First published 1835
A match girl shivers in the cold, striking her few remaining matches for warmth. An emperor parades naked through his kingdom, convinced he wears magnificent robes. A duckling endures mockery and rejection, believing himself ugly and worthless. These characters populate Hans Christian Andersen's imaginative world, where virtue sometimes receives reward and desire often goes unfulfilled. The collection spans Andersen's career, from beloved stories like "The Emperor's New Clothes" and "The Ugly Duckling" to his later, darker works. In "The Shadow," a man watches helplessly as his own shadow grows independent and eventually dominates his existence. "Auntie Toothache" explores pain and suffering through Andersen's mature lens. Tiina Nunnally's translation preserves the conversational, eccentric quality of Andersen's Danish prose, while Jackie Wullschlager's introduction traces the evolution of his storytelling style throughout his career.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, 20th-century, fantasy, fairy-tales, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking, whimsical
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Denmark
Period: 19th-Century, 20th-Century
437 pages · Paperback · Penguin Classics