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  • Published: 24 November 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140448931
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $26.99

Fairy Tales




The Black Classics edition of our glorious new translation and selection of 30 tales to mark the 200 year anniversary of Andersen's birth in 2005

With this new translation and selection, the unique inventiveness of Andersen's genius is revealed. At a time when children's stories were formal, moral and didactic, Hans Christian Andersen revolutionized the genre, giving an anarchic twist to traditional folklore and creating a huge number of utterly original stories that sprang directly from his imagination. From the exuberant early stories such as The Emperor's New Clothes, through poignant masterpieces such as The Little Mermaid and The Ugly Duckling, to the darker, more subversive later tales written for adults, the stories included here are endlessly experimental, both humorous and irreverent, sorrowful and strange.

  • Published: 24 November 2005
  • ISBN: 9780140448931
  • Imprint: Penguin Classics
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 496
  • RRP: $26.99

Other books in the series

The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
Venus in Furs
Man and Superman
Military Dispatches
The Prelude

About the author

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, son of a shoemaker and a washerwoman. He was the first writer to take the folk tale as a literary genre and create new stories, such as 'The Emperor's New Clothes', 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Ugly Duckling' and 'The Snow Queen'. His influence on children's literature is inestimable, yet his stories work on many levels. He died in Copenhagen in 1875.

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