Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen

Anderson wrote classic and unforgettable fairy tales such as; The Little Mermaid, The Emperor’s New Suit, The Little Match Girl, The Ugly Duckling. He also wrote some good tales including; The Brave Tin Soldier, The Snow Queen, The Nightingale, Thumbelina, etc. But this collection shows that many of his stories are not that great. It got to the point that I was began skimming some of the stories and towards the end was wondering why I was still reading this book. It didn’t help that there were no illustrations to help make these stories come to life. My recommendation is if you want a complete collection, find one that is well illustrated and if, after a page, a story is boring, move on to the next. One obscure fact is that Anderson wrote two stories of Danish sculpture Bertel Thorvaldsen. You can look up his sculptures online. He was a friend of renown book illustrator and painter Ludwig Richter who illustrated many famous fairy tales in the 1800s and whose art influence a young Walt Disney. There’s a good biography of him on Amazon titled “Ludwig Richter: The Story Artists” that has tons of his artwork and an easy read.

Perhaps the finest writer of Fairy Tales. The publishing house has done an excellent job with this edition.

I collect world tales and Andersen wrote many great ones. This collection has his most popular (Steadfast Tin Soldier, Ugly Duckling, Thumbelina, etc.) as well as many, many more. While this is not a complete collection of his works, the overwhelming majority of readers will find all the tales they expect and more. Formatting and text are good and legible with very few mistakes that I could find. If you want some of Andersen's tales, this is a great book to have in your library!

Hans Christian Anderson led a difficult life. His romantic relationships were a series of catastrophes. His ambition to be regarded as a serious playwright and novelist came to naught. And yet, somehow, Andersen retained enough of a childlike way of viewing the world to write one of the greatest oeuvres in children’s literature. Anderson viewed life as something mysterious but guided by providence, a place where magic could be found under every fallen leaf and the rules of morality were reflected in the happenings of nature. While not particularly mature or scientifically accurate, these stories are so well-crafted that they can be enjoyed by old and young alike. I personally read six hundred pages of them. Though I don’t recommend that to everyone, I found it a mostly pleasant experience. My own son is now too old (or not old enough) to enjoy reading fairy tales but I plan on sharing many of these stories with his children. A troubled soul who was able to surmount artistic egoism to produce something of perennial delight. Well worth reading.

My childhood was a scam!!! My mother never read these to me when I was little. So all I knew was the Disneyfied version. Now an adult, I have been studying all sorts of fables on my own - Charles Perrault, the Grimm Brothers and Aesop. Having read all of them, I must say that Hans Christian Anderson beats them all in spades. "The Little Mermaid" and the other classics are so much better in writing than they are on screen, as is so often the case. Primarily, it's his writing style; he doesn't pretend that children are stupid, he writes using fine language, which makes reading it enjoyable for even adults. Now I know that they taught children back in the day to read straight from the King James version of the Bible. If only we had such high standards today!!! So his choice of words can be verbose. But it's not just that. Anderson also combines vivid imagery with a story that's well-paced. The stories are full of details. That's a winning combination. Sure, there are some stories that are dull and not worth reading. But there are also hidden gems. To anyone who's lost a child to death, "The Angel", for example, would be a reassuring read. "The Shepherdess and the Sheep" is also quite endearing.

Many are familiar with "The Little Mermaid" or "The Toy Soldier," but to read this book is to find a whole new world of this great author. I got the book for my grandchildren. Started reading it and have not stopped yet. Anderson's stories focus on children,adults, plants and animals, and life and death. In reality they are about the beauty of life, love, and charity. Each story contains a moral, and from a beginning of something negative by stories end are transformed into something positive. The first story I read was about a little boy who had died. An Angel took him upon a journey. The journey was part of his life, but a view of the world he had not known before. In the end the boy was in Heaven, before God, and received his Angelic wings to soar with the Angels and other children. The story seems sad, but in reality it is not. Other stories are about a mothers love for a lost child, a birds trials, and that of flowers. Yes, they are allegorical yet they are so much more. I would recommend this book for young and old alike.

I chose this book because I was doing a blog posting on Hans Christian Andersen and wanted to have his wonderful stories fresh in my memory. Although I was well versed in the more familiar tales (Thumbelina, the Ugly Duckling, the Little Mermaid, the Little Match-seller) I was amazed to read so many "new" [new to me at least] stories. There are over 150 stories in this book, most of them forgotten and overlooked, but all of them charming and worth a read. Preview the stories before you read them out loud to your children. As with most original fairy tales some of these deal with death, and none are as sugar coated as their Disney clones. I chose "The Conceited Apple-branch" and the delightful "The Beetle who went one his Travels" for my blog.

This seems like a good version of the tales. I’d forgotten how brutal some of them are!

Love them. They are pocket size books. The stories are in time order I guess. Good size of text and pictures. It is fun to read different volumes together to feel how Andersen’s style and focus shifted through decades of his years.

I remembered these stories from a book I had as a child and now get to enjoy reading some of the same stories to my kids. Not all are suitable for young kids (tragic endings) so good to preread beforehand.