CATEGORY

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’s 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.