Scan barcode
kaylana's review against another edition
5.0
Read a lot of new stories. Finally read The Little Match Girl....OMG! Tear-jerker. It was fun reading aloud with my son. He was quite a storyteller.
arachne_reads's review against another edition
3.0
Andersen's body of work is one I feel complicatedly about. Andersen responded to his critics in many of his tales, which seems to my present American sensibilities like so much playground taunting.
His female characters can only seem to participate in "goodness" and "purity" through self-sacrifice and rejection of adulthood; the resulting tales leave our heroines from "The Bog King's Daughter" to the well known "Little Mermaid" to suffer for the sin of being female, and for their lives to end as a result. The Bog King's daughter is punished (rewarded?) for her desire to be close to the Christian divine by having her newly won life swept away by currents of time for "peeping" on heaven, then is allowed to go back to heaven. Our mermaid is given a chance to earn a soul after a life of suffering by watching children perform good deeds among the Daughters of the Air. Even Gerda, to remain pure, must be a sexless child at heart after rescuing Kay. It's infuriating. And yet, Andersen touches on some deep imagery that pushes and pulls at the reader.
I was sometimes frustrated with his tendency to describe how dear and sweet all the flowers were, and his pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die Christianity. It allows him to draw morals about how blessed the poor really are— an infuriating attitude. And yet, he writes with great empathy for the downtrodden, the humble, and the unloved.
There are times when his wry humor tugged at the corners of my mouth: "Auntie Toothache." There were times when I wanted to throw the book across the room for his almost Panglossian- "it's all God's will, the world is perfect and clearly the best of all possible" type of notions.
I found his faith in the advancement and increasing empathy of humankind fascinating. His work is rife with the refutation of the notion that "the good old days" were so very perfect, pointing out the barbarism of the past.
It was a slow and maddening and delightful read. I am very glad I slogged through it, for all the troublesome notions Andersen presented me with.
His female characters can only seem to participate in "goodness" and "purity" through self-sacrifice and rejection of adulthood; the resulting tales leave our heroines from "The Bog King's Daughter" to the well known "Little Mermaid" to suffer for the sin of being female, and for their lives to end as a result. The Bog King's daughter is punished (rewarded?) for her desire to be close to the Christian divine by having her newly won life swept away by currents of time for "peeping" on heaven, then is allowed to go back to heaven. Our mermaid is given a chance to earn a soul after a life of suffering by watching children perform good deeds among the Daughters of the Air. Even Gerda, to remain pure, must be a sexless child at heart after rescuing Kay. It's infuriating. And yet, Andersen touches on some deep imagery that pushes and pulls at the reader.
I was sometimes frustrated with his tendency to describe how dear and sweet all the flowers were, and his pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die Christianity. It allows him to draw morals about how blessed the poor really are— an infuriating attitude. And yet, he writes with great empathy for the downtrodden, the humble, and the unloved.
There are times when his wry humor tugged at the corners of my mouth: "Auntie Toothache." There were times when I wanted to throw the book across the room for his almost Panglossian- "it's all God's will, the world is perfect and clearly the best of all possible" type of notions.
I found his faith in the advancement and increasing empathy of humankind fascinating. His work is rife with the refutation of the notion that "the good old days" were so very perfect, pointing out the barbarism of the past.
It was a slow and maddening and delightful read. I am very glad I slogged through it, for all the troublesome notions Andersen presented me with.
grace_ezri's review against another edition
5.0
Reading fairy tales and fairy tale adaptations as a child was how I first started loving to read. I loved all of these stories and every time I read them I got lost in them. Anyone who grew up loving fairy tales should absolutely read this. How can you not enjoy hearing the original stories of classics such as the little mermaid, the ugly duckling, the emperor's new clothes, the princess and the pea, Thumbelina, and the snow queen. I want to continue to read these and other original fairy tales for the rest of my life. So glad I finally picked this up!
fayh97's review against another edition
5.0
A wonderful collection of classic tales that I read as a child and will keep for my own children.
melshoo's review against another edition
5.0
One of my favorite books as a child. I used to tote my copy around all the time- Andersen's stories hold a special place in my heart. The fairy tales were short and simple, easy for me to read. Reading these stories as an adult, I'm surprised at how I glossed over the darker aspects. I'm less surprised that I missed the morals, which I enjoy much less now that I've developed my own set of values.
debz57a52's review against another edition
I tried to read this book, front to back, as the 800 page book I read for the 2017 Advanced Popsugar Challenge. However, after months of struggle, I decided it wasn't worth it, and I continued flipping through it to just read stories that appealed to me. With 100+ writings, and some of them quite long, not all of them are winners or well known by casual fans. But I found some new favorites, like the story "The Shadow," and I look forward to returning to the tome to browse the writings again.
More...