Fairy Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

By Hans Christian Andersen, Jack Zipes, Marte Hvam Hult and Harry Clarke

Fairy Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics:

• New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the readers viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. Barnes & Noble Classics pulls together a constellation of influences—biographical, historical, and literary—to enrich each readers understanding of these enduring works. Who has not laughed at the emperor’s new clothes, thrilled to the song of the nightingale, or sympathized with the ugly duckling? In the 170 years since they first began to appear, Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales have entranced and bewitched millions of readers, adults and children alike. Writing in the midst of a Europe-wide rebirth of national literature, Anderson broke new ground with his fairy tales in two important ways. First, he composed them in the vernacular, mimicking the language he used in telling them to children aloud. Second, he set his tales in his own land and time, giving rise to his loving descriptions of the Danish countryside. In contrast to such folklorists as the Brothers Grimm, Anderson’s tales are grounded in the real and often focus on the significance of small or overlooked things. Here are all of Andersen’s collected tales, many—such as “The Little Mermaid,” “The Red Shoes,” and “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”—still popular through modern adaptations, and others, including “The Flying Trunk” and “The Most Incredible Thing,” well worth rediscovering.

Jack Zipes is professor of German and comparative literature at the University of Minnesota. A specialist in folklore and fairy tales, he has authored numerous books of criticism over the last thirty years and edited several major anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of Children’s Literature (2005).

Marte Hvam Hult holds a Ph.D. in Scandinavian languages and literatures from the University of Minnesota.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barnes & Noble Classics
• Release date: Jun 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9781411432161

Hans Christian Andersen

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author and poet best remembered for his fairy tales, both original and retold, including the beloved classics "Thumbelina," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Fir Tree," "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," "The Princess and the Pea," "The Red Shoes," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Snow Queen." 

Reviews for Fairy Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

[obscuresoul13 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of Grimm's stories gathered through interviews & research. These stories make for an interesting read. Many of the stories were different versions of a similar story. Some of the stories were a bit cruel, but overall, I do recommend this book.

[tjwilliams_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

These are not your children’s fairy tales. The Brothers Grimm were not shy about using violence and vivid imagery to graphically depict the trials and travails of their characters. And, given the number of evildoers in these stories, gritty and disturbing ends are not at all uncommon. But once it is understood that these are fairy tales for adults, they are very entertaining. The only issue with having all 200+ stories collected in one volume is they are incredibly repetitive. In many of their volumes, the brothers merged and combined stories that were similar but there are still many themes and circumstances that are repeated in their fairy tales. For example, there are countless tales of a young man who attempts to win the king’s daughter and must complete several tasks which would be completely impossible had he not saved a talking animal in the past who can do the task for the young man. That is the plot summary for roughly a dozen of the stories and it can become annoying reading what seems like the same story again and again. Repetitiveness aside, Grimm’s fairy tales are an entertaining bunch. Reading the entire book from cover to cover is not recommended, but the stories are brief enough that they can be consumed in chunks of four or five without requiring a significant time commitment. Ultimately, this collection is worth having if only for the older interpretations of what are considered classic fairy tales: Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, etc. These stories are often quite different from their modern Disney counterparts and are well worth the read.

[ysar_6 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Grimm brothers were a twisted pair. Their fairy tales are incredible but hardly fit for children. Then again, at least these tales, unlike the movies, television, and games children today immerse themselves in, have lessons and morals to impart.

[duranfan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Your favorites from childhood are here, and a bunch of tales you probably never heard. But these are NOT the sugar-coated, Disney versions. The damsels don't always survive, the hero doesn't always win, and some downright evil and twisted things happen to innocent people.Fairy tales are not always nice. But it's still worth reading.

[janarose1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I must have been the only person who didn't realize that many of Disney's stories were straight from the Grimm brothers. I found many of the stories contained throughout the book to be similar. Three brothers, princesses, people turned into animals, after a while everything blended together. After you've read the first five stories you can just stop, because everything else is very repetitious.

[kurt.rocourt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's good but extremely repetitive. I don't remember most of the stories because so many of them reuse the same setup.

[raykhenberg · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Absolutely horrible. I would have been more entertained reading a dictionary. I found myself yelling at this book in my head asking why in the world anyone considers these stories good. I am convinced that all the high ratings people are giving this book are based on the Disney stories that were loosely based on the pure garbage contained within this book.

I don't care if it's "good for its time" or "loses something in translation". Unless it was translated by house cat with slightly below average intelligence or written at a time when people considered gouging their own eyes out a leisure activity there is no reason for it to be this bad.

Do not read this crap to your children, they will become entitled racists who play the lottery.

[pattyhoward · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Every child should sometimes read Grimm's Fairy Tales. My children love them. They are delightfully dark and twisty, and surprising to children who believe they know the stories. While beautiful story books should be shared with younger children, I love the complete Grimm's tales for older children who are ready for something a little more "grim!"

[cjrecordvt-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

All I can say is, if you think you know these old folk tales, you really want to read them again in their original forms.

[thebooknerd · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Every book nerd should have a copy of the Grimms' tales. If you haven't delved any further than Disney, you should definitely get a copy of the complete tales right away.

[pocketmermaid · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Oh, Hans Christian Andersen. My favorite of favorites. I love this man. Since I was a little girl, I must have read "The Little Mermaid" a few dozen times. I was also familiar with (and loved) his "The Princess and the Pea," "The Little Match Girl," "Thumbelina," "The Ugly Duckling," and "The Red Shoes." Later it was "The Snow Queen" and "The Nightingale" and "The Steadfast Tin Soldier." Somewhere along the way I realized that Andersen was responsible for all of my favorite childhood stories. I'd been looking for a good translation or a definitive collection of his work for a few years. There's a lot out there. I was attracted to the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition because of the wacky cover (inspired by the tale "The Traveling Companion"), and the translator's note cinched the deal. Tiina Nunnally was devoted to preserving Andersen's original language and interpreting his writing style. Her respect of his work really shows, and I slowly devoured each story. It took me a full year to get through this book, a total of 30 stories, and it has come everywhere with me like a security blanket. It's almost sad that I'm done with it.This collection doesn't claim to be complete edition of all of his stories (which was what I originally thought I wanted), but is instead a sampling of some of his most important works. They are arranged in chronological order, and thanks to an extended timeline of Andersen's life and biography in the introduction, it's really easy to see this bizarre man's journey through life. Reading this tales, most of which were autobiographical in some way or another, I felt really connected to him. In the back of the book, there are notes on each tale explaining why he wrote them and the publication history. I never knew that Hans felt he WAS the little mermaid, sacrificing himself for true love only to be handed disappointment. It's all the more heart-breaking to know that he drew from real life inspiration to compose it.

[ecuddy-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The illustrations on this book are what first caught my attention. I was perusing the local bookshop when the marvellous and odd pictures popped out from a shelf and inspired me to investigate. Needless to say, I bought the book and I love it. My favourite story is "The Travelling Companion." Beautiful and interesting, (slightly creepy) tale. Enjoy!!

[strawberrysq · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Lovely collection.

[sturlington_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Andersen is a mixed bag for me. First, this is a beautiful collection, with wonderful woodcut illustrations by Andersen himself, and nicely translated. It contains his most famous stories, including one of my all-time favorites, "The Nightingale," as well as such tried-and-true chestnuts as "The Ugly Duckling," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "The Princess on the Pea" and the incomparable "Snow Queen" (what a strange and bewitching story that is). The less well-known stories are even better; I have to heartily recommend "Little Claus and Big Claus" and "The Traveling Companion." But Andersen is pretty hard on his characters, particularly his girls, and stories like "The Little Mermaid" and "The Red Shoes" are very disturbing to me now. Many of these stories have a strong religious bent to them often involving subjecting oneself to God's will that made me uncomfortable, so that when reading these stories aloud to my son, I often found myself censoring what I was reading. I couldn't even finish "The Little Match Girl," a story that is appropriate for no one. Altogether, I prefer the straightforward bloodthirstiness of Grimm, but as I say, there are many gems in here so long as you are choosy.Mostly read aloud to my son in 2015.

[greeniezona · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We have been reading this book at bedtime for a long, long time. I know, I should have looked at the book and realized how long it was, but with the lushly illustrated cover, I was really, really expecting more illustrations. Of which there were almost none, and certainly not like the cover.

Before I get carried away, I do want to say that I found this collection of tales to be magical and surprising. I guess I was often distracting by evaluating whether or not I thought the stories were too "old" for Jefferson. I shouldn't have worried. He said he really liked the book, and after we finished reading it, he took it upstairs to read in bed and within a few days said he'd reread most of it. (He skipped some of the stories.) Of course, his favorite stories tended to be the most blood-thirsty ones.

I had never read the "real" Little Mermaid before. It's interesting to me how much darkness is in these tales. Not just "the girl dies," which was all I'd been told about how the original varied from the Disney version, but through all the stories. That there is darkness, and we probably won't get what we most want in life, but still we should be honest and humble, and strive for justice and beauty.

If Jefferson absorbed even a little of that message, I should be pretty happy.

[passion4reading_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This is a collection of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy/folk tales for children, which includes some of his best-known stories, like 'The Little Mermaid', 'The Princess on the Pea', 'The Little Match Girl' and 'The Snow Queen', as well as a number of tales that were unknown to me. Though I still love reading fairy tales even as an adult, especially those of a darker hue, I did not enjoy the stories as much as I had expected. It may well be that these are simply too Victorian in character for me, with an admonishing finger raised for children to be obedient and well behaved, and for adults to be God-fearing. A DNF from me.

[mickyfine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A collection of Andersen's classic fairy tales in a fantastic English translation that will appeal to modern audiences but does not remove the flavour of language from the 19th century. Including the better known tales like "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Steadfast Tin Soldier, "The Little Match Girl", and "The Snow Queen" there were also a multitude of other tales, with which I was totally unfamiliar. I was also surprised to find the humour in so many of the tales as the ones that I had read and studied previously were on the tragic end of the scale. If you're looking for a collection of Andersen's tales to try, I highly recommend this one.

[completely_melanie · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I listened to the audio book of this. I enjoyed it. It was interesting hearing the differences between the original fairy tales and what we have all grown up knowing. They are pretty twisted and depressing compared to the upbeat lighthearted ones that we know today.

[benuathanasia · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I prefer the Grimms over Anderson, but many of the stories in Anderson's arsenal are truly beautiful.