We journey on in our Literary Christmas series for Blogmas 2024 to discover another author. While we have mostly focused on authors writing for adults, (like Edith Wharton) many authors that we consider to be “classic” authors now have written for children. (And I have to say, that does not make them lesser-than in any way.) For this week’s post, I thought we could look at one of the most beloved children’s authors from the nineteenth century. And if you are familiar with fairy tales, you probably know this author.
Onto Literary Christmas: Hans Christian Andersen!
Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Andersen wrote 156 different fairy tales, published over nine volumes. While he started writing in the 1820s, his first fairy tales were published in Fairy Tales Told for Children. First Collection, a three volume collection published between 1835 and 1837. These volumes included some favourites that we know now, including “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “Thumbelina”, and “The Princess and the Pea”.
Notably, Andersen published The Snow Queen in 1844, a wintery fairy tale. While Snow Queen has been adapted numerous times in various mediums, including several different ballets, this story is not actually set at Christmas. (You will see it included in Christmas story collections in spite of this.)
“The Little Match Girl”
“The Little Match Girl” is another of Andersen’s stories- this one is set during the holiday period. It is a fairly heartbreaking tale of a young girl who spoiler alert: dies by freezing to death. In her last hours of life, she imagines a warm and welcoming Christmas celebration.
I find Andersen’s tales fascinating (as well as the Grimm fairy tales) because they are so much darker than we are used to seeing now. While “Match Girl” is a sad and melancholic story, I think it also calls for needed introspection.
Have you read any of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales?
Cheers,
The Historian
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