of us grew up with.
February 13, 2017
'The Ice Maiden' is totally amazing.
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May 15, 2008this is my current "read in bed" book. So far my favorite story has been THE SNOW QUEEN, it made me stay up so late! Also- I really love Hans' paper cut-out illustrations.
June 29, 2017
Meh.
December 27, 2021
Winner of Pierce's 2018 Razzie
I can't bring myself to review every story in here, but this version is broken into sections, and I'll be glad to review those as I go along.
Usual disclaimer: Short stories aren't my favorite thing (unless they have a common character); I typically prefer novels. But it's good to get out of my comfort zone, and I enjoy some anyway. If you like short stories, you'll probably like these more than I am apt to.
The Artist and Society, 2/21/18-2/28/18: ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Nightingale"
"The Gardner and the Gentry"
"The Flying Trunk"
"The Will-o'-the-Wisps Are in Town"
"The Pixie and the Gardener's Wife"
"The Puppeteer"
"'Something'"
"What One Can Think Up"
"The Most Incredible Thing"
"Auntie Toothache"
"The Cripple"
This shit's fucking weird, and not in a way that speaks to me. Part of this section focuses on artistry and patronage. The others are just kind of artsy-fartsy. This section is already at a disadvantage since those things typically don't swing it for me. I really enjoyed "The Nightingale," "The Gardener and the Gentry," and "The Cripple." 3.5 stars for each of them. All the rest were just "eh" even though there were a few amusing moments. The three I mentioned read more like stories and eventually got to a point; the others not so much. I think I'll like the next two sections more than this one.
Folk Tales, 2/28/18-3/4/18: ★★★★✰
Includes:
"The Tinderbox"
"Little Claus and Big Claus"
"The Princess on the Pea"
"The Traveling Companion"
"The Wild Swans"
"The Swineherd"
"Mother Elderberry"
"The Hill of the Elves"
"Clod Hans"
"What Father Does is Always Right"
The Folk Tales are stories that already existed, mostly told by word of mouth through the years, but that Hans put down in writing. I really want to give this section five stars, and it easily would be if it didn't include "Mother Elderberry" and "The Hill of the Elves." Those didn't do much for me, though they're not bad. The others were fantastic. I don't know if I want to give it five stars because these stories really are that amazing or because this section was such a breath of fresh air after the disappointing start. Regardless, they were great. They were weird, but not in the frou-frou way "The Artist and Society" stories were. I also love how he's so matter-of-fact about some of the weird parts, and I wish I had noted an example to include here, but alas.
Some of these are rather violent, but it's all fantasy. There's no social justice preaching, (and sometimes no justice of any kind), and its absence is so, so wonderful. I loved "The Tinderbox." The main character kills an old hag "who was so disgusting that her lower lip hung down on her chest," and he takes her tinderbox which gives him control over some powerful dogs which appeared in my mind kind of like this:
By the end of the story It's fiction, and not all writing needs moral lessons or explanations to "put things in context." And speaking of the immoral (as well as amoral), "Little Claus and Big Claus" was a riot as well.
Original Fairy Tales, 3/12/18-4/21/18 ★★★✰✰
Includes:
"The Shadow"
"The Little Mermaid"
"The Emperor's New Clothes"
"Thumbelina"
"The Naughty Boy"
"The Galoshes of Fortune"
"The Garden of Eden"
"The Bronze Pig"
"The Rose Elf"
"The Pixie at the Grocer's"
"Ib and Little Christine"
"The Ice Maiden"
It took me over a month to read a piddly 180 pages, but that's more the fault of tax season and not because these stories were bad. I didn't enjoy them as much as the folk tales, but that could also be tax season related. I'm a different person at that time of year, a little surlier and less prone to enjoy flim-flammy stuff, and fairy tales lend themselves to that by nature.
But! I did remember to nick an example of the "matter-of-fact" thing I mentioned in the last section. From "Ib and Little Christine:" "Little Ib, seven years old and the only child in the house, watched and whittled a stick. He also cut his fingers..." Isn't that just great? It's little, humorous things like that (of which there are plenty) which make these enjoyable. Of course, it works better if the story is good too, but that's a matter of personal preference. As for me, I really enjoyed "The Little Mermaid" (which is so much darker than the Disney version, and I wouldn't go into it looking for a happy ending, at least not for the mermaid), "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Pixie at the Grocer's," "Ib and Little Christine," and "The Ice Maiden,' but all for different reasons. The last two are a little tragic, but a good tragedy can be enjoyable too.
Evangelical and Religious Tales, 8/5/18-8/18/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Snow Queen"
"The Red Shoes"
"The Little Match Girl"
"The Bog King's Daughter"
"The Girl Who Stepped on Bread"
"The Bell"
"The Thorny Path to Glory"
"The Jewish Maid"
"The Story Old Johanna Told"
"She Was No Good"
I think I need to face the fact that these just aren't doing it for me. You can see I stalled for three and a half months between the last section and this one. These were rough going, but not because of the religious theme. I have no problem there, and I'm even on board with it. The problem is that some of these are just boring. Andersen's writing style is still very entertaining albeit in a somewhat annoying manner, and if it weren't for that I probably would've given up on this a while ago. But the stories, by and large, just aren't cutting it. I really enjoyed "The Red Shoes," though I'm surprised "The Thorny Path to Glory" ever got published, for it was a snoozefest and a half. Luckily it was only four pages of pointlessness. "The Snow Queen" and "The Bog King's Daughter" were about 40 pages each. I had to force myself to continue them, and I kept finding other things to do anyway. Those bogged (heh heh) me down the most and account for most of the 13 days it took me to read 125 pages, and I can't blame tax season for this one.
One great thing about this section is the title of the last story. The story itself is fine, nothing to write home about, but the title is wonderful because it reminded me of this little ditty by Linda Ronstadt which is a fave. But if the best one can do with his writing is remind someone of a 1970's cover of a 60's hit, well, he's got some work to do.
The Anthropomorphization of Animals and Nature, 9/9/18 ★★★✰✰
Includes:
"The Ugly Duckling"
"In the Duckyard"
"The Storks"
"The Spruce Tree"
"It's Perfectly True!"
"The Dung Beetle"
"The Butterfly"
"The Snowdrop"
"The Sunshine's Stories"
"The Drop of Water"
"The Flea and the Professor"
"The Snowman"
The title of this section sums up what's going on in the stories pretty accurately. "The Ugly Duckling" was great, and I understand why it's been lauded for the past 175 years. I also enjoyed "In the Duckyard" though there's a surprisingly violent part in it where a duck is taking care of a young songbird, but the bird accidentally insults the duck. Says the duck...
Whiskey tango foxtrot. But that's the kind of thing that makes these tales enjoyable when they can be enjoyable at all.
"The Spruce Tree" was quite sad, but I really liked it. I think I heard it on tape back in the days when people used to use cassette tapes. It actually took a long time for me to start using the term "audiobook" instead of "book on tape," and I still slip from time to time. And I'll end this digression with a riddle for whipper-snappers:
You can substitute a number two pencil for the pen, but I reckon that's really no hint at all. Alas. Anyway, that story always stuck with me. "The Dung Beetle" was also amusing. As for the rest... eh. In fact, I read these only five days ago, and I can barely remember them. (Such is the peril of reading stuff when you're house-sitting for peeps who have no internet, and you can't review anything until you get home.) That might be a memory problem, or it might be that the tales were just that unremarkable.
The Humanization of Toys and Objects, 9/9/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier"
"The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep"
"The Darning Needle"
"The Old House"
"The Rags"
I enjoyed "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Darning Needle..." I think. The former was cute, and the latter was humorous. But here's a confession: With the commencement of the previous section, I was going to finish this book on that day, dammit, and I confess I was plowing through these. The same sentiment applies to the next section.
Legends, 9/9/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"Holger the Dane"
"Bird Phoenix"
"The Family of Hen-Grethe"
"Everything in Its Proper Place"
These were fine, I guess, but none stood out. Thankfully they were short. The important thing is that I finished the book. I want a cookie.
Final Analysis, 9/14/18:
Well, I set out to get out of my comfort zone, and I succeeded. These weren't agonizing, but I had to force myself back into it every time, and I managed to slip several books between some sections. This book gets two stars, but it could easily be four had it included only the stories I enjoyed, all of which are mentioned above. There's a reason most of the obscure ones remain obscure: they suck. There's a reason the popular ones remain popular: they rock. 200 pages of this would've been fine, but I made myself slog through 600, and that was just too much for me. But like I said at the beginning, this collection is at a disadvantage from the start since I'm not a big short story person. And I pointed out that Hans Christian Andersen's writing style and wit are great, but such works better if there's a story worth hearing to go along with it. And I'll also note that the community rating right now is 4.23, so I'm giving a minority opinion here.
If you really like short stories, give these a go. If you sometimes enjoy short stories but mostly tolerate them and read them because you think you're supposed to from time to time, and you have an appreciation for off-the-wall wit and humor, then just read the ones I commented on. If you can deal with heavier what-the-hell-is-this-shit flim-flam, then check out all of them. If you don't like short stories, then obviously you should skip this entirely.
I can't bring myself to review every story in here, but this version is broken into sections, and I'll be glad to review those as I go along.
Usual disclaimer: Short stories aren't my favorite thing (unless they have a common character); I typically prefer novels. But it's good to get out of my comfort zone, and I enjoy some anyway. If you like short stories, you'll probably like these more than I am apt to.
The Artist and Society, 2/21/18-2/28/18: ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Nightingale"
"The Gardner and the Gentry"
"The Flying Trunk"
"The Will-o'-the-Wisps Are in Town"
"The Pixie and the Gardener's Wife"
"The Puppeteer"
"'Something'"
"What One Can Think Up"
"The Most Incredible Thing"
"Auntie Toothache"
"The Cripple"
This shit's fucking weird, and not in a way that speaks to me. Part of this section focuses on artistry and patronage. The others are just kind of artsy-fartsy. This section is already at a disadvantage since those things typically don't swing it for me. I really enjoyed "The Nightingale," "The Gardener and the Gentry," and "The Cripple." 3.5 stars for each of them. All the rest were just "eh" even though there were a few amusing moments. The three I mentioned read more like stories and eventually got to a point; the others not so much. I think I'll like the next two sections more than this one.
Folk Tales, 2/28/18-3/4/18: ★★★★✰
Includes:
"The Tinderbox"
"Little Claus and Big Claus"
"The Princess on the Pea"
"The Traveling Companion"
"The Wild Swans"
"The Swineherd"
"Mother Elderberry"
"The Hill of the Elves"
"Clod Hans"
"What Father Does is Always Right"
The Folk Tales are stories that already existed, mostly told by word of mouth through the years, but that Hans put down in writing. I really want to give this section five stars, and it easily would be if it didn't include "Mother Elderberry" and "The Hill of the Elves." Those didn't do much for me, though they're not bad. The others were fantastic. I don't know if I want to give it five stars because these stories really are that amazing or because this section was such a breath of fresh air after the disappointing start. Regardless, they were great. They were weird, but not in the frou-frou way "The Artist and Society" stories were. I also love how he's so matter-of-fact about some of the weird parts, and I wish I had noted an example to include here, but alas.
Some of these are rather violent, but it's all fantasy. There's no social justice preaching, (and sometimes no justice of any kind), and its absence is so, so wonderful. I loved "The Tinderbox." The main character kills an old hag "who was so disgusting that her lower lip hung down on her chest," and he takes her tinderbox which gives him control over some powerful dogs which appeared in my mind kind of like this:
By the end of the story It's fiction, and not all writing needs moral lessons or explanations to "put things in context." And speaking of the immoral (as well as amoral), "Little Claus and Big Claus" was a riot as well.
Original Fairy Tales, 3/12/18-4/21/18 ★★★✰✰
Includes:
"The Shadow"
"The Little Mermaid"
"The Emperor's New Clothes"
"Thumbelina"
"The Naughty Boy"
"The Galoshes of Fortune"
"The Garden of Eden"
"The Bronze Pig"
"The Rose Elf"
"The Pixie at the Grocer's"
"Ib and Little Christine"
"The Ice Maiden"
It took me over a month to read a piddly 180 pages, but that's more the fault of tax season and not because these stories were bad. I didn't enjoy them as much as the folk tales, but that could also be tax season related. I'm a different person at that time of year, a little surlier and less prone to enjoy flim-flammy stuff, and fairy tales lend themselves to that by nature.
But! I did remember to nick an example of the "matter-of-fact" thing I mentioned in the last section. From "Ib and Little Christine:" "Little Ib, seven years old and the only child in the house, watched and whittled a stick. He also cut his fingers..." Isn't that just great? It's little, humorous things like that (of which there are plenty) which make these enjoyable. Of course, it works better if the story is good too, but that's a matter of personal preference. As for me, I really enjoyed "The Little Mermaid" (which is so much darker than the Disney version, and I wouldn't go into it looking for a happy ending, at least not for the mermaid), "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Pixie at the Grocer's," "Ib and Little Christine," and "The Ice Maiden,' but all for different reasons. The last two are a little tragic, but a good tragedy can be enjoyable too.
Evangelical and Religious Tales, 8/5/18-8/18/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Snow Queen"
"The Red Shoes"
"The Little Match Girl"
"The Bog King's Daughter"
"The Girl Who Stepped on Bread"
"The Bell"
"The Thorny Path to Glory"
"The Jewish Maid"
"The Story Old Johanna Told"
"She Was No Good"
I think I need to face the fact that these just aren't doing it for me. You can see I stalled for three and a half months between the last section and this one. These were rough going, but not because of the religious theme. I have no problem there, and I'm even on board with it. The problem is that some of these are just boring. Andersen's writing style is still very entertaining albeit in a somewhat annoying manner, and if it weren't for that I probably would've given up on this a while ago. But the stories, by and large, just aren't cutting it. I really enjoyed "The Red Shoes," though I'm surprised "The Thorny Path to Glory" ever got published, for it was a snoozefest and a half. Luckily it was only four pages of pointlessness. "The Snow Queen" and "The Bog King's Daughter" were about 40 pages each. I had to force myself to continue them, and I kept finding other things to do anyway. Those bogged (heh heh) me down the most and account for most of the 13 days it took me to read 125 pages, and I can't blame tax season for this one.
One great thing about this section is the title of the last story. The story itself is fine, nothing to write home about, but the title is wonderful because it reminded me of this little ditty by Linda Ronstadt which is a fave. But if the best one can do with his writing is remind someone of a 1970's cover of a 60's hit, well, he's got some work to do.
The Anthropomorphization of Animals and Nature, 9/9/18 ★★★✰✰
Includes:
"The Ugly Duckling"
"In the Duckyard"
"The Storks"
"The Spruce Tree"
"It's Perfectly True!"
"The Dung Beetle"
"The Butterfly"
"The Snowdrop"
"The Sunshine's Stories"
"The Drop of Water"
"The Flea and the Professor"
"The Snowman"
The title of this section sums up what's going on in the stories pretty accurately. "The Ugly Duckling" was great, and I understand why it's been lauded for the past 175 years. I also enjoyed "In the Duckyard" though there's a surprisingly violent part in it where a duck is taking care of a young songbird, but the bird accidentally insults the duck. Says the duck...
"I've taken good care of you, and now I'm going to teach you a lesson."
And then she bit the head off the songbird, and he lay there dead.
"What's this?" she said, "Couldn't he take that? Well, then he really wasn't meant for this world."
Whiskey tango foxtrot. But that's the kind of thing that makes these tales enjoyable when they can be enjoyable at all.
"The Spruce Tree" was quite sad, but I really liked it. I think I heard it on tape back in the days when people used to use cassette tapes. It actually took a long time for me to start using the term "audiobook" instead of "book on tape," and I still slip from time to time. And I'll end this digression with a riddle for whipper-snappers:
You can substitute a number two pencil for the pen, but I reckon that's really no hint at all. Alas. Anyway, that story always stuck with me. "The Dung Beetle" was also amusing. As for the rest... eh. In fact, I read these only five days ago, and I can barely remember them. (Such is the peril of reading stuff when you're house-sitting for peeps who have no internet, and you can't review anything until you get home.) That might be a memory problem, or it might be that the tales were just that unremarkable.
The Humanization of Toys and Objects, 9/9/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"The Steadfast Tin Soldier"
"The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep"
"The Darning Needle"
"The Old House"
"The Rags"
I enjoyed "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and "The Darning Needle..." I think. The former was cute, and the latter was humorous. But here's a confession: With the commencement of the previous section, I was going to finish this book on that day, dammit, and I confess I was plowing through these. The same sentiment applies to the next section.
Legends, 9/9/18 ★★✰✰✰
Includes:
"Holger the Dane"
"Bird Phoenix"
"The Family of Hen-Grethe"
"Everything in Its Proper Place"
These were fine, I guess, but none stood out. Thankfully they were short. The important thing is that I finished the book. I want a cookie.
Final Analysis, 9/14/18:
Well, I set out to get out of my comfort zone, and I succeeded. These weren't agonizing, but I had to force myself back into it every time, and I managed to slip several books between some sections. This book gets two stars, but it could easily be four had it included only the stories I enjoyed, all of which are mentioned above. There's a reason most of the obscure ones remain obscure: they suck. There's a reason the popular ones remain popular: they rock. 200 pages of this would've been fine, but I made myself slog through 600, and that was just too much for me. But like I said at the beginning, this collection is at a disadvantage from the start since I'm not a big short story person. And I pointed out that Hans Christian Andersen's writing style and wit are great, but such works better if there's a story worth hearing to go along with it. And I'll also note that the community rating right now is 4.23, so I'm giving a minority opinion here.
If you really like short stories, give these a go. If you sometimes enjoy short stories but mostly tolerate them and read them because you think you're supposed to from time to time, and you have an appreciation for off-the-wall wit and humor, then just read the ones I commented on. If you can deal with heavier what-the-hell-is-this-shit flim-flam, then check out all of them. If you don't like short stories, then obviously you should skip this entirely.
February 26, 2021
"I have something of the poet in me, but not enough."
Hans Christian Andersen was a complicated character, and his stories have had a complicated history in the Western canon. I was eager to really dive into them, but I honestly ended up being rather disappointed. I found them creative, sure, but for some reason I just could not get into the style of writing here.
These have obviously been translated, so I don't know if I can really fault Andersen himself, or if this was just a poor translation. But they read so stiffly and so aridly that even the most atmospheric stories, 'The Ice Maiden', for example, seemed to be missing something. I can't believe Penguin would choose an inept translator, so I guess it could be I don't agree with Andersen's own style, but it really is impossible to say for sure.
Again, there was a lot of creativity here; it's hard to believe so many now iconic fairytales came out of one man's imagination. It's also incredible to believe that many of these stories, which have become so ingrained in Western culture, have only been around for less than two hundred years, as they all seem so much older to me. While maybe the stories themselves didn't necessarily agree with me, I'd love to dig into more of Andersen's life, as from the bits and pieces I've read of Penguin's commentary here, he truly was an extraordinary character with a lot of unexpected contemporary connections.
March 21, 2016
In a nutshell:
This is a collection of thirty fairy tales written by the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen and translated into English by Tiina Nunnally. The collection includes famous tales such as “The Little Mermaid”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Little Match Girl” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” as well as lesser known tales. The tales are ordered chronologically from when they were published.
Review:
I loved this book. I was familiar with Andersen’s stories, but they were usually the simplified versions put in children’s picture books. I can’t believe I have been missing out on his writing and his voice all of these years. Andersen adds to his stories funny observations, lovely setting detail, haunting dream and vision sequences, and little asides to the reader. His writing is apparently notoriously difficult to translate, which makes me appreciate Nunnally’s fresh and vivid translation even more.
The introduction to this book, written by Jackie Wullschlager, does a splendid job in portraying who Andersen was, as a writer and person. Wullschlager explains how his tales reflected his regard for art and story, and also his deep sense of being a lonely outsider. I recommend reading the introduction after reading the rest of the book, not because of spoilers, but because reading about Andersen’s life was more moving to me after reading his stories.
Andersen’s early stories were largely inspired or adapted by folk tales and myths. “The Tinderbox” features a witch whose magic treasures are guarded by dogs with very large eyes. According to the back-of-the-book notes, the violent “Little Claus and Big Claus” is based on traditional Danish landlord-and-tenant stories.
“The Little Mermaid” was an exquisite tragedy. I knew that Andersen’s story did not end happily for the mermaid, but the end made my heart twinge anyway. (Well, not the very end, which was a slapped-on lame moralistic ‘lesson’.) “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” and “The Wild Swans” were also very lovely tales. “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” was notable for being Andersen’s first published tale that was not based on a prior folktale or story.
Andersen has a number of stories that feature anthropomorphized objects. Of course “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” is the most famous, but there is one where a top falls in love with a leather ball; a fir tree wishes always to be where it’s not; a porcelain shepherdess is engaged against her will to a cupboard carved with the figure of a man.
Jackie Wullschlager points out in her introduction that Andersen often uses animals, plants and even the wind to act as a sort of Greek chorus in the stories. “The Marsh King’s Daughter” is an odd and dark tale about a girl who is a beautiful hellion by day and a froggish sad creature by night. She is raised by Vikings but decides to free a captured Christian priest. Throughout the story, a family of storks observe and comment. In “The Ice Maiden”, two cats swap gossip about the main characters:
“Is there any news from the mill?” said the parlor cat. “Here in the house a secret engagement has taken place. The father doesn’t yet know about it. Rudy and Babbette have been stepping on each other’s paws all evening under the table. They stepped on me twice, but I didn’t meow because that would have attracted attention.”
“Well I would have meowed,” said the kitchen cat.
“What’s proper in the kitchen is not proper in the parlor,” said the parlor cat.
p. 357
Two of my favorite stories in this collection were also two of the longest stories: “The Snow Queen” and “The Ice Maiden.” In “The Snow Queen”, young Gerda goes on a quest to save her best friend Kai from the Snow Queen who has abducted him. Along the way, she meets, among others: a garden full of flowers that talk to Gerda but don’t say anything useful; a couple of friendly crows; and a little robber girl (one of my favorite minor characters who gets an awesome line near the end.) “The Ice Maiden” is set in Switzerland and Andersen both intentionally and unintentionally evokes a bygone world, as he describes Swiss men who hunt on the glaciers as well as the modern locomotive.
I found the specificity of Andersen’s fairy tales delightful. I have enough geographical knowledge to recognize Danish place names thrown out in “The Wind Tells of Valdemar Daae and His Daughters.” An aging Andersen talked to girls at a brothel to research his story “The Wood Nymph” which is set in Paris during that city’s 1867 Exposition.
An amazing tidbit about Andersen’s tale “The Most Incredible Thing”: published in 1872, it became a symbolic story for the Danish Resistance in the 1940′s.
There is so much in these stories that would be wonderful to discuss. There is the way that Christianity operates like another kind of magic, and alongside the fantasy elements. There is the high-stakes element of Andersen’s tales; happy endings are definitely not a guarantee. Apparently “The Story of a Mother” had a different ending and then Andersen capriciously decided to change it.
There are also a number of stories that I haven’t mentioned at all that would be great to discuss in detail, but I don’t think this review should be much longer. My recommendation then is to read this collection for yourselves!
This is a collection of thirty fairy tales written by the famous Danish author Hans Christian Andersen and translated into English by Tiina Nunnally. The collection includes famous tales such as “The Little Mermaid”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Little Match Girl” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” as well as lesser known tales. The tales are ordered chronologically from when they were published.
Review:
I loved this book. I was familiar with Andersen’s stories, but they were usually the simplified versions put in children’s picture books. I can’t believe I have been missing out on his writing and his voice all of these years. Andersen adds to his stories funny observations, lovely setting detail, haunting dream and vision sequences, and little asides to the reader. His writing is apparently notoriously difficult to translate, which makes me appreciate Nunnally’s fresh and vivid translation even more.
The introduction to this book, written by Jackie Wullschlager, does a splendid job in portraying who Andersen was, as a writer and person. Wullschlager explains how his tales reflected his regard for art and story, and also his deep sense of being a lonely outsider. I recommend reading the introduction after reading the rest of the book, not because of spoilers, but because reading about Andersen’s life was more moving to me after reading his stories.
Andersen’s early stories were largely inspired or adapted by folk tales and myths. “The Tinderbox” features a witch whose magic treasures are guarded by dogs with very large eyes. According to the back-of-the-book notes, the violent “Little Claus and Big Claus” is based on traditional Danish landlord-and-tenant stories.
“The Little Mermaid” was an exquisite tragedy. I knew that Andersen’s story did not end happily for the mermaid, but the end made my heart twinge anyway. (Well, not the very end, which was a slapped-on lame moralistic ‘lesson’.) “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” and “The Wild Swans” were also very lovely tales. “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” was notable for being Andersen’s first published tale that was not based on a prior folktale or story.
Andersen has a number of stories that feature anthropomorphized objects. Of course “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” is the most famous, but there is one where a top falls in love with a leather ball; a fir tree wishes always to be where it’s not; a porcelain shepherdess is engaged against her will to a cupboard carved with the figure of a man.
Jackie Wullschlager points out in her introduction that Andersen often uses animals, plants and even the wind to act as a sort of Greek chorus in the stories. “The Marsh King’s Daughter” is an odd and dark tale about a girl who is a beautiful hellion by day and a froggish sad creature by night. She is raised by Vikings but decides to free a captured Christian priest. Throughout the story, a family of storks observe and comment. In “The Ice Maiden”, two cats swap gossip about the main characters:
“Is there any news from the mill?” said the parlor cat. “Here in the house a secret engagement has taken place. The father doesn’t yet know about it. Rudy and Babbette have been stepping on each other’s paws all evening under the table. They stepped on me twice, but I didn’t meow because that would have attracted attention.”
“Well I would have meowed,” said the kitchen cat.
“What’s proper in the kitchen is not proper in the parlor,” said the parlor cat.
p. 357
Two of my favorite stories in this collection were also two of the longest stories: “The Snow Queen” and “The Ice Maiden.” In “The Snow Queen”, young Gerda goes on a quest to save her best friend Kai from the Snow Queen who has abducted him. Along the way, she meets, among others: a garden full of flowers that talk to Gerda but don’t say anything useful; a couple of friendly crows; and a little robber girl (one of my favorite minor characters who gets an awesome line near the end.) “The Ice Maiden” is set in Switzerland and Andersen both intentionally and unintentionally evokes a bygone world, as he describes Swiss men who hunt on the glaciers as well as the modern locomotive.
I found the specificity of Andersen’s fairy tales delightful. I have enough geographical knowledge to recognize Danish place names thrown out in “The Wind Tells of Valdemar Daae and His Daughters.” An aging Andersen talked to girls at a brothel to research his story “The Wood Nymph” which is set in Paris during that city’s 1867 Exposition.
An amazing tidbit about Andersen’s tale “The Most Incredible Thing”: published in 1872, it became a symbolic story for the Danish Resistance in the 1940′s.
There is so much in these stories that would be wonderful to discuss. There is the way that Christianity operates like another kind of magic, and alongside the fantasy elements. There is the high-stakes element of Andersen’s tales; happy endings are definitely not a guarantee. Apparently “The Story of a Mother” had a different ending and then Andersen capriciously decided to change it.
There are also a number of stories that I haven’t mentioned at all that would be great to discuss in detail, but I don’t think this review should be much longer. My recommendation then is to read this collection for yourselves!
October 15, 2022
Miło spędzony czas. Powrót do dzieciństwa.
March 27, 2022
Only took me a year to read this (haha!).
Definitely wasn’t anything too thought provoking or deep. If anything, was taken aback by how morbid some of these stories were. Others were quite whimsical, and often I imagined reading this aloud to my nephews and niece.
Other than that, it’s a beautiful addition to my permanent library and a good book to read in bed to when you need something to lull you to sleep.
Definitely wasn’t anything too thought provoking or deep. If anything, was taken aback by how morbid some of these stories were. Others were quite whimsical, and often I imagined reading this aloud to my nephews and niece.
Other than that, it’s a beautiful addition to my permanent library and a good book to read in bed to when you need something to lull you to sleep.
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