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Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales

Contributions by Michael Bacon
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Brought to life by Academy Award®-winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an ensemble cast of narrators, and featuring original music by Michael Bacon, this collection contains Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales, as well as a selection of lesser-known favorites.
 
Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected and retold folklore and fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen adopted the most ancient literary forms and distilled them into a genre that was uniquely his own. His fairy tales are remarkable for their sense of fantasy, power of description, and vivid imagination. They are like no others written before or since. 

Recognizing the literary merit of Andersen's own simple colloquial language, Erik Haugaard has remained faithful to the original text in the translation from Danish to English. Listeners will rediscover Hans Christian Andersen's best-known fairy tales, and find new favorites.
 
Stories:
 
The Princess and the Pea
Thumbelina
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Ugly Duckling
The Little Mermaid
The Little Match Girl
The Wild Swans
The Nightingale
The Snow Queen
"The Will-o'-the-Wisps are in Town," said the Bog Witch
The Rags
The Adventures of a Thistle
Luck Can Be Found in a Stick
The Days of the Week
 
Cast:
 
F. Murray Abraham
Edoardo Ballerini
Marisa Calin
Cynthia Darlow
Ari Fliakos
Dion Graham
January LaVoy
Jennifer Lim
Euan Morton
Robert Petkoff
Rebecca Soler
Marc Thompson
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) was born in Odense, Denmark. The son of a poor shoemaker, who nonetheless was a great reader, made a toy theater for his son and taught him to notice every natural wonder as they walked in the woods together on Sundays. His father died when he was 11, and it wasn’t until six years later that, with the help of a patron, he finally went to a state secondary school attended by much younger children. There he suffered at the hands of a cruel headmaster, but he acquired an education and was determined to be a writer. He published his first novel and his first fairy tales in 1835; thereafter he wrote over 150 more of these stories which have become classics in many languages. Although he originally addressed his fairy tales to children (and some would maintain he had a streak of childhood in his nature) he insisted they were “for all ages,” and the gentleness and humor that are their characteristics are recognized by everyone. View titles by Hans Christian Andersen
The Puffin Classics series is a perfect marriage of the old and the new. Enjoy some of the best books from the past and find out why and how they inspired some of the best writers of the present—Julia Eccleshare, LoveReading4Kids

About

Brought to life by Academy Award®-winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an ensemble cast of narrators, and featuring original music by Michael Bacon, this collection contains Hans Christian Andersen’s most beloved fairy tales, as well as a selection of lesser-known favorites.
 
Unlike the Brothers Grimm, who collected and retold folklore and fairy tales, Hans Christian Andersen adopted the most ancient literary forms and distilled them into a genre that was uniquely his own. His fairy tales are remarkable for their sense of fantasy, power of description, and vivid imagination. They are like no others written before or since. 

Recognizing the literary merit of Andersen's own simple colloquial language, Erik Haugaard has remained faithful to the original text in the translation from Danish to English. Listeners will rediscover Hans Christian Andersen's best-known fairy tales, and find new favorites.
 
Stories:
 
The Princess and the Pea
Thumbelina
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Ugly Duckling
The Little Mermaid
The Little Match Girl
The Wild Swans
The Nightingale
The Snow Queen
"The Will-o'-the-Wisps are in Town," said the Bog Witch
The Rags
The Adventures of a Thistle
Luck Can Be Found in a Stick
The Days of the Week
 
Cast:
 
F. Murray Abraham
Edoardo Ballerini
Marisa Calin
Cynthia Darlow
Ari Fliakos
Dion Graham
January LaVoy
Jennifer Lim
Euan Morton
Robert Petkoff
Rebecca Soler
Marc Thompson

Author

Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) was born in Odense, Denmark. The son of a poor shoemaker, who nonetheless was a great reader, made a toy theater for his son and taught him to notice every natural wonder as they walked in the woods together on Sundays. His father died when he was 11, and it wasn’t until six years later that, with the help of a patron, he finally went to a state secondary school attended by much younger children. There he suffered at the hands of a cruel headmaster, but he acquired an education and was determined to be a writer. He published his first novel and his first fairy tales in 1835; thereafter he wrote over 150 more of these stories which have become classics in many languages. Although he originally addressed his fairy tales to children (and some would maintain he had a streak of childhood in his nature) he insisted they were “for all ages,” and the gentleness and humor that are their characteristics are recognized by everyone. View titles by Hans Christian Andersen

Praise

The Puffin Classics series is a perfect marriage of the old and the new. Enjoy some of the best books from the past and find out why and how they inspired some of the best writers of the present—Julia Eccleshare, LoveReading4Kids

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